Arts and crafts hour

Immediately followed by bathtime.

Birthday party palooza

So what’s better than one birthday party over the weekend? How about THREE birthday parties in one weekend. That’s right, the Famous Amys crew celebrated back-to-back-to-back birthday soirees this past weekend, and now that we’ve come down off our cake and ice cream buzz I can recap all the excitement.

Friday afternoon we traveled to south Asheville to help baby Oliver celebrate his first birthday. Kelley and Jaime scouted out an awesome location right on Lake Julian, and had a canoe ready to go for anyone who wanted to brave the water. And, of course, my little girl was all about it.

I don’t know who enjoyed the Thomas the Train cake more, Taylor or the birthday boy.

Saturday morning we headed to the CCA pool to party with Hunter on his third birthday. We’ve known Will and Ashley for a few years now, and have spent the summer watching their son, Hunter, perform his daredevil stunts at the pool. He and Taylor are pretty cute together, and she always watches him with wide-eyes as he does his floatie-less jumps off the slide and board.

Oh. And Hunter is also obsessed with Toy Story and had a Buzz Lightyear cake at his party. So Taylor is officially in LOVE.

And Sunday afternoon we joined the Bound family in celebrating their darling daughter, Rell, turning three. LeAnn and Jamie set-up their backyard like a mini-water park, complete with slip-and-slide, baby pool and a sprinkler.

Rell’s party had a Hello Kitty theme, and LeAnn even made the fabulous cake herself. And if she needed proof as to whether or not it was delicious, she had to look no further than Taylor, who polished off her piece about five seconds after the birthday girl blew out the candles.

And it’s always fun watching Taylor, Rell and Elliot play together. Those little ladies were destined to be best buds about seven years ago when their mamas solidified their relationship at the downtown restaurant we all worked at. And, lucky for us, they seem to be pretty happy with their predetermined friendship.

So you can imagine that by the end of the weekend we were officially partied-out, but it was a fantastic three days spent with so many of our wonderful friends. The only hiccup has to be that since we left Rell’s party Sunday afternoon Taylor has been chirping, Momma! MY birthday coming up? MY Princess birthday tomorrow? MY BIRTHDAY! Ah. I have a feeling we’re gonna have a long eight months ahead of us.

Ready or not, here comes some cuteness

We’ve been on a serious Hide & Seek streak in the Famous Amys house the last few weeks. And between outgrowing our digs and Taylor mastering the game, we’re desperately running out of places to hide. But that just means we have to get creative.

28 months old

Earlier this week Taylor hit her 28-months-of-being-alive mark, meaning it’s time for me to post a recap of the last month of our daughter’s life. And I’m sure many of you think it’s weird that I still observe her monthly birthdays, but since this site is basically the only form of a baby book I have for my little monkey, I’ve got to record all the milestones and memories we celebrate through this journey called parenthood. Ah, the cuteness and chaos that comes in raising a squishy, sassy little person named Taylor. It’s a journey, people. And I’m glad you’re along for the ride.

So this month was a lot like last month in that every day we managed to find something totally fun for the peanut to do. Swimming, boating, fountains, parks, movies and lots of play dates. And while some of these morning and early-afternoon activities were mother-daughter duets, Chris has been leading us through the majority of our adventures. And T and her Daddy have become as thick-as-thieves lately – Making projects in the workshop, playing hide and seek, building castles. There are now set boundaries as to what I am allowed to play with her, and many times I have heard, No, Mom. I do that with Dad.

Yes, everything about the two of them playing together makes my heart smile. Especially since Chris is a total sucker when it comes to telling his sweet princess, No. Like last weekend when Taylor kept squealing at Chris to get into the Splashville fountain with her, and he was all, But Daddy doesn’t have his swimsuit on, Honey. And she was all, Daddy! COME HERE! And then he spent the rest of his picnic walking around in soggy shorts.

And later that night, when I finished reading her our before-bed books and then asked her my nightly, What was your favorite part of the day? question, it was no surprise that she smiled real big and said, My Daddy.

She seems to have lots of adorable phrases coming out of her mouth lately, and I feel like I stop her about a hundred times a day and ask her to repeat something just so I can hear it and all of it’s cuteness again. Like on the way home from the park a few weeks ago when she announced, That was PERFECT. And Chris and I laughed and said, What? And she repeated herself, Park was perfect. And then Chris asked her where she learned the word Perfect, and she responded, Oh. I learn it to myself, Daddy.

But while it has been about 90-percent loveliness these past weeks, no Monthly Milestone post would be complete without my Temper Tantrum of the Month story. Oh yes, we had quite a few contenders for this title, but, hands down, the big winner happened earlier this week at a play date. In fact, I believe I explained to Chris as, The most embarrassing, gigantic melt-down I have ever witnessed. A true dumpster fire, folks. It started with Princess Taylor morphing into the Terrible T, and then shoving her friend down to the ground over a toy. At which point I grabbed my daughter by the shoulders and physically had to hold her down to the ground in a time out, all while she’s screaming at the top of her lungs and flailing all her limbs in the air. And after about five minutes of that scene, we had to abruptly leave the party with me carrying her like a football under my arms out to the car. Only this football weighed over 30 pounds and was convulsing and shrieking like a demon on crack. And I’m all, Hey, Katie. Thank you so much for having us over. Let’s do this again another time when my kid isn’t a raging lunatic. And she just laughed. Because it’s funny when it’s not YOUR kid that’s acting rotten, right?

And as I drove home with the screeching background noise of, TAKE ME BACK TO LANEY’S HOUSE! TAKE ME BACK TO LANEY’S HOUSE!, I could physically feel my blood pressure reaching dangerous levels. And I had one of those, Am I gonna be able to do this? moments. Very similar to the feelings I had in my chest as we left the hospital with newborn-baby Taylor and my emotions were on overdrive and I kept looking over my shoulder like, Are they really going to let us leave with her? What now? And now, over two years later, I still get those same uncertain feelings when she has a giant melt-down, or when someone asks me why I approach something in mothering the way I do, and I respond by shrugging my shoulders and saying, I don’t know! I honestly have no clue what I’m doing. But, Hey, we’ve made it 28 months. And we’re all in one piece. And we’re happier than we’ve ever been. So we must be doing something right. Right?

Nature girl

Taylor and I ditched our normal Tuesday GTL routine and accompanied some friends to the WNC Nature Center yesterday morning. The Nature Center is basically Asheville’s zoo, except instead of exotic animals from different countries, it holds a bunch of creatures native to western North Carolina. Meaning instead of elephants and giraffes, the critters on display are bobcats and black bears. But, Hey, a giant furry animal is a giant furry animal, and the Nature Center is only six minutes from our front door, so both Taylor and I were thrilled to spend the morning there.

The annual summer butterfly exhibit was on display, and Taylor and her little friend were doused with sugar-water when they entered the tent in order to attract winged-creatures. It was pretty adorable watching her interacting with the butterflies, with her attitude being a mix of amazement and Oh-My-GOD-there’s-a-BUG-on-me!

And after eating a picnic lunch and running a few more laps around the steaming hot park, my sweaty, little critter was officially exhausted. Yes, we definitely had a fun morning exploring the displayed-wilds of WNC, and with the pool closing in just a few weeks I have a feeling we’ll be back there soon.

Sleeping Booty

Thanks to Chris’s mom, Taylor now has a new Disney Princess movie in her collection. Sleeping Beauty arrived in a princess-themed care package from Grandma a few weeks ago, complete with princess playing cards, two princess t-shirts and a bunch of big-girl princess undies. All of which were a big hit with Princess Taylor.

And other than the underwear, the contents of the package have all but hijacked our house. We thought we had hit the jackpot as far as potty training incentives go, telling T, You know, honey. You can wear the big-girl undies but you CAN’T get the princesses wet or dirty. Just tell Mom or Dad if you need to go potty, because Snow White most certainly does not want to get peed on.

And we know she understood what we were talking about... Well, at least about the princesses not wanting to get wet, because if you could have heard the panic in her voice as she shrieked, MOMMA! Snow White is WET! And then a few hours later when scampered into the kitchen sobbing, Momma, Cinderella is DIRTY! And then again a bit later when she stood in the middle of the living room crying about peeing through her Jasmine underwear. And then her booty was secured safely in a pull-up and I whimpered softly as I cleaned urine up off the floor for the third time that day. Yea, Motherhood!

But we’ve had much better luck with the rest of Grandma’s care package, and for the past week or so we’ve been watching Sleeping Beauty nonstop, or as T refers to it, Sleeping BOOTY. And even though she’s seen it over and over, each time I turn it on it’s like the first time she’s watched it. And, to me, that’s precious, being able to see the excitement and emotion in her little face while she soaks in every moment of the Disney classic.

If only I could get that attention and enthusiasm for potty training.

Taylor the fish

We had a pretty low-key weekend at the Famous Amys house, and I’m totally fine with that. In fact, we were thrilled to be total bums for the past few days. All of the sudden August snuck up on us and summer is almost over, which means we have a countdown running on our time left at the swimming pool this season. I cannot express enough what a blessing the pool has been for us this year. Our normal daily routine follows something like this – Wake up, work out, do laundry, take a nap and then hit the pool. Yep, GTL - Gym, Tan, Laundry. Meaning I have more in common with those Jersey Shore morons than I’d like to admit.

And Taylor has just progressed light-years in the water the past few months. When we first started going in June, she wouldn’t release her kung-fu grip on me the entire time we were there. And now she’s jumping, swimming and pretty much invincible with those water wings on.

And when she’s tired of performing, she’ll stomp onto the concrete and announce, I need a break! Which is code for snack-attack time.

Yep, we’re loving life at the pool. And if you’re wondering why my posts are few and far between this next month, it’s because we are too busy soaking up this summer’s final rays and exhausting our daughter in the water. And also training for the upcoming half-marathon and washing clothes. GTL, baby. G. T. L.