One Year Pictures

Ok,  I know I haven't posted about her birthday party or Halloween yet, but I had to post some highlights from her one year pictures because they are awesome!  Our great friend and wonderful photographer friend, Rachel McPhillips (website here) took these wonderful photos.  She obviously does a great job and she is reasonably priced.  Check her out.

Taylor Races Daddy

Taylor challenged me to a race and who am I to say no to a challenge.  Alas, she won:

Taylor Waves "Bye, Bye"

Rebecca has been working with Taylor to do some pretty cool things.  One thing she is starting to do is wave "Bye, Bye".  Here is a little clip:

Taylor's First Auburn Game

Rebecca, Taylor, and I loaded up and headed down to the plains to watch then 10th ranked Auburn take on one of their biggest rivals, Louisiana-Monroe.  Ok, really, we knew it was going to be a blow out, but this was the first game of the season that was scheduled before 6 PM over 2.5 hours away from our home.  Getting home at 1 AM doesn't sit well with a baby who is asleep by 9 PM every night. 

So, we got on our Auburn gear and hit the road.  Taylor wore an Auburn dress that her Gammy (my mom) got her.  It is magic unparalleled by David Copperfield how Rebecca gets that bow to stay in such a small amount of hair.

We didn't have time to tailgate because the game started at 11 AM so we went right into the stadium.  Here's us in our Auburn gear.  If Cam Newton got hurt, Rebecca was ready to go right into the game with her Auburn jersey.

Taylor was amazed by the stadium, field, and all the people. 

She loves to watch people.  Even the person behind me while I was taking this picture:

It didn't take long before she was completely worn out.  She needed some of the good stuff to fall asleep in such a loud crowd.

She missed the best part of the game.  Hundreds of high school cheerleaders messing up "Tigers"

She did wake up in the third quarter and enjoy the game until the 4th quarter when she had a class A meltdown.  It was just for a second, but it was fierce.  She recovered and had a great time though.

She Crawls!!!

Taylor turned 11 months old yesterday.  Can you believe it???  Let the 1st birthday party preparations begin! 

September 19th Taylor's first tooth broke through.  It's sharp and she's not afraid to bite you with it!  Since then, another tooth has joined the party.  Before long, she'll have a mouth full of teeth.  Thankfully for Rebecca, she is going to start to ween Taylor off breastmilk onto whole milk when she turns one.

In other exciting news, Taylor crawled for the first time!!!  I was so glad I was home to see it!  I was away on business this week and Becca told me that she was pretty sure Taylor would be crawling any day now.  I told Becca to not put Taylor down till I got home so I could be there to witness it.  The night I got home, it happened.  As you can see in the video below, it's not the most graceful crawl you'll ever see, but she'll get the hang of it.  She has been rocking back and forth and then diving forward.  A little odd, I know, but she's my kid, so I'd expect nothing different.  I apologize, but I didn't trim the video link.  The action happens about halfway through the video.  Enjoy!

Firsts

I'm so sorry it has been so long since I last posted.  In that time, Taylor has had many firsts.  It's amazing to see how much she is changing, growing, and learning these days.  Here are a few of those firsts.

Taylor got her first pedicure.  Which one of Taylor's parents do you think initiated this little exercise?

Taylor went to her first major league baseball game.  We saw the Texas Rangers play the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in Tampa, FL.

She displayed her musical talent for the first time by playing fake drums and fake piano with Uncle Matt.



Taylor sat in a highchair at a restaurant for the first time ever.  She didn't mind Cracker Barrel's mashed potatoes either!

Speaking of eating, she fell asleep for the first time while eating.

And she sat up by herself for the first time ever.  We still haven't got the crawling thing going yet, but we're working on it.

Finally, topping the list of the coolest things Taylor has done in the past month is clapping by herself during patti-cake.  I'm still in shock she knows how to do this.  So cool!


How blessed are we!

A Few of My Favorite Things!

I thought I would tell you about some of Taylor's favorite toys. 

First up, we have Sophie the Giraffe:

Sophie is great because she has legs and a nose that can fit easily into Taylor's mouth.  You will notice a recurring theme in Taylor's toys: easily chewable, or easy to jump in.  Sophie sometimes provides such a great teeth workout that Taylor falls asleep with her:

Next up, is a little critter we partially see in the above picture, puppy.  When you pull on Puppy's legs, they rattle.  Her feet also make good chew toys.  One time, Taylor fell asleep in her car seat while holding Puppy's foot.  It was pretty adorable.

Mr. Crab is the final hand toy to make the favorites list.  Once again, he has provided hours of chewing enjoyment. 

Mr. Crab is also used as bait in crawling exercises which to date have failed every time.  You can check out one such example in the video below:



Now, on to jumpy toys.  She has a farm themed jumpy device that Rebecca and I can recite the words to.  Don't believe me?  "Lots of friends live on the farm, come along with me!  There's so much for us to do and animals to see!  Ducks and lambs and horses too!  Roosters crow and cows say moo.  We all love to play with you ON THE FARM!". 

Thank you, thank you!  I'm here all week.  Here is a video of Taylor in the aforementioned farm themed jumpy device checking to see if we are watching her jump.



We also have a jungle themed exersaucer donated by our buddy, Mr. Steve Washington! 

We took a picture of Taylor on the front porch in this exersaucer.  It looks like she is thinking, "Who, me?"

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of Taylor's toys.  I'm guessing it won't be much longer before the tour includes barbie dolls and tea sets!