26 months old

Alright, so technically this post should be called, 26 months and one week old, but I was too busy trying to recover and regroup after our back-to-back wedding adventures to post the monthly milestones last week. Yes, the end of May and beginning of June was a bit of a traveling circus for us, but our calendar’s clear for the rest of the month so we can sit back and enjoy all of the action and cuteness that will be occupying our time this summer.

And something else that we will be spending time with the next few months is potty training. We’re getting there, folks. The froggy-potty is getting at least two uses a day, right when we wake up and right after naps, but we’re having a difficult time with her expressing when she needs to go during the day. We even made the big switch to pull-ups this past month, and Taylor is so in love with her pink, princess pull-ups that she now refuses to wear a regular diaper. And, y’all, if you could see her little booty in those pull-ups you would just die. It’s just fantastic. When we finally make the switch to big girl undies, they don’t stand a chance. My poor little girl has inherited her mother’s backside, so we talking endless wedgies once we ditch the training pants. Sorry, Peanut, but all the better for Momma to pinch those cute buns.

We’re still on the reward-system for business in the potty, and she is still loving the stickers. Only now we are all about princess stickers. Last month I introduced Taylor to Snow White, and it’s been Disney Princesses ever since. And I’m fine with that, because if I had to take another month of nonstop Dora and Boots I was gonna explode. So now we’re onto princesses, namely Snow White, Ariel from The Little Mermaid and Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. And each time she’s successful on the potty, she takes her princess stickers, puts them on her reward-board and points and names off all of her beloved characters with an enthusiasm that she never had for Dora. Looks like we might be having a Princess Birthday Party next year.

A definite life-milestone that happened this past month was Taylor being the flowergirl in Libba’s wedding. She has always had a special bond with my sister and Dirk, and to have her included in their special day was such an honor. And even though T didn’t really have a clue what was going on, except that for two days she was given an endless supply of candy-dots and was encouraged to throw flower petals, I know that when she’s older she will see pictures from that day, and she’ll know what an awesome thing it was to be able to share those precious moments with her Aunt Beeba. It definitely made my heart smile that she has such a special bond with her one and only aunt.

And then just as we started recouping from that amazing wedding, Chris and I jumped on a plane and took off for another. Before our trip to California, I could count on one hand the number of nights I had spent away from Taylor. I started to get nervous before we left, not because I was at all concerned about T’s well-being with her Grandma while we were gone, but because for the last two-plus years my entire life has been focused around my daughter. We are together all day, everyday. So I was wondering how easy it would be for me to turn off my mom-switch and be able to talk about things other than potty training and princesses for five days. And the minute Chris and I got on our plane Thursday morning, all anxiety went out the window, and for the next four days I spent all of my time soaking up the wonderfulness that is my husband. It was great for us to be just Chris and Brooke for a few days, but by Monday we were seriously missing our little girl. And on Tuesday morning, we plucked her out of her crib and spent a half hour snuggling and kissing her cheeks in our bed before Chris had to go to work and I had to start unpacking. It’s fun to have fun, but I wouldn’t trade this for anything.