Taylor's month-by-month catch-up

Since I didn't start this blog until Taylor was nine months old, I wanted to share some pictures from each of her first eight months.  She has grown so much!  Here is the super quick catch up!

One month:  Like any new parents, having you, Taylor was a wonderful blessing and a life changing experience!  We didn't get much sleep the first week or so as you were up crying each night from about 2-5AM, yikes!  Happily it was a short period of time that even seems hard to remember now.

Aunt Katie and Lindsay came to visit you when
you were just a few days old!

Taylor and Harrison looked so thrilled, don't they :) 

At your 11 day check up you were up over your birth weight to 6lbs 14.75 ounces (10th %) and 19.5in long (25th %).  Your cord fell off the next day at 12 days old.

You had your first bottle from daddy on 6/5/12 at 5 1/2 weeks old!  And we got to see your first smile the next day on June 6th!

Two months:  At your two month check up you weighed 9lb 10 ounces and were 21.5in long.  Both 50th%.  Your head circumference was 38.5 cm, also 50th%.

Your first night in the crib was 6/12/12 at 6 1/2 weeks old. We were blessed that you started sleeping through the night at around 7 weeks old!    You did have a little colic and we spend about 6 weeks marching around, singing, swinging and rocking you from about 7-9pm.  This was much better timing since it was during normal waking hours for us even though we were sad to have you crying.  Maybe this is just a glimpse into a high maintenance personality!!

If you can't get them to stop crying, just cry with them!

You had your first beach trip at 7 weeks old.  We didn't know if this was a great idea or if we were crazy but the trip was a huge success!  We had a wonderful time with Pepaw, Meme, Aunt Kim, Uncle Josh and Kayla!

Beach trip to Orange Beach

Three months: You loved to be outside.  If you got upset we could walk outside with you and you would stop crying almost immediately.  You also loved to look at the stripped pattern on your diaper caddy when we changed you.  You were not a fan of tummy time and mommy and daddy felt accomplished if we could leave you on your belly for 2-3min!  You usually started crying right away! You also had this hilarious "lip" when you were sad.  It would make us laugh every time we saw it!

Attempting tummy time

Taylor's famous "lip"

Four months: You had your 4 month check up a little early because we wanted to get you your second set of shots before our trip to Seattle for Courtney's wedding!  At 14 1/2 weeks old you weighed 12 lbs 4.5 ounces and were 24in long.  You rolled from back to front for the first time on 8/22/12.

Cousins Garrett, Hailey and Matthew at Courtney's wedding

Pawpaw and his great granddaughter at Courtney's wedding!

Mommy went back to work after 16 wonderful (well lets be honest. . . exhausting, weepy, and wonderful :) ) weeks off with you.  Naly and Meme stayed with you during the week when mommy and daddy had to work.  This was so WONDERFUL and they took fabulous care of you as always!

Naly and Taylor

Kayla, MeMe and Taylor

Five months:  You finally started rolling more and from front to back too.  We all got to meet cousin Ty as he was born October 1st, the day after Buddy's birthday.  We can't wait to see the two of you grow up together!  You will have lots of fun and I'm sure get into lots of mischief too!  Daddy's work scheduled changed and you started going to Miss Vickie's during the week while we worked.  She has taken such good care of you!

Six months: At your 6 month check up you were up to 15lbs 13ounces, still in the 50th%.  Your length was 24.5in (not much longer than your 4 month check up and at the 15th%) and your head circumference was 43cm (50th%).  We gave you your first baby food!  You started with rice cereal and then progressed to veggies and then fruits.  Your favorite seems to be sweat peas!  And like your daddy you initially didn't seem to be such a fan of green beans but you tolerate them!

Seven months: We celebrated your first Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately you had your first viral infection.  Nothing too bad, just fever and some congestion.  Enough to make you feel yucky and want to cuddle a lot which we didn't mind one bit.  Happily you got better in a day or two!

Eight months: You still loved rolling all around the floor.  You started scrunching up your nose and breathing/blowing through it, which was pretty cute.  You started loving on your baby dolls you got for Christmas.  We had a wonderful first Christmas with you and felt very blessed you have you with us celebrating!

You also got your first "goose egg" on January 17th.  You were rolling around and rolled right into the corner of the entertainment center.  The "injury" definitely effected mommy and daddy much more than you :)

Life with you is a grand adventure!  We have had such fun so far and I can't wait to see everything else we are able to experience with you.

Goodbye whale-of-a-tub!

We recently graduated Taylor to a bigger girl bathtub.  After 9 wonderful months of use we said goodbye to the whale-of-a-tub.  If it were up to me I would still be using it to bathe Taylor in the sink but Matt said it was time to move on and he is right.  So now we get to use the blow up seal tub!  Bath time has always been something Taylor loves and she has adjusted well!  The first night daddy wanted to have bathing duty and he got a little "aggressive" with rinsing the soap out of Taylor's hair.  In fact I heard, "You're not going to like this" and then a swoosh of water followed by a bit of a cry.  While it was very effective at rinsing her hair, she wasn't such a fan of the water boarding :).  Of course he felt awful but she was just fine and recovered quickly!

It seems like such a short time ago we gave her her first bath on our counter in the bathroom. She was so tiny back then and not a fan of the bath at a few days old!

Here are a few pictures of her first and one of her last baths in the whale-of-a-tub.  She didn't know quite what to think about it at first but quickly realized how fun it was and loved kicking and splashing!  She would always try to grab at the water coming out of the faucet and knock off all the soaps along the side of the sink.

Realizing it isn't too bad after all!

Loving bath time now!

Bath time is certainly a fun time in the Wallace house!

Taylor 9 Months!

I know everyone says this but how on earth is our baby girl 9 months old already!?  Time seems to be moving along just as fast as everyone says it does.  Taylor, you are growing and learning new and fun things everyday!  You are such a happy baby and you are loved by so many!

At your 9 month check up you were back to 50th %tile for everything!  You weigh 18.5 lbs, you are 27.5 in long and your head circumference is 44.5cm.  No pumpkin head for you, as your daddy says!  We talked to your Pediatrician about ideas to get you to drink from a sippy cup because to you they are all just teething toys! :)  Momma and daddy are also nervous when we give you "solid foods" like puffs and other things because you put them in your mouth and love to "gag" on them and scare us!  You really aren't gagging but it sure gets our attention.  Who knew a silly thing like puffs would make us so nervous (obviously we need to chill a little!).  You also had a check up with the Urologist to check on that pesky kidney.  We were so happy to get a great report that everything still looks good! In fact we don't need to go back for a check up for 1 year, yay!  We praise the Lord for this!

You are learning so many sweet things!  You can give us kisses, play peek-a-boo, squeal in this lovely high pitched voice, and clap for yourself!  You have become quite chatty.  You make all sorts of sweet noises.  You definitely seem to be saying things that you know what they are but just seems to be sweet gibberish to us.  You say something that sounds like, "huh?" and that's pretty funny.  You still love to say dada and occasionally say mama, usually when you are tired and want to eat!

You have a very funny crawl.  The first official day was January 17th.  It's definitely an army crawl.  You started by basically dragging your whole back end and right side of your body across the floor as you did all the work with your left arm.  Now it is a little more "perfected" and symmetrical.  You LOVE to roll everywhere, in fact you are much quicker with rolling than crawling.  Your MeMe said daddy always rolled everywhere so it must be just another thing you have picked up from him.  Speaking of him, you still look JUST like him!  I literally hear at least one comment a day about how much you look like him or "there's mini Matt"!  I think you both are just as cute as you can be so it doesn't bother me one bit!

You love to point your pointer finger.  You started out with just one but now you like to point them both at the same time!  You have became extremely curious and you are always looking around or bending over to see what people are doing around the corner or in other rooms.

You also got some long awaited teeth! Two to be exact, the bottom two center incisors.  The first was the bottom left and it was almost immediately followed with the bottom right incisor.

Your favorite things to play with are wrapping paper, remotes, and phones.  You have your own toy phone and remote but you definitely would prefer the real ones!  You have certainly become a fan of our dog, Peyton.  When ever you see her in the morning you squeal with delight!  You love to watch her and grab at her tail, ears, or whatever is easiest to grab!

There really aren't many things you don't like these days.  You are such a happy baby!  You have become a little tricky when it comes to changing diapers because you are always moving around and trying to flip over.  You are an absolute delight and we love to see your ever expanding repertoire of tricks!

Happy Nine Months!

Here we go....

So I've decided to (attempt to) enter the world of blogging. We shall see how this goes!  There are two main reasons I'm deciding to take on this new adventure. One, I selfishly want to have a place to keep memories of our ever exciting and busy life and, two, so our family and friends can keep up with everything we are up to. It's kind of like an ongoing Christmas letter about our family!

The first month of 2013 has been filled all sorts of monumental and exciting events!  First of all,  I started my new role as part time nurse practitioner at St. Jude. While I love my job very much, being a mom has been life changing and I feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to stay at home more with Taylor during the week. Now we just need to make sure I can stick to the budget with my part time salary!  It truely is the best of both worlds!

Matt finished his second to last part of training for Air Traffic Control! In mid January he successfully passed his fourth "pass or fire" test to complete "R" school.  Now he spends the next several months training "on the floor" working real traffic.  He is so excited to be training on the floor, he is giddy! He says not being the "man in charge" is like watching your older brother play Nintendo and not being able to hold the control. :) Now he gets to make all the decisions, direct the planes and talk to the pilots. (He does have trainers with him so no worries!)

Matt and I celebrated at Flight Restaurant!

Third, I have entered my thirties...yikes!  I must say it wasn't bad.  I basically ate my way through the day!  Taylor and I went to Starbucks for some coffee to start the day.  Then we picked up Memaw and met my mom for lunch at Panera. To end the day-o-eating, Matt and I had dinner together while his parents watched Taylor.  We also had a joint celebration with my sister, Ashley, who celebrated her 28th birthday the week before. She came in town with her husband and almost 4 month old, Ty.  We had a great time relaxing and spending time together. I'm so happy they are close but must admit I wish she was just down the street, especially now that we both have kids! Nonetheless I feel extremely blessed and can't wait to see what this new decade brings!

Finally Miss Taylor turned 9 months old! Oh my, where does the time go!?!?  This month has brought her first two teeth, learning how to crawl and many other fun experiences! More details later in a post dedicated just to her!

The Lord has certainly blessed our little family! I hope to use this blog to help me remember the big blessings and little blessings along the way as we journey through life.