One more month until...

we find out what we're having!!! Technically it's one month and 1 day, but who's counting? We are!!! Taylor goes back and forth on whether or not it's going to be a girl or a boy. For the longest time she would only say it was going to be a girl and was adament on having a sister. But lately she talks about it being a boy and today at MDO she told her movement teacher that there's a baby brother in Mommy's tummy. Part of me wants to try some of those silly old wives tales that supposedly predict the gender, but I'll probably refrain myself since I know they're not accurate. I guess we'll just have to wait another month (and 1 day) to know! Nick's parents will fly in to be at the ultrasound and spend the weekend with us and we're so excited! They came to the ultrasound when we found out that Taylor was a girl, and we're happy to have them share this one with us, too.
I had another OB appt this morning and everything looks to be fine. I heard the heartbeat again on the doppler - that's a great sound. Oh, how did I forget to mention this?! I'm feeling much better. I still have nausea spells every now and then, and still gag occasionally (lovely, I know) but overall I feel good. And for that I am very thankful!
Since I don't have a picture of baby #2, I'll leave you with a picture of my precious little Taylor taken my friend Lindsay who is a talented photographer.

Easter Party

Taylor had a little Easter party today at MDO and I actually remembered my camera this time. The last few parties I've forgotten it. They had cute little finger sandwiches cut into the shape of bunnies and eggs made my one of the moms, cheese, fruit, cupcakes and juice boxes. Then after they ate they went out into the church courtyard and had a little Easter egg hunt. So cute! In one picture you can see two of the kiddos holding up 4 fingers...they were answering Ms. Tracy's question "how many eggs can you find?"

Buddies

Nick and Taylor are buddies, big buddies. He's a great Daddy and they're really cute to watch. Here are a few shots of the fun they have together playing, snuggling, reading, "painting" with water, and putting marker tops on their finger tips. (Disclaimer: Taylor does not drink coke, that's water in the coke bottle. But Nick does and that is indeed coke in the can.)

Teddy Bear Picnic

Taylor's class had a Teddy Bear Picnic last Tuesday at MDO. Each child was supposed to bring their favorite teddy bear, which for Taylor seems to fluctuate. This particular day this one was the lucky guy. I'm not really sure what all they did, but I do know each of the bears got an award. Taylor's bear, who is so cleverly named "Teddy Bear" got the award for Softest Bear. You can't tell very well from the picture but her dress has 3 teddy bears on it. It was a hand-me-down from my step-siter, Melanie, and the timing was perfect! Thanks again, Mel!
On an unrelated note, one of her teachers said Taylor was having a "Little Day", meaning that she looked super young that day. I agreed, she did look a little babyish that day.

Lots to say, so little time...

Once again, I apologize for my lack of consistent blogging lately. I have lots of reasons (excuses), some very valid, but I'll spare you. I need to come up with some type of plan on when to blog...actually my whole life is in need of some structure :) So I make no promises but I hope to post more often. I do, however, promise to make a Christmas post soon.

As the title says, there is lots to say! Happy New Year, first of all! Also, I gather from people's comments/questions, that the previous picture of Taylor on Christmas morning needs some explaining. Nick made that post and he liked that picture, so he put it on there. It captures her excitement. The present is actually a chunky little toy mail truck. We got it because she enjoys playing with other kids cars/trucks sometimes and we chose the mail truck because for a while now she has been interested in the mail truck and gets excited when she sees or hears him. So that's the story behind that.

The most note-worthy thing around here is that TAYLOR IS POTTY TRAINING!!! Yep, she's been going on the potty since last Tuesday! She spends most of the day in big girl panties (or "underwear" if you're Nick and don't like the other word). Of course she still naps and sleeps in a diaper and for now she'll continue to wear a diaper for errand running. I must say a huge thank you to Nick's Mom, Carole, and sisters, Lisa and Val, for their contribution! The whole week of Christmas we were in St. Pete visiting Nick's family, which you would already know if I had blogged about it. ;) Anywho, I jokingly told Carole that I wanted her to go ahead and get Tay potty trained while we were there. Well, I was only partly joking. So, she got the little potty out and some potty training books and patiently took her to the potty numerous times everyday. Lisa and Val also took her potty and read books over and over again. Two of Tay's girl cousins who are potty trained were there, so Tay got to go with them and I think that really helped her get it. She never actually did anything on the potty while we were in St. Pete, but something definitely clicked. We didn't have anywhere to go the Tuesday after we got back home, so I figured I'd put her in underwear and take her potty all day long. I was so thrilled when she actually went! She's never been scared of the potty and has been sitting on it for months but now there is some action! Whoop whoop! Ok, I'll leave you with a visual of the little potty-training-punkin!

She Did Great!

Today was Taylor's first day at Mother's Day Out, or Mudder's Day Out as she likes to say, and she did great! Sweet Nick went in late to work so we could all go together to her first day and so he could take some pictures (which he'll post later because I don't know how to take them off the new camera). No tears at drop off or throughout the day, I'm happy to say. However, one of her teachers said she did ask to go home once or twice and she also said "I wanna go see Daddy." But she asks to see Daddy even when she's home with me, so that's no big surprise. Sweet, yes...surprising, no. She does looove her Daddy! But they said she had fun and was very good. Yay!

The color of the week is red and the shape they'll be working on is a circle. She colored a picture and helped another little boy color his, too. She also made a necklace today with colored plastic beads and a wooden cross and the teacher said she was the best at stringing the beads. I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but I promise I'm not - I just want to have a record of these things since my memory fails me (this must run in the family - if you've read Shelley's blog lately, you know what I'm talking about). On Tuesdays they do "movement" which I guess is kind of like P.E., and on Thursdays they work on Spanish! I'm super excited about this since she is part Cuban after all. Funny story about Movement today - Taylor was playing with a ball and according to the teacher dropped it intentionally. Before she could pick it up another kid took it (of course I'm wondering which kid this was so I can tell him/her what's up) and Taylor just looked up at the nearest teacher and said, "Ms. Tracy..." - I can just picture her doing this. And I'm impressed that she called her by name!

Now I know that every day probably won't be this great, but I'm glad the first one was and that she didn't get in trouble!

Pictures to come soon!

Quick Little Beach Trip

Friday morning Taylor and I took a quick trip to the beach. One of my oldest and dearest friends, Juli, was on vacation with her husband, kids, and husband's family. We hadn't met each others children and I think the last time we saw each other was late summer 2005. So it was great to see her again. On the way home I realized that we didn't really get to catch up that much since we were watching our kids like a hawk and regularly distracted by them. But nonetheless it was a fun trip and a nice little getaway for me.

Stickers, Stickers, Everywhere

Taylor has a new-found love for stickers...and putting them everywhere! In case you're not sure what to do with stickers, just look at the pictures below for some ideas. :)

A Plethora of Sippy Cups

How many sippy cups does one girl need? Apparently several...when you're trying to figure out which one(s) your child will actually drink from without makinga huge mess. We did not buy all of these ourselves, some were given to us by her Aunt Mel (thank you, again). She's drinks well from the Gerber ones most of the time, but she sometimes prefers to drink from her bottle. My favorite is when she fills her mouth with whatever is in her sippy cup and instead of swallowing decides she'd rather just let it spill out of her mouth and get all over the front of her outfit - that's really fun (can you sense the sarcasm?)! Also, some of them leak, so we're trying to figure out which ones are best. The Gerber ones are currently winning. At least they make a very colorful and pretty display.