Good times in the Low Country - Kaitlyn goes to Charleston (and meets Hayden!)...

Age of Lady Kaitlyn:  7 months and 3 weeks

Family,

Beatiful new mommies!

And a good Saturday morning to you from the Queen City, where it's the Bull's 36th birthday.  I've actually just had the best birthday present ever, as I woke up at 6:30 and crept into the Munchkin's room, where I've just spent the last half hour watching her sleep.  I mean, is the adorable, perfect little bundle in that crib really mine?  Am I really that lucky?  Life is good. :-)

So first off, apologies that there was no blog last week, and I'll apologize in advance that both this blog and the one I do tomorrow (to stay on track for this week) will be a bit of a scramble.  However, as you'll no doubt extrapolate from the posts, life has been a wee bit hectic as of late (with no signs of stopping or slowing, of course), and I want to ensure I commit these memories to server before they start to fade.

Stepping back 14 days, I can say that the last full week of October was a good one for Team Taylor.  On the Kaitlyn front, her big food first was the foray into sweet potatoes.  And whilst she did enjoy them immensely, there is no denying that her favorite food is unquestionably peas.  That's right, you read that correctly:  PEAS.  Who the @#$# likes peas?  This girl pounds her high chair in excitement when she sees us coming over with them - hilarious!

Walking the tiddlywinks on the old Pitt
Street Bridge - once the only land route
to Sullivan's Island, and now one of the
prettiest runs and walks I've ever done.

On the medical front, we did have her doctor's appointment to check out her head posture.  The good news (and huge sigh of relief) is that structurally everything looks good on the spine.  The doctor said that she might have a slight case of tortochollis, but if that was the case it was very minor and could be cleared up in a couple of weeks with the right stretches.  She showed us a few of them to do (which daycare has been VERY diligent to help with - those folks are absolutely tremendous), and to be safe we made an appointment with an infant physical therapist (yes, they actually have these folks) for November 7th.  I'm feeling much better at this point, but we still want to have her checked out and confirm that all's well.  As an update (I'm now actually typing this on 4 November) - K's head posture looks MUCH better than in weeks previous.  She now looks STRAIGHT FORWARD when she's eating, and her head control during sitting and tummy time (both of which are GREAT at this point) are monumentally better than they were a month ago.  If anything, she's now cocking her head slightly to the other side.  But honestly, no complaints on that at all, as a) it's minimal if anything, and b) shows how quickly this can be rectified with the appropriate stretching (and I expect general strengthening of her body, muscles, and spine).

The Munch, rugged up for a chilly
evening at the Post House for din din.  And
NO - she STILL doesn't like beanies.

I love my daddy!

The only other medical item of note was that K received her second and final flu shot on the 24th.  She was a trooper and only cried a bit.  And the best news - no more shots for 5 months!  The 9 month appointment is apparently blissfully free of shots, so that's good news for us.

As for the featured item of the blog, this was Team Taylor's first foray to the coast (well, the East Coast, anyway) with the Munchkin.  That's right - we packed up the car Friday morning (where I counted 4 bags, 1 stroller, and 1 pack n play for the Munchkin - 1 small carry-on for Jenny and I to share :-)) and headed down I-77 to visit our friends Mindy & Craig in Charleston and visit their new bundle of joy - 9 week old Hayden!

I will show Tadbit who's boss!!!

We made great time, stopping just once in Columbia for food and to feed/change the munchkin at McDonald's (Incidentally, to all you fast food chains out there who DO NOT HAVE A BABY CHANGING TABLE - you are losing business left, right, and center!  We have no choice but to stop at McDonald's!  Not that I'm complaining, but still - how much can it possibly cost to have that little addition to your bathroom?).  We rolled in about 12:45 to their GORGEOUS home in Mt. Pleasant, walking distance to the old Pitt Street Bridge (now a walking trail, it was once the old bridge connecting Mt. Pleasant to Sullivan's Island).  From there it was a weekend of GREAT times, AMAZING food, and even a surprisingly good micro-brewery!

Look at those loving, fully involved fathers!

Friday we went for a walk on the old Pitt Street Bridge, pushing the wee ones and soaking in the PERFECT weather.  Less than a mile from their house, these guys have a pathway that has the low country scenery on one side and Charleston Harbor (complete with Fr. Sumter) on the other - AMAZING!  We then hit dinner at this place called the Post House, and it was perfect, as the little ones could dose in their strollers under the heat lamps while we all caught up (we hadn't seen them since visiting them in New York pack in December).

Saturday I got out for a jog along the bridge and around the neighborhood, and it very well might have been the prettiest jog that I've never paid for. :-)  We spent the day watching football, visiting breweries (Westbrook - I HIGHLY recommend), visiting the local watering holes (Shem Creek) courtesy of Craig's newest toy - the golf cart - and eating like kings (this would include an order of gravy and biscuits that could have fed 12 people but instead just fed yours truly. :-)

No matter how many times you see it, it's
universal - fewer things are more beautiful
than a mother feeding and tending to her little one.

We left at 11 on Sunday, as I had to be back for a flight to Santiago, and as always the trip ended too quickly.  We had SO MUCH FUN - their house is basically like a resort villa!  We DEFINITELY want to wing our way back down there in the not too distant future, as it was so great to see them, and there are few things in life better than visiting/traveling with folks who also have young kids and are on roughly your same schedule.  I even managed to stay awake until 11 PM one night... :-)

The drive home was easy, but just 2 hours after pulling into the neighborhood I was back out the door, heading down I-85 for the airport.  It was too quick, and I wasn't happy about how unceremoniously I had to walk out the door, knowing full well I was leaving JT with an ocean of chores and no support for 4 days.  But, as always, she was a trooper, and as I type this now back home, I'm happy to report that we all survived. :-)

But that's another blog for another time - namely right now (since I'm already 1 day overdue on this past week's post)!  I'll be back soon to recount the past week's activities - plenty of new material to report!

Love,

Sam and Jenny