And so it begins - Team Taylor starts their Christmas traditions...

Age of Lady Kaitlyn:  2 years, 9 months, 24 days

Family,

And a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all from the Queen City, where Team Taylor is 4 days into what h

as thus far been a terrific year on Regal Court.  So much to say and so much to cover, so let's get amongst it, shall we?  As with last month, I'm going to attempt to tackle this in chronological order (more or less :-).  Here we go...

The "dress up" ritual lasted about a week...
I mean, she's "purty cuuuuute."

12/1 - The new Babysitter:  Team Taylor had DATE NIGHT to kick off the month, and we test drove a new sitter - 13 year old Sara Beth from across the street.  We were a little unsure of how K would react, but Sara Beth came over the day before to meet K, and K seemed to like her almost instantly.  Sure enough, the little intro the night before worked a treat, as K was really excited for Sara Beth to come over and "play with her."  Truth be told, it was really cute to watch them - K was even a little shy out of the gate (which is always a good sign - especially since the other alternative is her screaming like a banshee, yelling "DON'T GO, DADA" and pulling at your legs to ensure you don't run out the door).  We returned from the game 2 hours later (I had to walk half a mile uphill in the rain with GOUT to get to the arena - tell me that's not a story I won't embellish when telling K how hard my life was growing up) to find K asleep, well fed, and peace & harmony in all the world (or the house at least).  K had apparently gone down really easily and been an angel.  WHEW!  For our part, DATE NIGHT (which to date hasn't happened for us very often) was GREAT, and we are now committed to doing this at least once monthly.  And with K liking Sara Beth (when she goes outside and looks across the street, she'll say,"  Is that Sara Beth's house, dada?"), I definitely think it will be fun for everyone.

Chik-fil-a.  Ice Cream.  Heaven.

12/1 - Every night is now a blanket night:  As of the start of the month, K now wants a blanket with her in bed.  While I now think this is adorable and love tucking her in (she actually has 2 blankets now - both muslin blankets from when she was an infant), it all started at Thanksgiving with mom.  Mom gave her a blanket without me knowing, and I FLEW OFF THE HANDLE LIKE AN IDIOT when I found out.  In retrospect, I was a moron.  At the time, however, I was so worried about her not being able to breathe.  I now acknowledge that I was way out of line, but hey - people aren't always rational when it comes to their children, right? :-)

12/3 - We took Skippy the Skeleton out for a drive in the Cozy Coup (too cute).  Did I mention that Skippy ("get me out of the grave!!!!!") has a rousing named Scooter?  Scooter's a scrawny little guy that lives in the Jack-o-lantern up in the Bonus Room - pretty cute really.

12/3 - K's first request from Santa:  This year was the first time that K's really "understood" Christmas and realized that the guy in the red suit brings you stuff (actually, I'm not totally sure she gets that part yet, but still...).  Well, in preparation for visiting Santa (scheduled to take place the following day), we asked her what she wanted.  Now family, it's moments like THIS when you realize how innocent and sweet two year olds are.  This could could have asked for practically ANYTHING, and do you know what she asked for?  ICE CREAM.  And when we asked what flavor, she didn't throw out Kilwin's salted caramel or Cherry Garcia.  Her response?  VANILLA.  It should be noted that she later added "a water bottle" to her request from Santa.  And to be clear - we're not talking a sippy cup.  We're talking "buy 12 8 oz. bottles for under 2 bucks at Wal-mart" bottles.  LOVE THAT KID!

Princesses need their beauty rest.

12/3 - K's first "community service event" - our church does this service program called "12 days of Christmas," and one of them offered an event for the entire family - a visit to the local Fire Station.  Given that it was only an hour, was near K's bedtime, and was just 1.5 miles from the house, we signed up as a group and rolled over there.  It was actually really neat (but freezing!), and K was great for the first half of it.  By the second half, however, she was clearly EXHAUSTED and just laying on the filthy ground where the fire engines park (details).  She eventually started showing out a bit, and I had to take her to the living room.  But hey - we met some really nice folks, and it was cool to see the fire truck in action.

Who needs the elf on the shelf?  We've got
Tinker-elf. :-)

Side note here - December has seen an increase in discipline (both time out and spankings), and as I write this now looking over the month as a whole, I definitely think we saw (and continue to see) progress.  K's immediate tendency now is to start whining anytime she doesn't get her way or anytime we don't understand what she's trying to say.  That has actually tapered off in the last few days, but for much of December it was noticeable and constant.  She also seemed really tired most of the month, and her recent sleeps of 12-14 hours at night lead Jenny and I to conclude that she wasn't sleeping great for a period in mid-Dec (more on that further down).  There were some AMAZING tantrums this month, during which time I learned the new phrase "twochebag" - pretty clever (and appropriate!) at times...

12/4 - K goes to visit Santa for the third year at Highland Creek:  Now this year we had HIGH hopes. K was talking about Santa.  K was running around the house saying "Ho, Ho, Ho!"  K was running

 around hugging Santa at our house (we have a little stand up Santa).  And even in line, she seemed AMPED.  However, when it came our turn - SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH (that's the brakes hitting while doing 90).  K froze and just stared at St. Nick.  We eventually managed to get her on his lap, but she was NOT comfortable.  In fact, she wouldn't say a word unless we told her what to say, at which point she repeated it very quietly while she stared into space.  But all was not lost on this day, as shortly after the Santa visit she was sucking on a lollipop, eating a sugar cookie, and drinking hot cocoa.  Throw in a balloon animal, a train ride, and 30 minutes on the playground, and you have a recipe for a successful Saturday. :-)  Also, one little side note here - we saw several of our friends who live in the community at the event, and it really started to hit me that we've formed bonds and a real sense of community here.  Those roots that I felt growing in 2012 when we returned from Singapore are really starting to take hold, and the new group of friends we've formed (credit to Jenny, as they are ALL thanks to her and how awesome she is!) is definitely making NC truly feel like home.

Part 1:  K sits there in rapt silence, repeating
at 2 decibels only what we tell her.
Note:  Santa tried to touch her face shortly
after this - we thought we were gonna have
to call 911.

Part 2:  Mommy and Daddy join in - K
pretends she is remotely happy, knowing
that there's a candy cane in it for her.

Part 3:  We restore tranquility and equilibrium
in the house the only way we know how - by
doping our daughter with copious amounts
of sugar.

Part 4:  All is well - onto the Hot Chocolate
and train rides!

12/5 - First ever rendition of the theme song for Sofia the First performed by the Munchkin - I mean, pretty darn cute.  "I was just a girl in the village, doin' all right..."

"I'll get you, my pretty - and your little bear, too.

12/6 - K drops the statement:  "Bethlehem - that's where Jesus was born."  This was super cute, and a side note here is that K (for this year at least) associated Christmas much more with Jesus than with Santa or anything secular.  I give her pre-school a lot of credit for that, as I do Freedom House and Jenny for reinforcing the true reason for the season.  She even sang "Happy Birthday Jesus" several times during the month.  Too cute.

12/6-12/9 - K peed on the potty four nights straight before bed!!!!  This was always followed by K smiling wider than the grand canyon while JT and I did the "pee pee" dance.  K would then summarily announce, "Now I get an ABC cookie when I wake up in the morning!"

Guess who made the HC magazine!

Side note:  While we didn't formally embark on potty training in December, her streak at this point convinced us that she was ready, understood (more or less) the concept, and was potentially interested in it (she's certainly been interested in wearing her Doc McStuffins panties).  At this point we still weren't forcing the issue, but stay tuned for the January installment to learn more. :-)

12/8 - K got her first progress report from pre-school:  this was really cute and a good chuckle.  Basically there are lots of different categories - "I behave, I stand in line, I listen to the teacher, I use my words, etc.", and all of them have 1 of 3 ratings - "good, working on it, not yet (at least I think that's the third one)."  K got "good marks" on everything, but I will confess that I did have my first taste of "you clearly don't know my child like I do" when I read the "speaks clearly" rating.  K got "working on it," and JT and I just shook our heads.  "My child is super-articulate!" I thought to myself - she should definitely have received the check mark on this.  However, when both sets of grandparents visited over Christmas and at times couldn't understand a WORD K said, it occurred to me - I know every song she sings (and sing with her), every show she watches, and listen to her all day.  It's like another language, and as with other languages - you must be immersed in them to be conversant.  Consequently, I have now realized that YES - there are certainly things only JT and I can understand (which is true of any parent, I just had blinders on for my child).  But for the record - she's still a genius! :-)

Did we mention she likes ice cream...

12/8 - And so it begins:  Team Taylor vs. RPL Round 1 - we had our first appointment with Reach (Fertility specialists) this day and met our doctor, a Wildcat named Dr. Whelan.  This guy looked like Doc Emmett Brown from back to the future but with a deep Kentucky accent, and we liked him instantly.  He was great, really taking the time to listen to our story, give his initial thoughts, and tell us what he thought we were up against.  It should be noted that we'd just received a bit earlier confirmation that our last miscarriage was due to Chromosome 16 being a 3, which is fairly common and was actually a good sign, as it meant there was nothing (for that pregnancy at least) unusual in the genetic profile for either of us.

Dr. Whelan's assessment is age and egg quality, but admittedly that's without any blood work or further research.  To that point, he said just what we wanted to hear:  "Let's have a full court press against this, get all the facts, and then come back together to discuss treatment options."  The good news is that he does NOT yet think Jenny suffers from RPL (that's recurrent pregnancy loss).  Team Taylor even has a notebook of dates, appointments, information obtained, etc - we are ready to rock, baby!  Bring on 2016 - we have a good feeling!

"She was just a girl in the village, down' all right..."

12/8 - K CRAWLED OUT OF THE CRIB FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!  HOLY MOLY DEAR READER - talk about the event that shook Team Taylor Base Camp to its core.  We didn't actually realize it at the time, but this single event would turn out to be one of the moments that defined our December and ultimately led to one of K's first true Toddler milestones (in rapid order, I should mention) - the move to a Big Girl Bed.

Now, on the 8th, it was fairly innocuous.  I was at work when I received a text from JT saying, "K's out of her crib!  Crawled out first time!"  Now JT and I thought it was cute at this point (such naive first time parents), and we were also lulled into a false sense of security when Jenny went back into her room and just placed her back in the crib (at which point K laid down and went to sleep).  Our logic was based on previous experience - K is (and has been) tall enough to climb over for months, and there have been times in the crib and the pack 'n play where she's had her leg over.  However, a fear of the unknown (at least that's what I've been calling it) has led her to always return to the friendly confines of the crib.  This time, however, she'd decided that fortune favored the bold, and she'd managed to crawl out with little or no trouble.  However, she'd also gone back in quietly, so we assumed it was just a one time event (for now at least).  We knew that we needed to transition her at some point, but the plan was always around her birthday.  Moving on...

Team Taylor babysitting for the first time -
we Taley and Jackson.

12/9 - AND SHE'S OUT OF THE CRIB AGAIN - For the second day in a row, K started nap time by crawling out of her crib.  This time she showed no interest in going back in, so JT took a page from the Renee Wheeler school of thought (Emmi's mom) and introduced "quiet time" after K crawled out for the second time in as many minutes.  Basically, "quiet time" was permission to play in her room so long as she stayed in her room.  K seemed happy as a clam and just chilled for the better part of 60-90 minutes, so JT still got a bit of a break and was able to get some stuff done.  However, the reality was apparent, and we braced ourselves for what was coming.  Bottom line - THE CRIB WAS DONE.  K had opened Pandora's box by climbing out, and once you've tasted freedom, there's no going back.  Consequently, JT and I began making plans for moving her to the other room, but realistically we knew we needed some time to prep.  For 12/9, we moved her crib mattress onto the floor and inflated her air mattress (the one we travel with).  That's worked before, so it should be fine in the interim until we get her new room prepped, right?  Moving on...

And chillin' with Ronan and Mason...

12/10 - K went Houdini and actually managed to get out of her room - this evening was one of those "are you hearing that?" moments, as Jenny and I were downstairs having dinner on the couch when we heard "Mama."  It caught our attention immediately, as it wasn't coming from the monitor, and that's when we both realized - K was at the top of the stairs (gate was open as always in the evening) calling for Jenny!  Now let me paint the picture for you - this child is locked up at night like it's Alcatraz.  Both doors to her room have the childproof (he now says chuckling) locks on them, and there should be NO WAY for her to get out.  Well, as it turns out, if a child SLAPS THE LOCK ENOUGH, it eventually just gives.  alternatively, if they hang on the door knob, eventually the pressure causes the seals to break.  Either way, K WAS MOBILE and able to get out of her room.  She ultimately did settle that night, but the window from 12/9-12/11 was really, really tough.  Simply put - K didn't want to sleep on either the air mattress or her crib mattress, and you could tell that she didn't really understand why the crib mattress was in the floor.  During this three day window, K was testing her limits throughout the day and at night, so much so that Jenny and I cracked open "What to Expect When You're Expecting - The Toddler Years" for a note on discipline.  I mean, we were talking to the point where we had to basically pin her down to put the diaper on her, and she was crying so hard during the entire process that we were just hoping she didn't puke.  MELTDOWN.

Desperate for answers on why I couldn't rationalize with K using the most basic of concepts, I learned that, at their age, rage actually takes control of their body and shuts down the cognitive functions in their mind, meaning that they can't think rationally.  Consequently, I decided at that point to alter my approach - going at things with a gentler mindset during her periods of true meltdown.  Let me go ahead and tell you - my gentler approach lasted all of 48 hours. :-)  However, I will say that, throughout this entire process, Jenny and I have really worked hard to communicate and ensure consistency in how we're handling K's behavior, sleeping patterns, routines, rituals, etc.

There was another piece to this for me, as early December had left me feeling like a "ghost father" to Kaitlyn.  Yes, I was there, but between gout, a heavy workload, some commitments after hours, and everything else that comes with being an adult and the holiday season, I really felt like I hadn't spent much time (certainly limited quality time) with K.  Given that quality time is my love language, I felt this separation quite acutely, and during this tantrum window K really wanted nothing to do with me.  I was basically a heavy hand of discipline and little else, which was only further exacerbating the problem.  Add in the fact that she wasn't sleeping great during this transition period, and it was an exhausting, trying week for everyone.  Moving on...

12/12 - K's first performance of the Singing Bears!  This is something of a Charlotte institution, as every December Founder's Hall rolls out this group of electronic bears who perform every hour on the hour for about 40 minutes.  They do lots of little Christmas tunes, and typically there are always kids and parents/grandparents there watching.  It really does make working uptown during the holiday season feel festive, and so we always enjoy it.  Jenny had talked about taking Kaitlyn last year, but it just didn't work out.  This year originally wasn't going to work out for me, but gout had left me unable to run the Huntersville Half, and so I got this little bonus!  We met some friends there (including little Presley) and had a good lunch at Ale House.  I even did some "waterfall watching" with K.  Oh, and the good point to note - she actually did go to the front and stand there with other kids.  The great point to note?  When one of the kids started crowding in on her, she dropped that elbow down and held her ground.  She's getting there, I tell ya!  Way to go, Munchkin!

12/12 - DATE NIGHT!  Jenny and I went to GC and Melissa's for their every other year Christmas Party (amazing what having kids does to the frequency of shin digs, eh?), and Kaitlyn was back with Sara Beth.  K was really good again, but when we checked on her that evening, she'd fallen asleep with her head and back off the air mattress.  We weren't totally comfortable with leaving her like that (it should be noted that this obviously wasn't the sitter's fault - this is just how K finally settled), and so Jenny tried to move her back onto the bed.  Well, that woke K up, and she then proceeded to scream for TWO STRAIGHT HOURS.  I mean, we are talking an EPIC tantrum.  Screaming, flailing, pounding on the door - it was the stuff of legends.  She finally passed out that night, but clearly it wasn't a good sleep (for ANY of us).  Moving on..

Kim and Matt (and Baby James!) - the Highlights:

All the "Askey Women" in the Kitchen...

I mean - simply one for the ages.

This tummy time thing is cool!

12/13 - Kim and Matt (and baby James!) came to visit - This was great, as it was wonderful to see them again and was the first time I'd met little James (SUPER cute).  All went really well, and K was a great big cousin to James.  The funny part was that, after watching James, she wanted to do "tummy time" and roll around like him.  Funny, as she didn't quite enjoy it as much when she was his age!  Side note on this - she actually wanted to do tummy time with us a few more times after they left...and mommy and daddy had to participate as well!  This would involve K "rolling us over" and saying "it's okay baby" before we pulled ourselves up into Cobra.  The things you do as parents...

K's nap for this day was one for the ages - FACE DOWN ON THE CARPET.  The real kicker was later that night, when she went into absolute MELTDOWN.  Now I realize I've said that multiple times in the pages above, but this was again a meltdown like we'd never seen.  After almost 2 hours of screaming, she ended up asleep against the closet...on her back...on baby bear.

12/14 - "Houston, we have a problem" - so bedtime this evening hit an all-time low.  K was screaming incessantly, and I even watched on the monitor as she took off in a run and THREW HER BODY against the door, trying to knock it down.  WOW.  The good news (please don't report me to Social Services) is that I knew she couldn't get out, as I'd wrapped the child locks in duct tape.  I mean, NASA couldn't have broken out of that room.  However, she was clearly NOT happy about it (she'd noticed it on the 11th and asked Jenny "what's that shiny stuff on the door, mommy?"  Classic.

Simply.  No.  Words.

Anyhoo - so K finally falls asleep, but for the 3rd night in a row she's nowhere to be seen on the monitor.  Jenny has a bad feeling about it, and so she goes up to check.  She comes down and says, "Houston, we have a problem."  My response is classic Sammy the Bull:  "We aren't moving her NO MATTER WHAT."  She then leads me upstairs, where I see my daughter asleep and at peace...ON TOP OF THE CHANGING TABLE.  HOW IN THE WORLD DID SHE EVEN GET UP THERE!?!?!?!?  As you can imagine, my tune changed INSTANTLY, and I said, "We have to move her NOW."  And so we picked up the pad and put it on the ground (we'd vacated the air mattress at that point, so there was room on the floor.  We then took the changing table out of the room.  Problem solved, right?  Until about 11:40 PM...

So K wakes up and starts screaming "MY CHANGING TABLE!!!!!!"  This desperate cry for something she hasn't wanted anything to do with for almost a year was NON-STOP until 1:16 AM, when she finally gave out (and fell asleep back on the pad).  I couldn't sleep, and so I went downstairs to read the Bible.  And to prove that God has both a sense of humor and is ALWAYS there when you need him, I happened to open the Good Book to Hebrews 12.  If you are a parent and haven't read it, it will help you stay the course - even during "Jack in the Box" syndrome (which is apparently what this was).

12/15 - The big move:  K's first night in a real bed!!!!!  So truth be told, I think we were more scared than she was.  She was actually quite excited about it, and we made a big production of moving all her animals into the room.  Jenny then vacuumed it, asking K to inspect her lines. :-)  K was super excited until it was bed time, and then she was a bit scared at first.  Kids do like confinement (clearly ours did - she used the changing table as a last resort!), and the big bed was clearly way more space than she was used to (or likely wanted).  Add in the fact that we had NOTHING on the walls and no furniture in the room, and I'm sure it felt like an empty warehouse to her.  However, she was soon asleep and slept great.   So did mommy and daddy for the first time in a week. :-)

The BGB Highlights:

Phase 1 - K's utter excitement.

Phase 2 - moving in the essentials.

Phase 3 - ignore everything your parents teach you, strip
off your pants, and dare us to ever try and make you wear
a diaper at nap time ever again.

Side note - K received Muddle & Match Imagine and Bell's Big Move this night (she recited two others, but I can't remember what they are).  It should be noted that some of these books she's rattling off are REALLY long, and I am AMAZED with her memory.  I really, really, really hope that I'm not just "that parent" and that K's retention and memorization skills are as sharp as I think they are, as I am well aware of how much easier that will make her life.  Exciting!  And hey, even if I am "that parent," I'm still super proud of her and absolutely LOVE listening to her recite the stories.  She's even adding in voices and hand gestures now - too cute!

12/16 - crying while reading "Belle's Big Move" - this one just about broke my heart.  So this was the second night in the Big Girl Bed, and I think K was still adjusting to it (and potentially was still a bit scared by how cavernous the room was).  Whatever the reason, K went into meltdown and was bawling.  We couldn't comfort her (see above re:  cerebral cortex overload), but eventually we did manage to get her to start reading some books.  However, this had the opposite effect of calming her down, as she was reading Belle's Big Move and SOBBING between sentences.  It was almost like she was terrified of the room and perhaps even us (meaning me), and she was just trying to entertain us in a desperate attempt to delay the horror that was the room and/or our discipline.  Honestly, it about broke my heart to hear my daughter, through tears, trying to say, "There are many beautiful dogs in the world, but Belle was one pretty puppy."  Tough night for this guy.

There was a side note, revelatory moment here, as in that moment I think I finally started to truly understand better what JT went through while she was working and also trying to be a parent.  December had been a busy one at work, and between the work and other events, I really hadn't been around much - a true "weekend dad."  Given the hours I was putting in, I was only seeing K at the end of the day during meltdown mode, and the only interaction she was getting with me was discipline.  That further exacerbated the problem, as I felt like a tyrant (even though I know it was and is the right thing to do for her).  However, it didn't change the fact that it was tough to see K always wanted Jenny, not really wanted to hug me, have me read to her, or interact with me at all.  Luckily, that phase has passed (due to many factors), but in that moment the difficulty of the trial Jenny endured for us really hit home with me.  It's just one more reason why my wife is such an amazing woman and why one day K will realize how truly amazing a mother she has and how blessed she is and has been to have had Jenny for a role model.

12/17 - K's first Christmas Program!!!!!  So we rolled into Prosperity Preschool on a SUPER WET day to hear all the different grades perform.  K's group came out first, and they sang "I saw 3 Ships" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" - SO CUTE!!!!!  K had been singing "I saw 3 ships" all around the house for weeks, so we expected that one, but we didn't know about the other one.  I'm happy to report that K did sing (but not as loudly as she does at home), and her arm motion on "We Wish You" was stellar - quite the thespian in training! :-)

Side note here - Jenny left for Texas on this day, and I was worried that we'd have a Cali-style meltdown.  However, it was actually a GREAT night - restorative for me (and us), especially given the night's exertions before.  It really was a perfect happy evening, and I went to sleep feeling much more in balance and at peace with my role in the household.

K with Ms. Tara - cuuuuuute.

12/17 - we started nighttime prayers with K.  "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, the love go with me all the night, and wake me with the morning light.  A-men."  It's just like the books - we get down on our knees by the bed, fold our hands, and pray.  Honestly, life couldn't get any better, as it's just about the sweetest thing EVER.

12/18 - Sofia Wall Art!  Jenny's mom had come on Friday to look after K while I worked, and I am thrilled to report that K actually wanted me more than Nole Nana for a change!  Seriously - this has NEVER happened, but she would give Nanny the cold shoulder when I was around and do whatever I asked.  Given how the past week had gone, I was ALL ABOUT IT (sorry, Nanny).  :-)  When Jan left that afternoon, UPS arrived with the package I'd been waiting for - Sofia the First wall art! (Picture a Sofia fathead).

Part 1 - the discovery (including me learning
that Sofia wasn't just 1 big piece...).

Jenny and I were super stoked about this, as we wanted to do something ASAP to make that space feel like K's room.  However, as we didn't have furniture (and weren't planning on moving any in anytime soon), the best realistic option was some wall art that would start to put her stamp on the space.  Given that she's been all about Sofia lately, we thought this was a good call.  And sure enough, it was a HUGE hit!  In fact, that night was the first night in the Big Girl Bed where she didn't cry before falling asleep!  I really do think it helped, as whenever I said, "You've got Sofia in here to sleep with you and watch over you" she would smile super big and get really excited.

For my part, it was a) super fun to put it up (even though it didn't come as 1 piece for the record!  Talk about an adventure putting that puppy up!), and b) I think this little bit of good will on my part went a long way toward righting the ship with K.  Seriously - the 24 hours since Jenny's departure had been wonderful for me, as it was like I had "my K" back.  Putting the wall art up with her (including introducing her to the Stepstool) was an absolute HOOT!

Part 2 - the apprentice becomes the master.

BEHOLD THE MASTERPIECE!

The other side note is that K LOVES saying her prayers!  On this night (12/18), she actually wanted to rush through bath time just so she could get to the prayers!  We actually say them twice - once with our hands folded on the bed, and then once with our hands folded but up to our faces.  I crack one eye to check her, and she typically does have her eyes closed (except when she's checking to see if I have my eyes closed :-)).

12/17-20 - Daddy day care!  This was the stretch were JT was in Texas, and I was at home with the Munchkin.  It was honestly three of the best days of my year, as K was an ANGEL the entire time.  It really did just feel like we were "back to normal" - she was playing great, didn't fight/negotiate about everything, and seemed genuinely happy.  I do think consistency in discipline has helped, as it has helped to confirm boundaries and expectations for her.  Again taking a page from Hebrews, we have tried to a) instruct, b) rebuke, and c) scourge in that order.  Taking advice from some things I've read, I've tried to take a step back before chastising her and always confirm that I've shown her explicitly how to do something (and why you should do it).  As an adult, it's very easy to take certain basic things for granted, and so I'm trying to be more conscious on that front.  So far, I do feel like it's helping.  And while she does still drag her feet in certain circumstances, I do find she gets a move on when I start counting. :-)

On the Saturday (the 19th) we rocked over to NOMAD, where K was an angel at child watch, allowing me to log 9 miles.  When you drop her off anywhere now, she always wants to "give you a last hug" (which includes a kiss!), and then after that she's usually fine and dandy.  This time was no exception, but the classic moment was when I showed up to collect her and she ran to me yelling:  "Daddy, I pooped!"  Needless to say she had, in fact, dropped a steamer.  And LET ME TELL YOU - It was the biggest one I'd ever changed.  We're talking a 9 wiper here, people!  HIDE THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN!!!!!

Now ignoring what I said above about her being an angel, the one exception was after we swam and got back to the house.  Now, some of this was admittedly on me, but here's how this went down.

1.  After swimming, Sammy the Bull realizes he is going to bathe K before nap and doesn't want to waste a diaper (I mean, that's 16 cents that could be spent elsewhere!).

2.  Sammy the Bull asks the Munchkin:  "Do you want to bathe or eat first before nap?"  K says bathe, so I'm thinking she only needs to make it TEN MINUTES before we are free and clear.

3.  I dress K sans diaper.  She likes this.  I do, too.

4.  We get home.

5.  K announces she wants to eat first.

6.  I make K food.

7.  I do NOT remember K has no diaper on.

8.  Abbreviated version:  "K is a monstrous tyrant in her seat and refuses to eat."

9.  Sammy the Bull stripes his daughter on the leg.

10.  Sammy the Bull notices a lot of liquid that looks like Mountain Dew but is 98.6 degrees pooling up on the floor.

BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE.  That's right, sports fans.  When I popped her, I opened up that bladder, and the end result was NOT pretty.  And even though we settled after that, it wasn't over.  How, you ask?  Well, because after I put her down for a nap, I realized that I should probably "check to ensure nothing was pooling under the seat."  And ooooooooooh it was - picture a Great Lake of urine just sitting there, soaking nicely into that Amish wood.  Good times...

This window also saw the solidification of the new nap time/bedtime routine of "can you close the door a little bit?"  Long story short,  we've started doing this game where we crack the door when we say good night, and then we turn the lights off in the hallway and act like we're going downstairs.  K then runs out and looks for us (we're usually hiding), and then we pop out and act surprised that she's gotten out of bed.  We only do it once, and it seems to totally put her at ease and relax her.  Plus it's a) pretty cute and b) we get another big hug and kiss, so it's a win-win. :-)

We also started working on cleaning up our toys at the end of the night.  Part of this is about reinforcing discipline and responsibility, but there is a practical reason now - Playdoh dries up if it's left out in the open!  A side note is that I've been pretty slack on this lately, but as you'll see from the Jan blog - we've had a few other things to focus on as of late. :-)

The good news is that, by Jenny's return, K was already sleeping better in the big girl bed, and I now think she's really comfortable in her new room.  We do have plans to make it feel more like her space, but for now I genuinely think she's content.  For my part, I'm certainly sleeping better.  Looking back, I can now tell I was stressed about the move, as I was tired and wasn't sleeping as well.  Now, however, all is well. :-)

Dude in the red suit again?  NO THANK YOU.  

But I will very much enjoy this muffin...

12/22 - Breakfast (sort of) with Santa! - This was Christmas week, and do to an implementation I couldn't take the full week off.  However, this was one day I did have off, and we made it count!  We started at the Sweet Spot for "Breakfast with Santa."  We rocked up, found our table, ordered our food, and then looked over to see Santa WIDE OPEN, NO LINE - GO TIME, RIGHT?  Yeah...not so much.  K started walking that way, but when she got to about 15 feet, she FROZE IN HER TRACKS.  Seriously - she was staring at St. Nick, but her hand was in a DEATH GRIP on the last table before the open space over to Santa.  Chris Cringle was even waving a candy cane, but K would have NONE OF IT.  She even whispered to me:  "Dada, can you go get my candy cane?"  Hilarious!  For the record, I refused to get the candy cane and said, "K - if you want that candy cane, you have to walk over to Santa."  She just turned around and ran back to our booth!  It should be noted that "Santa's little helper" did bring it over, and then when it hit the floor she got ANOTHER one. :-)  We actually tried to go back to Santa 2 more times, but she was having NONE of it.  Hilarious!

"Do you wanna build a snowman?" :-)

We also joined the 21st century that afternoon and FINALLY watched "Frozen" - so good!  Although I do think JT and I enjoyed it more than K, as she was bored by the 1 hour 13 min mark, running around the living room, playing on bunny rocker, etc.  However, we did get through it (and enjoyed it immensely!).


12/24 - A Queen City Christmas - so this day was just GREAT all around.  For starters, this marked the start of Team Taylor establishing their traditions, and just being able to hang out without care or agenda was fantastic.  The first tradition didn't kick off until the afternoon, when we took K to her first ever Christmas Eve service.  As a reminder - last year we told our parents that we weren't going to travel on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day going forward, as we wanted K to always "wake up with Santa" at her house (everyone was onside with that and great about it, for the record).  The other reminder is that, until I met Jenny, I'd never attended a Christmas Eve Service, as that evening was always earmarked to be at Grandmother & Granddaddy's.

Now that we're in Charlotte and have a Munchkin of our own, we obviously wanted to establish our own routines.  Throw in how much we've fallen in love with Freedom House, and it was a natural progression for us to make the Christmas Eve Service the first order of business for our Christmas traditions.  And let me tell you - this evening did NOT disappoint.

For starters, the setup was EPIC.  There was a petting zoo, carriage rides, pony rides, and best of all - SNOW TUBING!!!!  I'd actually been a volunteer for the first shift, and Jenny brought K over early so she could do all the activities before service.  Sure enough, about 4 PM, here comes my little Munchkin - in her Christmas PJ's!  K went down the snow tube ramp 3 times and LOVED it.  The first time she didn't know to hold on (blame the guy at the top for not telling her - that would be me...), and she almost went flying!  We've got some great video of it (all on my phone because JT's had just dropped into the toilet 15 minutes prior...but that's another story for another time :-)), and K had a BLAST.

As we went into the sanctuary for service, we noticed another special treat - OLAF AND ELSA WERE THERE TAKING PICTURES!  This was perfect given that she'd just seen Frozen, and we got some great shots.  It was then time to go into the sanctuary, and we were a little concerned because there was no child care this evening.  Instead, kids were given a bag of treats and headed in to sit with their parents.  I was nervous - especially when K KILLED her lollipop in about 2 minutes (and 3 minutes before service started).  However, we managed to keep her entertained between stickers, crayons, and best of all - a Snoopy Dance Party!  I mean, I have to give it the folks that organize this stuff - it's just amazing and honestly World Class every time.

We then went home for Christmas Eve dinner (Cuz and Ryan were there as well), but first we had to put out the reindeer food and Santa cookies!  Now full disclosure - the reindeer food, much like the Elf on the Shelf, had never been on my "must do" list for Christmas.  However, Vol Nana saw to it that all 9 reindeer had plenty of food to eat - all to be scattered on my front lawn.  Now this in and of itself wasn't the problem.  The problem was the 14 tons of glitter that accompanied the food, as apparently you have to mark the landing site so the reindeer can find your house (why doesn't Santa just get a GPS?!?!?!).  Even this in and of itself wasn't so bad.  What WAS bad was K taking a fistful and slinging it IN YOUR FACE FROM 2 INCHES AWAY.  Seriously - I think it's only this week that we've managed to get all the glitter off our bodies and out of the house.

Oh, and another thing - we had to give some cookies to Santa of course, so we handed K four cookies to put on the plate.  Well, K wasn't impressed, and she broke the 4th in half and started to eat it! We told her that those were for Santa, but you could tell her thinking:  "The fat little...three cookies ought to be good enough for him."  FINALLY we got her to put them down, but she was NOT a happy camper.  Priceless...

12/25 - Christmas at Team Taylor Base Camp - so the day started with a bang:  Jenny making Pastor Penny's Breakfast casserole!  Seriously - this stuff is AMAZING - potentially one of THE BEST things Jenny makes .  We actually had it again last weekend, and once again I was floored.  Just picture that smell permeating the house while it bakes and we open our presents.

The quote:  "I love hampers, mommy!"
Thanks, Vol Nana and Grand Pooh!

So this year we didn't do presents for each other, as realistically K was only focused on hers.  In the future, I'm sure we'll do some of that, but for this year it was all about K.  In terms of the gifts, we decided earlier this year that we would establish a giving ritual:

1.  Something you want

2.  Something you need

3.  Something you wear

4.  Something you read

Throw in a stocking, a gift from Santa, and an experience (which we didn't do this year), and that's the blueprint for Team Taylor's future Christmases.  For this year, it was just GREAT to watch K in action, ripping open presents and playing with everything.  And while she didn't totally get the whole "Santa brought you these" concept, I am pleased to report that Santa made good on the request to deliver ice cream and a water bottle - with interest, baby!!!!

WOW - look at all those water bottles!
They are now called "Christmas water,"
And K takes a sip before nap and bedtime. :-)
At this pace, they might last until next December

As it was 75 degrees (yes, you read that correctly), we ended up going for a walk and playing at Prosperity Park for a bit.  We then came back to bake mint cookies and watch Tangled (which was SO cute).  As with Frozen, K was great until the 1 hour, 13 minute mark, at which point she was OVER IT.  However, we did manage to finish it (and have actually watched it again since then :-)).

Oh, and K started saying "mom" and "dad" today out of the blue.  Mercifully she's reverted, but that was hard on my heart.  I'm not ready for her to grow up yet! :-)

Bottom line - this particular Christmas was SUPER SPECIAL, as it marked the start of new traditions and will always be remembered as a special time that was just the three of us.  No matter what happens in future years, we will always remember the peace we felt in this household and how special this entire Christmas - the first that K semi-understood - really was.  The decorations are actually still up as I type this, so I definitely think we made it count!

12/26 - Boxing Day with the Tacy's:  On Saturday we packed up the Munchkin and rolled down for a day in South Carolina with Bob and Jan.  Again, the weather was AMAZING, and we made the most of it by walking about 4 miles.  What was amazing this day?  K ACTUALLY FELL ASLEEP IN THE STROLLER!  That should tell you a) how tired she was, b) the effects of the sugar crash, and c) how perfect the weather was.  IT was a great, truly relaxing afternoon.  I am liking these new traditions. :-)

12/28 - "can I cut your heart out while you cry?"  So this bloodthirsty little sentence was actually quite innocuous.  JT bought K her very own pair of scissors, and she has been LOVING cutting paper (I know, I know - it's the little things).  Well, Jenny showed her how to cut hearts by folding paper, and for a good 2 or 3 days she loved to cut the hearts out we would draw, but she wanted us to act like we didn't want her to do it.  Hence she would ask that phrase - I couldn't help but commit that one to the server.

New Years was a blast as well - we had Vol Nana and Grand Pooh her for 36 hours, and they gave Jenny and I some much needed down time to go and have a few dates.  We had 2 meals (Fleming's and Tijuana Flats), went to the theater (Kinky Boots), and a movie (Star Wars).  Steve even made us a GREAT prime rib dinner, so you could call it quite the success!  It was a whirlwind trip, but K loved having them here and is already looking forward to their visit in February.



So there you have it, a Team Taylor Christmas with new traditions now in place, and an amazing year in the books.  No doubt about it - 2015 threw some shots at us.  However, the good far, far outweighed the bad, and I speak with certainty when I say that 2015 was the best year of my life.  When I look at the "Victory Map" from this past year (another idea we learned from Freedom House), I think it's amazing how much Jenny and I have grown as Christians, a couple, and as parents.  Kaitlyn - if you're reading this some day and want to know why 2015 was so incredible, I'm sure I'll still have the Victory Map and can show you.  I won't go into everything, as this blog is about you.  What I will say is that you were obviously a HUGE part of why this year was so incredible, and that should be recorded here.  You grew so much, achieved so much, gave us so many laughs, and made every day truly miraculous.  You and your mother have made and continue to make every day of my life more meaningful than the day before, and you two have transformed Charlotte and Highland creek from a home into a Home.  Where your heart is, there also will your treasure be.  My heart, my treasure, my life - are all right here on Regal Court, and there is NO PLACE I'd rather be.  For your smiles, your laughs, the "marathons" through the house, the "trail running" in the parking lot at church, the books you've memorized, the way you get excited when I get home - for all these things, I say thank you and I love you.  Always be who you are and remember how much your parents love you, are proud of you, and will always, ALWAYS be there for you.

To everyone reading this - Happy New Year, and Merry Christmas.  2015 gave me a peace I didn't know possible.  Wherever (and whenever) you are reading this - may He grant the same to you.

Love,

Sam and Jenny