29, 30 months old

Yes, yes, yes. This is a combo post. Because the end of August and entire month of September was a blur of morning sickness and exhaustion. But I’m back, Bloggers. That fabulous second-trimester energy surge has taken over my body and I am now fully able to record the monthly milestones of my adorable two-and-a-half year old girl. Yep, she’s officially six months away from being a three year old. And six months and ten days away from being a big sister. Let’s just say April is going to be birthday party central at the Famous Amys house from now on. We might as well just invest in the giant bouncy castle now, huh?

And here are some of my favorite pictures of my very cute two-and-a-half year old Taylor from our recent photoshoot with her super talented Aunt Libba:

And to say that Taylor is pretty pumped to be a big sister is a gross understatement. In fact, when people now ask her her name, she responds, My name Taylor. I be big sister. And the other day when I was snuggling her on the couch, I was giving her smooches and said that she was my precious baby. And she pulled away and said, No, Mom. I’m not baby. I’m BIG SISTER!

And her vocabulary has just grown in leaps and bounds, and more often than not Chris and I find ourselves having actual conversations with our daughter. And that’s enough to make dinnertime about a million times more entertaining. Every night Chris will ask her, So, T. What was your favorite part of the day today? And she’ll stop, cup her cheek in her hand while pointing her finger to her mouth and go, Ummmm. Ummmm. Ummmm. Like she’s thinking really hard about our day, and then she’ll chirp something like, The park, Daddy. I go down slide and climb up wall at the park. And Chris will remark, That’s great! You’re such a big girl! And she’ll correct him, No, Daddy. I’m BIG SISTER!

But one not-so-cute conversation that we have on a constant basis is the, Mom-can-I-have-that? conversation. As in every time she spies a toy commercial, toy aisle or toy ad in the paper, she points at it, whines and repeats, MOM! Can I have that? MOM! Can I have that? MOM. CAN. I. HAVE. THAT. And you can’t just ignore her, or she’ll keep asking all day. And you can’t say, NO! out of frustration, because she’ll get too worked up. So my answer every time we see a princess-something, which is about twenty times a day, is, Gee, Honey. Maybe you can get that for Christmas or your birthday if you’re a good girl. And instead of freaking out, she’ll sigh really loud and go, Oh THANK YOU Mom!

And something else I’ve been doing that is most likely not featured in the Mother of the Year handbook, is that every time Taylor has a temper tantrum, one surefire thing that will bring her around is putting a band aid on her. Like when she gets peeved about me throwing away the dried-out, rock-hard play doh we found under the couch, and I’m just over the toddler-tantrum, I’ll concede and say, Hey, would a band aid make you feel better? And she’ll immediately stop crying and say, Yes. I wanna princess band aid. And then I’ll stick about four band aids on her and everything is healed for the time being. And I’m sure there are a lot of deeper-meaning issues revolving around me doing this, but COME ON, I was suffering through a first trimester. Anything I could do to stop the screaming I was on board with. And that’s why Taylor had enough bandages on her arms and legs these past months that she looked like she had been through some sort of vicious toddler battle to the death.

But now that I’m feeling SO MUCH BETTER, I’m going to be able to crack the whip on a few things that I’ve been letting her get away with for the past months. Because soon she’s going to be my BIG girl. And I know that she’s going to be an awesome big sister. Not just because she’s so excited about the title, but because she’s already such a great little helper for me. And she’s just a really, really good little girl. And I know I’m prejudice with the whole situation, but she’s she about as perfect as any two year old can be.

And so for the next six months, I’m going to be soaking up every second of just being me and my Taylor. And while I get a pit in my stomach thinking about not being able to focus ALL of my attention on just her, I am so, so excited to bring another wonderful being into our family. Because our life with Taylor has been such a fabulous, blessed journey, and I can’t wait for her to share in this next adventure with us. She is the reason we want to do this process all over again. Because if it can be this fun with one, just imagine what two will bring.