Recent Pics

We went hiking in Bogart Park in Beaumont a few weeks
ago. The park is about an hour from our house. It's the first time we've hiked there. Funny story: along the trail we saw a huge dead tree trunk that was black and hollowed out. It was probably about 2-3ft wide, at least and about 3 feet tall. As soon as we turned down the trail and saw it Taylor pointed to it and proclaimed " Poopy!". We explained it was a tree trunk, she protested, saying "poopy". A few minutes later we came across some horse manure (the trail is open to horses) and of course, she proclaimed "Poopy". Soon, our relaxing nature walk became a poopy scavenger hunt & we were on the look out for all kinds of poopies. Life with a toddler, always a fresh perspective.

Can you tell this girl's mom's a scrapbooker by the way she poses for the picture?

I love this pic. The girl never stays still for long. I end up with some great profile shots, though. I took this a couple of weeks ago when we were hanging in the back yard in our $10 inflatable kiddy pool. Best 10 bucks we've spent in a long time.

Did we mention Hana is the best dog in the whole wide world? She climbs on him, sticks her fingers in his mouth & up his nose and he doesn't even bat an eye at her. He absolutely loves her. And most of the time the feeling is mutual. Although, she's now at just the right height that his tail often wacks her in the cheek as she walks by him. And, of course the other day she came to me in a totally whiny voice & said "Mommy, Hana touched meeee".

You have got to be kidding me.









Taylor LOVES to read. I snapped this shot of her in her Elmo chair (a gift from Grandpa Graham for her 1st B-day). Her big thing now is to have me read her a story and then she says "Taylor's turn" and she reads the story. I also often catch her reading stories to her dolls. Too cute.














Did I mention "we're" learning how to bake? I've learned to bake since I have to do dairy-free baked goods. And given that Taylor is always on the go & needing my attention, When it's time to bake, I plop her in the highchair & let her mix things up. Most of the time she does really well. Hana (who is always by our side) often comes out of it covered in flour. He's such a good sport.












Taylor has discovered the wonders of chalk. She loves it. I gave her a wet piece of construction paper the other day & let her experiment with it. She thinks it's pretty cool. So do I for that matter.
















More chalk, this time on the back patio. We got the puzzle mat as a freebie hand-me-down from an old neighbor. It's great to use on the patio to protect her knees from scrapes (and burns in the scorching desert heat).


















Gotta love those little hands...


























I am amazed at what a little sponge she is. She LOVES puzzles, right now. She found this foam shapes puzzle/game in my stash the other day. It's for ages 4 and up. There are cards that go from easy to difficult (like 27 cards 1 being single shapes through 27 being a complex picture of shapes). Then you place the foam pieces onto the card. She's able to do several of the beginner cards without any help. I'm really hoping this means she's going to be good at math! No pressure, sweetie!