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Wrapping up May

Assortment of pictures from the past week:

I set up one of my old computers running Mandrake Linux 10.0 to play around with, and suffering from a lack of desk space, just put the monitor and keyboard on the couch temporarily while I did the install. Temporary, I promised Elizabeth. Not so - Taylor discovered them, and loves "typing." She has a real knack for computers - just from a Linux text login prompt, managed to freeze and crash the server a couple times. Yipes.

Until we get Taylor's haircut (next weekend!), Elizabeth has been practicing her ponytail making. She looks so cute!

Not enough light and no flash, but here is Taylor trying to climb up into the bookshelf.

My baby girly growing up

This past weekend gave me more glimpses of just how much my baby girly is growing up and it's going entirely too fast!! We got to the daycare to pick her up this past Friday (we were headed out of town) and she was just finishing her snack. Her snack was a chewy granola bar that the teacher cuts in half for all the kids. Taylor was finishing her 2nd half. Now, this doesn't sound terribly remarkable but, to me, it is. Until I saw her eating it, I had no idea she could handle a chewy granola bar! I mean, I'm the mama that makes her a half sandwich and cuts it into four pieces - and I only started doing within the past two weeks!

She had a sandwich for dinner Friday night and, reluctantly, I only cut it into two pieces. She did just fine and, of course, wanted more. Sunday, I took a bigger step and gave her a chicken salad sandwich (half sandwich) and just took off the crusts..didn't cut it. She took bites, eventually tore in two and ate it.

We also let her roam around the parish hall during a reception after church. She enjoyed herself thoroughly and I also suspect she enjoyed running around freely without mama and daddy saying, "Taylor, stop that." "No, no Taylor" :) We kept her within sight and moved around as we needed to in order to keep her in sight.

Oh! Also this past week I finally heard the word I've been dying to hear and will eventually wish she'd quit saying, "Mama" and she wasn't upset about anything! (For those who don't know, it's "dadadada" when she's happy and "mamamama" when she's not. We had a game going on where she'd say, "Daddy!" or "Dada" and I'd say "mama" trying to get her to say it. She'd always respond "Dada!" with a big grin. It was frustrating sometimes but still very cute. One day last week, she said, "Dada", I said, "Mama" and she smiled and in the sweetest voice said, "Mama!" And has said it a couple more times since (and she wasn't upset then either!).

Anyway, she's growing up entirely too fast and is more beautiful to me everyday. Yep, I freely admit that I'm a sap.

Georgia trip and another milestone

OK, let's try posting these again. Maybe my server will cooperate this time...

We packed up the (rental) minivan and took off for Georgia weekend before last. I forget what I wrote here last time, so I'll skip the humor and get to the pictures. Below are photos from Taylor and I riding in a bumper boat (with automated squirt gun too!) taken at her cousin Darrin's 10th birthday party. Also, Taylor playing with a football (That's Daddy's little girl), three generations of Gohman women, and a shot of Taylor sprawled out in the bathtub.

The last two pictures document her newest accomplishment - Taylor can climb. She loves climbing into Mommy's recliner. I discovered this as I heard a noise, turned around, and she is standing on the end table giggling.

Oops

Looking for the latest pictures in Taylor's life? Positive they were here earlier? You're not going crazy. Our web server blew up today, and the fine folks at ICDSoft web hosting got us back online pretty quickly, and restored data from last Friday. So everything we posted since then is lost. No worries. We'll recreate the posts and repost the pictures soon.

Other neat stuff

It just amazes me more and more each day how much she's learning and comprehending. We now have to be careful when we say, "bath".. well, here are a few statements and her responses to each:

"Are you ready for your bath?" - She stops whatever she's doing and walks, sometimes runs, to the bathroom door, puts her hand on the door and looks at you as if to say, "Come on already!"

Once in the bathtub and after we're done washing, sometimes she responds to, "Are you ready for storytime?" She stands up and holds her arms up for us to pick her up.

If you put her shoes on and put her down, she walks to the door, puts her hand on it and looks at you as if to say, "Come on already!" Sometimes she'll walk to the door and it means she wants to go outside. She gets highly perturbed if you don't cooperate.

And, last but not least, "Do you want a snack/dinner/lunch/breakfast?" or "Are you hungry?" - depending on how hungry she is, she will walk or run to her highchair and start beating on it. And, of course, looks back at you as if to say, "Come on already!" :)

She can also now point to her nose, eyes, mouth and hair when prompted. We have to be careful on the hair, though. If she has a clip in her hair, she'll take it out. Thankfully, she's finally gotten into the phase where, when we say, "Hand it to mommy/daddy." She usually does. Usually.

Oh! Another kind of new thing.. when daddy chases her, he growls. Now when they're playing, she'll sometimes growl back. It's so cute!

And I think that's it for now except to say that she is truly a miracle and, everyday, I thank God for her and for everybody who prayed for her.

Climbing on mommy and.. the look

Every now and then Taylor comes running up to my chair all but begging to get up there with me and I think, "Oh how sweet! She wants her mommy." But no, I've learned that that's not it at all. She doesn't just want mommy. She wants to *climb* on mommy. Don't worry, I keep a fairly tight grip on her ankles and I pull her down every now and then and make her start all over.. and I have bruises on my collar bone to prove that one. :)

So close to freedom but yet so far...

Maybe this'll get me a close enough to grab the knob

"Good mommy. Niiice mommy...."

*phew* What a workout!

And, last but not least, a few months back, while feeding Taylor, she would sometimes give us this really nasty look. My first thought was, "What'd I do?" But when the nasty look was followed by a big grin and giggle, I realized it was a game. After lots of attempts Brian got it on camera!!

Now *that's* a mad lookin' baby!