The Walker Family

Taelyn's Birthday Weekend

2012-02-12T11:33:00.004-07:00

We celebrated Taelyn's third birthday this weekend with friends at the zoo and family time in a hot air balloon. It was a perfect weekend, and for the first time, Taelyn really understood what it meant to be her birthday. She was incredibly excited this past week anticipating the birthday fun that was to come. The hardest part for her during the week was when Kaelia and I went to the store so Kaelia could pick out a birthday present for her sister. Taelyn knew what was happening and she knew that she couldn't come; the suspense was unbearable!

On Saturday, we started off the weekend with a small birthday party at the zoo. We met our closest friends there, the Jettners who have a little daughter that is our girls' closest friend too. After a couple of hours of walking around the zoo and looking at animals, we set up a little picnic and had cake. Taelyn wanted a Mickey Mouse birthday cake this year with all the clubhouse gang.

Once we finished eating, the kids played on the playground for a little while, and then Taelyn opened up her present from her friend, Arianna. She got a chalkboard and chalk for the playroom, and she loves it!

Next, we headed home and took a nap (all of us actually; we were pretty tuckered out from the birthday fun). Then Taelyn opened up the rest of her presents when we all woke up. She got a birthday play set from Grandma and Grandpa Pepera, some board games from Kaelia, and a bike from us. She absolutely loves all of her presents! We also know that other people have sent things our way for Taelyn, but we have not received them yet. Thank you to everyone who thought of Taelyn on her 3rd birthday!

The birthday weekend ended today with a trip in a hot air balloon. There is one just down the street from us that we see every time we drive anywhere, and Taelyn has been talking about riding in this balloon for about six months now. So we all climbed in today to see the sights from high above. Both girls had a great time. Now when we see the balloon while driving, Taelyn is saying "there's the balloon we went in" instead of "I want to go in there."

We all had a wonderful weekend, and Taelyn had a fantastic third birthday!

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Little Hockey Players

2012-01-18T11:40:00.009-07:00

Justin had some proud father moments this past weekend as his little girls took on their first ice-skating experience. Our school had a middle school social at a skating rink, so we decided to take the entire family there and just see what happens. Taelyn has especially been interested in the idea of skating recently and sometimes asks us to attach objects to the bottoms of her feet so she can skate around the house.

When we got to the rink, it was quite obvious that the girls were going to love it. Taelyn ran to the boards surrounding the ice, saw Justin and some of my students, and immediately asked to be lifted over the wall. Kaelia kept screaming Happy Feet as she saw all of the action.

Next, we found out that the rink had skates in Taelyn's size (real skates, not the double blades), so we put those on to see how she could handle it. She rushed over to my students again, and they spent most of the evening holding her hands and skating her around the rink. Kaelia did not have skates, but that didn't stop her from getting on the ice. She LOVED skating (or more like sliding in her shoes) between her daddy's legs because he was so fast on the ice. The wind left a permanent smile and slicked back hair! By the end of the night, Taelyn said good-bye to my students and just wanted to skate with her daddy. She also liked how fast they went and couldn't seem to get enough.

Once the social was over, we returned our skates and headed out. Taelyn was pretty upset to see that we were actually leaving and not just taking a break. We have heard several pleas from her since then to go skating again. Justin is so excited that his girls not only loved being on the ice like their daddy, but that Taelyn wore her first pair of skates at the age of two. That is even earlier than Justin was when he first skated!

The quality of the pictures below are not great because of the lighting in the ice rink, but they do capture to moment!

Justin and Kaelia skate together.

Justin and Taelyn get a turn together.

The whole skating gang!

Taelyn in action!

New Year's Birthday

2012-01-04T10:47:00.003-07:00

I celebrated my 31st birthday on the New Year and had a lovely day with my family. We weren't sure whether restaurants would be open on the 1st, so we first went out to dinner on New Year's Eve at a nice Italian restaurant.

The next day, Justin and I played a game of mini golf while the girls tagged along to play in the trees and waterfalls. This is the first time that we have tried to play without a baby-sitter watching the girls. They did pretty well; they pretended that they were a part of Peter Pan and that the crocodile was going to get them. They also tried to play putt-putt with us for a hole, but after Taelyn almost took Kaelia out with her club, they went back to their pirate adventures. I would love to report that I won the game, but sadly Justin beat me by two strokes.

Later on, Taelyn helped me make birthday cupcakes while Kaelia was taking a nap. Taelyn actually picked out the box mix a few days in advance when we were grocery shopping together. It was a Barney cupcake mix with green cake and purple frosting just like the dinosaur. She thought they were pretty special.

To top off the day, we all went out to an Irish pub for some drinks and for the birthday cupcakes. This was definitely Taelyn's favorite part because she loves the idea of singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles. She doesn't mind eating the cake too much either! After we went through the whole routine with my birthday cupcake, Taelyn put the candle in her own cupcake and asked us to light so she could sing to herself and blow out the candle. This happened several times.

I had such a wonderful day, and I am so thankful to have spent it with my husband and my girls!

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas in South Africa

2012-01-04T10:31:00.004-07:00

To prepare for Christmas this year, the girls learned all about Santa Claus and St. Nicholas. We watched Christmas movies everyday (their absolute favorite was Mickey Mouse's Once Upon a Christmas) and visited Santa at various places. When we saw him at the mall, Taelyn was pretty shy and didn't want to sit on his lap, but she couldn't stop talking about him. Then we saw him again at the Bird Sanctuary, and Taelyn ran over to him for a hug and a picture. Kaelia was not so excited about the visit, though. She cried when we got close to him, and that was the end of her encounter.

We also had a couple of activities to help bring the Christmas mood. I took the girls to the mall for a few days to complete Christmas activities. On one day, Taelyn had to spin a wheel to try to earn a special prize. Her spin landed on a space that required her to answer a Christmas question: What color is a Christmas tree? Taelyn smiled and said "green" and was then given some Christmas cookies (which she gladly shared with her sister). We also received special emails for each of the girls from Santa himself. The emails included pictures of the girls and details about whether they have been naughty or nice this year. The girls loved the emails and watched them over and over again. You can also view these emails at the websites below.

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/mrU_1o10UgVY_D9z-n8bBng
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/mH2ZkVLuytRaM1-NxXuaDrw

Since we were in Tanzania over Christmas, we celebrated the day when we got back. Our Christmas day was actually on New Years Eve. The night before, we wrote a letter to Santa and left cookies for him and carrots for the reindeer. Then Justin read Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls, and they were off to bed.

Both girls woke up around the same time the next morning, so we all waited in mommy and daddy's bedroom while Justin put in Mannheim Steamroller's "Deck the Halls" to let us know that it was time to start Christmas. Even though the girls don't remember this song from last Christmas, they had no trouble figuring out that the song meant Santa had come to our house. As soon as they heard it, they ran down the hall (Kaelia actually screamed!) and headed straight for the Christmas tree.

We started with stockings and then moved on to the rest of the presents. Santa was so generous that he even brought presents from Grandma and Grandpa Walker and Pepera out to our house in South Africa! Taelyn had the same response after opening each gift: "that's pretty cool!" while Kaelia screamed in excitement as she opened up most of her presents (there was a lot of screaming from her that morning). They were very happy to see all of their new presents. Some of the highlights were:
1. Taelyn got Kaelia and teddy bear, and Kaelia got Taelyn a pirate dress-up outfit.
2. Grandma and Grandpa Pepera gave the girls some play food and a table and chairs.
3. Grandma and Grandpa Walker gave the girls a play kitchen.
4. Santa brought Kaelia a baby doll and Taelyn Lightning McQueen Mater cars.
5. We got Taelyn a doctor's dress-up set and Kaelia a stroller for her baby doll.
6. Santa also brought both girls a new tent.

The girls have been playing in their playroom non-stop since Christmas. We had to rearrange and decorate it all over again to make room for all their new toys. It has now been almost a week since Christmas and Taelyn is still saying "That was so nice of Santa and Grandma and Grandpa!" at least once a day.

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Trip to Tanzania

2012-01-01T10:16:00.012-07:00

We spent Christmas in Tanzania this year. Justin got his Christmas present by leaving a few days early to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. After five days of climbing the mountain and reaching the "Top of Africa," he made it back safely and met the girls and I at the airport for our arrival to Tanzania.

To begin our family trip, we had a private driver take us on a couple of safari game drives in a safari jeep where the roof lifts up for better viewing. During the first day, we were greeted with lots of baboons who were not shy around us at all - which also put us a bit on alert to make sure they weren't too aggressive around the kids as we walked around the front entrance, waiting for our driver to get our tickets to enter in to the park. Then we hopped back in to the car and began the drive. Many of the animals that we saw are also in South Africa, but they were slightly different. The giraffe, for example, had spots that were shaped more like X's than squares, and the zebras were more brown and had vertical stripes down their noses. We also saw water buffalo which we have never seen in South Africa.

During this drive, the girls were particularly excited about the zebra. We put them both on the roof top so they could get a better view; they could have stayed there all day! And for the rest of the drive, they had their eyes glued to the window, looking for more zebra. Kaelia even pointed from time to time, saying "zebra," hoping to see some.

The next day, the driver took us to the Ngorongoro Crater for another game drive. Again, we met some baboons while we waited for our driver to purchase our tickets. We all got out of the car and made the mistake of leaving the window halfway down. Instantly, a big baboon jumped in to the jeep and went straight to our lunch basket. Another driver ran over and banged on the window to shoo him out. He jumped out, but then started to charge Justin with Taelyn on his back. Justin jumped back and yelled at him, so he went over to me and Kaelia and swiped at my legs. Unfortunately, I was wearing short shorts and he scraped me a bit just behind my knee. He didn't break enough skin to do any damage, but it was definitely an adrenaline rush for a while.

It then took a couple of hours to get down to the crater, but once there, we immediately saw that this game drive would be unlike any other we have ever been on. The crater was one big open space, so instead of having to drive around little trails for hours trying to find various animals, they were all they together. To add to the list of animals that we had never seen prior to this trip, we saw a black rhino, hundreds of flamingos, and a cheetah up close! The cheetah was an awesome find; it was laying in the brush just a few meters from the side of the dirt road and then stood up for a minute just in time for the perfect picture. The other highlight happened just a little while later when we saw two lions hunting down some zebras. As lions got closer, the zebras packed up and started pawing their hooves. Apparently the lions were intimidated by the amount of zebras all bunched up together, so at the last minutes, the two breeds walked on by each other. It was incredible to see!

After the two days of safaris, we took a flight out to Zanzibar Island where we spent the rest of our vacation on a beautiful white sand beach. The girls LOVED the beach, and they loved swimming with us. We all went swimming every day and often several times a day. Both girls developed their early swimming skills fairly well between the ocean and the pools at our hotels from the game drives. Taelyn is often hesitant about going under water, but Justin got her to practice being a hippo by blowing bubbles as she put her head under water. She also scaled an entire circumference of a pool by hanging on to the side and moving all around the pool. Kaelia showed a fearless joy of the water too. She liked to jump in to the pool/ocean, waiting for one of us to catch her. Many times, she jumped in without waiting for us and went right under water. She was a champ! She held her breath under water and immediately picked herself up with a smile. She absolutely loved going under water and playing with us. Both girls also enjoyed running into and away from the waves in the ocean.

Aside from swimming, the girls also enjoyed scoping out the beach for seashells and creatures. Taelyn started collecting seashells the first day on the beach as a present to bring home to her nanny, Niki. She also kept a few for herself - especially those that reminded her of an ice cream cone. One of her ice cream cones, however, gave us all quite a surprise. After Taelyn had been playing with it for about 20 minutes, she handed it over to me and something all of sudden poked out of it. Taelyn's ice cream cone ended up being a tiny hermit crab! We also encountered several dead sea crabs on the beach that intrigued both of the girls. Taelyn enjoyed picking up "Sebastian" (from the Little Mermaid) to play with him while Kaelia was a little more reserved. She touched him from time to time, but any time we tried to get her to hold him, she threw him away.

By the end of the trip, we all felt relaxed and satisfied while the girls were a bit homesick. Taelyn started talking about how she missed her cat (a large stuffed animal that sits on her bed) and eventually got upset any time she saw something that reminded her of a cat. By the last day, she even cried when she saw a cat on Kaelia's diaper! What's funny, though, is that once we made it home, she told us that she missed the ocean.

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Merry Christmas!

2011-12-17T13:37:00.005-07:00

We send our love to all of our family and friends during this holiday season. Merry Christmas, everyone!

"I Pooped!"

2011-12-15T23:57:00.010-07:00

After about a year of attempted potty training, Taelyn had her first success on the toilet. Last year, she showed signs that she was ready, but we only had a training seat that went on top of our regular toilet. Taelyn would sit on it for a couple of minutes after she told us that she needed to go "poo poo," but then she would hop off the toilet and go in her diaper a few minutes later. This went on for several months. Then we decided to get her a little potty to sit on; that motivated her to play pretend potty for a little while, but shortly she lost interest in the potty altogether and it seemed as if potty training was done for a while. She even started to scream any time we mentioned going to the potty.

This morning, however, was full of signs that we might be able to attempt the deed again. I was cleaning out one of our closets and found the original training seat that goes on top of the toilet. It has the Disney princesses on it, and Taelyn has just recently started watching Beauty and Beast. So I showed her Belle on the seat. She immediately said she wanted to sit on it and go potty. We ran over to the toilet, set the seat up, and began the waiting process. We read books, drank glasses of water, snuggled up in her blankie, encouraged Kaelia to sit on the little potty, and tried just about anything to get Taelyn to sit on the toilet for a long as possible. Surprisingly, she made it 35 minutes - still no success but the longevity was promising.

About ten minutes after this attempt, I told Taelyn that I needed to go potty before my run, and she said that she wanted to do it too. She still wanted to use the toilet instead of the little potty, so we went in to different bathrooms and said we would race each other to see who could go potty first. To my surprise, Taelyn ran in to my bathroom one minute later screaming, "I did it mommy. I went poo poo!" I wasn't convinced that this was true; I though that maybe she was just excited about the race we were having. But when I went in to her bathr0om, there it was! We hugged and screamed and jumped up and down for a while and then ran to the kitchen to give Taelyn some M&M's as her promised potty reward.

I am so proud of Taelyn! What is surprising is that kids usually go #1 on the potty for a while, and #2 can be a challenge, but Taelyn jumped right ahead to #2. I guess she has known what to do for quite some time, but it just took her a while to decide that she was ready. Now we'll see if it will continue.

Kaelia - 15-18 Months

2011-12-12T12:18:00.013-07:00

Kaelia has made leaps and bounds over the last three months literally and figuratively. At 18 months, she is 22.5 lbs., 31 inches tall, and has head circumference of 18.5 inches. She also gained one extra tooth today - the only one she's had since she was 14 months old.

It is amazing how much language Kaelia has developed during the last few months. She has a very high vocabulary for her age (she says well over 40 words) and is now speaking four word sentences. Not only does she understand the names of objects around her, but she can hold an actual conversation about them. She is also quite inquisitive. Some of her favorite questions to ask are: What is that? Oh no what happened? What are you doing? What's wrong Taelyn? Where did Taelyn go? etc. As you can see, Taelyn is the topic of many of her conversations; she absolutely loves her big sister.

Kaelia has quite a few interests as well. Her most favorite activity is playing with her tea set. She loves to place different toys around a doll-sized wooden table and pour everyone some tea. The best part, however, is that she pulls up her own chair to set at the tiny table too. Then once everyone has had some tea, she will let out a big burp to show that she drank too much. Sometimes she can't even get the burp out because she's laughing too hard in anticipation for the burp. Besides tea time and burping, Kaelia also loves playing with puzzles, she has a bit of a shoe fetish, and she is obsessed with baby dolls and teddy bears (or "tebby bay-ah" as she calls it). She goes crazy whenever she sees either of these types of toys - that makes a trip to Toys R Us quite loud with all of her enthusiastic screams.

Another fun activity that Kaelia enjoys is sitting inside her tent and waiting for Hopper (from A Bug's Life) to come a try to get us. She first tells me to "come in to the tent, mama" and then she usually says, "Shhh... Hopper's coming." Eventually, either Taelyn or Justin will attack the tent, pretending to be Hopper, and Kaelia jumps out to try to "get Hopper" back by sitting on him or tickling him. Sometimes when Kaelia gets to "Hopper" she forgets that he is the enemy and will give him a hug or kiss.

Kaelia also LOVES playing with Taelyn. This includes all of the activities mentioned so far in addition to wrestling, swimming in the pool, playing in the sand box, playing at the playground, and just about anything else that the two of them can do together. They are pretty good at sharing and getting along, although the occasional fight does happen.

We have witnessed Kaelia's personality take new shape over the last few months as she gets excited when she is happy and throws tantrums when she is mad. She often screams, jumps, and runs around when she is happy. And she now throws herself on the ground, face screaming in to the floor when she doesn't get her way. Each moment is precious in its own way because she is now more and more an individual than she ever was before.

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Happy Feet 2 in 3-D

2011-12-10T12:16:00.010-07:00

Taelyn had a very special day today. Her good buddies Jill and Faze (two of our good friends here that are in their 30's) picked her up and took her to the movies to see Happy Feet 2 in 3-D. The best part, however, was that she wore her penguin costume from Halloween to the show! At the show, Jill and Faze got Taelyn her own popcorn, candy, and slushy to enjoy during the movie to help her feel even more like "queen for a day."

When Taelyn came home, she told us very extensive stories about her trip out and the things that she saw (including something about rain and a dragonfly that we think were a part of the 3-D portion of the movie). We have a feeling that she will be telling us about this day for quite some time.

Christmas Has Begun

2011-12-05T03:12:00.015-07:00

It is officially the Christmas season in our house now. We spent some time as a family this weekend putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it, watching Christmas movies, and baking cookies. And the girls have loved every second of it so far!

We started our countdown to Christmas with a velcro hanging of a Christmas tree in which we take a little velcro toy out of a pocket each day to add to the tree. Taelyn enjoys finding the number of the date and adding that toy to the tree. Kaelia is obsessed with the teddy bear toy in pocket #16. She screams for the teddy bear each day, takes it out of the pocket, gives it lots of kisses, and then puts it back in, anxiously waiting for December 16th.

The morning after we put up the tree, Taelyn woke up and went straight to the living room instead of getting me or Justin out of bed. Eventually she came in to our room, brought an ornament to me and said, "momma, I put this on the Christmas tree!" I then followed her to the living room and found a group of ornaments all chunked together on one limb at the very bottom of the tree where Taelyn had been decorating.

Friday Night Fun

2011-12-05T03:07:00.008-07:00

Our middle school got together this past Friday for a little holiday party at a restaurant with several outdoor venues on one property. We had a nice time socializing, but the highlight was after the party. We took the girls over to playground area with some friends and hung out while all the kids played. Then our girls crashed the party next door as we were headed back to our car. There was quite a bit of dancing at this party, and the girls couldn't get enough of it. They ran to the middle of the dance floor and both started busting some moves.

Here are some videos to recap the night. The first one is of the girls bouncing in the bouncy castle at the playground, the second is of the girls sliding down the slide, and the last is of the dancing extravaganza. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-03T10:36:00.003-06:00

The girls had a great time trick-or-treating this year, and they had some friends join them for the occasion too: Rafi and Arianna.

The night before, we had the girls open Halloween presents to get them into the Halloween spirit. They got some great goodies from both sets of grandparents and a Fancy Nancy sticker book from us. The presents were the perfect start to the excitement that was to come.

On the night of trick-or-treating, Taelyn came dressed as a penguin and sported her infamous waddle throughout the night. Kaelia was a butterfly because "bu-bye" is one of her favorite things to point out these days. In terms to getting candy, Taelyn was a pro after discovering the magic of trick-or-treating last year while Kaelia was completely new to the whole fiasco. Taelyn did a great job at saying "trick-or-treat" and then "thank you" once she got some candy. Kaelia, however, froze up a bit whenever it was time to say something. Despite all of her practice saying "tica tee" in the car, she did not manage to say it at all during the actual event. She did enjoy all of the other kids and decorations, though. In fact, well in to the night we realized that she took a plastic spider from one house to play with. We don't really know where she got it from, so it became a new toy for the play room.

By the end of the night, both girls were thrilled to come home and empty out their new stashes of candy - which did not last long before they ate everything!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Visit from Grandma & Grandpa

2011-11-03T10:35:00.005-06:00

We had our first visitors here in South Africa as the girls' Grandma and Grandpa Walker made the long trip to stay with us during our October break. After a couple of days to get over jet lag, we all headed up to Pilanesberg for an African safari game drive. We saw the typical zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, elephants, rhinos, and springboks as well as a couple of rare finds. First, we witnessed some hippos fairly up close (from the car, of course). In the past, we have had to use binoculars to make out a hippo's face, but there was no need to this time. Then later on, we were driving along a deserted road far off the main road of the park when all of a sudden a leopard walked out right in front of us. This is an extremely rare find in the park - something that you may catch once in a lifetime! We ended up driving right behind the leopard for about five minutes. It was pretty awesome to be that close.

Next, we all hopped on a flight to Capetown where we spent a majority of our vacation. We stayed in the city for a few days to see the Aquarium, Boulder's Beach with the penguins, and to enjoy shopping and eating along the Waterfront.

Just up the road about an hour from Capetown is where he headed to next to a small town called Hermanus. Justin and I went there last year as well and knew that Bob and Karen would enjoy it during their visit. We rented a cottage on the beach where we could see whales in the ocean from the front door. One day while in town, we even saw the whales jumping out of the water. They were amazing. Hermanus is also a great destination to visit vineyards, so we went for a couple of drives to enjoy the gorgeous scenary of the winelands and stop in for a wine tasting from time to time.

After Hermanus, Justin and I returned to work while Bob and Karen took their own little trip to the Drakensburg Mountains for some hiking. They left South Africa having experienced three drastically different experiences but that all come together to define the landscape of the country.

We had a wonderful time and are grateful that our visitors came out to see us. The girls especially liked the time with Grandma and Grandpa. The only downside of the trip was that we got robbed in Hermanus, but everyone is okay and doing well.

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Family Movie

2011-10-06T09:41:00.005-06:00

We had our first outing to the movie theater as a family a couple of weeks ago. The Lion King 3-D was playing, and we figured it would be a great first movie for Taelyn since she has already seen it and we know she will sit through the movie. But we decided to go at the very last minute and did not have time to get a baby-sitter for Kaelia, so we attempted to bring her to her first movie too!

As soon as we walked in to the entrance way of the theater, the girls ran over to some larger than life chipmunks from Alvin and the Chipmunks as Justin bought the tickets and I waited in line for snacks. Taelyn got her very own kids' snack tray full of popcorn, a Slush Puppy, and some candy. Kaelia and I got a smoothie to share, and we were ready to watch.

Once in the actual theater, the girls were even more excited. We all had 3-D glasses to wear, and Taelyn screamed and reached out the grab the "snow" and other particles during the 3-D previews. Both girls did a great job watching the movie as well. Then Kaelia and I took a little walk outside for a while at about half-way through the movie. Taelyn needed a short break a little later, but then both girls came back in to the theater to finish the movie.

We had such a nice time at our first family movie and are looking forward to the next one. Apparently Happy Feet 2 is coming here in 3-D, so we will have to put that one on our calendar!

Kaelia - 12-15 Months

2011-09-12T22:11:00.011-06:00

At Kaelia's 15-month check-up, she measured 21.8 lbs., 29.5 inches tall, and had a head circumference of 17.7 inches. Her little body has been very busy with teeth lately! She got three new teeth in the last few months with more on the way.

Kaelia has also been working on her physical coordination. Now only did she learn to walk at 12.5 months, but she can now "jump" on command by bending her knees to move her body up and down. She especially likes to do this on a trampoline. And she has discovered a new form of dancing where she alternates lifting her feet and legs up and down. She has been pretty proud of herself with this move.

Just within the last couple of weeks, Kaelia's language has really started to take off. She is now saying two word sentences such as "hi mama." We are excited to see where this new development is headed and what words she will pick up next. Kaelia is very verbal for her age with well over 30 words in her spoken vocabulary.

Some of Kaelia's favorite activities over the last three months has been playing with blocks and reading books. She will often go off in to a room by herself to do one of these tasks. She will pull book and book off of her bookshelf and flip through each page. This can actually keep her entertained for quite some time. When we are playing in the kids' playroom, Kaelia will head straight toward her blocks shelves and pull all of the colored shapes off of a rod. Once she has finished, she will then put all of the shapes back on the rod. She goes through this process over and over.

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Conversations from Today

2011-09-10T14:22:00.001-06:00

At Breakfast:

Taelyn: Kae-ya, I'm so angry with you. I'm so angry I want to spank your bottom right off!

We have no idea where she got this phrase or idea from.

During Playtime in the Yard:

Justin: No, no Kaelia. Don't throw rocks in the pool.
Taelyn: Just (short for Justin), don't talk like that to Kae-ya. Don't talk like that to big sis. Wait a minute... Kae-ya's itta (little) sis.

It's funny how both conversations show the ups and downs of sisterhood!

Taelyn - 2 1/2 Years

2011-09-10T14:18:00.004-06:00

At 2 1/2 years old, Taelyn is now busier than ever. She loves to play - no matter where or what the activity is. The outdoors are always a hit so she can go hiking, swimming, play in a sandbox, climb rocks and trees, and just jump around (a skill that she has officially mastered now without keeping her feet on the ground). Inside, she likes to play in her tent, play with whatever toy is her favorite of the week (Toy Story toys, "dina-suddas" (dinosaurs), Wall-e, and her cars to name a few), make forts out of pillows and furniture, sing and dance to kids' songs, read books, and color and paint. But if anyone were to ask her about what she likes best, she will enthusiastically say that she loves movies. Some of her absolute favorites include Toy Story (any of the three), Shark Tale, Walle, Cars, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and The Incredibles. She also has discovered the Mickey Mouse Club recently and looks forward to that show quite a bit during the week.

Taelyn's vocabulary and sentence structure has taken off over the last six months. She is incredibly verbal and understands basic reasoning now. This is seen quite often when she applies the lessons that she learns from us to her sister. Any time Kaelia dumps her food on the floor or gets in to the camera drawer, Taelyn is quick and eager to point her finger and say "No, Kae-ya. Don't ever do that again. Now it's time for time-out!" And once we explain that Kaelia is too little to understand time-outs right now, Taelyn will repeat that back to us and say "Kae-ya's too little for time-outs... have time-outs later."

Speaking of time-outs, Taelyn is certainly learning her boundaries these days. She loves to test authority figures to see what she can get away with, while she also lets her excited emotions get the best of her as she performs some sort of act that she knows she shouldn't do. It's a pretty exciting time in her life for us to witness her strong emotions and how she battles with controlling them versus running wild. In the end, though, she is such a sweetheart and wants to be a good girl. She loves to snuggle with us and try to get Kaelia to laugh when she is upset.

Taelyn and Kaelia have been forming a special bond as well. They love to tickle each other and chase one another around the house. Just recently, Taelyn started holding Kaelia's hand while they walk from one room to another.

For the first time in her life, Taelyn is in the 75th percentile in height at 37 inches. Her weight has certainly trimmed down in percentile since she was a baby. Whereas she used to be in the 75th and 80th percentiles, she is now in the 25th-50th percentile at 28 lbs.

This free digital scrapbooking design made with Smilebox

Our New House

2011-08-15T12:28:00.004-06:00

At the end of last school year, we decided to move to a bigger, nicer house, and we found the perfect fit for us from a couple that was leaving the school and moving on. So we packed everything up for the 6th time in six years and moved our things over in boxes and bags just before coming back to the US for our summer. Now that we are back in South Africa, we have had a chance to unpack and get settled. Here is a little tour of our place.

Summer on the Other Side of the World

2011-07-31T07:13:00.007-06:00

We had a wonderful summer back with friends and family in Michigan as well as the other places that we visited. It was an incredibly busy summer as always, but full of adventure and fun. Here are some of the things we did.

Canada
While staying at our first family cottage in Canada, the girls had a wonderful time at the beach (or "ocean" as Taelyn called it). The weather was a bit chilly, but that did not stop the girls from swimming. Kaelia especially liked playing the sand, and Taelyn enjoyed going in the water and throwing things in to the water.

We also spent some time at a second family cottage where we met up with some of our good friends from Michigan originally but that are now teachers with us in South Africa. We had a lovely time hanging out at the beach in town, grilling, and playing washers.

Cooks Farm Dairy
This was just a small trip up the road for a little ice cream that turned in to quite the traumatic experience for the girls. We started off with a little ice cream; the girls both loved this part. Then we ventured over to the cows to pay them a little visit. Taelyn was eager to pet them right away while they were eating some feed from ground, and the cows seems pretty docile so she had no problem with this. Kaelia, however, was a little more reserved. Once she finally got the nerve to reach out and pet one, the cow lifted his head after a big slurp of feed and licked Kaelia on the face. Not only was she covered in cow saliva, but his feed was now in her mouth! She did not like this part.

Next, we visited the calves, hoping for a gentler experience. Taelyn got to feed them with haw on the ground, so she instantly became someone that the cows liked. But after she ran out of hay, one calf mistook her hair for hay and started munching until his teeth got stuck on her hair clip. It took a great deal of effort to pull the hair out from between his teeth and a lot of screams from Taelyn.

Kaelia's luck was not much better here, either. She was fairly curious about these little cows and walked up to one to say "moo." The calf turned around and put his face directly in front of her face and called out the loudest, deepest moo that we have ever heard. The pure volume of the sound completely took her by surprise, and she was in tears again! So we picked her up to comfort her, and all of a sudden the cow started eating her skirt.

After a few breakdowns, we thought it was time to go, but we had to pass by the original adult cows who were feeding to get back to our car. Taelyn's spirits were rejuvenated once again, and she immediately picked up some hay to feed one of the cows. Apparently the cow saw a large bundle of hay running towards him and was excited too. Similar to her calf experience, the cow attached her head, thinking that her hair was hay, and it knocked her down on the ground. Catastrophe struck once again, but at least the cow did not connect with her hair this time.

The girls left exhausted and with mixed feelings about cows. The general consensus was that we needed to take a break from cows and go back to Africa where we can pet friendly lion cubs instead. They certainly won't try to eat our kids!

Costa Rica
Justin and I also went to Costa Rica for a week this summer. It was quite an adventurous trip and one that we had wanted to take for a few years now. We started our visit in Playa del Coco, the top scuba diving location in the country. It poured with rain the day we were there, but it didn't matter because we spent our time under the water anyway. The sea was full of blow fish (hundreds of them), turtles that actually swam alongside of us, a huge, green eel, and lots of rays (manta and sting).

Next, we traveled on to La Fortuna. Our favorite experience of the entire trip was canyoning here where we repelled down waterfalls in the middle of the rain forest. We also had a great time on a canopy tour, zip lining from tree to tree, and we spent one evening at the best hot springs resort we have ever been to.

We ended our trip with a day of white water rafting just outside of San Jose. The river got up to Class V rapids which made for some thrilling moments. Overall, our trip was eventful and unforgettable!

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Kaelia Walker

2011-07-31T07:06:00.007-06:00

Kaelia started to officially walk this past summer, so I thought I would post a video of those early steps. She was about 12.5 months old when she made the big leap to only walking and cutting out the crawling. Here she is in action!

Kaelia's 1st Birthday

2011-06-14T19:46:00.004-06:00

Kaelia had a lovely 1st birthday at her Grandma and Grandpa Pepera's house. We started off the day with a BBQ and went right in to presents and birthday cake. Kaelia had no problem trying to unwrap her presents - she enjoyed the wrapping quite a bit actually. Then the birthday cake provided an interesting experience for her. This was her first real "sweet" and she wasn't quite sure what to do with the cake. She ended up taking of layers of the frosting and cake and smooshing it off to the side. But once she had a taste of the cake, she couldn't get enough. She even went back to her smooshed pile and starting eating that part of the cake!

Thank you to everyone who came to the party and to everyone who thought of Kaelia on her special day!

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Kaelia - 1 Year

2011-06-14T19:45:00.010-06:00

Kaelia is quite the big girl now at one year! Her vocabulary and communication has increased tremendously. She will often point to something and say a word to tell us what she wants. When she wants to go out of the room, for example, she will point to the door and says "doe" (door). And she will say "ba ba" and point to the kitchen when she wants her bottle. Kaelia also has learned some farm animals. She says "hay" for a horse, "moo" for a cow, and "baa" for a sheep. Body parts are her latest thrill as she learns parts of the face. So far she knows nose, eyes, and mouth, and she attempts to say nose but it sounds more like "doe."

Kaelia has also been very busy this month with teething. She finally got her top teeth - all four of the middle ones in fact! The outside teeth actually came in first, so she had a pretty comical smile without the middle top teeth. And when she closed her jaw, her bottom teeth (the middle two) fit in between her top teeth!

Kaelia's measurements are right on track at the year at 20.5 lbs. in weight,33.6 inches in height, and with a head circumference of 18 inches.

Here are some of the great moments we have captured with our little girl during her first year.

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Mother's Day

2011-05-22T12:12:00.026-06:00

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day this year with my family. We first went out to breakfast at a restaurant filled with playground equipment and a petting zoo. Justin and the girls had a nice time playing while I sat back and relaxed. Then we were off to the mall for a Winnie the Pooh extravaganza. The girls LOVED this part of the day. The Hundred Acre Wood was set up next to the food court where a lady came out and read Pooh Bear stories to the crowd and then Pooh and Tigger came out to meet everyone. Kaelia was intrigued just to see so many other kids and crawled around them all during the performance. Taelyn instantly darted to the front of the crowd to be a part of the action. Then when the lady started reading the stories, Taelyn would not sit down with all of the other kids and insisted on standing right next to the lady so she could see the book too. After quite a bit of bouncing to the Tigger song, Taelyn was ready to meet Pooh and Tigger. She got up on stage with them after the show and gave them each a hug; and she fit in very well while wearing her Eeyore jacket. To finish the fun, Kaelia and Taelyn sat at a table together to color an Eeyore coloring sheet.

The second half of my Mother's Day was quite a change from the first half. The girls stayed behind with our nanny while Justin and I went out with some friends to an And-1 basketball tournament in Soweto. We first hung out at a shebeen (a bar that preserves much of the South African cultural heritage) for a local experience and then headed over to the game. It was a lot of fun, and it brought about some South African culture that I was reminded that I am living in a foreign country as this is so easy to forget in our day-to-day lives.

The day was a perfect mixture of time with family and friends, and I am so fortunate to have wonderful people in my life!

Kaelia - 11 Months

2011-05-22T12:12:00.013-06:00

Kaelia is now 11 months and has jumped up quite a bit in her measurements. She weighs 20.3 lbs., is 33.1 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 17.5 inches. This puts her in the 50th percentile for her weight and head measurements and the 95th percentile for her height.

Developmentally, Kaelia has made some physical and mental leaps as well. She has been perfecting her walking and attempts to walk at every chance she can get. She has made it about halfway across a room so far before either falling or choosing to crawl the rest of the way. Each time she takes a step, though, she is so proud of herself. And when she does crawl around the house, it is usually a bear crawl where her legs are straight so that her knees do not touch the ground. This type of crawl is just another indicator that she would rather walk than crawl.

This month has been quite the verbose month too. Kaelia loves to talk and has picked up more words. She will repeat words that we say such as “cat,” “cow,” and “cool,” and she definitely knows the word “dog.” Whenever we see a dog at the playground, she shouts out “dog” followed by “ooooh” (that’s what she says when she gets really excited about something). And Kaelia loves to “read” books with dogs in them. She will often sit alone and flip through her books for a little independent time. But we whenever she comes across a dog in her books, she slaps the page and says “daw” for “dog.”

Another milestone that Kaelia has recently reached is pointing and waving. While we read books to her, she likes to point at items on each page for us to say out loud to her. And when we ask her where something is on the page (like the dog), she will point to it. One day we were reading a book together that had a dog in it, and she first pointed to the dog on the page. Then she looked up at the bookshelf and pointed to another book with a dog on the cover and said “daw.” I really can’t reiterate enough how much our little pumpkin loves dogs! Kaelia also waves any time we say “bye bye” now. She has been waving for several months, but this is the first time it has occurred in context; she used to just wave for fun, but now she waves to say good-bye. Kaelia was playing with my wallet one day and found a picture of Justin in it. She pointed to him and said “da.” Then when I put the wallet a way, I saw “bye bye daddy,” and she waved good-bye to the picture.

Kaelia is such a sweetheart, and it is so fun to see her personality coming out more and more. She loves to be around her family, play outside in the sand box, climb up anything she can, swing and go down the slide at the playground, look at birds (and of course dogs!), wrestle, and give kisses.

Here is a cute little video we took of Kaelia this past month where she tries to put an object on her head.

Happy Easter!

2011-05-22T12:07:00.004-06:00

The girls had a very nice Easter celebration this year as we got together with some friends for a potluck brunch, Easter egg decorating, and an Easter egg hunt. We started with the decorating; it’s funny how Taelyn seemed to completely understand what she was doing without having any prior experience of the activity before. She did great. She dropped a few eggs in to different bowls of colors and waited patiently for the dye to set in. She was, however, more eager to eat the hard boiled eggs than she was to color them. The task was a lot more exciting for her when the colored was complete and she got to put stickers on the eggs. While all of this was going on, Kaelia had her first experience with Easter eggs as she tried to figure out what to do with a plastic egg.

After brunch, the egg hunt began. Some of the older girls hid the plastic eggs around the yard for the younger girls to find. This task was not very easy for them, though, because Taelyn wanted to be a part of the action too, so she kept following them around as they hid the eggs. The girls eventually figured out that Taelyn was not trying to peek in on the hiding places and they continued on. During the hunt, both girls had a blast. Kaelia was still very interested in finding out more about the mysterious plastic eggs, so she did more inspecting than finding. She especially liked to pull all of the eggs out of the basket that Taelyn had already found. And Taelyn loved searching for the eggs throughout the yard. She went from place to place while the older girls followed her and carried her basket.

Once we made it home later that day, Taelyn brought back one of her decorated Easter eggs (she insisted on the “eddo” [yellow] one). This egg had to go everywhere with her; she had to hold it in her car seat during the ride home, it had to sit next to her on the couch, and she had to take a nap with it! Then when she woke up from her nap, she couldn’t find the egg and ran to us in a panic. We found it intact under her pillow, and life was good again. We topped off the day by peeling the egg for Taelyn and Kaelia to eat. Taelyn did most of the peeling herself and then enjoyed finally getting to eat her Easter egg. We’re pretty sure this is all she wanted to do the entire day, so she ended the day completely content and happy.

Weekend in Capetown

2011-04-26T02:03:00.006-06:00

This past weekend was packed to the brim with events as we traveled over to Capetown for the Two Oceans running extravaganza. Justin ran the Two Oceans 56km - the initial reason for going to Capetown - and we decided to make a mini vacation out of the trip since we had a four-day weekend over Easter.

We started our time in Capetown at Boulders Beach, home to hundreds of penguins. We had no idea what to expect and were just hoping that we would see a penguin. That wish was granted before we could even get out of our car as a penguin was standing in the middle of our parking spot! At this point, we knew we were going to enjoy the experience. As soon as we headed down the walkway to the beach, several penguins shared the sidewalk with us, and Taelyn ran over to them to say hello. Both parties seemed to like one another. Once we got on to the beach, Kaelia walked over to a penguin while Taelyn continued to chase others. We could walk right up to them before they decided to waddle off and take a dip in the ocean. Next we walked along a path, heading towards a second beach. During our walk, penguins were nested everywhere. Both girls were so excited to see them every couple of steps, and Taelyn decided to stop and talk to a couple of them. Just as she knelt down and said "Nice penguin," one of the penguins gave her a little peck on the nose! Taelyn thought is was hilarious and kept telling us that the "penguin eat Taenyn nose!" We actually videotaped this too (see Smilebox below).

At the second beach, we saw even more penguins than before. Kaelia even started dancing by kicking her little legs because she was so excited. Once Taelyn saw this, she started spinning in circles to add to the dance. It was pretty cute. Then Justin tried to teach Taelyn how to waddle like a penguin, but Taelyn had her own way to doing in. She squatted down, tipping back and forth and she yelled "waddle waddle" and then usually fell backwards because she couldn't balance for too long. We then left the beach laughing and with good spirits.

The next day was the kick-off for the Two Oceans races where I hopped in a 5K fun run and Taelyn made her running debut at the 56m Nappy Dash! She had so much fun. First, we put on her number, and she was so interested in it, that she wouldn't take hand off of it - even when she ran. Then hundreds of 1-3 year-olds and their parents lined up 56m before the finish line and took off when the announcer yelled "GO!" Taelyn paced herself until she saw her daddy at the finish line and then took off to get to him. As we walked through the finish shoot, she was awarded with a medal and a track bag filled with goodies. We sat off to the side so Taelyn and Kaelia could open the goody bag and play. Kaelia was so eager to be a part of the race that she eventually made a mad dash of a crawl while another little baby tried to chase her. Kaelia kept looking back to make sure the other baby was still there and then kept darting away. After we got back to our place, the girls played "Run a Race" over and over again for the rest of the weekend where they took turns wearing Taelyn's medal and then crawled around the room, chasing each other. The medal kept getting caught under their legs until the ribbon was so frayed that it ripped right off. A quick tie held it together, though, so the game could go on.

After Justin's race (for his full story, please see his running blog), we ventured over to the Capetown Aquarium where the girls got to see many different kinds of sea life. They got to pet a starfish in the petting pond and crawl in to the middle of the clown fish aquarium so that they were surrounded by little Nemo's everywhere. Taelyn loved anything there that reminded her of Finding Nemo, and Kaelia loved everything that moved!

We ended our trip with a nice scenic drive along the coast where Justin had run a good portion of his race. The area was breath-taking with the combination of tall trees, enormous rock formations, and crashing ocean tides. Capetown is a beautiful city, and we had the perfect family weekend.

Since we were gone over Easter, we did not get a chance to fully celebrate the holiday, so we plan on doing so next weekend. Stay tuned for pics of that event.

This photo album made with Smilebox

Silly Sisters

2011-04-16T13:40:00.005-06:00

The girls have had so many great moments together over the past month that I wanted to display a few that we managed to get on camera. They absolutely adore one another - and they fight like sisters will do too.

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Taelyn has her own little games that she has been playing with us as well. Sleep & Awake is a huge favorite where she makes us pretend to be asleep and tuck us in bed. After piling on blankets, toys, puzzles, books, and anything else in sight that she wants us to sleep with, she will then close the door and say, "Sweet dreams, I'll see you in the morning." After a little wait time, she will run back in to the room and scream, "Awake!"

Another game that she recently started playing is Happy Birthday. She likes to stack things on top of each other to represent a birthday cake, give it to one of us, and then sing the happy birthday song. Then she will take a toy or book, wrap it up in a blanket, and give us a birthday present. Taelyn has also kept her birthday cards from February and continues to read them and present them during her little birthday party games.

Kaelia - 10 Months

2011-04-16T12:02:00.015-06:00

Kaelia is now 19.1 lbs., 29.5 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 17.5 inches at 10 months. A couple of teeth are just moments away from breaking through, and her hair is getting longer and longer. Little curls are even starting to form in the back of her head; it looks like she will end up with a full head of curls!

Aside from her physical appearance, Kaelia's physical development has grown. She has been working toward more and more milestones - especially walking. Kaelia moves around the house quite fast by crawling and cruising furniture. And just at the end of this month, she took her first couple of steps! She has been diving toward us throughout the entire month, and then was finally able to add some steps to it. She was standing up against the coffee table in the living room and wanted to come over to me. Then without any fear, she simply lunged toward me. Her feet scrambled two steps before falling face first in to my lap. Kaelia was so excited and proud of herself and has not stopped attempting to walk ever since.

Kaelia's personality continues to shine as well. She really likes anything interactive and silly, yet she is a great snuggler too. She also likes to read books (especially touch and feel books and anything with baby faces), play peek-a-boo, give-me-five, play in the sand, destroy puzzles and stacked blocks, and she loves to play with her sister. Kaelia is finally at the point where she understands Taelyn's little games like "tickle Kae-ya," pretending to sleep, and wrestling. So now Kaelia will play back. After Taelyn tackles Kaelia to tickle her, Kaelia will flip around, get on top of Taelyn, and smack her in the face to get her back. Or when Taelyn gives Kaelia a hug, Kaelia will sometimes hug back and give her sister a great big slobbery kiss on the face. Taelyn will often ask Kaelia to "fall asleep" so Taelyn can tuck her in and then surprise her by saying "awake!" Now Kaelia will lay down on the pillow patiently while Taelyn puts a blanket and a stuffed animal on top and then scream with excitement when Taelyn yells "awake." It has been such a joy to watch the two girls interact.

The usual babbles are a daily part of Kaelia's day, while she will also repeat sounds that we say when we try to pair a word with an object. If we see a dog, for example, we will tell her that it is a dog over and over again, and then Kaelia will say "duh" for "dog." She does the same for cat too. And during the end of this month, we think she said her first actual word without prompting. Justin usually gets her out of bed in the morning when she wakes up, and she has started to say "da" when she sees him. She does the same when he comes home from work. We are not quite sure if she is just saying the "d" sound or if she is actually saying "dad." She does not say that sound very much during the day when Justin is at work, so it looks like it might be her first word!

Taelyn's First Haircut

2011-03-13T12:11:00.011-06:00

After two years, we finally took Taelyn in to get her first haircut. Though we love her crazy curls, they are certainly a crazy mess when she wakes up in the morning, so we needed some help. Taelyn did a fantastic job with this new experience. She got to sit in a little pink car while the stylist cut her hair; she had a great time with this part of the day. Soon after he began, however, the stylist learned that an endless amount of detangling spray would not help him cut her hair, so Taelyn then had to get her hair washed. She found this quite interesting and clung to her daddy for support. Once she got back in to her pink car (and with a little help from Abby and a Kit Kat bar), she settled down much better and sat very still for the stylist. Here are a few pictures to recap the day.

Before Shot

Getting Her Hair Washed

Sitting Nicely for the Stylist

Abby Keeps her Company

Kaelia - 9 Months

2011-03-13T12:10:00.007-06:00

At nine months, Kaelia is now sparkling with personality. She claps her hands and likes to do so when her sister does something entertaining. And she waves when she is happy. She will often wave while she is eating because she gets very excited to grab her food. Kaelia is eating table foods now in addition to her baby food and formula.

Kaelia has also learned several sounds that she likes to say over and over again so she can "talk" like everyone else. She still says "ba, ba, ba" and has now added "mum," "da," "ga," and "ka" to her vocabulary. She will say "mum, mum, mum, da, da, da" repeatedly, and Taelyn has been trying to get her to say "T, T, T" along with it. Perhaps Kaelia will catch on to that soon.

Kaelia continues to motor around by crawling and cruising along furniture, and she has also attempted to stand alone. This usually lasts for about one second while she has made it four seconds before sitting down.

At this month's doctor's appointment, Kaelia measured 19 lbs., 28 inches tall, and had a head circumference of 17 inches. The doctor was very impressed with her developmental accomplishments as well.

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Taelyn - 2 Years

2011-02-20T01:19:00.011-07:00

At two years old, Taelyn is now 26.8 lbs., and 34 inches tall.

Taelyn is definitely a big girl now that she is two. In addition to sleeping in a bed, she also likes to sit at the table in a big girl seat instead of her high chair, reads big girl books (not board books), and she now refuses to take a bath. Instead, she wants to take a shower! And the initial stages of potty training have been going on for quite a while. Taelyn will tell us when she needs to use the toilet and will sit there for a while until she gets bored. Then we put her diaper back on and she ends up going to the bathroom shortly after. She has had one successful toilet attempt so far. Potty training is by no means complete, but she's getting there.

Taelyn's talking has grown quite a bit as well. She is speaking full sentences, using phrases and words that we have never specifically taught her. She learns from everything around her. She especially loves to tell us when she is hungry. She will announce that it is breakfast time and that she wants to eat Honey Crunchies cereal. Or if she wants a snack, she will say, "Mommy, eat snack... T eat dried fruit." The girl loves to eat! Taelyn also knows all of the letters of the alphabet (although she still has trouble saying V and W), basic colors, and at times she can count up to ten. We are still working on her counting and identifying what each number looks like. Sometimes she gets the numbers right and sometimes she doesn't. But she seems to have mastered 1, 2, and 3.

Some other activities that Taelyn loves are coloring, painting, playing with play dough, making a "tent" to crawl in to, reading books, playing with stickers, dressing up as Abby, going for walks, playing at the playground, swimming, and smelling flowers. Whenever we go for walks, she stops at every flower to smell it. And she always says, "No pick flowers. Hmmm [as she smells them], smell nice." She likes to give herself little reminders about what is and is not acceptable behavior, and she knows that she should not pick flowers from flower beds.

Taelyn also loves to play with her sister (and fight too). When we make a tent, she insists that Kaelia comes inside to play with her. Taelyn will also "read" books to Kaelia; this is pretty comical because the book is always facing Taelyn, and she tilts it upside down to show Kaelia what is on the page. Taelyn will also try to make Kaelia laugh by making funny faces and tickling her. While she loves her sister very much, Taelyn also likes her own space and doesn't want Kaelia to touch her or her things at times. One of Taelyn's most common phrases lately has been "No, Kae-ya" over the many things that Taelyn doesn't want Kaelia to touch. We are working on the phrase "No thank you, Kaelia" instead.

Here are some of our favorite Taelyn pictures and memories from the past year.

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Kaelia - 8 Months

2011-02-14T06:57:00.015-07:00

This has been such a great month for Kaelia: she has learned to crawl, pull herself up to a stand, walk along furniture, crawl up one step, turn the pages in her books, and "talk" a little more! Kaelia went through the stages of mobility so fast. She attempted to crawl during the first week of the month, and was fluently crawling by the second week. During week three, she was already moving along the furniture.

Kaelia's verbal knowledge is increasing as well. She loves to hold her books by herself and turn the pages. She also started using the "b" consonant by saying "ba ba ba" over and over again. She especially likes "talking" to Taelyn; the two of them say "ba ba ba" to each other while with each syllable, their faces get closer and closer together.

At 8 months, Kaelia is now 17.7 lbs. 27.6 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 16.7 inches. Her growth was not a significant gaon from last month due to all of her sudden activity level.

Taelyn's 2nd Birthday Party

2011-02-14T06:57:00.012-07:00

Birthday parties are not always the fun and games the people think of when it involves babies and toddlers. While Taelyn's first birthday party was a bit overwhelming for her, her second was a small improvement. Still filled with up and down moments, overall, she had a great time. Taelyn insisted on wearing her Abby costume all day (including nap time) and then to the party. She opened presents at home where she got a huge stuffed caterpillar from Kaelia and a sticker book and castle from us. Taelyn loved them all.

We then went to a local restaurant that has picnic tables set up around a large playground/kid playing area for the birthday party. There are several jungle gyms, a climbing wall, coin-operated riding machines, and a bouncy castle. 15 of Taelyn's favorite people in South Africa came to join in on the festivities.

The start of the party did not look too promising. It was raining (the only time all week) and Taelyn was incredibly cranky from waking up much earlier than usual from her nap. But as the party went on, so did the rain, and Taelyn warmed up a lot more, having a fun-filled time. She enjoyed repeat trips to the slide, and we could not pry her away from the bouncy castle.

When it was time for cake, everyone crowded around to sing Happy Birthday. Taelyn was already familiar with the song thanks to a great Elmo card from Great Aunt Andy that had been singing to her the entire week before. But because she was a bit cranky that day, she immediately clung to me at the start of the song in a bit of a panic. At the end of the song, though, Taelyn started smiling and clapping. She then proceeded to blow out the candles and had to stand on the table in order to bend over close enough. With a little help, the flames were out, and we all enjoyed eating her Winnie the Pooh cake. Taelyn really liked this part too, contrary to her first birthday.

Overall, the party was a success. Taelyn came home exhausted and happy with a full bell and fun gifts from her friends.

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Got My Nose

2011-02-01T07:56:00.002-07:00

Justin and Kaelia had some good laughs the other day as Kaelia tried to eat his nose. She also had the hiccups which made her laughing even funnier. Here is some footage of it all.

Kaelia's Crawling!

2011-01-28T01:41:00.004-07:00

Our little monkey has mastered crawling this week. She started off about a week ago with one to two "steps" followed by a big belly flop. Now she is slowly motoring all around the house, following us all around. To add to her mobility, she also now pulls herself up to stand constantly. She will crawl over to Taelyn's bookshelf, pull herself up, and then pull all of the books off the shelf. Actually, as I am writing this blog entry while sitting next to Kaelia on the floor, she is pulling up on my shirt and arms to stand next to me and see what I am doing. It is quite obvious that Kaelia is pretty excited about these new skills because she can now be around us all the time which is what makes her happiest.

Big Girl Bed

2011-01-26T01:15:00.009-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for our little big girl, because Taelyn got her first big girl bed! She has been eagerly awaiting this day for weeks now. It all started on our vacation over Christmas when we gave Taelyn choices about where she could sleep at each place we stayed. We brought our pack-n-play and we often had an extra bed in the room. So we told Taelyn she could sleep in the crib or the big girl bed and Kaelia would take whatever Taelyn didn't choose. Every time, Taelyn wanted the big girl bed. It was really cute because she didn't want to go to sleep, so she had tears in her eyes and her voice was half crying, half whining as she said "big girl bed" over and over again. Then once we got back from vacation, she didn't want to sleep in her crib at all. We finally let her sleep in our "big girl bed" for naps and put a big girl pillow in her crib for bedtime at night. But now Taelyn has her own bed, and she absolutely loves it!

After the bed arrived at our house yesterday, Taelyn and I set off to the store in search of the perfect sheets for her new big girl bed. The kids department had beds already set up with lots of toys and accessories, so Taelyn had a fun time at the store. She then picked out her own sheet set, and we went home to put it on her bed. She loves to play on her bed now as well as sleep.

Kaelia - 7 Months

2011-01-15T00:00:00.007-07:00

Kaelia is now 7 months old and changing every day. She has continued to try new solid foods, eating some rice cereal mixed with a sweet fruit or veggie in both the morning and evening. Her favorite foods so far are butternut squash and bananas. And the food is certainly helping her grow as she is now 17.1 lbs., 26.8 inches long, and has a head circumference of 16.5 inches.

Kaelia has also been growing developmentally. She has mastered sitting up and will go from sitting to all fours. Crawling is just around the corner as she will now rock back and forth and then lunge forward and flop on her belly. And Kaelia can pull herself up to a stand now. She is so eager to get moving so she can follow her sister around. Kaelia also got her first tooth this month.

Her personality is shining more and more every day as well. She loves to be around people (especially Taelyn) and gets mad whenever we leave the room. And she gets very excited when people give her attention. Peek-a-boo is one of her favorite games; she particularly likes when we cover our faces for a long time so she can grab our hands herself. And she loves it when Justin bounces her on the bed and when I dance with her. We call her our little gorilla because she will often beat her fits on her chest and cry out when someone gets her excited. She is actually doing it right now as I write this blog! In general, though, Kaelia is very calm and easy-going.

Christmas in January

2011-01-14T23:59:00.006-07:00

It took us a little while to have Christmas this year; we actually celebrated it two weeks late as we were waiting for Santa. Some friends here in South Africa went to the US for Christmas and brought back all of our presents for the girls, but they did not get here until the week after New Year's. We were also on our trip during Christmas, so it worked out to wait a little bit. But Santa did find us on the road and brought the girls' stockings.

Taelyn and Kaelia had a great Christmas. Thank you to everyone that sent cards, gifts and/or for thinking of us. We miss you all!

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Funny Phrases

2011-01-06T12:30:00.003-07:00

Taelyn’s vocabulary continues to increase, and she has recently started using verbs frequently. Some of her common sentences are pretty cute. Here are a few of our favorites!

1. “I stuck Pooh Bear” (stuck like Pooh Bear) – she says this whenever she gets her body stuck somewhere. She tends to overuse this phrase, though, and says she is stuck any time she just doesn’t want to make the effort to move. She will put her foot in the laundry basket and say she is stuck like Pooh Bear even though she could easily take her foot out.

2. Taelyn: “I so sowy” (I’m so sorry)

Justin: Taelyn, you don’t have to be sorry.

Taelyn: “so so sowy”

We’re not quite sure where Taelyn picked this up, but she likes to say she is sorry in a very sad voice. Sometimes she has a reason to say it, but other times she just says it out of the blue. Lately, she has been saying sorry when she feels a little scared; if she sees a car when we go for little walks, for example, she knows she is supposed to hold one of our hands, and she will quickly grab a hand and say sorry to the car.

3. “Monkey ead cookie book” (Monkey read the cookie book) – I asked Taelyn if she wanted to read with me the other day, and she said this. She then got her stuffed monkey and the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and started to “read” the book to the monkey. After a few minutes of this, she also got out her Wall-E, lined him up with Monkey, and read to both of them.

4. “Kae-ya pay monkey” (Kaelia play with the monkey) – Taelyn has been trying to incorporate her sister with play time much more. She will take toys like the stuffed monkey, put them on Kaelia’s belly, and then tell Kaelia to play with it. Kaelia, of course, loves any attention that her sister gives her.

5. “daw zeba” (draw zebra) – at least once a day, Taelyn will take out her crayons and paper to “draw” a zebra. She scribbles all over the paper and says over and over again that she is drawing a zebra. Then she will sometimes draw Wall-E and Eve, but the zebra is by far her favorite.

6. “sippy, oh sippy” – this is Taelyn’s way of looking for her sippy cup when she can’t find it. She will call for it as she wanders around the house looking for it. The phrase also changes to anything that she is looking for (“blankie, oh blankie”). Now, if Justin or I mention anything like “where is ______?” Taelyn will immediately start searching the house with her catch phrase. She is so helpful, and sometimes she actually finds what we are looking for!

Some other words that Taelyn frequently uses are: eat, ucky (yucky), Eemo (Nemo), Eh-mo (Elmo), and peese (please with extra emphasis on the ee).

The Garden Route

2011-01-03T12:22:00.010-07:00

We just got back from a trip to the Garden Route, along the southern coast of South Africa From Port Elizabeth toward Capetown. It was an awesome trip! First, we traveled to a town called Knysna. This is a great town with lots of activities and restaurants. We began the adventure at an elephant park where we drove down a long road that took us to a large group of elephants, lounging around in the middle of a natural, open field. Once the elephants saw us coming, they migrated over, and we fed them from a bucket of food. Guides for the park were nearby to make sure we were safe and that the elephants did not get scared. When the elephants had enough to eat, they simply walked off and went about their day. That is when one of the guides came over to our family and had us follow the elephants, telling us all about the history of those particular elephants and information about elephants in general along the way. We got to pet them and get pictures with them as well. It was a fantastic interactive experience with such a large creature.

While in Knysna, we also visited a wild cat park where we got to see African cats such as leopards, caracal, serval, and cheetah. The park was sectioned off by different pens, holding the different types of cats. While we were not allowed to take the kids in a couple of the pens, most of them were open to us as long as we kept the girls in our arms. Some of the cats were very friendly while others were a bit intimidating. The serval cats, for example, were so eager to visit with us, that one in particular kept coming toward us and brushing up against our legs. He especially liked Justin and would weave in between his legs over and over again. The caracal cats were not as inviting, though. One of those cats also brushed up against our legs and then continued to "play" with Justin's toes. The guide had to step in because apparently the caracal could rip his entire toe off! We quickly left that pen after learning this news. The final pen was full of cheetahs, and this was the most thrilling part of the day. The kids were not allowed in, so the guide took Justin and I in one at a time. I entered first, and we set off searching for the cheetahs. We came across two of them laying down side by side, purring so loud that is sounded more intimidating than affectionate. Then the guide told me to walk in between the cheetahs and crouch behind one of them (all of the actions we were told NOT to do in the other pens!). I followed his instructions as my heart was racing, and then one of the cheetahs got up and started to briskly walk away. I was then told to run and follow him. After he stopped, I knelt down next to him and was able to pet him. By this point, we could hear the kids from the other side of the fence, and the cheetah immediately started his "hunting mode." He crept closer to the fence with his eyes on the target and certainly looked like he was hunting his prey. There is a reason why children are not allowed in the pen! Justin went in to the pen next and knelt down next to the cheetah that was not interested in eating our children. The overall experience provided a bit of a rush at times and was a great close encounter with some wild animals.

Our next stop on the trip was Outshoorn, and this was one of the major highlights. We went to an ostrich farm for a hands-on experience with these large birds. First, they took us to the incubator where we saw the eggs waiting to be hatched and then went to the newborn pen, filled with tiny little ostriches. Then we got to feed some adult ostriches, and this was really neat. Some of the ostriches would peck at our hands a little too roughly while others were pretty mild. Taelyn thought the whole experience was hilarious, and then she even got to feed one! The tour moved right along to the next station: ostrich riding! This is something that we have wanted to do since before we ever came to South Africa, and our expectations were not let down. Both Justin and I rode separate ostriches throughout a small pen and had a blast. After riding, we saw the pros show us how it was done as some jockeys raced a few of the ostriches on a small race track. Next, the guide took us to the breeding camp where a male and female ostrich took turns sitting on their eggs. The guide shooed the female off the eggs, and we got our picture taken on top of them; we learned that one egg is about 24 chicken eggs put together and can hold around 400 lbs! To finish the tour, we ate at the farm's cafe and had their specialty: ostrich egg omelet and ostrich burger. It was pretty tasty.

After Oudtshoorn, we traveled to a small town called Graaf Reinet, home of one of South Africa's many national parks. There were many monkeys, baboons, springbok, bleesbok, and some beautiful landscape. The rest of the town was a bit of a ghost town, though, because we were there on Christmas day. We were lucky to even find a place for dinner!

Finally, we finished our trip back in Port Elizabeth. The main attraction was Addo Elephant Part - a completely different elephant experience than in Knysna. This park was set up more like a safari park that we drove through, looking for any wildlife we could find. At one point, Justin had to slam on the brakes because out of no where, an elephant came out on to the road. We saw lots of elephant herd in the wild here along with a warthog, water buffalo carcass, and dung beetles the size of a human hand.

Our trip to the Garden Route was the best trip we have taken in South Africa so far! Here are some pictures and videos to recap the experience.

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Season's Greetings!

2010-12-18T03:01:00.001-07:00

Girls Gone Wild

2010-12-17T00:31:00.007-07:00

Taelyn was in the mood to entertain the other day, and entertain she did! She started off by performing a little rhyme that she learned from Toddler Time in Colorado about bees. The rhyme was obviously not enough of a performance for her because she immediately started running around and acting silly. Eventually, she crashed in to the wall, fell on the floor, and then got back up and started running again. Later she added some words to the whole ordeal and started saying "dada," "mama," "T," "Kae-ya"; apparently she was listing off the people that were in the room with her. But after that she also started rambling "ucky bu" (yucky bug) for no reason. To top it all off, she then started throwing a ball at my head! Taelyn was a riot, and we were able to catch it all on video. Only the first few minutes are displayed here, but she actually continued on in this manner for another five minutes.

We also were finally able to record Taelyn singing the Winnie the Pooh song. For anyone that may not have heard the song lately, some of the lyrics are:

A donkey name Eeyore is his friend
There's Kanga and little Roo
Rabbit and Piglet and there's Owl
But most of all Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh
Fuzzy little wuzzy all stuffed with fluff
He's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh
Willy nilly silly old bear

Taelyn picks out most of the main words from the song in this video!

Kaelia's 1st Feeding

2010-12-13T11:51:00.004-07:00

Kaelia started solid foods today, and she did very well. She made a little face at first to try something new and completely different from what she is used to. She quickly started to get involved with the feeding process, though, by grabbing the spoon with a grip too strong to pry the spoon away. Then when I let go of the spoon altogether, she started feeding herself! It looks like meal times will not be too big of struggle to get Kaelia to eat. Here is the moment caught on video. (Try to ignore the background sound - Taelyn was watching Finding Nemo, and it's a little distracting!)

Kaelia - 6 Months

2010-12-13T11:50:00.009-07:00

Kaelia has continued to grow this past month; she is now 16.3 lbs., 26 inches long, and has a head circumference of 16.3 inches. While she learned to roll from front to back at the start of the month, Kaelia's primary motor growth has been in sitting up. She has always loved this position and wanted to be held and placed in her bumbo this way. Now that she can do the task on her own, she wants nothing to do with laying down any more. And Kaelia's favorite part about sitting up is that she can interact with her sister more - basically this means she can try to pull Taelyn's hair and take her toys away!

Not only are Kaelia's stomach muscles getting stronger, but her legs are stronger too. When she is not in a sitting position, Kaelia likes to be in a standing position with some help, of course. She is grasp on to our fingers to keep herself from falling over, and stand on her little legs with ease. We even got her to hold on the coffee table and stand on her own! It is truly amazing to see how strong her legs are.

Aside from Kaelia's physical development this month, her personality has continued to sparkle. She still loves to laugh and smile, and she will often blow bubbles or make raspberry sounds with her lips; Taelyn gets a big kick out of this, so Kaelia will perform these little tricks to entertain her sister.

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Thanksgiving Weekend

2010-12-11T23:04:00.003-07:00

We had a couple of days off of school for Thanksgiving, so we decided to take a little road trip down south to the ocean. Before leaving, though, the school had an International Day celebration where everyone came dressed to represent their own countries and marched in a parade in sections of the different countries. I brought the girls up to school that day, and we all marched together in our red, white, and blue. It was a very nice celebration.

The next day, headed south to a small diving town called Umkomaas. We stayed in a great little cottage with a swimming pool and a big back yard for Taelyn to run around. One day while Taelyn and I were hanging out outside, we noticed that there was a mango tree in the yard. So we went to investigate and see if there were any ripe mangoes to pick. As we got closer and closer to the tree, mangoes kept falling down, nearly missing our heads. We looked up and found several monkeys in the trees that were trying to hit us with the mangoes! Eventually the monkeys decided to leave us alone, and Taelyn loved to see them every day. We soon discovered that they were a family with two little babies that would hold on to an adult monkey's belly every time they moved about the trees.

Most of the time while in Umkomaas we just relaxed, but Justin and I also went scuba diving over a couple of days. Depending on what sources you read, Umkomaas is ranked in the top 5 or 10 diving spots in the world. My diving experience definitely lived up to these expectations. I saw many sharks and at one point was just a few feet above one. They were large and harmless. The diving instructor found a shark tooth during our dive that he gave to me under water. I also saw huge sea turtles and again, came very close to one, and I saw lots of interesting types of fish and coral. It was an amazing dive - the best I have ever had. Justin, however, did not have the same experience. He struggled with some ear issues, and his dive site was not as eventful as the one that I went to (we went separately from one another so one person was with the kids while the other person went diving). He had to end his diving short for the weekend and unfortunately did not get the same experience that I had.

We also took the girls to the ocean during our trip. It was our first time ever going to the Indian Ocean and Kaelia's first time at any ocean. We were not dressed to swim, but I dangled her legs in the waves; she seemed to really like it. Taelyn could not say the same thing, though. At first she liked the beach and the waves. But then when a wave came crashing in and knocked her down, she did not have a good experience any more.

The entire weekend was very relaxing and calm, and we were happy to see a new part of South Africa. It truly is a beautiful country.

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Kaelia's 1st Swim

2010-11-15T09:06:00.008-07:00

We took Kaelia swimming for the first time today. Taelyn loves to swim in our little pool across the street, and Kaelia loves to participate in anything that Taelyn does. So we got the girls dressed in their little bathing suits and decided to go for a swim since it was a pretty hot day.

Kaelia loved the water! I started her off by sitting her on my lap and dangling her feet in the water. She kept inching forward and trying to lunge right off my lap, so I put her entire body in the cold water (pools are not heated here), and she loved it. I think she especially liked "standing" next to Taelyn while I held her so she could feel like she was just like her big sister. Taelyn loved having Kaelia in the water too. She came over to pat Kaelia's belly from time to time and tried to impress Kaelia by showing her all her "big kid" swim moves. This entailed jumping up in down in the water and splashing. Taelyn even got a little carried away and went under water a couple of times. She is really good at holding her breath when this happens and then thinks it is funny to blow the water out of her mouth and off her face.

Taelyn - 18-21 Months

2010-11-15T09:05:00.007-07:00

Taelyn has been growing as usual over the last three months, both physically and intellectually. She is now 25.6 lbs., and 32 inches tall. She has continued to slim down in baby fat while growing in length.

Taelyn's interest in the alphabet has certainly not decreased. She now knows all of the letters while only a few of them are still difficult for her to say (S, V, and W). Whenever capital letters are visible (on TV, road signs, books, building signs, etc.), Taelyn will shout out some of the letters with enthusiasm. She also understands that letters come together to make words and has been working on writing her letters. This actually means that she scribbles some lines on her paper and says "T" to show that she just drew a "T." It's pretty cute!

Two and three word sentences are now a regular part of Taelyn's vocabulary while she will attempt to also say more than three words if she is repeating a phrase that we say. And Taelyn likes to sing songs as well. Her favorites are the Winnie the Pooh song and the Elmo song. For the Winnie the Pooh song, she will sing "ah na ah na Pooh, ah na ah na, stu uh uh" which translates to "Winnie the Pooh all stuffed with fluff."

Taelyn has recently started saying the word "no" as well. As of right now, she says it to be cute or funny - not to be difficult. Sometimes when I ask her if she wants to get her diaper changed, she will smile at me, blush, and say "Oh" (that's her way of saying "no") so that she can get a response out of me. I of course act like I am shocked that she said "no" and she thinks that she did something really funny.

Aside from the verbal growth, Taelyn has also become very affectionate over the last few months. She loves to gives hugs and kisses and tell us that she loves us. Whenever she talks about love, she gives herself a hug and says "oh oo, mama" or "oh oo, dada" for "love you mama, love you dada." And she loves to give Kaelia hugs and kisses too. This also extends to her favorite toys (Elmo, dog, any Pooh character, pig) and the pictures inside of her books.

Taelyn is going through a very exciting time in life as she learns to communicate and do things on her own, and we are enjoying every minute of it! Here is a little slideshow to capture some of her best moments these last three months.

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Kaelia - 5 Months

2010-11-12T23:23:00.008-07:00

This past month has gone by fast, and I can't believe Kaelia is already 5 months. She has grown significantly this month, now weighing 15.7 lbs with a length of 25.8 inches and a head circumference of 15.8 inches. She barely gained any weight last month, but she certainly made up for this month by packing on two extra pounds - and it shows!

Kaelia started off the month with a big fascination with her toes. She loves to grab them and study them - especially when she is wearing pajamas with objects on the feet. She has one pair with bees on the feet that she (and her sister) love to play with. About half way through this month, Kaelia also rolled over for the first time. We were playing Nintendo Wii while we were on vacation in Hermanus. Kaelia was on her stomach just under the TV, and I think she wanted to see what all of the commotion was about. (She doesn't usually fuss much, but always want to be included in what we are doing.) As Kaelia turned her head to get a better view of our crazy Wii antics, she gradually kept moving and moving until she made a complete roll on to her back. Since then, she has rolled over a few more times, but not consistently yet. Kaelia found her voice this month too. She likes to scream from the top of her little lungs just because she can. Whenever she does this, she is in a great mood and smiles along as she screams.

Kaelia continues to admire her sister every day. She often will reach out and try to touch Taelyn's arm or pull her hair. During bath time, Kaelia loves to kick her sister over and over again, and Taelyn doesn't mind at all; we are rather surprised too because Kaelia has a pretty powerful kick!

Trick or Treat!

2010-10-30T13:21:00.004-06:00

We just went on our first trick-or-treating experience as a family tonight, and we had such a good time. Kaelia was an M&M which was quite fitting for her because she often makes the same expression on her face that the M&M guy makes on her onesie. Taelyn was Winnie the Pooh because he is one of her favorite characters these days. When we went to the costume shop to pick out an outfit, she saw the Pooh costume and immediately started saying him name over and over. Then when she tried it on, she didn't want to take off; she walked all around the store staying "Pooh" in her costume. Everyone else in the store certainly seemed to be entertained.

During our trick-or-treating extravaganza, Taelyn did a very good job of saying "trick or treat" before getting her candy (it actually sounded more like "ticky tee") and "thank you" afterward ("tay tee"). And the fact that she got candy every time she said "trick or treat" motivated her even more! When we were done, she wouldn't give up her candy bucket.

Kaelia also did very well as her sister went from house to house. She sat in the stroller, smiling as people admired her while passing by.

It was also fun to see how festive the houses were that participated in the trick-or-treating. They went all-out in decorations and setting the mood of Halloween. While one house had a smoke and bubble maker, others even had haunted rooms or pathways that we had to follow to get to the candy. We all had a wonderful time!

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October Break in Hermanus

2010-10-25T12:01:00.006-06:00

Last week was our October holiday where we spent a week in Hermanus, South Africa. It is a quaint town about 1.5 hours south of Capetown. Directly up against the ocean, we stayed in a beautiful 10-person house with a small group of people from our school where we spent most mornings watching wales out at sea. Hermanus is the #1 spot in the world to go wale watching.

Justin also took a trip to go shark cage diving. He was placed in a cage off the side of a boat as lots of chum was thrown in to the water to bait the great white sharks. Then when a shark came by, Justin ducked in to the water in snorkeling gear to see the shark come inches from his body. It was quite the thrill-seeking experience.

We spent a day in Capetown as well where the main focus was climbing Table Mountain. This is a decent hike that normally takes the average person about 2.5 to get to the top. Justin decided to run the trail while I took the girls up the cable car; to both of our surprise, Justin actually beat us to the top by running the trail in 30 minutes! Once we met up, he took the girls for a walk at the top of the mountain while I went for a run amongst the trails there. We witnessed some amazing views, although the fog came in quickly and ruined the visibility.

Another highlight of our trip was visiting local wineries in Hermanus. The town is very well-known for its vineyards and wine. We spent multiple afternoons going from winery to winery, trying some samples and having some lunch. The landscape was impressively beautiful as well.

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Kaelia - 4 Months

2010-10-13T07:14:00.007-06:00

Kaelia had her 4 Month doctor's appointment today. She has not gained much weight since last month (13.8 lbs. now), but she has jumped in length (24.8 inches) and head circumference (15.7 inches). Another physical feature that has emerged this month is with her hair. It is getting longer every week with a couple of curly strands.

Kaelia has been quite fascinated with her hands this month. She loves to stare at them, suck them, and manipulate random objects with them. Sometimes this even includes her sister's hair. Kaelia also had her first laugh. While sitting in her bouncer, I started singing "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar," and when I shouted out "Kaelia," she opened up a huge grin and let out a few giggles. The more I sang the song, the more she laughed! Several days later, I was able to record her cute little chuckles.

ABC's & 123's

2010-10-08T23:49:00.003-06:00

Taelyn has been learning the alphabet and to count this past month. With her counting, she is simply reciting numbers up to five, but it is certainly a start. If we start off by saying "1," then she will respond "2." Sometimes it takes a little prodding on our part, but she will count up to five.

Taelyn understands alphabet recognition even better. She likes to spot letters on various items like her blocks, games that we have in the house, and on her alphabet puzzle. She seems to have mastered B, C, D, E, O, T, X, Y, and Z so far and continues to learn more and more letters every week. And thanks to her puzzle, she has even begun to pair letters with objects. This morning, she just said "D duck" and "O octopus" (octopus is a tough word for her, though, so it didn't exactly sound like it should - but we know what she's trying to say).

I know all parents think that their child is a genius, but we really do feel like Taelyn is taking on her numbers and alphabet earlier than most toddlers. And the fact that she loves learning with her puzzle and will initiate the learning is exciting. Who knows? Perhaps she will know the entire alphabet by the time she is two!

Kaelia - 3 Months

2010-09-18T23:02:00.012-06:00

The best way to describe our little Kaelia this past month is with one work: smiles! She smiles all the time: when she wakes up, when she sees Mommy, Daddy, or Taelyn, when she eats, when she plays on her playmat. It is a joy to see her happy side all the time.

Kaelia is now 13.4 lbs., 24 inches long, and has a head circumference of 15 inches. She reached a couple of "firsts" this past month. She grabbed her first object - a little toy bug that hangs from the handle of her carseat. She had her first bathtime with her sister, and the two girls continue to take a bath together every night. Kaelia also seems to gravitate toward a "lovey" - a Winnie the Pooh blankie that her Grandma Walker gave her. And Kaelia started reading books. She seems quite intrigued with the bright colors and faces.

Taelyn - 15-18 Months

2010-08-17T01:45:00.012-06:00

Taelyn’s past three months have been all about talking, talking, talking. She started speaking again at the start of 15 months and continued non-stop from there. Some of her favorite words include apple (with a heavy emphasis on the “a”), uh-oh, ball, and Abby (from Sesame Street). We have counted well over 20 words, not including animal sounds that she makes when we say the name of an animal (she particularly likes to say” baa” for sheep and “reow, reow” for cat, and our favorite is her “roar” for lion that she just started saying after we visited the Lion Park this past weekend). Just recently, Taelyn also used two words together: “wa ba” for water bottle, and she said “Hi Da” when she saw her daddy enter in to the car.

Activities that Taelyn loves to partake in are playing with a ball, going to a playground, playing with older toddlers, dancing, reading her books, and watching Sesame Street and Veggie Tales. Some of her favorite books are Ten Apples Up on Top and Spot Goes to the Park. And when we start up Veggie Tales, she gets very excited and starts to dance, sing, and yell with enthusiasm. After she has finished watching Sesame Street, she also gets a little hyper as she watches the different characters do their own segments of dancing. She has her own way of announcing which character will come on to dance next. For Big Bird, she yells “Ba bir,” and “Eeee” for Burt and Ernie. She makes a very raspy “uh” sound over and over for Cookie Monster because that is how his laugh sounds. She yells out “Abby” with a very high pitch when Abby comes on, and for Elmo, she either says “aye, yi, yi, yi” which is her way of singing the Elmo’s World song or she just screams at the top of her lungs because she is so excited to see him.

Taelyn also started to tickle this past month. She loves to dig her little fingers under someone’s chin and say “ticka ticka ticka ticka.” She is actually quite good at, and it does really tickle. Our favorite is when she does this to Kaelia. It’s pretty cute.

At her 18 month doctor’s appointment, Taelyn weighed 22.7 lbs. She has grown taller since then (about 32 inches), but her weight is actually less than her 15 month check-up as she loses more and more baby fat. And now Taelyn is officially finished with her baby wellness check-ups.

Our internet is pretty shady here, so I am not sure if Taelyn's Smilebox will appear below. If you do not see it, there should at least be a small white rectangular box to click on. Please send me an email if you have any problems viewing it. Enjoy!

The Lion Park

2010-08-17T01:43:00.009-06:00

We had our first safari experience this past weekend as we ventured over to the Lion Park, only 5 miles away from our house. It was an amazing adventure. First, we drove throughout the fields and found zebras, springbok, blesbok, gemsbok, jackals, and wildebeest. Then we drove past the hyena and cheetah pens on our way to the lion prides.

There were four separate sections of lion pens that we assumed we would just drive by and see the lions from beyond a fence. But when the guards started to open the fence door and motion up through, we soon learned that we were going to have a close encounter with the lions. Quickly, we rolled our windows back up as two very large white lions strolled on by. In the second pen, about five or six lions were congregated at the door of the fence, waiting for our arrival. As we drove in, they completely surrounded our car, brushing along the side as they walked in circles around us. It was amazing.

After driving through the park, we then headed over to the walking section where we saw more jackals along with ostrich and made our way over to the giraffe feeding area. Taelyn was instantly intrigued by the animals. So we bought a bag of food and let her attempt to feed them. She grabbed the food and stuck her hand out, expecting the experience to be similar to feeding a dog. But then the giraffe’s tongue came down, suctioned to her hand, and then slid off, leaving plenty of saliva behind. She thought this was hilarious and yelped out with excitement. After a few tries, she started to anticipate the tongue coming down and sticking to her, so she would through the food toward the giraffe at the last second to try to escape him. She absolutely loved it!

To end the trip, we headed over to the lion cub pen, where we took Taelyn in to pet the lion cubs. At this point, she was a bit tired out from all the excitement over at the giraffe area and wasn’t as interested in the cubs. But Justin and I came in to pet them as well, and we thought they were pretty neat.

Overall, we had a wonderful time on our first safari and are eager to go on larger and longer trips in the near future.

Kaelia - 2 Months

2010-08-17T01:40:00.005-06:00

This past month has been quite eventful for Kaelia as we moved from Colorado to Michigan and then on to South Africa. Kaelia had her first plane rides: Denver to Detroit, Flint to Chicago, Chicago to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), and Abu Dhabi to Johannesburg. She did very well on all of the plane rides, sleeping most of the time.

Kaelia has also been much more alert and awake this month. She likes to be around her family and just watch us interact with her and with each other. She had her first smile this month as I talked to her and asked her to give a big smile for mommy. It is a beautiful, big grin! And she started making cooing sounds this past which she usually does along with a smile. Kaelia also has some stare downs with her sister; they are both quite curious about each other. Kaelia is nursing every 3-4 hours now with one longer stretch at night. She will sleep about 7 hours at night before her first feeding (sometimes more, sometimes less), and then sleeps another 3 hours before she is hungry again and awake for the morning.

I just took Kaelia to her first doctor’s appointment in South Africa for her 2 month checkup. She now weighs 11.7 lbs, is 22.8 inches long, and has a head circumference of 15 inches.

Arrival In South Africa

2010-07-29T03:46:00.000-06:00

With a potential 40 hour trip ahead of us, we departed for Flint airport last Tuesday afternoon. Our biggest fear was having 4 large suitcases, 2 car seats, a double-wide jogging stroller, 2 carry-ons, a laptop bag, and a diaper bag and that we had 2 airlines, 3 flights, and 3 countries to bridge. We thought between both airlines and international and domestic flights we would face anywhere from $150 to $1000 dollars in baggage fees. To our surprise, at Flint all of our bags were checked all the way through to Johannesburg, and I stepped over the counter to thank the ticket agent.
Our luck stopped there. Soon the incoming plane was delayed. We boarded our small plane to Chicago and held Taelyn and Kaelia throughout, finally making it to O’Hare. But we landed on the furthest runway possible from our gate, and at perhaps the world’s largest airport, that meant a more than 25 minute taxi and full speed before the gate. A mad dash to the international terminal and to security (where we were stopped and questioned like terrorists for 10 minutes) left us without time to eat, which we desperately wanted with more than 25 hours of travel ahead. But after clearing passport control, we stood in the line that didn’t move. And this is not figuratively speaking. We watched people who entered behind us clear security more than 50 people ahead of us. Our line was incredibly slow. We did clear and in a mad dash to the gate we arrived exactly 30 minutes prior to departure. No problem, except they were going to close the doors. We pleaded, and after a 10 minute SNAFU with re-printing our boarding passes, we were last on the plane. Our baggage – questionable.
(Note: between the ticket scan and the airplane door there were 10 police officers. Why? Perhaps this was a Middle Eastern airlines going to a Middle Eastern city. Yet when we reached Abu Dhabi, there were no officers, no need to remove shoes, liquids, and laptops at security, no need to take the baby out of the Bjorn or stroller, and yet no problems. Perhaps terrorism is accomplishing its goal – to make people scared.)
Etihad Airlines was plush. We had a bulkhead, a bassinet, individual TVs with on-demand video, nice meals, wine, and although we were in a row of 4 seats across the middle, no one else showed. So why was this the worst flight known to man? Kaelia just did not want to lie down. Taelyn wanted desperately to run in the isle. It was about 10pm, so we hoped both would pass out. No such luck. Both kids cried and would not rest. After several hours of fighting it, we dosed Taelyn with Benadryl. She was not phased in the first 20 minutes, but after 45 minutes she would trip on objects on the floor, land face down, then look up and laugh before plunging head-first down again. It was like a drunken sorority chick during freshman rush. But it took hold and soon she was out on the floor. After 2 hours, she woke in a night terror scream that took 30 minutes to calm down. At 4am, we were not the most popular row on the plane.
Meanwhile, the flight attendants were coming by to tell people in the bulkhead the kids could not sleep on the floor. They made arguments for safety reasons and protocol. We hid T and continued our stupor. But finally we were caught and I pulled her from the floor where she sat crunched in the seat (the bulkhead armrests do not go up). After a while, I just held her since it looked so awful. Taelyn slept for about 4 hours of the 14 hour trip, Sarah in and out for a few, and I logged 1 whole hour (but saw Brooklyn’s Finest and most of Avatar along with 5 episodes of How I Met Your Mother).
A 2-hour layover allowed us to chat with new teachers on the same flight, and then we were off for another 9-hour stint. The plan was to drug T on this flight but she had napped in the layover and au natural was the route. It didn’t last. I grabbed an empty row in the back and sat with Taelyn while Sarah had Kaelia in the bulkhead. After hours of corralling, wrestling, TV, and reading, Sarah came back and was able to get Taelyn to lie down. I grabbed one hour before being woke by T, and together they sat the rest of the flight.
The family arrived and claimed bags. All that was left was the umbrella stroller. But where was it? As Sarah walked off to ask for help, I heard a unique clicking noise. I turned to see a brown stroller wheeling away by a family. After informing Sarah, who chased the family down, we all discussed the ownership of the stroller. The possessing group claimed that a gate agent had given them the stroller. We, however, argued that it was not an Etihad labeled stroller, that it was carrying in the sack purple size 6 kid’s flip-flops, yet they were pushing a 3-year-old boy, and the tag on it said “Walker.” Lawyered.
We met our group outside customs, and after introductions and niceties, loaded the busses. After all was in, Robyn, my new boss asked, “So, no car seats?” Bugger. Those were still probably rotating on the oversized baggage rack. I sprinted back in to be told that I could not enter through the exit. I ran to the entrance, but without a boarding pass could not go through security. Back to the exit. Still no. Then I found the employee security and a man went to find an Etihad Airline agent. Things move slowly here. After 20 minutes, a man escorted me through where, sure enough, those car seats sat. And we were off.
Pictures and a story of the house will be in the next post, but so far, South Africa just about rocks. We were able to get everything we want (at what price is the problem), but can move around easily and the weather is fantastic. The people are very nice and although mostly black, you see white people spotted everywhere. The accent is like a cross between British and Jamaican, so sometimes people say something and you pass it off as another language (there are 11 official languages here not to mention the Germans, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Asian, and others around). But then they repeat it to you and you realize that all along they were speaking English. Our impression that South Africa is not Africa is true. This place is very modern with a nice “overseas” flavor about the roads and people. We are impressed. Stay tuned for the amazing house and school we are in.

Goodbye Colorado

2010-07-14T11:34:00.002-06:00

The Uhaul is now on the road headed toward Michigan, and I will be flying with the girls later today. We have had some really good times during our year here in Colorado and will miss some things quite a bit. We will especially miss.....

1. The mountains - the view was absolutely amazing from our balcony and we could never get enough of the spectacular sights any time we were heading west.

2. Jack Quinn's Pub Run - one of the highlights of our week as we met up with friends, ran a 5K from the pub, and hung out afterwards for some good food and drinks.

3. The trails - numerous trails were available from our front door along with many more just a short drive away.

4. Toddler Time - the library district has put together an amazing program for little ones in the Springs that helped Taelyn and I get out of the house, play games, sing songs, and make some nice friends.

5. Leah & Steve - this year would not have been very fun without our really good friends, and we will miss them most of all!

Kaelia - 1 Month

2010-07-14T11:33:00.001-06:00

Wow, I can't believe one month has gone by since our little Kaelia made her appearance in to the world! The time has flown by, and so has her itty bitty size. At her doctor's appointment yesterday, she measured 9 lbs 10 oz, and 21 inches This puts her in the 50-60th percentile for both categories.

Kaelia is currently on a 3-4 hour feeding schedule and doesn't ever really cry. Instead, she makes little squawking noises when she's hungry or wants her binky. It looks like she will have brown eyes, she has long, skinny fingers and toes, and she is starting to lose her dark hair. So we are now waiting to see what color her hair will soon be and whether she will have crazy curls like her sister.

Being A Big Sister

2010-06-26T15:09:00.008-06:00

As I mentioned in the last post, life has not been too different for Taelyn now that she is a big sister since Kaelia sleeps most of the day, but there certainly are sister moments. Taelyn loves when we ask her to point to specific body parts, and now there is a tiny body to compare to. She will sometimes run over to the baby, point, and yell "Bah" for baby. Then she will point to Kaelia's nose, eyes, mouth, fingers and toes. Her favorite body part, though, is a belly button, and Taelyn is fascinated by Kaelia's stump where a belly button should be!

Justin was able to capture some of Taelyn's pointing on camera, so here is a quick look at Kaelia and mommy's noses.

Kaelia's Nose

Mommy's Nose

Meet Baby Kaelia!

2010-06-23T09:50:00.006-06:00

About six months ago, Justin and I were invited to our good friends, Jason and Erin's, wedding set for June 12th. From the start, we committed to the wedding and joked that we would definitely both be there unless the baby came that day. Well wouldn't you know that our little Kaelia decided to make her appearance in to this world on just that day!

It started the day before when we drove up to Denver to attend a pre-wedding BBQ at Jason's house. It took about three hours to get there through Denver traffic when it should have taken only an hour and a half. As we left our house, I felt a few contractions but nothing major. About halfway through the drive, I realized that I was in labor... but I knew after Taelyn's birth that I still had some time. So we still went to the BBQ, had some food, and talked with friends for a while.

We made it home, took a little nap, and I woke up at 12:30 am in active labor. Everything went by fairly quickly after that. Our friends, Leah and Steve, came by at 3:45 am to watch Taelyn so we could get to the hospital. We arrived there a little after 4:00, and Kaelia Elizabeth was born at 5:06 am. She was quickly measured at 7 lbs, 2 oz and 19 inches long and then went through a medical exam where she checked out perfectly healthy.

Since Kaelia's birth, we have been adjusting very smoothly as a family of four. Taelyn doesn't notice the baby too much since Kaelia sleeps most of the day. From time to time, though, Taelyn will bring little presents over to her baby sister and set them in her lap - Kaelia's baby hats and socks and some of Taelyn's toys like blocks and rubber ducky. Taelyn also likes to point to her sister's nose, eyes, mouth, etc., but we are working with her to point gently which doesn't always happen.

Thank you to all that have been thinking of us lately. We can't wait for you to meet our little Kaelia!

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No Baby Yet

2010-06-10T16:39:00.002-06:00

I am now at 38 weeks and still no baby! Taelyn had already arrived by this time during her pregnancy, and my doctor thought that this new little one would have by now too. At my doctor's appointment today, I found that I am not much different than last week: 2.5 cm dilated and still 75% effaced. And I haven't really had any contractions the last several days - unlike Memorial weekend where I thought the baby might arrive before June. I guess our baby just wants to hang on in there a little bit longer!

Wildlife Walk

2010-06-04T20:29:00.006-06:00

Last night, we decided to go for a little walk down the street to take Taelyn to the playground. As we were walking out the door, I quickly grabbed our little camera and threw it in the stroller just in case there were some candid moments at the playground. When Justin saw this, he thought I was silly and asked if I expected to see a bear on the walk. Ironically, after making it about 400 meters down the road, we did actually see a bear! A momma bear and two little cubs were hanging out in someone's yard on our street and had apparently been doing so since about 10:30 that morning. We did not get too close because we were only walking and not in a car, but we could still see how massive the mother was. And of course I had my camera. Justin took a few pictures from a distance. I tried to crop the best one to zoom in a bit; it's are not real clear, but you get the picture.

After encountering the bear, we continued on to the playground and saw three deer as well. So we took some more pictures. Justin was even able to climb up on a rock within 10 meters of the deer to take a picture, and they are so docile and familiar with humans that they didn't move at all.

We obviously had quite the wildlife experience in just the short half mile walk to the playground!

Any Day Now!

2010-06-01T12:20:00.003-06:00

I am now 37 weeks pregnant and officially full term! At my doctor's appointment last week, I was about 1.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced, and now I am 2 cm and 75 % based on this week's appointment. The doctor has predicted that the baby will come within the week. We are hoping that this is the case and that we are not just going on false hope, but only our little girl really knows when the time will come to enter in to the world. We are just excited to meet her!

Taelyn - 15 Months

2010-05-17T20:38:00.006-06:00

Taelyn had her 15 month check-up at the doctor today. She is now 23 lbs., 31 inches long, and has a head circumference of 18.3 inches. Her weight is average for her age, and her length and head are just above average. Our healthy little girl is also a great eater, feeding herself each meal to just about anything we put in front of her: various veggies and fruits, cereal, sandwiches, chili, chicken, etc. She no longer drinks from a bottle during the day, either.

Developmentally, Taelyn has grown quite a bit during the last few months. Her receptive vocabulary is very high. We can ask her to go get a toy and bring it to us or to point to a specific object and she will complete the task with no problem. One of my favorites is asking her where mommy's baby is, and she will point to my belly. Taelyn will also "help" us out quite a bit by closing the door when we get home, closing the dishwasher door, or bringing us the TV remote. Of course, she is usually the one who tries to get in to the dishwasher first and takes the remote to begin with, but at least she is quick to "help" out afterward.

Walking is now a very big part of Taelyn's life. If she is awake by time Justin goes to work in the morning, she likes to "walk daddy to work" by walking with him to the end of the hall of our apartment complex. And when we leave to go somewhere, Taelyn must walk by herself and push the elevator door to get downstairs. Shopping for groceries has obviously been a little tough these days because she only wants to walk and will constantly try to stand up and get out of the cart!

Music is still one of Taelyn's passions as well as reading her books. She loves to sing along with songs that she knows, and she still is a dancer. She now dances by swaying back and forth from foot to foot, sometimes accompanied by stomping. And she enjoys jumping too! While playing with a mini piano/music station that she got for Christmas, Taelyn will play a song, hit the drum button, and sing in the microphone. She also likes to hand the microphone to me so we can take turns singing. It's pretty cute. And Taelyn is often found with a book in her hand. She will go to her room to read her books by herself. When she wants to read a book with us, she will then bring one out to the living room and hand it to us to read to her. She is very good at pointing to whatever picture we specify. She particularly likes reading about and pointing to: Curious George, Clifford, Walle, balloons, babies, ducks, teddy bears, and balls.

It has been such a joy watching Taelyn learn and grow throughout these last few months. She is such a happy little girl. Here are a few pictures we have captured during this time.

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Congratulations Dr. Walker!

2010-05-10T08:20:00.008-06:00

After six long years of hard work, Justin just graduated from his doctoral program at the University of Northern Colorado. The ceremony was this past weekend where Justin was called up on stage as "Dr. Walker" and was formerly "hooded." It was a very special moment. And to help celebrate the accomplishment, Justin's dad came out for the ceremony.

Here are a few pics of the day, including some precious Taelyn time with her Grandpa Walker.

Recent Taelyn Anecdotes

2010-05-01T20:31:00.004-06:00

Taelyn had a few funny moments lately that I thought were worth sharing. First, I took her to Toddler Time last week where there is a mix of young toddlers like Taelyn fresh out of Baby Time and some older toddlers who can talk, sit at a table, draw, etc. Taelyn loves to follow the older toddlers around, and they seem to want nothing to do with a little kid following them. So last week, Taelyn came up to an older toddler sitting on a chair, put her arm on the back of his chair, and started talking to him with as many made up words that she could possibly muster. She had a huge smile on her face and was so excited to talk to this boy. After her long speech, he took one look at her and in an irritated voice said, "Please get your hand off my chair" and then turned his back on her. Poor Taelyn! But despite being turned down, there are other kids that love to play with her too.

The next story took place last night when we had a baby-sitter watch Taelyn while we went out with some friends. Everyone came over to our place to start, and Taelyn was in high spirits with all of the commotion going on. When the baby-sitter showed up, she showed her some books and hung out while we finished getting ready to go. Then when it was time to go, we said bye-bye to Taelyn. This excited her even more; she thought she was coming with us! So she waved and said bye-bye to the baby-sitter and headed straight for the door to leave. She was not so thrilled, however, when she had to stay behind, but she had a great time playing with the baby-sitter once the initial shock wore off!

Funny Films

2010-04-14T12:03:00.006-06:00

We caught Taelyn on video again during some funny moments. Today on Sesame Street (Taelyn's favorite show!), Elmo talked about jumping and all the different ways that people can jump. So when he started demonstrating, I encouraged Taelyn to jump too, and she tried to do it! I didn't know she knew what jumping meant, but it's amazing to see how much she actually does understand. So the first video is a very brief segment of her jumping.

The next video is of Taelyn during bath time. She recently started stacking all of her toys on the ledge of the tub and yelling as she does so.

Latest Ultrasound

2010-04-14T09:34:00.013-06:00

I had my second (and probably last) ultrasound yesterday at my 30 week check-up. It's weird to only have two ultrasounds this time around when I had one at every appointment in Hong Kong with Taelyn. The baby is now 3 lbs., 3 oz., and everything looks right on track and healthy. We got to see her face quite a bit, but the pictures do not really do it justice.

The last 30 weeks have gone by pretty fast, and now there is only 10 weeks to go (or sooner if this little one comes quicker like Taelyn did)! I am feeling well while my tummy is getting bigger and bigger. Taelyn especially likes using it as a pillow when we snuggle.

Profile Pic with a Hand on the Forehead

This is a vertical shot of the baby's face (left). And here is a mouth/nose pic, looking directly up into the nose (right).

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T20:30:00.027-06:00

We had a very Easter with our friends, Leah and Steve, out here in Colorado. We went to their house and first set up an Easter egg hunt for Taelyn (which really meant we threw a bunch of eggs filled with Cheerios in the center of their yard). Then Justin, Leah, and Steve practiced some softball for their upcoming league. And we later had lamb for dinner. If was a great, relaxing day with beautiful weather. Here are a few candid Taelyn pics from the day.

Taelyn gets her Easter basket with enthusiasm.

She is excited to find some eggs!

But she also has to compete with Chunk to get the eggs.

She puts all of the eggs in her basket....

.... and then takes them all out.

Spring Break in Florida

2010-03-30T22:28:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful time last week in Vero Beach, Florida visiting our good friends and Taelyn's godparents, Adam and Michelle. Here are a few of the things we did:

1. Disneyland - We took Taelyn to the Magic Kingdom, and she had a great time. She especially liked "It's a Small World," the Disney 4-D show, playing in the toddler play areas, and seeing Winnie the Pooh. When he walked by, she instantly pointed at him and said "Doo." During the 4-D show, Taelyn would not put on her 3-D glasses, but she made sure that we had ours on. She also enjoyed when puffs of air would get her in the face during that show.

2. Walking in the Sand - Now that Taelyn is walking, she loved to feel the sand on her feet. We took her to the beach to see the ocean and to multiple playgrounds where she could play in the sand.

3. Playgrounds - Taelyn's favorite part of playgrounds right now is the slide. She loves to go down by herself! She had ample time at various beach playgrounds, and we even took her to Crazy Frogs bouncy houses where they had several different bouncy houses that included slides.

4. Swimming in the Pool - Taelyn recently started swim lessons again, so we practiced her skills in the pool including going under water. It always shocks her a bit to go under, but she never swallows water or cries. Splashing in the water is her favorite, though.

We have captured many of these moments on film and have included them in the scrapbook below. Enjoy!

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Caught on Camera

2010-03-14T09:37:00.004-06:00

We were finally able to capture Taelyn walking on video.

Toddlin' Taelyn

2010-03-07T20:42:00.002-07:00

Our little Taelyn Walker is now walking! She started by taking a couple of steps a few days after her birthday. Then she was eager to hold our hands while she walked around the apartment. Just yesterday, she walked across the room and has been making more and more attempts ever since. It is so special to see her figure this big moment out and to see how excited she gets too!

Taelyn also has two new teeth with two more just around the corner. She just got the top canine teeth, and once the bottoms come in, she will only have her 2-year molars left to go. Taelyn certainly has a full mouth of teeth!

Taelyn - 1 Year

2010-02-18T21:17:00.006-07:00

I can't believe my little baby girl is now a toddler! She had her 1-year doctor's appointment today where she weighed 21 lbs, 12 oz. and measured 29 inches long with a head circumference of 18 inches. She has definitely slimmed down even more this month as she constantly is on the go and is now down to the 60th percentile in weight. We no longer have a chunky baby.

Taelyn's personality has also demonstrated that of a toddler this month. She LOVES when we jump around a corner and yell "Boo" and she loves to play peek-a-boo. She likes to wrestle and be tickled, and she is constantly smiling and laughing, showing off her 12 teeth. Taelyn also enjoys reading books and will pick out the books that she wants to read each night before bed.

Developmentally, Taelyn can now place toys and blocks inside a container and can stack blocks on top of one another. She recently discovered how to place rings around a pole. Every time she does this, she shouts "yea" to congratulate herself. Taelyn has also mastered standing by herself and just took her first two steps today!

Although Taelyn hasn't said any new words yet, she certainly comprehends a great amount. She knows the names of all of the toys that she plays with every day - baby doll, doggie, music, Elmo, Pooh car, etc. She also knows "bath time" and will speed down the hallway to the bathroom each night when I announce that is it bath time. Taelyn also likes to bring specific toys with her in the car. When we instruct her to make sure she holds on to that toy, she consciously keeps a good grip and makes sure she has the toy. And whenever we use the elevator at our apartment complex, she is great little helper in pushing the button.

It seems like Taelyn has grown leaps and bounds this past month in terms of development. Here are a few pictures and videos to capture her toddler spirit!

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Happy 1st Birthday, Taelyn!

2010-02-17T16:22:00.008-07:00

Taelyn had quite the exciting 1st birthday with her Grandma and Grandpa Walker visiting from Michigan. She was so eager to impress them, that she wiped herself out just in time for birthday cake. So her first attempt at eating cake did not go so well, but we tried again the next day when Taelyn was not so tired. It went a little better - she at least tried the cake. Overall, we had a very nice time hanging out, opening presents, and celebrating Taelyn's big triumph of one year. Thank you to all who sent birthday wishes and presents her way!

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The Walkers are Moving to South Africa

2010-02-03T07:38:00.002-07:00

That's right. Johannesburg, South Africa is the next stop on our overseas adventures. Justin just accepted a job at the American International School of Johannesburg as the middle school counselor starting in August. I will stay home with the two little ones for the school year with the exception of a little substitute teaching from time to time if I choose. From what we have heard and seen online, it looks like a great school and a fantastic place to live. We are pretty excited for this new opportunity.

It's A Girl!!!

2010-02-02T10:57:00.005-07:00

We had the big ultrasound last week and found out that we will be having another girl. She was very active during the ultrasound, kicking quite a bit and opening and closing her mouth. Precious!! Here are a couple of our favorite pics of the new little one.

Profile Shot

Thumbs Up

Silly Little Trouble-Maker

2010-01-28T08:39:00.004-07:00

Some of Taelyn's most recent favorite activities:

1. Take each shoe off the shoe rack one by one, followed by dancing.
2. Pull all of the Tupperware out of the Tupperware drawer one by one.
3. Pull the clean, folded laundry out of the laundry basket one by one (can you see a pattern here?).
4. Pick up her toys and drop them over and over again. Or if she is in Pooh car in public, she likes to drop items for me to pick up!

Taelyn has also turned in to a bit of a rebel these days. She knows she is not supposed to play with blinds that cover the glass sliding door. But she will crawl over to that area, reach her hand out like she's going to grab the blinds, and then look at me with a big smirk on her face. If I start to say no, she will immediately grab the blinds and smile. If I look away, she will let go. What a little trouble-maker!

Taelyn has had some pretty silly moments as well. I changed her diaper the other night, and she took off ready to play afterwards before I had time to button her pants back up. So I let her roam with open pants. About a half hour later, Justin was holding her, and went to hoist her up higher when he noticed that he was touching bare butt! We searched the apartment and eventually found that she had taken off her diaper and was running around free for a little while. When we finally discovered this, Taelyn started laughing and thought she was pretty clever and funny!

Taelyn - 11 Months

2010-01-15T20:45:00.005-07:00

Wow, I can't believe Taelyn is just one month away from one year! She has been maturing more and more this past month that she really seems more like a toddler now than a baby. She is up to speaking a total of 6 words and has 11 teeth. When playing at library time and the baby gym every week, Taelyn is not as interested in the baby toys any more and more energetic. She loves to follow the big kids around and laugh, laugh, laugh at their every move. Around our home, she likes to jump up and down a lot while smiling, laughing, and screaming for joy!

Aside from her constant moving, Taelyn also loves to play with some of her new toys from Christmas. She dances daily to Wall-e, carries Elmo around with her every where, splashes all 25 of her duckies in the bath every day, and loves to ride her new Pooh car throughout stores when we are shopping! We get a lot of comments about that one too.

At 21.5 lbs., Taelyn is also 29 inches long and has a head circumference of 19 inches.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-27T18:19:00.005-07:00

We leave for Michigan tomorrow to spend a belated Christmas with our families, but first, here is a glimpse of some of the holiday festivities we had here in Colorado. Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

More Talking and More Teeth

2009-12-17T19:22:00.003-07:00

The last couple of days have been rather eventful. First, Taelyn spoke her third word, "duckie," on Tuesday. She was in the bathtub, playing with her rubber duckie, and after I said the word several times, she started to say "duckie." The next day, we were at some friends' house where Taelyn got to play with their dog. Again, I said the word "doggie" over and over, and then Taelyn said it back as she was looking at the dog. She has known the meaning of these words for a few weeks now, but this is the first time she actually said them.

Since Taelyn is starting to identify words with objects, she loves to read her touch-and-feel baby animal book with us. We look at each animal on the page together while Justin and I say the name of the animal. Taelyn loves to go back and read this book over and over again to learn the names of each animal. Then afterward, I will take out her animal puzzle and ask her to find a specific animal from her book like the bunny. After studying the bunny from her book, she immediately grabs that puzzle piece. It's really neat to see her making these connections.

Today, I also noticed another tooth, totaling nine now. It is up top, but not next to the other four. Instead, it is a couple of spaces down on the right toward the back.

Taelyn - 10 Months

2009-12-15T13:51:00.005-07:00

Taelyn is now 10 months old, measuring 20 lbs., 28.5 inches long, and has a head circumference of 18 inches. Just yesterday, she got two more teeth, making a total of 8 (4 on top, and 4 on bottom). She is still crawling all the time and pulling herself up against furniture and any object she encounters. She loves to walk along these objects and is cautious at times to prevent falling. At the same time, she is a bit more daring moving from object to object. She used make sure she had a hand on each object before moving from one to the next, but now she will take a step without the support of one hand to make it to another object. Taelyn has also improved her hand-eye motor skills. She can take two different toys and bang them against each other.

This past month has been all about dancing! Taelyn absolutely loves to dance and will do so anywhere, anytime: when she stands up against the coffee table, sitting on her knees, when she sees other babies, when she gets excited at the baby gym, and any time she hears music. She especially loves dancing to our singing/dancing Grinch Christmas decoration. We have a great video of this that we will post on our Christmas Smilebox later this month.

Taelyn's personality has also sparkled more and more. She is very affectionate and doesn't like to be left alone very often. She wants Justin or I to be by her side constantly. Though she prefers our company best, she is still fantastic with other people. She even had her first non family friend baby-sitter this month, and she had a blast playing with someone new. Taelyn loves her baby doll, ball, books, puzzles, and Sesame Street. She especially likes the doggie piece of her puzzle because she loves dogs.

First Words

2009-12-07T08:49:00.003-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks, Taelyn has been talking a lot more than before and has actually started saying some of her first words. The first word came after Taelyn had pulled herself up to stand on the coffee table and then fell down. She instantly started crying and crawled straight toward me for comfort. In the midst of tears and moans, she called out "Maaaa" and landed in my lap. A similar situation reoccurred just last night where she called out my name again.

About a week later from the first word, Taelyn was bouncing and playing on Justin's lap when she started saying, "Dad-dy, Dad-dy, Dad-dy" over and over again. Since then, "daddy" is her favorite word, and she says it all the time. She doesn't always associate it with Justin, though. Sometimes her baby doll is daddy, the phone is daddy, and just about anything else she sees can be daddy.

Other than spoken words, we can tell that Taelyn can understand quite a few words as well. Whenever we tell her to give us kisses, she opens her mouth and smacks a big one on our cheeks. She also knows the words "ball" and "baby doll." Just yesterday I told her to go find her ball, and she looks around the room until she spotted and crawled right to it.

It has been really fun watching her figure out language and try out new sounds. On several occasions, we have said a word or two and it sounds like she imitates it afterward. And there are other times where it sounds like she says an entire phrase on her own, but we know this is just a coincidence.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T08:04:00.010-07:00

We had our first Thanksgiving with Taelyn yesterday, and we had a wonderful day together. Now that we are back in the States for Thanksgiving, we were able to revisit some of our favorite traditions. First, we ran the Turkey Trot 5K. Justin ran the race with a friend, and Taelyn and I ran together at a slower pace. I was able to enter in to the stroller division, though, so I competed against anyone else that was running with a stroller. Taelyn and I ended up in second place behind a male stroller runner because they did not separate males and females in this division, and we won a gift certificate to a running store. Taelyn had a great run; she was talking the entire time, saying "bah, bah, bah" which I think was her way of saying "gobble, gobble, gobble"!

After the race, we headed over to a friend's house where we cooked some of our favorite dishes and played a lot of Wii. Taelyn had fun playing with our friend's dog and of course, eating Thanksgiving dinner with everyone. She sat at the table with all of us and dug her hands into anything in front of her. It wasn't before long, though, that her plate ended up on the floor from all of the excitement.

Taelyn - 9 Months

2009-11-17T09:43:00.005-07:00

Taelyn had her 9 Month doctor's appointment this week. She is now measuring 20 lbs., 5 oz., 27.5 inches in length, and a head circumference of 17.9 inches. She is slimming down now that she is crawling and moving around, but she is still in the 76th percentile in weight. Taelyn is a healthy baby!

Taelyn has also mastered crawling now without belly flopping and can pull herself up to a stand from any nearby object. She especially likes to stand up against the coffee table in the living room. Every time she does this, she gives us a big smile because she is so proud of herself and so excited to see the world in a new way.

Guess What This Is?

2009-11-12T19:32:00.002-07:00

That's right, Taelyn is going to be a big sister! I am now 8 weeks pregnant and am due on June 22nd.

More Motorin'

2009-11-12T19:26:00.004-07:00

Taelyn has increased her mobility significantly just in the last week. She was crawling with a little belly flop that kind of resembled "the worm" for several weeks, but now she has mastered a real crawl and loves to motor up and down the hallway. She has also been pulling herself up using small objects, but she was not completely up to a stand before. On Tuesday, she finally pulled herself up to a stand. Justin was sitting on the couch with a bag of tortilla chips, and Taelyn decided that she had to be a part of the action. So she crawled over to the couch, placed her hands on the cushions where Justin was sitting, and pulled herself right up so she could get a better view. SInce then, she won't stop trying to stand with anything in sight: my legs, the coffee table, tv stand, and even the wall.

Needless to say, we have to keep our eyes on her all the time now. She is constantly moving and constantly finding new things to get in to!

Fall Foliage

2009-10-21T13:06:00.025-06:00

We have had a beautiful fall here in Colorado and are enjoying every moment of it since we missed out on this season the last two years. The mountains, water, trails, trees, and falling leaves are priceless. A few days of snow have caused the trees to shed a bit more, though, and we are hoping that it doesn't bring an early end to the fall foliage.

Recently, we have captured some of fall's finer moments that we have witnessed while out on various runs. Here are a few of the views that we have had - all within a few miles away from our home.

On the Move

2009-10-21T07:17:00.002-06:00

Taelyn is now mobile! She started the army crawl on Monday where she dives forward with her arms and then drags her feet behind. It began at baby library time this week when she saw the play mat at the end of the class. The instructor started to lay toys on the mat, and Taelyn was on the move. She lunged right toward the mat, and was the first baby there, playing with the toys. Then I watched her laying in the living room at home on Tuesday with her eye on a bouncy ball. She went after it to attack, but each time she tried, she would push it further away. After about a minute of this, she ended up in the kitchen for the first time. I learned that not only do I have to keep the place baby-safe now, but I also have to keep it clean and vacuumed because Taelyn seemed to find every little crumb tucked under the cracks of the counter-tops!

Taelyn - 8 Months

2009-10-15T16:35:00.005-06:00

Taelyn turned 8 months today, and she is now 20 lbs., 27 inches long, and has a head circumference of 18 inches. This has been a big month for her. Just in the last week, she has gotten two more teeth, making a total of five, and the 6th one is visible but hasn't broken through yet. She is our little jack-o-lantern now! And to celebrate, we carved pumpkins last weekend. Taelyn, of course, spent more time digging her fingers in to the pumpkin and tried to eat the mush.

Taelyn has also been busy moving, moving, moving. She has been rocking on her hands and knees for about a month now (still not quite crawling), and has recently started to straighten her knees while trying to push off of her feet. It looks like she has not mastered what to do with the arms yet. She can also get into a sitting position on her own from a laying position, and she can pull herself up to a stand when using a prop such as stairs.

Her hair has also gotten much thicker this month. We are now using baby shampoo during bath time instead of just bath wash. It won't be long until she can wear little pigtails!

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Taelyn's New Tooth!

2009-09-24T21:19:00.009-06:00

Taelyn got her third tooth today! When looking at her, it is the top right, and it has just barely broken through the gums. She has had quite a few night wakings over the last few weeks, and today I noticed that she was drooling a lot more than usual. I am assuming these were all a result of her new tooth. 3 down, 17 to go!

Wishing Star Farm

2009-09-24T21:19:00.007-06:00

Since we were in China for the last two years, we have unfortunately missed the fall season because the weather is too warm all year round... no leaves changing (or even many trees for that matter), no crisp, fall air, no pumpkins or apple cider. So this year, we have been eager to take advantage of the beautiful fall that Colorado has to offer. To start the season off, we went to a farm last weekend full of lots of animals to pet and feed, slides to ride, hay and corn to play with, a pumpkin patch, and lots of photo opportunities.

Overall, Taelyn was very curious and got excited when she heard the barn yard animals making noises. We have been reading several books about barn yard animals; they have been her favorite types of books lately because she loves to hear Justin and I make the animal sounds. I think she enjoyed hearing those sounds and seeing the animals face to face.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Taelyn - 7 Months

2009-09-16T20:11:00.016-06:00

Now that Taelyn is 7 months old, she weighs 19.5 lbs., is 26 inches long, and has a head circumference of 17.5 inches. Although she looks like she is slimming down a bit, Taelyn is still in the 80th percentile in weight.

This past month has been about new challenges and experiences for Taelyn. From learning how to scream, starting solid foods, interacting with other babies, taking swim lessons, teething once again, and working toward crawling, every day seems to entail something new. We have discovered that Taelyn loves applesauce in the morning and carrots in the evening. Her favorite time during swim class is playing with a big bouncy ball in the water and pushing it over to the other babies. She also just starting getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, and she is always going after toys spread throughout different areas of a room. When she gets a little fussy, Taelyn loves to sit in her outdoor swing on our balcony to relax and chill. She also can't get enough of some of her favorite toys: gecko, crazy eye man, baby doll, rings, and her teddy bear. Most importantly, though, Taelyn cannot get enough mommy and daddy time. Nothing excites her more than laughing and playing with us!

So far, Taelyn does not have any new teeth, but we know they are coming soon. She is waking up one extra time at night than she used to, and she is always playing with her gums. The interrupted sleeping has caused her to be a little more tuckered out in the morning, so we have enjoyed some snuggle time while we both try to get a little extra sleep. Justin has done a great job capturing some of these precious moments on camera.

Taelyn is a very busy 7 month old. Her typical week goes as follows:
Monday - Baby Library Time where we read books, sing songs, move around and dance, and play with toys
Tuesday - Swim Lessons in the morning where Taelyn practices kicking, scooping her arms, blowing bubbles, holding on the wall, and plays water games; the evenings consist of going to the Irish pub 5K followed by dinner and drinks with friends
Wednesday - Doggie Time at the library where Taelyn gets to pet a dog and gets lots of kisses in return (this cracks her up every time!)
Thursday - Playgroup at a playground with other babies and mommies; she loves the slide and swing the best
Friday - a different activity each week; this week we will hang out at another playgroup session
Saturday & Sunday - we usually do some type of family activity; this weekend we will go to a farm

Taelyn's 1st Race

2009-09-14T16:15:00.003-06:00

Taelyn had quite an eventful time at Baby Library Time today. At the end of the session, there are always toys spread across and blanket for the babies to play with, and of course, all of the babies go crazy during this time. This week, Taelyn and another boy that is a few weeks older than her had their eyes on the same toys the entire play time. The boy would have a certain toy, and Taelyn would watch that toy relentlessly. Then Taelyn would play with a toy and drop it - the boy would quickly scoot on over to pick it up. Neither baby has mastered crawling yet; Taelyn just started rocking on all fours and lunging forward, but it takes her an entire morning to move across the room. This boy, however, was a little bit faster at scooting since he is older.

Then the true test began. Taelyn and the boy were both laying on their bellies side by side. Taelyn was playing with an orange ball, but then she dropped it and it rolled ahead of them. So.... the race began, and they were off! Both babies got on all fours and started to rock. The little boy started to move forward, but he was no match for our big brute. Taelyn fell to a belly flop, flailing her arms and legs as if she were swimming on dry land. This technique worked to her advantage as her arm pushed the boy's face and shoulder back. Every time he tried to move, she gave him a big shove. Both babies inches forward, but alas, the little boy was just a little more experienced with age and reached the ball moments faster than Taelyn could get there.

Needless the say, the attention of every mom in the room was drawn to the race. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it. I don't think Taelyn was too upset for having lost the toy; however I do think that she is eager to start crawling!

Giggle Girl

2009-09-13T20:47:00.004-06:00

Little actions has made Taelyn giggle, giggle, giggle lately... kissing her cheeks, blowing on her belling, putting her hands on our faces, singing in a funny voice, dancing, making her stuffed animals dance, and so on. She is certainly a happy baby these days. Here is an example of how funny she thinks her teddy bear is.

New Milestones

2009-09-02T15:30:00.007-06:00

Over these past few weeks, Taelyn seems to have grown up so much. She is reaching new milestones weekly, and there are new milestones just around the corner. Some of Taelyn's recent accomplishments are...

1. Coloring with crayons (although sometimes she would rather eat the crayons!).
2. Holding her own bottle.
3. Eating finger foods. (She really likes graham crackers and anything that is on mommy and daddy's plates.)
4. Pulling herself up when sitting on her knees.
5. Picking up small objects with her thumb and pointer finger.
6. Sitting forward with her arms up when getting out of her car seat. This is a big help in getting her out.
7. Grabbing our noses when we say "Get my nose."