Kids Say the Funniest Things

So I've been jotting down some of the funny little sayings and actions our kids are up to these days. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to go along with these, but I still bet they'll bring a smile to your face!

• As we're driving to Indiana, Riley looks out the window and says, "I recognize those rocks! We need to climp up them on the mountain."
• Also on the way to Indiana and just about any other time we're in the car as a family, Maggie likes to let out a really loud "Da-Da" yell repeatedly. It's pretty funny the first few times, then it starts to get to the point where we start looking for the pacifier!
• Maggie is starting to talk more, but she's also learned to use her sign language for "more", "all done", "dog", and "please". She can get a little confused still at times. She pretty much blows a kiss for "thank you" which is pretty darn cute too!  While looking at animal books, she thinks just about any four-legged animal with fur is a dog and will keep tapping her leg with her hand.
• Riley has some of his own sayings that have started to spread around here. Whenever he's thirsty, he says he's "drinky" and after he has his usual breakfast of banana and bar and goes potty, he's ready for a "showey-show" (a.k.a. TV show).  
• He's also starting to get a little too tech-savvy. As we head to bed the other night, he says "Just a minute, I've got to text my friends a message." Or he'll say he needs to "check his messages on the computer." He doesn't miss much! :) When he does get a phone in his hands, it's almost always the same quick conversation: "Hello? What are you doing? Playing? Okay...bye!" Too funny!
• Maggie sure does have some natural rhythm and a huge attraction to any music that is playing. She can't resist the urge to dance! We love her two arm dance in the air or her twist side to side! She's started memorizing songs such as when she hears "Pete the Cat" and will put her hands on her neck as it says the "Oh NO!!" part of the story/song. She also tries to sing songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and our nightly prayer of "God our Father".  It is absolutely precious to watch both of my children "fix their hands" and sing this simple song to the tune of "Are You Sleeping":

God, our Father God, our Father
We thank you. We thank you.
For our many blessings. For our many blessings.
Amen. Amen. (and for this part you have to make your voice go really low...Riley loves it!)

• Another nightly tradition is that we're still singing "Hush Little Baby" to Riley and then he says his own prayer where he'll pray for whoever may be in the hospital or is sick and then thank God for letting him play or go somewhere special and then end with "and help Riley sleep tight, and wake up tomorrow and do what's right...with all his might!".  Then comes time for kisses. One night Riley decided he wanted "football" kisses and we had to pretend the kiss was a football and go far back and throw it.  It's since been adapted to all kinds of animals (bear, fish, gorilla) and random objects (like tonight I had to pretend to be a fan).  
• Sometimes, Riley will try to rope us back into his room and tell us he needs us or wants us to hold him. We try not to get into the habit every night. A few weeks ago, Chris went to a concert and wasn't there one night when Riley wanted him.  He said to me..."I need my Dad. He's my best friend!" If that doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what will! 
• On June 27th, while we were in Indiana, Maggie decided to say another word. As Pap pulled out his camera to take a picture of her, she said "chee..." and smiled a huge, cheesy grin! It was so cute!
• We had another Maggie milestone on July 1st when Maggie took her first steps. We knew she was getting close, but she'd often lock her knees and just sway back and forth. She finally got the courage to "step out" though and hasn't looked back since. Now it's the end of the month and the girl is doing laps around the couch like Riley (just at a tad bit slower pace!). 
• Riley has quite an imagination these days. He likes to act out different scenes from some of his favorite shows and he'll assign us different characters. For example, he likes to be "Word Girl", Dad becomes the "Butcher" and has to throw sausages and hot dogs, Maggie tranforms into "Captain Huggy Face" and somehow I always end up being "Granny"! In another show scenario, Riley takes the lead as "Jake, the NeverLand Pirate", Maggie is "Tinkerbell", Dad is "Captain Hook" and this time I get to be the "Princess". 
• Speaking of imagination, Riley said this recently: "One day, when I was a big man I weared bulldozer clothes." It's either his imagination or Riley is telling us about a former life!
• Random fact, but Riley always sneezes twice so we call him "Mr. Two-Sneeze".  Our QCP neighbor, David, has deemed him "Too Tall" because of his height. He's about the same height as Callie and he's taller than both Jackson and Blake who are a year older than he is. 
• Last but not least, one of my favorite moments that has happened so far is looking back while in the car and seeing my two precious kiddos holding hands with each other! Riley has taken on the big brother role a little more seriously and will give Maggie toys or make silly faces with her when she's crying/tired. 

Happy Hodge-Podge of Summer Happenings

On May 23, 2013 Riley had his first (of hopefully many) graduations! He graduated from the 2 year old daycare program at Children's Premier Academy.  The program was so cute as each class got up to sing a few of their favorite songs. Riley did great and we have a hilarious rendition of "Tooty Ta" song with his tongue stuck out, knees together, elbows back, bottom in the air and thumbs up! Riley has such fond memories of his friends and teachers at CPA and has talked about them several times this summer since he's been home. 

 Speaking of summer, we promised Riley that when summer came we'd build his cardboard house.  Well, a Riley never forgets, and come the first day of summer we had this enormous contraption in our living room for several days. Both kids really enjoyed it though and it was cute seeing them hiding inside waiting for someone to come knock on their door and visit.

 On Sunday, June 16th we celebrated Father's Day! Daddy got a new mug featuring the Magster! Just to make sure we keep things even in the cupboard since Riley has one or two already. Riley also did a fill-in-the-blank My Dad Is...sheet that was pretty funny. Like when he said Daddy's favorite color is orange (which is really Riley's favorite color) and he is "3" years old. He is really good at "playing with my firetruck" and My dad thinks I am funny when "I make silly noises."

What says summer better than biting into a big, juicy watermelon!! This is one of Riley's favorite treats...and Maggie's too (though she gets hers already cut up in bite-size pieces).  I love how the juice will just run right down Riley's arm and all over his face and he keeps chomping away!

 So in our down time during the summer, Maggie has grown especially attached to her monkey lovey.  She grabs it every night to sleep with and then loves to play with it in the mornings.  She'll just sit in her crib when she wakes up and shake it (it's a rattle too). She is so calm in the mornings and never cries or fusses at all. Once up though, she is all ready for play! She has discovered an early love for shoes and tries to put them on her feet every chance she gets.  Meanwhile, Riley finds running around the couch literally 100 times as the best way to get his energy out and calm down before bed. Here's a shot of him in mid-run! Crazy kid!!

 The last week of June we headed to Indiana for our annual Camp Nan and Pap. Here's a picture of Riley and Lucy riding Sally the Horse at one of the local grocery stores.  All the parents headed out on Friday to go to Brown County where we had rented a cabin with a hot tub, pool, horseshoe pit, pool table, and fire pit. We had a great time (once we got over the slight bump in the road with Ben's bumper accident). The kids completely had a blast with the Teddy Bear theme for this year. They went on a bear hunt, had a teddy bear picnic, made campfire pictures, teddy bear magnets, and ate all kinds of yummy foods and snacks. What an awesome opportunity to have the kids become closer as cousins and the parents to have a chance to bond and relax together as well. Now, Nan and Pap are going to need a vacation after keeping 5 campers so busy and happy! :)

This summer, Chris and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.  Grandmama and Papa kept the kids for us while we went to a movie (The Great Gatsby) and dinner at Miro Spanish Grille. We've had a few cookouts with neighbors (like for the 4th of July) and gotten together for several playdates.  I've been busy working on developing lessons for my music program that I started to help make ends since I will be an official stay at home mom this year! Hooray! 

I'm looking forward to seeing more of these candid moments more often---where Maggie loves to copy everything that big brother "Ra Ra" is doing and she likes to tease (like biting on her spoon and not giving it back). It has always been one of my dreams to stay home like my mom did with us. And even if it's only for a year or two (depending on how finances go), I know it'll be some of the best times together! Of course, we'll still save some fun for dad when he gets home and on weekends too. 

For example, I bet we'll still be able to find some time to take the family to the zoo.  We took this trip with Grandmama's help on July 19th. Riley got to ride the train in the petting zoo area and the carousel, but his main highlight of the day was feeding the giraffe! He has no fear at all and laughs and smiles the whole time! It helps that these giraffes are so gentle with the kids and their long, rough tongues only like to curl around the $2/handful lettuce that they let you purchase and not their actual hands.  Maggie was more awake this time, but by the end of the 2 hours she could hardly keep her eyes open. She's starting to learn some of the animal sounds and loves to hear Daddy do the elephant noise as she throws her arm up to pretend it's a trunk. And she mimics the monkey sound after hearing it too. 

 At the end of July, we had a Taylor family trip to the beach. We got a good deal on a condo in North Myrtle and though it was a tight squeeze to get all of us in, we managed. We got out of the condo Friday night to go play a round of mini-golf.  Mom and I played as a team and switched off carrying Maggie and still managed to get the lowest score! Woo hoo!

Here's my sweet girl sharing a smile with Papa.  She's going through a bit of a clingy stage and it took her a few days to warm up again, but she really does love her extended family! 

How's this for a candid? Joel got a little creative with my suggestion that we all wear blue and white for a big family picture. Unfortunately, this shirt didn't make the final cut! :) 

 Here we are at the Flying Fish in Barefoot Landing. They had an excellent selection of seafood and the kids loved catching the fish from the kitchen area.

We didn't get the perfect family picture with everyone smiling and the light just right, but I must admit I've got a pretty perfect family! I have had such a wonderful time this summer and of course, knowing that I have a little more quality time ahead and don't have to rush back to school in 2 weeks is going to make the end of this summer just a little bit sweeter. 

To ONE Cute Chick--Happy Birthday From All Your "Peeps"

 I always like to try and pick a birthday theme that the kids are interested in and by far the hardest ones to ever really find out are for the first birthday. So we try to find some sort of favorite toy and base it around that idea. Chris realized how quickly Maggie got attached to this little chick egg set that she received from the Easter Bunny.  She played with it 2 or 3 times a day. It's always the first one she'd pick and grunt for in the toy box. So even though spring was about to officially end in June, we decided to go ahead with a chick-themed party.  I was able to score some great 75% off clearance deals at Micheal's, so maybe waiting to throw an off-season party isn't such a terrible idea after all! :)

 As we did with Riley, we let Maggie have two of her birthday toys before the official party start time. Riley helped me pick out this musical bongo set for Maggie because we know how much she loves to dance and play some tunes! Her big gift though was a kitchen set that Grandmama and Papa helped us purchase for her. Even though she's probably a little too young to figure out all the ins and outs of how everything works, she has continued to have a blast opening and closing doors and drawers and putting things in and out of the refrigerator and stove. We knew big brother would also enjoy the imaginative play and as I made the big decision in April to resign from teaching for a year or two, I liked the idea of having a toy that we could all have a good time with!

Well back to the party! My mom helped me a lot with preparing the food for the party.  The party menu consisted of:

• Deviled Egg Chicks (made with love by Grandmama) 
• Chicken Salad and Egg Salad Sandwiches with the bread cut into a chick shape
• Chick-Fil-A Nugget Tray and Sauce (always a sure-fire hit!)
• Yellow-iced Chick Sugar Cookies 
• Chick Cupcakes (which were made with colored coconut and candy pieces)
• Birthday Chick Smash Cake (free courtesy of Harris Teeter)
• BBQ Chicken Wings (we actually ended up making these later)

Chris' mom (Nan) helped a lot with decorating for the party! She creatively organized the chick-themed books that I was able to borrow from several of our Kindergarten teachers at Pleasant Knoll who do a whole unit on chicks in the spring. I was also able to bring home a life cycle of a chick learning center that Riley loved cooking with and opening and closing. The last egg had a miniature chicken in it that he kept in his hand for most of the day! Deb also created little chicken nests out of the Easter grass and tiny chicks.  She was pretty handy with the table decorations as well (see pics above).  It was so nice to have so many helping hands!

The only real decorating I did was to create a photo book and scrapbook area at our kitchen table along with a simple chalkboard message.  Maggie's Birthday book is also displayed on the table and I invite guests to sign and leave their favorite memory or sentiment. I hope to keep this little tradition going for most birthday parties just as a way to have precious comments collected all in one place as she grows. Riley has a book that we started when he turned one as well, so it's one little birthday tradition.  The other easy decoration is turning the fireplace mantle into a birthday guest of honor shrine!  

 We have got to get better at taking more family pictures at these celebrations! This is the best we could do this day and it was a little after the party had started and both kids were distracted.  I do LOVE the Birthday Chick onesie and tutu that I was able to find online and Grandmama purchased as part of Maggie's gift. It really made the outfit although I believe Maggie only lasted for about 10 minutes in the tutu and probably only 2 minutes with the headband! :) We were able to get a few really cute pictures during that time though.

 Of course, the highlight of the day was watching what Maggie would do with her very first birthday cake! We had Dylan, Brooke, Riley, and Callie (the other birthday guests) show Maggie how to dig into it with her fingers. She seemed somewhat intrigued, but not completely convinced that this was really what she wanted to put in her mouth.

 This is the only damage Maggie did to her first cake. I have a feeling next year's cake will look a whole lot different!

 Poor little Maggie got her nap schedule all out of whack and ended up exhausted after the cake eating adventure. So she didn't quite make it to open up all her gifts. Big brother Riley stepped in though and was able to help.  Some of the special items that Maggie received were a sandwich kit to go along with her kitchen, lots of cute clothes, a handmade Hungry Caterpillar interactive toy courtesy of Aunt Brandy, learning purses, a Fisher Price Tea Set, gift cards to Target, and some nice wooden puzzles.  Our little one year old sure is blessed to have so many thoughtful, loving people in her life! We sure do love her to pieces and know that she has enriched our lives tremendously in these short 12 months and we look forward to many, many more birthday celebrations to come!