vocabulary

yes, yes it has been months since i have been on here...oops!

but i figured i needed to jot down some of sophia's words before i forget the cute way she says things...to those who think they will never, ever forget...my parents can't remember the cute way my sister said ketchup anymore...you do forget

so on the left will be the actual english word...on the right will be sophia's version

please...(used to be "vlikkum")...peas

i love you...i lul lu

thank you...tank you

truck...cuck

one, two, three...one, TREE!

hold me/pick me up/hold something...hold u

chase me/get me...i getch u

music...mukick

peek-a-boo...peeka or peeko

fart...everytime she hears someone fart, she yells out "Poop!"

leila (our dog)...eela

cinnamon (my parent's dog)...minammyn

right here...right cheer (meaning you are supposed to sit down next to her)

avocado...acado

macaroni...roni

blueberries...bluebabies :) (my favorite)

amen...maymen

sophia...dophila or sophila or nophila

elmo...melmo

coat...coke

fork...f (and i can't spell the rest...)

now for the names:

nana and poppy are my parents

bekah is bekah

kristen is kissten

zac is ac

joanna is jojo (or dodo bird)

paul is paw

naomi is nami

abby is abby

leia is leia

david is david

nana cate and papa mark

papa lee is papa ee

rushe is rushe

sam is am

eve is eve

emily is emmi

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