Kaitlyn's best weekend EVER - fried chicken and "big" waves in Charleston, SC

Age of Lady Kaitlyn:  14 months and 9 days

Family,

And a good Tuesday evening to you from the Queen City, where wife muffin has just cooked up a

bounteous FEAST for the adult portion of Team Taylor - a rubbed pepper turkey roast with squash, carrots, potatoes, and rice.  YUM!  I should start this blog by noting that my wife has become a cooking MACHINE!  Seriously, if I'd known about this perk of her staying at home, I'd have chained her to the house once her mat leave was up - amazing!  JT has really become quite the chef overnight, always experimenting with new dishes and cooking up tasty new treats.  In fact, not only did we have the roast tonight, but she also did a ham bone split pea soup today - most of which we're freezing.  I might weight 700 lbs by the time K turns 2!

So this past week was another good one, but MAN did it go by in a flash.  I was traveling for work (up in Canada, splitting time between Toronto and Niagara on the Lake), and for the third week out of five I watched my daughter grow up from a foreign country.  Now don't get me wrong, I will NEVER complain about international travel.  However, after a decade of going about as hard as one can go (it's actually 8 years, but considering we've lived in 5 cities across 3 continents during that time, I think we

One of the pics that kept me going this
week - look at that face - like an angel.

can round up), I am finding that a) it's harder to recover week over week and b) a lot of what made international travel so wonderful in the beginning - the excitement, the stories, the new meals on expense accounts, seeing new places - has been replaced by a desire to be home with my girls.  And considering that FaceTime hasn't worked for the last two destinations, that's made the time away much tougher.  JT's been great to send me pics and emails throughout the day, but nothing really compares to waking up beside my wife and then walking into the Munchkin's room in the morning when she's all smiles and desperately trying to climb out of her crib because she wants a hug and to start her day.  The good news is that I've only got 1 more trip on the books this year (although I'm sure a few more will surface), and it's a month out - that should give me some great bonding time at home with K and JT.

Cruisin'...and requesting food (we see
that particular sign a lot...).

This week has been a normal week so far (2 days in), and there really is nothing like being at home with them.  My work day starts at 7 AM and goes until 4:30-5, with a break somewhere in there to run 3 days a week (and do something else the other two).  I get the chance to be there every time K wakes up, and I get to see her for a bit at lunch (and walk around the house with her whenever she is up and I need a break).  She's becoming quite the little motor boat these days!  She really is getting SO much faster, and we've noticed that, not only is she transferring from different pieces of furniture more, but she's getting much more comfortable walking with only 1 hand attached to mommy or daddy.  Now that being said, she is still just about the sweetest thing EVER and reaches for both of us before she starts walking (and oddly enough we're only too happy to oblige :-)), but you can tell that she's not too far away from going at it on her own.  She's not standing yet, but she is starting to let go from time to time and is lunging at furniture that's not quite within striking distance.  Almost there - and then Heaven help us. :-)

I landed back from Toronto late Thursday to find out that, during the week, the light in K's room had fallen from the ceiling.  Luckily her and JT were in the bath at the time, but K has been playing in her r
oom a LOT lately, and the thought of that heavy light coming down on her head really freaked both of us out.  As fate would have it, we'd been contemplating removing it anyway, so needless to say this will serve as the impetus we need to put a new fixture in.  In fact, since she's got the only room in the house without a fan, we'll probably just go that way (and have Lowe's install it, because you know I can't).

Friday started a WONDERFUL weekend for Team Taylor.  We made the drive down to Charleston to visit Mindy, Craig, and Hayden, and the weather could NOT have been better.  We stopped in Columbia at Chik-fil-a on the way down, where K had another first - chicken nuggets, baby!!!!  The staff was hilarious - when they found out it was her first time, they told EVERY CUSTOMER IN THE PLACE.  The manager even came around to watch (and yes, I did get video) - hilarious!  Munch Munch - I am pleased to report that you LOVED them (shocking, I know) and actually ended up eating FOUR nuggets!  Add in the rest of the lunch we brought for you, and it would have been cheaper to have purchased a kids meal for you!  Oh, you were too cute...

Moment #1:  Anticipation

Moment #2:  Consumption

Moment #3:  Elation (that's K signing "More, mommy!")

We made the drive in 5 hours, and Hayden accosted Kaitlyn the second we walked in the door.  Seriously, it was TOO funny - Hayden is a spark plug of EPIC proportions, screeching and running

"Seriously - get out of my face."

over everything.  K is about the most chill individual in the history of children, and she straight up gave Hayden the stiff arm when Hayden ran up to give her a kiss.  However, from this rather inauspicious beginning, they ended up playing GREAT together all weekend, even sharing "walking time" on Scout (and Violet, who is the female equivalent doggie walker and is purple and pink).

We spent a bit of the afternoon at the park, where K reaffirmed that she HATES the swings and does NOT like to be out of control at any point.  We put her on some other "springy" rides, but no dice.  We did make a little progress with the slide, but K kept wanting to run back up it and would get FURIOUS when she couldn't get traction.  She then fell a whopping 2 inches (not kidding) right on her face, giving her a nice little shiner and sending her into full on meltdown

K's first official shiner - she took it like a champ.

mode - good times.  The rest of the playground was happy as a clam, but our daughter was an air raid siren.  Oh, and in case anyone is scoring, Hayden was happily swinging and laughing THIS ENTIRE TIME.

We got home and tried to put the Munch down for a nap, but she was having none of it.  But give her credit - she stayed up until just after 7 and then went down like a CHAMPION, sleeping 12.5 hours!  We cooked in that night (as we did Saturday), and it was great to just have a relaxing evening in (we
sacked out about 11ish).

I got 4 miles in on Saturday before showering and then heading to the local bakery.  We had a nice walk, put the girls down for a nap, and then rolled over to the featured event of the weekend - K's first beach trip!  The results were, in a word, SHOCKING.

We rolled up to Sullivan's Island beach on a 90 degree day with ZERO breeze.  K hadn't eaten well for lunch (and hadn't slept that long), and we were expecting
her to SCREAM BLOODY MURDER when we tried to put her feet in the water.  She was slathered in sunscreen, had her had on, and was covered for the occasion, but we still felt this would be an epic disaster.  So imagine our surprise when our daughter suddenly took both of our hands and walked the tenth of a mile to the water!  And then, as the first waves lapped over her feet, we poised for a scream.  What did we get?  LAUGHTER!  That's right, sports fans - K LOVED it!  In fact, she kept wanting to go deeper and deeper into the water, and every wave that hit her made her giggle.  A few times she even got creamed full on in the face, but she cackled every time!  It was absolutely amazing - JT and I just couldn't believe it.  She did NOT want to leave the water and must have played in it for at least 30 minutes before walking and crawling around on the beach for a bit.  She then went BACK to the water.  The people were great, as they all knew it was her first time.  One fella was so nice he even took a photo for us - too cute!

Act 1:  The arrival - K discovers that eating sand is AWESOME.

Act 2:  The girls sunning it and trying to get a photo before the kids go into meltdown.

Act 3:  A random stranger discerns it's our first time and takes a family photo.

Act 4:  The Pices breaks free - she LOVES the water (like her mommy)!

Ultimately K face planted on the sand and then did start screaming.  However, once we got her home and got her down for a nap, all was well.  JT had already made up mac 'n cheese, and her dinner that night was nothing short of EPIC.  Seriously - we are talking about 12 pounds of food.  I was well and truly impressed. :-)

We left about 11 on Sunday, arriving home about 3 PM or so.  That gave us time to unwind a bit before  JT made a DELICIOUS dinner of pesto gnocchi (see a pattern forming here?) once we put the sneetch down.

So there you have it - an absolutely PERFECT weekend for Team Taylor:  good food, good friends, new memories, and the most smiles I've ever seen from K at one time.  That in and of itself would have been worth 10 times the drive, as it was a perfect, happy, magical day.

Okay, that's it for this guy - time to call it a night.  Chat soon!

Love,

Sam and Jenny