Family,
And a good Tuesday afternoon to you from the Queen City, where I am THRILLED to report that
Since the last post, things have definitely turned a corner for Team Taylor. For starters, we've had a tremendous outpouring of support from our friends and family. Between their love, prayers, and (in many cases) similar stories, we now realize both a) how common an occurrence this is and b) that we aren't alone in facing this challenge. And it's not just our friends and family, but also I can confidently say that we feel God's presence in this house. Despite its ups and downs, 2015 has been one of the best years of my life, largely in part to the spiritual reawakening I've experienced since joining Freedom House. During that time, I truly do feel that the Holy Spirit has been poured upon us, and it is that spirit that certainly 
We had discussed going up front with the leaders to pray, and up until that moment Jenny and I had agreed that I would speak to them (Jenny was to select the female leader she felt most comfortable with, and I was then going to explain what had happened). Well, when we got up there, not only did they put 2 people with us (a man and a woman), but Jenny then started speaking. Family, as long as I live, I will remember this as one of those days where I was proudest of Jenny. She actually had to tell the story twice, and both times she explained what had happened, how we felt, and what we needed from our Freedom House family. I have always talked about the reservoirs of strength that run so deep in her (moreso than even she realizes), and it was on display for everyone that day. It was the moment where Team Taylor went from shock  |
| Snug as a bug in a rug - which she kept repeating over and over - too cute! |
to starting again, and it was the moment where I realized again how amazing my wife is. And in that moment, seeing how strong she was and realizing that we'd made it through the first storm, my walls came tumbling down and I started balling. It was the release I needed as well - that moment when the dam could crack and I could release that grief. And as always, Jenny gave me the strength and channel to help me heal myself and begin anew. Since that moment, it has been a rocket return to normalcy, and especially after seeing the smiles on Jenny's face after her girls' weekend, I genuinely believe that Team Taylor is now back in the saddle. 
Turning to the Munckin, can I just say WOW?!?!?!? Family, you would not BELIEVE how much she has changed in the past month. Talking, singing, running, it is just INCREDIBLE how much she's maturing before our eyes. Let me just run through some of the classics, dropping in pictures here, there, and everywhere (I'm conscious we've got a backlog of pics to get through, so this post could very well turn into one epic photo shoot).1. "Baked beans Bong!" That's right, ladies and gentlemen - Kaitlyn can now sing the "Bing Bong" song all the way through! In fact, now she's celebrating the entire Peppa musical collection (see point #2 below). More to the point, her pronunciation is improving daily - dare I say you can actually make out every work at this point!
2. "Peace and Harmony...in uh da wuuuuuurd" - Keeping with the Peppa song list, K is now singing "Peace and Harmony" at full volume. We even have this one on tape - HILARIOUS!!! Seriously - it is TOO funny to hear her when she belts it out. But that cheeky little snail knows when you're taping, as she will do it quicker and softer before running to the phone and saying "See it." Love that kid!
3. "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" So this one is new as of this week, but as of 8 June our daughter can now sing this entire song as well. It's funny, because this past weekend when my mom was in town, she just wanted to watch the "5 Little Monkeys" video over and over. And for the record - she didn't want the sweet and innocent version. Nope - our daughter wanted this blood thirsty version where the doctor looked like an ape version of Adolf Hitler. Sub-optimal, but I digress...what I can now confirm is that she's able to sing the entire thing, complete with movements of laying down on her back, hitting her head, and doing the finger shake to say "NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!" Seriously - her ability to learn through repetition is quite impressive. I know everyone says it, but I'm telling you - GENIUS... :-)
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| I mean, don't hate on the anklets, yo! |
And a side note there - Vol Nana visited this weekend (more about that further down), and I must stop here and say HOW AMAZING my mom was in terms of stimulating K's imagination. It didn't matter what the toy or activity was, mom was great at pretending. I first took note when we were playing with Playdoh outside. Mom was making cribs, houses, cars, you name it - a far improvement on my normal offering of bracelets and anklets! It showed me that I need to be better about firing up her imagination. I tried to put it into practice on Sunday (6/7) at the park when we made "pine cone airplanes." And while that was a success, allowing her to bring the pine cone back into the house was not my best decision. But hey - it's progress, right? :-)
4. "No ma'am, bad girl!" So as you can surmise from this, we've started discipline in earnest now. Well, the funniest upshot of this occurred at the end of May and early June, when at night while K was in her crib with her animals (she has 9 now - Go Dog, Vera Bunny, Hop Hop, Oz Mouse, Red Minnie, Plastic Minnie, Rainbow Minnie, Piggy, and Baby Elmo), she lined them up and gave them all a scolding. We were listening on the monitor when we heard, "No ma'am, bad girl!" repeated to each one of them. HILARIOUS! Now on the not so hilarious front, K has started to gentle test her boundaries. I have employed the 1-2-3 method to date (but rest assured I'm a rapid counter), and I think it's met with some success. The exception was 2 weeks ago (May 31), but we'll get to that... :-)
In the early going, I can already tell that teaching discipline is a very fine line of balancing the promotion of independence with the need to have your commands respected. Also, the consistency required and reality that, if stated, you MUST enforce something has been a learning experience for me. That being said, K really is a great kid, and any deviation from the norm is either due to a) exhaustion or b) wanted to do something for herself. And while sometimes that means life goes a bit slower, I tell myself that I need to encourage that independence where possible, so I'm trying to be better about that.5. Speed demon - Can I just tell you how fast this girl has become!?!?!?!? Seriously - we play "chasing dada" and "dada dinosaur" a lot now, and that kid can flat move! I am actually finding that sometimes I genuinely have to pick up my pace to avoid being tagged - way to go, kiddo! And the cutest part - as she's chasing me, she says "I'm gonna get you!" When we come to the end of the route (the master bathroom), I then turn around and turn into "Daddy Dinosaur," at which point K starts running and quotes Peppa Pig by saying, "too scary!" It's pretty adorable - just sayin'...
6. "Rockabye Baby" - yep, singing this one as well (and we have the video to prove it). This one is tied to the travel swing (separate story that I'll pick up below).7. "I'm a Cowboy" - so I have a book from my childhood called "Busy Teddy Bear." TT can actually recite the whole thing now (she's actually learning parts of other books as well, but this one she has down cold), and she even does the voices that I do - a cowboy, a bird, etc. It's pretty darn cute!
As for the last 10-12 days, they have been a blur of laughter, tears, and memories. On May 30, Team Taylor embarked on another first as a family - Strawberry picking! I really didn't know what to expect on this, but I can confirm that it surpassed ALL expectations. For starters, the farm was really cute - filled with pigs, chickens, goats, and all the other critters that make a farm a farm. The strawberry patch was GREAT, as the rows were a good width for walking and the strawberries themselves were plentiful and ripe. K was a great little picker, and she was VERY focused on only picking "monster strawberries." It was so cute - she could pull most of them with her sweet little hands, and sometimes we had to tell her that a particular strawberry wasn't quite ready because of the white tip. It all went so well in fact (minus the poopy that we had to change in the field) that we got a second quart of strawberries (we're talking $7.65 for an hour of entertainment - you can't beat that) and piled it to the brim. TT also got a MONSTER scoop of ice cream (cake batter flavor), which she LOVED. Make no mistake - this kid LOVES some ice cream. We then rolled back to the house for her nap, thrilled with the day's progress and very excited to have a potential new summer tradition for the years to come. Here's the day in pictures: |
| It's GO TIME, BABY!!!!! |
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| Always remember to apply sunscreen...and maybe eat a little of it. |
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| My girls on the farm - city mice in the country. |
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| "I ONLY PICK MONSTER STRAWBERRIES!!!" |
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| Because there's no such thing as too young for ice cream... |
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| Success! |
After her nap we rolled to IKEA to shop for big girl beds, and you would not have BELIEVED how much fun K had laying on all those beds. She was running around screaming "MORE BIG GIRL BEDS!" and climbing onto each one of them. It was PRICELESS! We spent a good hour in there sampling the wares before ultimately deciding to head out, and that was when a perfect day turned into a perfect meltdown.  |
| Ice skating - Peppa style. |
For the record - let me just say WOW. I've seen K upset before. I've heard K scream before. But I h
ave NEVER seen the demon fit we witnessed that day. I'm not sure what actually happened, but as we were checking out, K started walking slower and slower. Well, as there was a queue backing up behind us, I tried to urge K along. When that didn't work, I picked her up and moved her to one side. That started a screaming fit, which then let to shouts of "TT DO IT!!!!!" To this day I have no idea what "it" was, but JT and I think it was probably walking through the automatic doors. Whatever "it" was, we ended up carrying her over our shoulder to the car, K kicking and screaming the whole way. She then screamed "TT DO IT!!!!!" for the 20 minute car ride, and truth be told it didn't slow down until dinner. In a word - WOW. 
As for the week itself, I was in Chile and missed most of it, but JT said that things went well. Since 5/28 (and likely beforehand), K has established the ritual of wanting to watch Peppa the second she wakes up. This isn't a bad thing, as it gives JT time to make food. K is on 2 Peppa's per day - one before breakfast and one before dinner. That seems to be working and serves as nice bookends to her schedule. And did I mention she can now name all of Peppa's playmates? We just ordered a plush set of them to celebrate. :-)Actually, watching Peppa now has the added new wrinkle of always sitting in the travel swing with the music on. K was playing hide and seek the other day and noticed that the travel swing was behind the couch. Well, she IMMEDIATELY wanted it out from behind the couch, and it's now a centerpiece of the bonus room. She LOVES that thing and sits in it all the time. Hilarious, as she NEVER wanted any part of it when it was age appropriate. But hey - it's at least getting some use!
In terms of sleeping, an interesting item to note is that K is now staying awake about 1 hour after we put her down. Bedtime has started sliding, moving from 7:30 to more like 7:45 or even 8, and that means she's not really falling asleep until 9 PM (case in point - she's been awake 90 minutes so far tonight). The good news is that she's great about playing with the animals in the crib and entertaining herself - I definitely see that imagination starting to blossom. The bad news is that I do think she's waking up tired some days, which results in her being a wee bit cranky. She's still an angel, so don't get me wrong - I just want to ensure she's still getting all the sleep she needs to grow and function properly.
Bath time is now a celebration of "monster bubbles," which basically means we (meaning JT and I) try to blow big bubbles using a wand and solution. The default bubble size is quite small, so big compound bubbles are special, leading K to shout "MONSTER BUBBLE" and try to catch it. She's actually gotten quite adept at catching the bubbles, and has even learned how to catch bubbles from the outdoor bubble maker using the wand. And speaking of monsters, she's also a fan of "the monster hand," which is basically the evolution of "daddy dinosaur." Long story short - I run around with my arm outstretched like Jim Carrey in "Liar, Liar" and tickle my daughter. What can I say - it seems to be a hit. :-)
As for the weekend itself, it was a BLAST! As I mentioned earlier, Vol Nana was in town to help me with the Munchkin while Jenny was away. In short, it was just PERFECT. Weekends like that are rare, and it was such a great couple of days to relax, chat with mom, get some rest, eat some good food, and play with my Sneetch (which was VERY high on my list after the trip to Chile). K and Vol Nana got on great, and I feel everyone needs to know that the preferred location of choice for all playing was not the living room, not the bonus room, and not even K's room. Where was the magic location, you ask? Well, I'm glad you did - JENNY'S CLOSET. Seriously, K LOVED BEING IN THERE. She played "sleeping" in there, watched videos on Nana's phone in there, did hide and seek in there, and even dressed Minnie in there (Mom bought her a new Minnie toy with different outfits). We actually had to work to coax K out of the closet - CLASSIC. I did introduce her to "Landshark" - now let's see if she starts imitating it. :-)
So there you have it - a triumphant return to normalcy, complete with some great weekends and memories in the books. Team Taylor is on the mend in every way possible, and right now we're just focusing on enjoying every day together as a family. I've got 2 races in 2 weeks and Father's Day ahead of me, and I am SO excited about all of that. Add in a visit from Dad and Alice this weekend, and you've got a recipe for a GREAT next several days.
That's all the news that's fit to print. Chat soon!
Love,
Sam and Jenny
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