my little piece of heaven

right after i had sophia, i realized that i had a huge task ahead of me...of many many things

raising sophia, feeding her, keeping her safe, and the biggest one on my mind after the first night was SLEEP

i needed this baby on a good sleeping schedule, so i could be on a good sleeping schedulet

then one of my good friends, sarah, suggested the book "Babywise"

(now i know that this book brings controversy...and i'm not here to debate it right now)

but i read it, and followed it (mostly), and LOVE it

by 10 weeks, sophia was sleeping through the nite

it was wonderful to be able to go to work (most days) and be well rested...or be home and be well rested (most days)

this book helped me through a lot of things that i had absolutely no clue about...solid foods, sleeping schedules, and even manners

all that being said, as sophia continued to sleep through the nite (to our pleasure), i realized that i kind of missed rocking her at nite

when no one but sophia and i are awake...no lights on, no noise, just the rocking chair

at times i think of waking her up just to rock her for 10 minutes (for the record, i don't)

and then, almost like she knows (or God knows), she wakes up every so often and it makes me smile

i walk in there, pick her up, rock her, hum to her, and just sit for 10 minutes (or if i'm feeling really selfish 15 minutes :) )

it is the most wonderful, peaceful feeling in the world

grandparents

john's dad, papa lee, lives pretty close to us here in little 'ole indiana

so each saturday, on his weekly run to the "big city" of warsaw to run errands, he stops by for coffee, to see us, and most importantly, to see sophia

and she loves her papa lee

she will crawl to him and sit in his lap forever, telling him stories, and how mean her parents are to her :)

and despite the fact that her eyes are a bit closed, this is a typical saturday morning with papa lee

typical

just to reassure everyone who thinks i may have died since i have not posted in almost two months...i am alive...and this is typical

my diaries growing up will reflect this fact too...i start off strong with journaling or blogging, then life gets busy, i run out of things to type, and i have huge gaps in writing

but don't worry...life is continuing and pretty normal

sophia is 16 months and almost walking...she can, she's just lazy :)

maybe she'll realize one day soon that walking is actually less tiring and quicker than crawling

oh well, until then, at least i can keep up with her and know where she is

this is sophia at the doctor's office...watching some television

one year pictures

daddy and sophia after a soccer game

mommy and sophia watching daddy play soccer

little flower maiden

mommy trying for a kiss...during the photo shoot

thanks aunt bekah!!!

no children...

it seems crazy that the past two years of our life has been consumed with sophia...from pregnancy, to birth (early birth), to "premie" sophia, to one whole year of life with a baby girl

most days i don't notice how our life has been so drastically changed by this wonderful little girl

it now seems normal that i get up at 8 every morning...and being a nite owl, this seems VERY early

it also seems normal that i take a nap when she does if i'm not working, or have to wash diapers every other day

i guess some things you just adapt to

but there are other days when i notice the difference and change big time...like planning a trip to the grocery store-not just the quick 30 min trip it used to be

in fact, some days it takes 30 min just to get from our house to the store, parked, and walking in the front door of the store

or going out to eat...no longer a quiet time to get away...now it's an interesting time to see how long sophia can last in a wooden high chair (a long time if there are french fries around :) )

or when i get called to pick up a shift at work, before it was just, do i have housework that can't be done tonite when i get home? now it's, can i find a babysitter and get in touch with john to pick her up...so usually i end up saying no (which is fine!)

well this weekend we got a little taste of "before kids" life again

our awesome friends chris and kristi manduka decided that the couples in our small group could benefit from a weekend in a nice cabin with no children

so kristi found this amazing cabin on a private lake (that i forgot to take a picture of :( ), booked it, each couple took a meal for the weekend, we all found babysitters (thanks mom!), and about 6 pm this past friday, we were off!

chris and kristi also came up with the excellent idea to have an awesome couple from our church, the valentines, come share with us and just talk through life with kids issues

and we loved it! in fact, i'm starting to think it should be a yearly thing!

we came back sunday afternoon so excited to see little miss sophia but so relaxed, rested, excited about life and each other, and ready to take on life with kids...or at least we think we are :)

but interestingly enough, by saturday nite, most all of us parents were saying we miss our kids and were excited to see them...funny how 24 hours of non-kid fun can do that to you :)

"Please"

when my youngest sister, joanna, was little, my parents taught her sign language

nothing fancy, just a few words that you need at the table - please, thank you, all done, more

after awhile, joanna wouldn't talk...she would just do sign language

my parents worried for a little while that joanna would never speak...but fear not, she does :)

so i started doing this with sophia

she didn't really do any of them and jabbers more than anything

well one day, she did all done when she wanted to get out of the high chair

i realized then that she was picking up on the ones i was trying to teach her

she now does please, more, all done...we are still working hard on thank you!

but she has a special word for please...that sounds slightly like "vlikkum"

i have no clue what that is supposed to be or what part of that is actually in the word please...but she definitely does that when she wants something

tupper-ware

classic tupper-ware cabinet emptying picture time!

tomatoes

to be honest, i do not have a green thumb...plants rarely last with me in charge

you know those plants at the store that say, "hard to kill"...i manage to kill them!

but somehow tomatoes happen to grow well for me

and it is cherry tomato season...and sophia loves them :)

"Oh No!"

sophia loves to say "oh no!" these days...thankfully it is with a smile :)

admiration

growing up i never really realized what a gift i had when it came to my parents

sure, sure they love to embarrass us and dress us up weirdly, or tell us we look adorable and pretty (and it's usually true until you reach junior high and then no one does!)

and sometimes it's all you can do to tolerate them...but in the end, they're your parents and you love them

and then, one day you become a parent and realize how scary it is and what great parents you really do have

and as i watch my parents care for their parents, it makes me realize even more how lucky i am when it comes to parents...thanks mom and dad for being amazing examples of Godly parents and now grandparents!

birthday girl

today sophia is one! i cannot believe it! a year ago today at this time i was sleeping...or trying to...and learning what it meant to jump at every little sound a new baby makes :)

now she's sleeping through the night (i still sometimes jump awake at her noises or just to check on her though), crawling, saying "mama," "dada," "bye-bye," and maybe "leila"...and saying please and all done in sign language...and SOOOO much more! hard to believe little miss sophia is one year old already!

crawler

sophia has decided to wait to crawl or move really for awhile now

she has been talking for quite awhile though :)

at first, i was anxious about her not crawling at 6 months, 7 months, and 8 months

john helped me see that everyone, every child is very very different

each child will excel at different things...sports, academics, crawling, walking, etc

so as all sophia's friends started crawling (and almost walking)...and she seemed very content to just sit and observe

well about a week ago she started scooting herself across the floor

with one leg underneath her, she pulls herself to wherever she wants to go...

and now she is in to everything-the cabinets, under the table, in to books, dog toys, and the list goes on

and now that she is scooting, she is loving life!!!

family pictures

garage sales

most everyone knows that we taylor (or former taylor women) love to go to garage sales

yes, we look through the newspaper (or online) on thursday and "plot" out the ones that look promising

and yes, we get made fun of...but who finds all the deals? us!

anyway, so a bunch of us decided to have a garage sale to make some money this summer

i think we started with about 4 or 5 girls contributing...and we ended up with 11!

we did it on a friday and saturday

unfortunately it rained saturday so that was not fun

but the rest of the time we had a great time hanging out and making some money!

thanks to jenn and melody for their house, food, drinks, bathroom, etc!

and thanks to all the girls who hung out and made it enjoyable...and to aunt jojo for entertaining sophia while mom was pretty busy making money!

feeding leila

sophia and leila have had a love-hate type relationship so far

sophia loves leila

leila is unsure of sophia...until now

sophia loves to drop food off her high chair to leila's waiting mouth (we are working on this)

or leila hovers around sophia when she plays on the floor...hoping she has a spare cheerio in her hand

then one day, i handed sophia a dog treat and let her "feed" leila

both of them LOVED this activity

their favorite spots in the house

summer time

Easter

so i am just a wee bit late on posting this...see the title...but oh well, better late than never right?

anyway, for this past Easter we went up to john's mom's house and hung out

it was a gorgeous day (which in April in Indiana, one can never guess what the weather will be), so we ate outside and had a great time

sophia of course was a little cutie in her Easter dress

the joy of feeding yourself

friends

every once and awhile, sophia and i get to have play dates with her friends

one of her friends is lina sophia cone

watching them play together is so much fun...and silly

they like to steal things from each other...and then back...and then back again

here's one example of this :)

ps this is about 2 months old

first words

sophia has decided that crawling is not her thing...

she will move herself at times...like scoot her butt across the floor, but no crawling as of yet

if i am completely honest, this has made me a little nervous and anxious

i keep wondering if she's behind or not developing correctly, etc

thankfully i am married to a man that is very laid back and comfortable with her taking her time to do her thing...maybe that's part of the reason she's so laid back and unconcerned about crawling :)

well, i am starting to think that maybe talking is going to be her thing

right now many of you are saying "umm, she is part taylor; of course she's a talker."

her currents sounds include "ba" "ga" "ma" "da"

as a result, her first word is "ma-ma" :)

makes me a just a bit happy!

of course getting a video of her saying it is another thing...she likes to just stare at the camera when i turn it on

and sneaking up on her has proved difficult

so as soon i get a video of her first word, i will be posting it :)

the sin called envy

i know that i struggle with being content and appreciating where i am in life and the things i have

i realize that this is one of my struggles...and i try to pray really hard and change this about myself

it still gets me though at times

but God nicely...sometimes not so nicely...reminds me that this is not just a "bad attitude" but is a sin-called envy

today was one of those gentle reminders

i was telling my mom this story of someone i know that cared for a dying relative (an in-law) instead of placing them in a nursing home like their family suggested

this person had no motive other than caring for their family and knew that a nursing home was something this person didn't want

after the relative died, this person found out how much the care was appreciated...in the form of half a million dollars

well, my first reaction was "i don't want anyone to die, but man i could really use half a million right now"

after i told my mom this story, her first response was "that's awesome! i love when God blesses people for caring and loving people and not expecting anything in return. that is so cool."

that bit me in the butt...

i know i won't always necessarily be thankful for where God has me and my family during hard times (which seems to be right now), but i can thank Him for what He is teaching me and look back and learn from tough times

thanks mom for being the person God used to remind me to be thankful and happy for others when God blesses them

toys

sophia LOVES toys...any kind

especially loves tags and anything that sticks off of the toy

for example, her friend lina cone gave her this pretty little pink puppy dog that she loves

her favorite parts of this pink puppy were the ears and tail

in fact, after chewing on the ears for a few hours, they would be sticking straight up (slightly gross to think about)

well, leila...the big grey puppy...must have gotten extra jealous of this little pink puppy because this is what i came home to one day

and i can just imagine what leila was thinking, "so her favorite part is those ears huh? well, we'll see what happens now when i do this" she very neatly and precisely took off both ears, while saving the integrity of the rest of the puppy

poor pink puppy and poor sophia...

discipline

our church has started a Sunday school on the book "Shepherding a Child's Heart"

we are watching a dvd of the author going through his book and expounding on it

i guess i have always thought, "i will know what to do when the time comes"

and i always thought the time would be after sophia was at least 1 year old, or older

well, she proved me wrong the other night

i was feeding her when she started spitting...very happy about it and enjoying herself, but still spitting food out and everywhere

so i told her "no" very firmly

she smiled and spit more

i told her no again...with her name this time

she smiled and spit more

i told her no again...and stopped feeding her for a minute

she laughed at me

and i realized right there how true it is that we are born with a sin nature...she doesn't understand much more than the need for hunger, love, that we love her, and that puppies go "ruff, ruff"

but she knows enough to disobey me and find amusement in it

as i was reading the chapters for this week's class, they keep going over and over how behavior is coming out of the wellspring of life-our heart

and how we as parents need to focus on heart issues, not just changing the behavior that is not desired

i am getting more and more terrified as i read this book...there is no set answer

i kept hoping that somewhere in the chapter that Tedd Tripp would say "and this is how you parent perfectly...or as close as one can get"

but he never did

and as i realized this, i realized how much we are going to have to lean on God to effectively and lovingly parent sophia

i know that i am not perfect, and despite what he thinks-neither is john

but we can lean on the One who is perfect for guidance and the answers to parent sophia to the best of our ability

trusting God

i tend to worry a little bit...in fact, i feel like i have mentioned that on here previously (which is VERY possible :) )

well, i worry a lot of about finances; especially now that i am working part-time and we have sophia

but at the end of every month since the beginning of the year, john and i sit down and write out a budget for the upcoming month

it has helped so much! we weren't crazy spenders but to see exactly what you have at the end of the month and all the "little stuff" that adds up is sometimes ridiculous

so we have been really careful lately (john has done AWESOME with this) and even took cash to IKEA...because who couldn't overspend there??? :)

well, due to the cold weather, our NIPSCO bill is higher than summer time

but i help it stay low by keeping the house cold...and bundling up...now i understand why my dad always said "well go put more layers on if you're cold; it costs money to heat this house" because i tell john that now :)

two months ago we had the highest heating bill since we've lived here...and i thought we were cold

so i tried extra hard, turned off stuff when i could, set the heat at 58 or 60 for the nite (space heater in sophia's room)

the next month's bill was half of that one! yeah! we were excited!

well, today i get the bill for the last month and it says we owe $20...actually $19.47

i have NEVER paid that little for a bill...NEVER

so i called just to make sure that next month i wouldn't be paying them $300 or something

they made an error last month and over charged me...so the correction is this month! :)

thank you God!!! oh me of little faith...and the weather is getting slowly warmer...so less heat being turned on inside :)

bathtime

sophia has been getting her baths in a little bathtub thing that can sit on a sink or in the tub

well, she is getting too big for it

so this week, we began real baths! in the bathtub, with a rubber ducky :)

here she is in all her glory

blessings

i love music-just listening to it or singing...or even trying to dance to it :)

and i love all types of music too...well ok, i HATE country music

i remember a ton of memory verses because i learned them in song form

i love worship time at church! love it! especially when pastor kondo leads it-he has a gift!

today during our worship service, we sang the song "You give and take away"

whenever we sing that song, i always have to stop at the taking away part because i don't know if i could continue to truly thank and bless God if He took certain things away from me-like john or sophia

i shudder just thinking about something happening to either of them...or any of my family for that matter

but during the song today, one of my co-workers from the ER was sitting in the front row and she stood up with her hands raised in what seemed to be a praise to God

no big deal right? well, she has 5 kids and was just diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and has no clue if it has spread and if so, how far

they have no clue where she will even be able to do treatment around here; she has left work indefinitely

and yet she can continue to worship God...and say "You give AND You take away...my heart will choose to say, blessed be Your Name"

i know that when these things happen, usually people say "it always happens to the good people" and today i started thinking, is that because they are leaning so fully on God that He knows they can handle it? He knows they have the faith and the strength to endure it and testify His glory?

if so, i am not asking for hardship or tragedy but how little is my faith?

and when hard times come, which they will, will i be able to bless His name and lean on Him fully...

sleeping in

i know that it sounds silly to be so excited about something so small, but i got to sleep in today! go sophia!

yesterday she was a crank for most of the day...sleeping just a little and not the best eater either

but as soon as i left for work, she was a bit of an angel for john...of course

then she ate like normal and went to bed about 9:30-like normal

at 4 am she woke up crying, so i turned on her music which helped her go back to sleep

i shut off my alarm, just to see what would happen :)

and she slept until 8:30 am

i never thought i would consider 8:30 sleeping in but that extra half hour was exactly what i needed...and evidently she did too :)

nicknames

growing up, i had nicknames...different ones from different people

some i liked, some i didn't, or just not as much as others

then some i thought were cool and wanted people to call me and thank goodness they didn't stick...like the time i thought it would be cool for people to call me 'e.t.' which was my middle and maiden name-yeah, HORRIBLE idea

some of my nicknames were:

buddy

rach

rachies

sissy (only my younger sisters called me this)

rachie-bear (parents only)

now that i have a little girl, she is starting to get nicknames

some i understand, others i have no clue where they come from

here are a few of sophia's

sophie

monkey

punkin or little punkin (both by me)

gigaboo (by john and it sounds better than it looks typed)

now the others are by my mom and i have NO CLUE where they come from

munkinshiner (makes me think of moonshine)

punkinhimer

it makes me laugh thinking about what we call her now and our little endearing terms for her

i wonder what they will be as she grows up and which ones she'll like or hate or not care about

zumba

you know those times when you just have to laugh at yourself? well today was one of them

i went to zumba for the first time in probably about 2 years and felt like an idiot...but had fun

i kept laughing at myself and my lack of coordination

in fact, all i could think of was this episode of friends where monica tries to tap dance...so click the link below and imagine me as monica :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipsgYiyTpNc&feature=related

parents...and grandparents

as a kid, i remember getting little notes from my dad-all the time (come to think of it, maybe that's why i am now so good at reading bad hand-writing :) )

i loved those notes! loved that every trip he went on, he always left a note with mom to give us the day after he left...in fact, i saved a ton of them (a bit of pack-rat in me)

he and mom were also very good at getting us girls gifts when they went away...or for no apparent reason

and still at the age of 25 and living in my own home with my family, i still get these little notes, emails, and random gifts

i love it! i couldn't ask for better parents! and now sophia's grandparents :)

they love us so much...it's so evident

and not just in by the gifts and notes, but in their actions

the fact that they can't handle going one day without seeing little sophia, or that dad thought of her at target and bought organic baby food :)

or that they just love to give us random little 'i thought of you today' gifts

i am truly blessed to have been raised by two Godly parents who now are an amazing example of Godly grandparents to our little sophia

thanks mom and dad! love you both tons!

parenting

as sophia continues to grow (she's 7 months and one day now!), i continue to see areas that i as a mom have to work on

i was going to say 'for instance' but decided that would mean i had to share something i needed to work on :)

two of my good girlfriends and i are reading 'shepherding a child's heart' and discussing it

it is a great book but man alive, do john and i have a full-time job ahead of us!

the chapter i read today discusses how experiences shape your child, family experiences, life experiences, etc

and all i could think was 'i'm going to totally screw my kid up'

i mean, there a hundred different things i do each day that i don't think about...talking (ok fine, a hundred thousand things), how i interact with people, how i interact with john, what i get mad about, what i don't care about, etc etc etc

and each of these will cause sophia to see what matters to me and what doesn't

in fact, this blog probably shows proof that i worry alot...as i'm worrying out loud about how i'll raise her

i know that i need to lean more and more on God to help john and i raise our child to love Him and others

at times, many times, it is easier to think we can do it on our own...but there is no way we can raise sophia without some divine intervention!

time for lots and lots of praying and soul-searching as i inspect my life, my desires, my intentions and see if they line up with God's and are worthy for my daughter to learn and imitate

valentine's day

for the past 9 years that john and i have been together, we have never really celebrated valentine's day

i take that back-john got me a pink light bulb with flowers and a frying pan shaped ash tray one of the first years we were together

but since then, we decided not to really celebrate valetine's day...at least in february, sometimes we celebrated it in june or july but not on february 14th

well, this year was the same...we didn't again, which was fine

but evidently sophia is going to like to celebrate it...since she got a flower!

our small group right now has 1 boy (jude) and 3 little girls (sophia, lina, and alisa)

and jude arrived at our small group valentine's party with 3 carnations...one for each of them

it made me think...when will she come home saying 'i have a boyfriend' for the first time? or come home crying because her 'boyfriend' said something mean or broke her heart?

and how will i handle it? and how will john handle the boys that she dates?

i have a feeling our life is going to get way more interesting from here on out!

dancing

evidently my daughter likes to dance

this being said, hopefully she discovers her inner rhythm as john and i do not have much at all

tonight i needed to cook for our upcoming superbowl party and a meal for our friends the mclaurins (congrats on baby #4!!!)

so sophia sat in her exersaucer watching me...then got moved to the floor on her blanket with her toys when that became boring

all this time i had a very upbeat station on pandora playing pretty loudly

after i got done cooking (not cleaning up the mess but at least cooking :) ), i picked her up and started dancing because the music was still going

well, this is just the funnest thing sophia has apparently ever done as she giggled and giggled and giggled

then we started dancing towards leila, who did not enjoy it as much as we did...but did jump at us, which made sophia laugh all the harder

it was one of those moments that i wished someone was here to video us...not a reality show, just a video camera for me to watch later as it got me laughing too

questions for God

when i was about 7 years old, i had a list of questions i wanted buried with me so i could remember to ask God when i got to heaven

now i have no clue where that list is, but i still have some questions :)

here are a few...

1-since Jesus was perfect and never sinned, was mary in pain when she delivered him?

(that one prompted me to think of my questions)

2-again, since Jesus was perfect, did he cry and scream at night? (i don't see this as sin but i know some people say that kids are showing their sin nature when they scream...before they can talk)

3-how hard did you cry when Jesus was nailed to the cross?

4-why did you allow Jesus to die on the cross when you knew that so many would turn and reject him? i know that i don't think i could allow sophia to die for people if they would later reject her and not care at all

just a few thoughts i had and figured i would put them down before i forgot again

little miss sophia...by carley kay

poser

we have been finding that sophia likes the camera...any kind of camera-still shot or video

in fact, if she is doing something cute, you have to sneak up on her to get a picture or video because she will stop what she is doing and look straight at the camera when she sees it

last week i tried to hide the camera in a onesie so she wouldn't see it...she saw it

anyway, my good friend carley came over to do pictures for me on Sunday-last minute but carley is awesome!

well, we got sophia all cute and with bows and carley says 'i saw a picture once where a the girl was facing away from the camera but looked over her shoulder towards the camera...we should try that'

neither of us thought it would work...or we would have tons of fun trying to get it to work

well, miss sophia posed exactly like that for almost a solid minute...what a poser

thanks carley for capturing little sophia so perfectly!!!

friends

percentiles

so sophia had her first doctor's appointment today since she was two months old...i know, i know...and me a nurse, how horrible

anyway, at her two month appointment they told me she was doing great but i forgot to ask about what percentile her height, weight, and head circumference were

i asked today though, and about laughed out loud

sophia's height...25th percentile

sophia's weight (at 16 pounds)...50th percentile

sophia's head circumference...95th percentile

hahaha! so glad she's a cutie!

growing up...

i think that i figured out yesterday that i am growing up...or i guess i'm actually a grown up now
the signs:
i don't like shopping in the junior's section at stores anymore (but sometimes the misses is too grown up for me :) )
i have a kid
i have been married for five years (although these last two don't always mean you're grown up :) )
i own a house...well, the bank does but i don't have landlords anymore
i don't know anyone at my old high school or college
in fact, i went to grace college's rec center because i can work out there free as an alumni...first off, i think i knew two people-clint dawg and a soccer guy
everyone there knew everyone else and they were laughing about this person, or that class, etc
but i kind of liked it...i like being married and having a kid
and i hate working out when i know people there...like i didn't go with the person but i know them or they are the employees of the place-slightly nerve wracking for me
guess i'm just getting older :)

sophia enjoying leila's misery

half-way there!

sophia is now 6 months old! (and 3 days...i know, how horrible of me to be late with this milestone)

you can definitely tell this is not the same little peanut we brought home 6 months ago

now she can sit up by herself (most of the time...enough to make me nervous :) )

she is eating rice cereal, bananas, and carrots (and loving all of them)

she is LOVING her exersaucer

she loves her puppy leila...and squeals with delight every time leila passes her

she is now laughing hard when she gets excited...especially at john and leila when they goof around

when she feeds she puts one hand in my mouth and the other hand plays with my back...so cute

she does not like it if i try to snack while feeding her...she will stop and look at me as if i should get a clue that at this moment, she is the only thing that matters

she is also already a social butterfly...the other day while we were at someone's house and it was time for her to eat, i went to another bedroom to feed her; well she could hear people in the other room and refused to eat (mealtime stretched from 4 hours to almost 6)

she 'talks' all the time...as much and as loudly as possible (john says that is the me coming out in her :) )

we thought she was cutting a tooth about a month ago and you can even see a spot on her gums that still hasn't disappeared...but neither has it grown so who knows

this has been some of the most fun 6 months john and i have ever experienced...some of them hard but all of them teaching us something new

now on to one year old...who knows what kind of party my parents will throw her!

food, food, and more food

we are on to rice cereal and bananas! it is crazy to me how much she loves food...she eats rice cereal fine and will eat a half of a banana mushed up AFTER breastfeeding

guess she'll just be growing like crazy :)

she can also sit up by herself about 75-90% of the time (just enough to think she's independent and allow mom not to leave her side when she's sitting up)

so here she is eating her rice cereal :)