My Girls

Taylor loved watching this video of herself. When it would go off, she would say, "Where's Taylor?"

So, when we first brought Bella home, Taylor didn't want much to do with her. Then, she gradually started warming up to her. NOW... she won't leave her ALONE!! haha She is constantly in her face all the time, and honestly, it drives me crazy! I mean, I am very happy that she loves her sister, but I'm not so happy when Bella is happy and content and then Taylor starts messing with her and makes her mad. As they get older, if Taylor complains about her little sister being annoying, I'm gonna tell her that she's just getting what she deserves ;-)

Bella has started smiling a little bit. She is now 6 weeks old, and I guess she started at 4 weeks. The first time I noticed was when I woke up to feed her during the middle of the night. I had fed her a little bit, changed her diaper, and was getting ready to feed her some more. She was staring at the lamp on my night stand. I turned her face towards me. She looked right at me and gave me the biggest smile. I am pretty sure that was not just gas ;-) She is still sleeping well at night- usually 3-5 hours in between feedings- but we are still having a hard time getting her to go to sleep. We try to put her to bed around the same time as Taylor, but most nights, she won't go to sleep and stay asleep until around midnight which means Jared and I aren't going to bed until midnight. She will either fall asleep for just a few minutes and then wake right back up, or she'll fall asleep and then wake up as soon as we put her in her bed, or she'll just lay there keeping her eyes just barely open the whole time. We finally end up just having to stick her in her swing and let her cry and get mad to wear herself out a little bit before we can get her to fall asleep for the night.

Taylor continues to bring me great joy and great frustration every day..haha She is constantly saying and doing new things. She is starting to repeat just about everything we say. She especially likes to mimick Jared and do things that he does. We've started getting her to pray. Several months ago, she used to say "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day..." but stopped, and we haven't been able to get her to pray until now. When you try to get a kid to pray, most little kids just repeat the last word of the sentence. Taylor will actually try to say the whole sentence. Of course, it kind of ends up being mumbled and THEN repeating the last word, but hey, she's trying. It's very cute.

She has several new words and phrases that she says a lot. She picked up "oh goodness" from me saying it to the baby. She will say "oh my gosh," which is freaking adorable. One night after a long day, Jared laid down in the living room floor, put his hands behind his head, and said, "oh my gosh," and Taylor repeated everything he said and did. It was hilarious. Taylor will get me to help her put her socks on, and one day we were trying to put some on, and I told her they were too little. Now, if she can't get something on by herself, it's "too widdle." I also told her that her daddy was silly, so she'll say that.

Probably one of the cutest things she says is "yucky." I really wish I could get that on video. I wish I could get all of this on video, but she gets really camera shy. She cracks me up because she can be a tomboy and get down and dirty and then turn around and be such a girly-girl. Last weekend when Jared was working on the fence, she kept coming in the house every few minutes to change her socks, shoes, pants, whatever because they were yucky. I kept trying to tell her that she was just going to go back outside and get yucky again, so it was okay, but she refused to listen. Then, the next thing I know, I go outside and she is holding a worm! She also loves to chase bugs around. She will say "ay ya, ay ya, ay ya" or growl at them, and then she'll try to hit them. We've been getting a lot of flies in our house with her going in and out all the time. She will chase the flies around and say "shoo, bug." She can point out a fly anywhere in our house; she has a very good eye.

She has become VERY indepedent and is wanting to do things by herself more and more each day. For example, she can't really open a thing of string cheese by herself, but she makes it very clear that she wants to do it herself, and she will try her hardest before asking us for help. We just have to sit back and let her give it a try and then step in when she really needs us. Her favorite shows are Diego, Dora, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Sponge Bob, and My Friends Tigger and Poo, and she is very picky about what she wants to watch at what time. Jared used to work with our next door neighbor, Cheryl, and Taylor LOVES her. She calls her "Sherry." If Cheryl is outside when Taylor is playing, she will always run over to her house to play with her and her kitty and puppy.

Jared and I have decided that we're going to have to start making a list of all the new things Taylor does WHEN she does them because we always end up forgetting by the time I get a chance to blog them. They are just growing and learning so much so fast at this age. It's hard to keep up with them!

I have such beautiful girls, and I am very grateful to be a mother! I hope that they will be very close growing up and will always appreciate how lucky they are to have a sister!