TWO Years Old!!

On December 18th, Taylor turned TWO YEARS OLD!! I can't believe it! Time has gone by so fast!

My sisters-in-law are all very artsy and creative, and I don't know if they are rubbing off on me or if I feel the need to TRY to keep up with them (which will never happen!), but I wanted to make a cake for Taylor this year... something with a little more than just icing and candles. I decided to do Minnie Mouse because I figured it would be creative yet still a little on the easy side. I just used a 9" round pan for the face and two cupcakes for the ears and then drew on the face with icing. Jared helped me cut and shape the chin (even he is more artsy than I am) because I was afraid I would just mess it up. Then, I cut a sugar cookie in the shape of a bow and put icing on that. I think it turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself!! My problem is going to be when Taylor gets old enough to request a certain type of cake that will be way more advanced!

We got Taylor a little Fisher Price picnic table, a soccer ball, and a training potty. She really loves the table. She feels like such a big girl when she gets to sit at it, and I know it will come in very handy when we have company over. She already likes to kick the soccer ball around, but she'll get a lot more use out of it when the weather gets warmer. We haven't started working on the potty training yet and will probably wait about another month or so before even attempting it. Grandma got her a toy puppy dog (Jared says that's the best kind!) that's electronic and talks and even grows. She also got her a Little People Nativity set that I love and have used to coax Taylor away from touching my Willow Tree nativity set, and she got her a Dora the Explorer cell phone (again, I try to coax her away from playing with MY cell phone since we keep getting several dollars worth of 411 charges on our bill!)

Taylor shares her birthday with a very special person- Grandpa Mayfield- so we wish him a Happy Birthday as well!!

Taylor has really grown so much. She can definitely be shy at times, but mostly I think she is very sociable. She talks a lot and will even say "Hey!" to perfect strangers in the grocery store. I think she has a pretty large vocabulary for a two-year-old. Her favorite words are all commands, of course- sit down, stand up, come on, that's mine, help me, no, and many more- but she also is very good at saying please ("weeeez!") and thank you ("day tu!"), and she'll say "bye! have a nice day!" She's not always cooperative with saying prayers, but she's getting better and will usually fold her arms and will sometimes even mumble "thank you for this day" (I guess we say that a lot!) and "Amen."

She is very active and loves to get into everything. She loves running, and she loves to dance. Anytime she hears music on the TV, she will yell "Dance!" and start dancing, especially if it's Diego, and usually tries to make us stand up and dance with her. She has started jumping, and it's so cute because it's like she's trying to jump so high but only gets like an inch off the ground. She LOVES "babies." She calls every stuffed animal "baby" and usually can't leave the house without one- or two. She even calls most people "baby" which can offend other toddlers because they are definitely not babies! ;-) She also does silly things like put all of my ponytail holders on her arm and wear them around or put mine or Jared's socks on which really end up looking more like leg warmers on her. There are times when she will even call me Debbie instead of Mama.

We had her two year old check up appointment with her doctor last week, and she was in the 75th percentile on her height and 15th on her weight. (I believe she's 23 lbs and 35 in. tall)

She has started the terrible two phase and will whine and yell no if she doesn't get her way about something, and we've found her worst punishment is having to sit in the corner. Spankings don't do much for her, and she's got too many toys in her room for putting her in her room to really be a punishement (although we do threaten her that she'll have to go "night night" and that works pretty well, too). She has her moments, but all in all, I love everything about my little girl! I love her so much that it has actually made me a little nervous about having another baby (not that I have much choice at this point.. haha) I remember when my sis-in-law, Alisha, was pregnant with her youngest, Kena, that she said she had fears of not being able to love this baby as much as her other kids. I totally didn't understand that at the time because I thought of course you would love all of your children the same- it's just natural, but now, I understand where she was coming from. I love Taylor so much, and it's hard to imagine that love not being divided but multiplying!

Taylor is going to be a great big sister!