Christmas recap

Well, bloggers, I hope that you and yours had as wonderful a Christmas holiday as the Famous Amys crew. Chris and I enjoyed every second of our first Christmas as parents, especially those many seconds spent putting together Santa’s gift to Taylor.

And now I understand why my father always had lots of batteries and a pocket knife on hand while we opened presents. And, yes, Santa was good to our little girl. Even after the unfortunate meltdown on his lap at the Mall. Must have been the cookies we left out for him.

And while Taylor is no where near understanding what Christmas is, she still had a pretty good time. Let’s be honest here, being the only child/grandchild/niece on both the Amys and Young sides, everyday is Christmas for Taylor. In fact, it’s pretty uncommon for a week to go by and Taylor NOT get a present. But the gifts she opened on Christmas were all shiny and had bows on them, and she loved them.

The Saturday after Christmas we loaded up the car and trekked down to Birmingham to spend the weekend with my family and meet my sister and Dirk’s newest addition, Piper, the cutest puppy in the whole world. Taylor was pretty jazzed to be around something smaller than her. Nothing’s more contagious than a puppy. You see one, you want one. Just like an Iphone. And then you get bit by the razor sharp puppy teeth and remember all the shoes that you loose during puppy-chewing phase. Good luck, Libba.

It was wonderful to spend time with my family that close to Christmas. It had been five years since we’d been able to open presents together - I just wish Will could have been there to join us. The weather on Saturday was gorgeous, so we all went to the park and soaked up the sunshine and the gobs of Taylor cuteness. My sister, as usual, did a fantastic job of capturing the moment.

Saturday night was spent at Granddaddy’s, catching up with the cousins, eating take-out food, drinking a sizeable amount of wine and diverting Taylor away from valuables.

And now we’re back in Asheville, regrouping and putting away our Christmas decorations. We don’t have anything wild and crazy planned for tonight, marking the first New Year’s Eve Chris and I aren’t weaving through crowds and throwing confetti. But we’ll still celebrate, smooch and pop open a bottle of champagne to toast the best year of our lives.

Happy Holidays

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

You better not pout, I’m telling you why

So today was Chris’s first day off in a week, so what do I make him do? Go to the dreaded mall so we can get a picture of Taylor sitting on Santa’s lap, of course. And while my husband would normally break out in hives just driving next to the mall on a Tuesday afternoon in July, I was fully expecting his head to pop off from going inside the shopping vortex three days before Christmas. But he survived. And not only did he survive, he did it without the least bit of attitude. To which he’ll be rewarded by getting a hall pass to get as stupid and obnoxious as he wants for tonight’s Packers/Bears showdown.

Taylor-tot, on the other hand, didn’t do so well. In fact, she pretty much started having a come-apart the minute she saw Santa.

Ah, Christmas memories.

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.