Taylor tude

Ever had one of those days when no matter how hard you tried to get the washclothes away from your almost-ten month old, she cried and had a total melt-down? And after trying in a real sweet voice, then a stern voice, then a ‘Seriously. You’re crying over stupid washclothes?’ voice, you finally just let her keep the new treasure just so she’d stop crying. And then you try to bribe her with banana puffs to let them go, and THAT doesn’t even work.

Those are the days that happy hour starts promptly at five.

Let me tell you about my best friend

So when my sister visited Asheville last weekend, my friend Paige decided she would enlist some of Libba’s amazing camera talents and have her take pictures of Elliot. Who has, by the way, gone from an adorable infant to a little lady. And as Paige chased her daughter around the playground, Chris kept asking me, That’s only THREE months away?

And, of course, we had to get a few snapshots of the BFFs.

Oh. My. God. The cuteness.

Libba dibba do

We were lucky to have Libba and Piper the pup come to Asheville for a long weekend. Being about a million miles away from our families is more than tough for me and Chris, but a bright light in our Asheville location is being less than six hours away from my sister. We’ve been averaging close to a visit a month since September, which makes my heart smile very big. And Taylor L-O-V-E-S her Aunt Libba – But she’s still warming up to Piper, which was due to the constant puppy kisses and tackles during their visit.

And not only did Libba accompany me to Ladies Night with my girls over sushi and giant beers, but she volunteered to watch her goddaughter while my handsome husband and I went out for a date. And I wore fancy shoes and we stayed out past 10. And it was heavenly.

The rest of the visit was spent outside enjoying the spring-like weather. I don’t want to hurt the feelings of all of my frozen Midwest friends, but we’ve been basking in sunny, 60-degree weather for the past four days. And that marks another bright light in living in the Southeast. So if you were privy to our cul-de-sac this weekend, you would have seen three pale adults, one cute baby and two hyperactive canines loving life and breathing in the fresh mountain air.

And, of course, my extremely talented sister took some amazing pictures of my growing girl. It’s great to get Libba’s evaluation each visit of how Taylor’s growing. My baby is getting big, and looking through some of these pictures it’s hard to see that chubby, little infant we brought home from the hospital nearly ten months ago.

Baby rage

We had a rather uneventful weekend at the Famous Amys house. And by uneventful, I mean sick with colds. And just as Chris and I turned the corner, Taylor’s nose stuffed-up and I had to dig the booger-sucker out of the medicine cabinet. She has snot just streaming out of her face, making it impossible to eat, sleep or suck on her binky. Which, other than terrorizing Ruby and pulling everything out of her toy box, are three of her most favorite things.

So since we’ve been quarantined, and our normally mild Asheville weather has dipped below freezing, I’ve been spending my downtime eating peanut butter, improving the appearance of my toes and organizing digital photos. All at the same time. Impressed? Anyway, after a taking a trip down memory lane looking at all of Taylor’s pictures, I noticed that while 95-percent of all the images are adorable, I have managed to capture a few of her baby rages in the past nine months. And since I’m always posting pictures of her flashing that cheesy grin, I thought it only appropriate to show the evolution of Taylor’s ‘tude.

June 20th - Rage due to Momma being all up in her face with the camera:

July 14th - Rage due to Momma not pushing the button on her toy fast enough:

August 19th - Rage due to not wanting to be a princess:

September 27th - Rage due to not getting a long enough nap:

October 24th - Rage due to wearing a festive, matching bow and onesie:

November 29th - Rage due to not wanting to be a ballerina:

December 27th - Rage due to getting a face full of bubbles in the bathtub:

January 3rd - Rage due to her banana puffs rolling into the center of the table:

And, yes, while some may find this offensive, I find it rather amusing. Probably because she is laughing and cheesing 95-percent of the time. And as for the other five-percent... well, let’s just say it’s clear she comes from the Blackwell family.

Mother’s little helper

So Taylor’s been crawling for nearly two months now, and I’ve still been a slacker as far as totally baby proofing the house. Don’t worry, we’ve covered the outlets and hid the poison, but I have yet to install cabinet and drawer-stoppers. So basically anything in the bottom section of the kitchen is fair game. Which is fine to everyone but Ruby, who has had to use her keen dog senses to find where I’ve moved her water dish to for that moment. And I’m pretty sure Taylor has the same dog senses, because she manages to find it no matter where it’s hidden. Amazing.

And of all the things she’s pulled out of the drawers lately, her absolute favorite are the freezer bags. She pulls each bag out individually with a look of wonderment on her face, like Holy cow, there’s ANOTHER one in here! This is awesome!

And then, because I don’t share in her enthusiasm for emptying the whole box, she’ll show her new treasure to her buddy, which happens to be her own reflection in the oven. And Flo, which is what we call her reflective twin, is always equally amazed.

Updated stats and shiny incentives

Taylor had her nine month check-up yesterday, and other than being about the cutest baby in the world, everything else looked normal. She is now weighing in at a whopping 21 pounds, 10 ounces, and she is grown to 28 ½ inches long. These new measurements bump her down from the 95th to the 90th percentile of nine month olds. Not exactly shrinking, but definitely evening out.

One of the ways she dropped that five-percent is her constant flurry of action, including her new trick of climbing up the stairs. And since we have three, functioning floors in our house, we have been guiding her every step of the way.

We were trying to show off her new stunt to Chris’s parents when they were in town, she was pretty tuckered-out and tried to stop half way up the staircase. And when the stuffed lion bribe didn’t work, Grandpa came to the rescue and laid down his Rolex.

Smart girl.

I scream, you scream

Princess Elliot Scully turned one this past Friday, and being that she is Taylor’s one and only BFF, we had to make an appearance at the fabulous birthday party Paige and Danny threw yesterday afternoon. There were wall-to-wall kiddos and lots of new and exciting toys that Taylor was dying to fit in her mouth.

I was hoping to get a good shot of Taylor and the birthday girl, but there was way too much excitement. Luckily we had Danny there to wrangle them together for a photo.

And Taylor, of course, had her share of ice cream and also her first taste of cake. Paige not only organized the whole event, but she also baked a gorgeous, organic, made-from-scratch, tasty treat for her first born. Way to set the bar, Paige. Super mom.

And to top off the thrill of new friends and cream cheese frosting, we’re blessed to have Chris’s parents stop in Asheville for a few days on their way to Tampa. And, in true grandparent fashion, they’ve been doting on Taylor since they got here. We went to mass this morning at the Basilica, and Taylor lasted about two minutes before her Grandpa had to take her to the cry room with the rest of the naughty kids. And even though she was a nightmare the entire service, she still managed to get tons of compliments from her Grandma and Grandpa. Because she looked cute. Grandparents are suckers. I’m pretty sure she could have burned the place down and they would have just smiled and said, Oh. But look how blue her eyes look reflecting the flames. She’s just precious.