Hey everyone, come see how good I look

Brusha brusha brusha

Other than the hugs, kisses, toys and new wardrobe that came with Grandma’s visit, Taylor also got a new toothbrush. So I guess that means we're ready for candy, right?

Honest to blog

Wow. Sorry for the delinquent blogging, but this past week has been a whirlwind of celebrating, shopping, drinking and dancing. And how does a mother of a rambunctious eight month old accomplish so much fun, you ask. Well, one word. Grandma. Chris’s mom and brother trekked down from Wisconsin last week for a visit, with Grandma providing nonstop babysitting and Ryan providing nonstop laughs for the past six days. We were also happy to have Diane and Ashley McGaw drive down from Virginia Beach to party for the weekend. And because Chris, Taylor and I are about a million miles away from everyone, it was wonderful to be able to have a house full of family and friends for the holidays.

And other than making holiday cookies and generating Christmas cards, my baby-free time was spent having lots of fun. On Thursday night we went out to celebrate my special person, Chele’s, graduation from WCU, where we toasted her big brain and our ability to party past midnight. Which was cruelly followed by the next morning’s headache and reminder of what fun really does feel like.

Friday was spent touring the Biltmore Estate, which is an Asheville landmark. We strolled Taylor through the enormous mansion until she wasn’t having it anymore. And then I carried her until I couldn’t lift her anymore. Sorry, Vanderbilt family. We’ll get to the basement next year. But, as Ashley pointed out, you’ve seen one ancient indoor swimming pool, you’ve seen them all.

On Saturday night Chris, Ryan, Ashley and I went to the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam downtown, where we boogied to an assortment of jam band’s finest for eight hours straight. And I survived. Barely.

The rest of the visit was spent shopping and watching Taylor crawl at lightening-fast speeds towards the Christmas tree. If we still have a standing tree in eight days, it’ll be a holiday miracle. All-in-all, we had a wonderful time with everyone here. Especially Taylor-tot, who is now going through withdrawal of not having her Grandma and Uncle’s constant and undivided attention.

Eight months old

Taylor is eight months old today, and even though I see my baby girl all day every day, I can clearly recognize how much bigger she got during her seventh month. And because we don’t have another check-up until January, I can’t give actual stats. Just HUGE. I packed away the Bjorn and am loaning out the sling, because carrying her in any sort of baby-carrier will cause my shoulders and back to ache for days. I don’t know what prompted this month’s growth spurt. Maybe the new, exciting foods we introduced, such as peas, carrots and peaches. What happens this month when we begin broccoli and apples? Will she start borrowing my clothes?

She now has two teeth. Or more like a spike and a half. Taylor’s bottom middle teeth are in and now she gnaws on whatever she can get a hold of. Which, now that she’s crawling, is pretty much EVERTHING. For someone who’s only been crawling for two weeks, she’s got wheels. She sees something she wants and - Poof! - she’s trucking across the room to get it.

She is also pulling herself up to standing every chance she gets. She loves it. She’ll pull herself up on the coffee table and just stand there and cheese. Slapping the table and showboating - Look, one hand! Look, one hand, one foot! And then, of course, she’ll wipe out. And after a few nasty spills, complete with bumps, bruises and shiners, we are working diligently to get her accustomed to falling on her bottom. Because Momma can’t handle many more of these painful head-first wipeouts - The ones the cause her to cry so hard she doesn’t breath between howls. Heartbreaking.

And because Taylor’s playing so hard now, she’s just exhausted at the end of the day. I mean, WE’RE exhausted. Completely bushed. And after Chris gives her her bedtime bottle, she’s made the habit of falling asleep in his arms and snuggling. And he doesn’t seem to mind one bit.

So, yes, lots of changes and growing this past month. Almost too many to keep up with, and I’ve had to dust off the baby book to record some of these milestones. And as attentive as I am with this blog, I’m a total slacker with her baby book. So I’m hoping that in the years to come, when she wants to take a stroll down memory lane, instead of grabbing for her baby book she’ll just log on. And then probably holler at me for putting this picture of her in the tub on the Internet. But it’s just too cute not to.

Bouncing around the room

Here’s a quick video clip of Taylor in motion.

She must have known her Grandmas were going to be watching this, because she crawled right for something that she CAN have. The majority of my days are now spent prying remotes, books and plastic sock wrappers out of her hands.

The baby

A short note about last week’s blogger party. While it made my heart smile to see my hometown comrades, it made it giggle to meet their kiddos. Lilly was super sweet and very willing to share her toys with everyone, Quinn loved showing off his teeth and crawling all over the place, and cutie-pie Addison just wanted to hold the baby. The baby being my Taylor-tot. And even though there is a two year age difference, my baby and Juli’s sweet girl are in the same weight class. And as Addison tried to put her arms around the baby, Taylor just poked her in the eye and pulled her hair.

Sorry, Addison. I promise my bruiser daughter will be more gentle next time, and I hope this doesn’t scare off any future babysitting offers.

Thankful

Well, bloggers, the Famous Amys traveling band pulled into Asheville at 5.30 this morning, and the rest of the day was spent attempting to regain normalcy in our house. Because, as some of you may remember, my OCD usually kicks into hyper-drive after vacations. And now that the fridge is stocked, clothes are clean and bags are empty, I’m able to reflect on what a wonderful trip we had up to the farm.

Let’s just start with the drive. The 1080 mile drive. Of the 36 total hours we spent in the car, Taylor slept at least 32 of them. That’s right, she was AMAZING. A+. And for those of you who know Chris’s unreasonable grading scale, that is about as good as striking gold. And, seeing that I only drove about six hours of the trip, I must give major props to Chris for being an absolute rock star behind the wheel. A++ with three gold stars. I also must give a shout-out to Starbucks Espresso Double Shots for fueling us. Or, as we called it, the crack. A caffeine drink so potent it allowed us to drive through the night Tuesday and wake up my parents Wednesday at dawn.

And because we got there so early, we were able to sleep off our driving hangovers and be fully rested for the Thanksgiving feast. Nothing beats my Mom’s turkey dinner, and it was wonderful to have my entire family around one table. My parents, of course, devoured Taylor the entire trip, and my little girl was pretty smitten with her Uncle Will. And between the three of them and my sister and Dirk constantly prodding her for smiles and giggles, today has been a total let down for the Taylor-tot. Hey, where are all those people that do nothing else but play with me?

Not only did Taylor cut her second tooth at the farm, but she also became a speed crawler. Up until we got to Iowa she had only creeped and crawled a few times, but by the time we left the farm she was practically doing hot laps on my parents’ carpet. We were constantly focused on her whizzing from table to chair to couch back to table, pulling herself up on everything and then having the occasional crash-and-burn. And now I understand why some people put their kids on leashes.

The weather for the first few days was fantastic, and because I had plenty of help with my babe, I was able to take long walks around the farm with Chris and Ruby. Ruby’s knee held up great, and she was in heaven running through the fields and pastures. It was like a kid being grounded for three months and having their first time out be at Disney World. She, Chris and Will even went hunting and killed a rooster, which made Chris a little less sad to miss deer season up in Wisconsin. The Fat Tire helped too.

Friday night was the infamous blogger party at the Whitmer mansion. It was great to catch up with long-standing friends and meet their lovely children, most of which I felt like I already knew from their blogs. My parents snatched up Taylor and I proceeded to gossip, drink too much wine with my sister and then meet up with my old friend Gina at the bar. And, Gina, if you’re reading this: Start blogging. I need to keep tabs on you, my dear, and this isn’t that hard to maintain. No excuses.

And, as if my hometown friend-tank couldn’t get any fuller, Saturday night my nearest and dearest MacKinzie stopped by to meet Taylor and remind me why we’re soul sisters.

And because we had a heck of a drive anyway, we decided to stop in Iowa City for lunch on our way back south. We made a nostalgic loop through the downtown, ate at the Hamburg Inn and then showed Taylor the porch swing that her parents fell in love on.

It was a wonderful trip on every level, reminding me of everything I have to be thankful for.