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It's a boy!

Mike & Bev had their baby at 11:50 Tuesday morning. Michael Allen Jr. came into the world at 9 lbs 9 oz, 21" long, with a head full of curly black hair and hungry as all get out! Mike says the baby looks just like him. I'm going to Huntsville tonight to get some pictures which I'll post up here. But don't get used to it Michael, you're going to have to get your own weblog now.

Playtime with Grandpa

Grandpa gets some play time in with his favorite baby grandchild. I have to stop saying that after today, because cousin Michael should enter the world sometime Tuesday morning. I'm headed to Huntsville tomorrow evening and will bring back photos.

St. Stephen's garden

The garden may be done for the year, but the statue still proves quite the attention-grabber.

Taylor the fireman

Firehouse sub restaurants give away plastic fireman hats with all kids meals. The hat quickly becomes Taylor's favorite toy.

She's in the truck; where's the fire?

Baby Bear's diaper revisited

Not content with putting a pretend diaper on her Baby Bear, Taylor practices with a real diaper.

Not knowing I had taken pictures of the same thing a little earlier, Taylor proves to Momma she can do it again.

Thanksgiving dinner

Cousin Abby and Taylor prepare to eat

Cousins Amy and Ariel look hungry.

Ariel may be hungry enough to eat the camera.

Bug me not

In Huntsville this weekend, Grandpa (Baba) shows Taylor a little bug. She is enthralled.

Tattletale

Also at dinner tonight - I tried to take her plate away before she was ready. She fussed, and I handed it back. Taylor looked over at Elizabeth and said "Moooommmmy! Daddy {something unintelligible} no!" while pointing at me and her plate.

Taylor's many faces

She has started experimenting with different facial expressions, and here are a few to share:

The scary face. She'll make this face then growl.

The other scary face.

Mad baby face. A variation of the old Mad Baby face, which has recently returned from hibernation.

Goofy eat-my-shirt face.

And then, the camera smile again. This alternates with Mad Baby face.

One more thing on those pictures

What Brian didn't mention about the pictures of her sitting in the field is that, as I approached, I watched her playing with the grass and heard her singing her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle ABC's. It was entirely too cute and she was entirely too soaked! :)

Weekend retreat at McDowell

It's Family Retreat time at Camp McDowell again. This year was a much easier year for us and for Taylor, now that she's old enough to entertain herself and get along with the bigger kids. Several of the older girls there were absolutely wonderful with the smaller ones, as you can see below.

Taylor spent much time at the coloring table. The bigger kids would help her with markers and get her set up.

Oops. Taylor discovered drawing on herself is almost as much fun as drawing on paper.

The kids find the piano. This was a short-lived concert.

During the Giants versus the Midgets football game ...

... Taylor found the soccer balls in the same field and played with those. It had rained all day the previous day, so of course she was soaked. She had fun while it lasted - until Momma came out and took her away to warmer and drier places.

It's 2:30 on Saturday, time for the Iron Bowl. Despite many people's attempts to sway Taylor's allegiance to one school or the other, she insists on remaining neutral. Cute as anything, but neutral nonetheless.

An admirer? Little Mitchell better watch out!

Taylor hanging out with the girls.

Baby Bear gets ready for bed

Not exactly what this spaceflight-ready bear had in mind when he came off the assembly line. Taylor picked up the bear, and after showing him off to the camera proceeded to change his "diaper" (even calling it a diaper). Not pictured - she then took two Legos to brush his hair, then went and pitched him in the bathtub. Earlier in the day she set Baby Bear on the couch and covered him with her Bankie.

Catch-up time

A variety of pictures taken over the past couple of weeks:

So cute in her new striped shirt and pigtails!

Her hair is getting long. She likes it when I brush her bangs out. Maybe 'tolerates' is a better word.

About to leave for church last Sunday; Elizabeth wanted a picture of this outfit.

From last Wednesday night - Taylor puts her baby in the booster seat for dinner time. She is taking such an interest in taking care of other "babies". I have a couple pictures to post in a few minutes for more on this.

Same night - she knows where the food is! Feed me Daddy!

I knew this was inevitable. Tissues everywhere.

Some good ol'-fashioned sleep-on-the-chest time. It had been too long.

Taylor with all three of her sticky bath toys shoved in her mouth. She liked the way it rattled as it the toys slapped her in the face.

Twinkley ABC's and other fun things

So apparently they're also singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and, since it's the same tune as the ABC song, she's naturally getting them mixed up.

She sings some words that could be translated as "twinkle twinkle" (sounds kinda like dinkle or winkle) and a definite "how I wonder" followed with the all too familiar yayayaya... P. The rest of the song is a conglomeration of the two and closes with clapping and a big "Yea!!" :)

She's definitely getting more independent. She wants desperately to put her own shirt on and gets mad when it doesn't work and madder when we try to help. Nighttime ritual has changed a little too. In the past, the one not reading would deliver her to the lap of the one reading and we'd pick the books. Now, she picks the book (one not reading still puts her in the lap of the reader). The last few nights, we'd try to read a 2nd book only to have her shove it away. Well, Tuesday night, Brian put her down so she could pick another book herself. Instead, she walked to the door, opened it (it was cracked open), walked into her room to her crib and waited for Brian to pick her up and put her in it. In other words, "I don't want another book. I want to go to sleep!"

And, last but not least, dinner time! We've mentioned before that she eats EVERYTHING at daycare and is fairly picky at home. Well, last night she put a piece of pork chop in her mouth then spit it out and said a very definite, "Yucky." I'm not sure if I should take that personal or not...

I will share that we got her to eat salmon croquettes (patties) by telling her they were fish sticks. Hey! They're close! They're mashed up fish that's been fried!

Well, I'm closing this so I can get ready to go pick up my baby girly. I know why Brian loves pick-up duty so much. It's fun to watch her reaction when she spots us. She's playing contentledy then spots us and immediately shrieks and runs to us. Of course, if she's having a really good time playing, we occasionally get a wave and a, "Hi mama" or "Hi dadu." I can't wait!