Last Monday for FHE we went with my mom and Uncle Buba and Aunt Holly's family to the Paul Ream Wilderness Park here in Provo, more commonly known as the "duck park" because of all the ducks that live in the pond there. We had a picnic on the grass, walked over to visit the ducks, and then played at the playground. Here are some pictures.
Mommy and Taylor:
Ducks galore:
Swingin':
On the slide:
The slide was a bit steep and I panicked a little (so it's been a long time since I've been on a roller coaster, okay?):
My wonderful neighbor Annalee and her daughter Madison came over yesterday with sidewalk chalk and we all had fun hanging out and scribbling on the sidewalk. Taylor couldn't quite get the hang of drawing with the chalk, but he served as an excellent eraser, crawling over the drawings when we were done. By the time we were done he was absolutely covered in chalk dust. He had fun though, and both he and Madi were really good at sharing with each other.
The funniest part was when I drew his name on the sidewalk. My mom was spelling his name and pointing to each letter, and as soon as Taylor realized it was his name he laid down on the sidewalk trying to "hug" the word. It was the silliest thing ever, and every time he passed his name he'd lay back down and give it loves. Guess he likes his name, eh?
The kids had lots of fun, and it's always nice to hang out with another mommy. Love ya, Annalee!
I was invited by my neighbor to a playgroup that meets every Thursday. It's fun to get together with other moms, and it's good for Taylor to get some much-needed social exposure.
This week we went to Discovery Park up in Pleasant Grove. It's a really great park and I'm sure Tay will appreciate it much more when he's older, but he still had fun swinging on the swings and playing in the huge wooden beehives.
I snapped a few pictures of him at his happiest (he was really cranky when we got there and right before we left).
He thought these hives were fascinating and tried as hard as he could to walk from one to another without losing his balance. He's getting so big and I love watching him explore!
Taylor's number one interest right now is reading books. From the second he gets up in the morning he's pointing to his books and bringing me (or Daddy, or Grandma) books to read to him. As soon as I finish with one, he either races over to get another book or wants me to read the same book again (and again, and again, and again...). His favorite book the past couple days is Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss. I think I've almost got the entire book memorized and am thinking the book may mysteriously disappear for a week or so, though I'm sure he'll just find another favorite book to read a million times.
Don't get me wrong - I LOVE that my baby is so interested in reading. It just gets really old after reading kids books for 45 minutes straight. I think if he had his way he'd just sit on my lap all day long while I read to him. If only I could explain to him that mommies sometimes have to do other things (like cleaning, cooking, and showering).
Last weekend Sean and I took Taylor to Gardner Village. It's one of my very favorite places to go and we haven't been since last summer when Tay was much smaller. They've done a lot of construction and are renovating some of the shops. The walkways are wider now and more stroller friendly, which was wonderful.
Right away Taylor was so excited to see the pond and ducks everywhere. Some friendly (and very hungry) ducks waddled right up to us, I'm assuming thinking we had food for them. I finally gave in and threw them some Cheerios; Taylor seemed interested in feeding the ducks too, but decided he'd rather eat the cereal himself.
After wandering into all our favorite shops we went to the bakery for lunch. We got yummy sandwiches on their amazing bread. Taylor's lunch consisted of a plate of bread, turkey, chips, and pickles (yep, he's a toddler!). He loved spearing the pickles with a fork and feeding himself like a big boy.
When he was done he proceeded to dump the plate over his head, which was covered in pickle juice.
We were going to take him to the new petting zoo they have also, but by that time we were all tuckered out and in desperate need of naps. It was a fun day though, and we're planning to go back in October when they have all the witches out. If you've never gone, I highly recommend it!
Saturday evening we packed Tay in the car and headed up to Orem to visit Nielsen's Grove Park. I was there with Taylor last week for a ward playgroup and wanted Sean to see it too. It's a really amazing park with lots of grass, a playground, duck pond, and two large shallow fountains for kids to play in.
We started our adventure at the playground, where Tay Tay was so excited to see the swings and HUGE slide that he almost kicked himself right out of my arms. His favorite part was climbing the gazillions of steps up to the top of the slide and then zooming down with Mommy. There weren't many people there, so I let him climb up at his own pace and I think he felt like a big boy.
Next up were the swings, where he seemed less than amused until I did the trick my dad always did with us when we were kids - stand in front of him and jump out of the way at the last minute as he swings forward. As soon as I started doing that he was squealing and kicking his legs so much Sean and I could hardly contain our laughter. I know these pictures of him are blurry, but they're cute anyway.
After the playground it was on to the duck pond where Taylor was entertained by the three ducks for approximately 30 seconds. I couldn't stop taking pictures of him with Daddy though because I just can't believe how big he's gotten since last year, but that's another post...
The last stop on our excursion was the wading fountain (Disclaimer: there are actually signs all over the fountains that say not to wade or swim because the water is untreated. Look at me being the responsible parent). At first we just kept Taylor in his regular clothes because I was sure that - like a few days prior - he wouldn't want to get anything more than his feet wet. Well apparently he was feeling much more adventurous this time around because he all but dove into the water fully dressed. We had to pull him out of the fountain kicking and screaming to change him into his swim diaper, and once he was allowed back in he was crawling all over the place. He splashed as hard as he could, and even when he got water in his face he'd just laugh and keep splashing. It was seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen. Really.
The hard thing was that he wanted so badly to play with the other kids in the fountain (I'm not the only irresponsible parent in Utah County apparently), but they were much older and wanted nothing to do with him. He had fun anyway, and we had fun watching him and taking tons and tons of pictures.
Here's a cute video I took too:
It was a really fun family outing and I'm so glad we went!
After several frustrating hours of swimsuit shopping (I'm exaggerating just a tad, but it still wasn't the best experience of my life), my neighbor Bobbi and I took Taylor to the Veteran's Memorial Pool here in Provo. I have never been there before (mostly because of my lack of swimsuit and my lack of enthusiasm at wearing one) and it's actually a really neat place.
They have a large swimming pool with water slides, but the best part is the enormous kiddie pool complete with miniature water slides, fountains, and water guns. Taylor had an absolute blast, and there was so much to see and do that I think his little baby brain went crazy trying to take it all in. At one point he crawled over and sat under a small sprinkler that shot him right in the face. He'd start whining and Bobbi or I would pull him away from it, but he'd just crawl right back and stick his face in the water again.
The funniest part was when we were drying off; he lounged in his floaty (that he refused to stay in when we were actually in the water) and collected rocks that I'm sure he would have kept for years to come if Bobbi hadn't slyly thrown them away when he wasn't looking.
All in all it was a great day and I'm sure we'll be back there at least a couple more times before fall.
I was just compiling some pictures to go with some blog posts and thought you'd enjoy these two random pictures that make me laugh.
In this first picture Tay was in our bedroom with me while I was folding laundry. He found a swim diaper amid the piles of junk in the corner and decided that the best place for it was on his head.
This picture was taken just after I gave Taylor a bath. His hair is getting long and I thought I'd try to put it into a fauxhawk. It worked fantastically (yes, that is a word. Look it up if you don't believe me).
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