Chico Hot Springs 2008

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Chico. Tara was a little skeptical of the water at first, but she warmed up to it! The weather was perfect the first day, but it was a little cold for swimming babies the second day. I was missing past trips, because the pool-side bar sure was tempting!

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! Here are a few pictures of Christmas so far.

Our neighbors came over last night and brought their little boy. He is almost exactly 2 months younger than Tara - they had fun playing with the gift from Auntie Presca.



Christmas Morning.



Santa brought Tara a new toy for Christmas. She can either ride on it, or use it to learn to walk. She loves it and I am surprised how well she was able to walk behind it!






My gift from Rocky! I have been wanting this since we moved to Laurel. I saw it in a home at the Parade of Homes, and probably should have just put it on lay-away then, but never did. I was totally surprised!! It looks really beautiful, the pictures don't do it justice.

Uh-oh

Tara's new favorite thing to say is "uh-oh". She usually says it when she has dropped something or is doing something she knows she isn't supposed to do (like crawling toward the fireplace). This morning I was able to get her saying it a couple of times. You can see she looks down at the floor after she says it because she had just dropped her paper towel. She gets really quiet for some reason toward the end, I guess she got tired of performing!

9 Months

Tara had her 9 month check up yesterday. She is in the 75th% in height and 25th% in weight, which is consistent with what she has been. In other words she is tall and skinny (weird). Otherwise she is developmentally just fine, she played with the blocks just the way she was supposed to.

Tara has discovered the joy of reading....

Or at least that it is fun to pull the books off the shelf.



I like how she is on her tippy-toes in this picture.







Playing with Crash.

Turns out ducks are pretty scary too!

I don't know if it was because there were so many of them, or if she just doesn't like ducks, but she wasn't impressed! As you can see, we were surrounded by them, maybe she thought we were getting attacked. I already feel bad about what meeting Santa is going to do to her!

How Tara relaxes

When Tara is sleepy or trying to relax she grabs one or both of her ears. It is a pretty cute little habit, so I had to share some pictures!

Halloween

I got motivated to take Tara trick-or-treating at the last minute on Friday afternoon, so off to Wal-Mart we went to find a costume. I looked at some of the cute little lamb and teddy bear costumes, but they just didn't seem right. Then I saw a witch hat and put it on her. She got so much attention, and "ooh's" and "aah's" that I realized this was the right decision. People were even taking her picture! So here she is (on the day after Halloween) in her first Halloween glory. We went to several houses and had a nice night visiting our neighbors.

The Scariest Pumpkin Patch Ever

We took Tara to the pumpkin patch over the weekend. I am thinking Halloween isn't going to be her favorite holiday because the pumpkins were the scariest things she has ever seen! We set her down in the middle of some big pumpkins for a picture and she must have thought they were going to swallow her because she immediately started crying. I thought she would be ok with the ones out in the field, but they were just as scary, and to make matters worse the train went by blowing its whistle just as we set her down for the picture!









We'll try again next year! Happy Halloween!

Photo

We took Tara in to get her second set of pictures taken today. She was a little scared at first, but she started having fun once she saw how many toys they had to play with. Here is the picture that they put on their "baby blog". I can't wait to see the rest!

Too Bad It's Not Christmas....

'cause it sure looks like a Christmas card outside. It has been snowing like crazy here for the last 3 days. It finally stopped today, and is supposed to be in the 50's next week. When this stuff melts it is going to be a miserable, muddy, mess! Yesterday I stayed home all day, and Tara and I both got "cabin fever" pretty bad, so today we got out and did some grocery shopping.



Fred shoveling snow...



It may be a while before the "Subey" comes out to play!



New hiding spot.



All bundled up.

Happy Girl

Here is a little video of Tara crawling down the hall, she follows me around the house now. I like how high she lifts her hands.




Cute picture.....

Vacation

We got back from Florida late Friday night, then Missy Mare and I spent the weekend "team penning", so I have just found the time to get the pictures up this morning! We had a nice trip, and even though Rocky and I did not enjoy flying across the country, Tara LOVED it. She loved the airports and did really well on all her flights, she never cried, and ended up sleeping most of the time we were in the air. She had a good time with her Granny, Grandaddy, and Auntie Karen. They totally spoiled her. I think she forgot how to crawl while we were there because she spent so much time being held! She loved the pool, but wasn't as fond of the beach - too much sand?? As for Rocky and I we had fun bobbing around in the ocean. The highlight for me was taking a "dolphin cruise" and getting to watch a family of dolphins playing. Here are the rest of the pictures.
The first few pictures are of Tara playing at the airport and on the plane - she had lots of fans!

"Westies" and Updates

I would post a few recent pictures, but I left my camera at work - I had planned on taking some before and after pictures of my "doggie do's", and I did manage to get a few good before shots, but was so stressed and needing a drink by the end of the day that I forgot the "after" pictures. I might as well tell the whole story, because I just need to get it off my chest. Tara had been in her playpen most of the day and was doing so well! I was really proud of her for playing by herself and letting me get my work done. Then about 3pm she had had enough and was losing it - fast. I tried consoling her for the better part of an hour, and even tried to ignore her (for the better part of 5 minutes). In desperation I ended up calling my superhero friend to come and get her. Once she left I got back to work on "Riley" the Westhighland White Terrier. He was almost done and I was thinking he would be a great example for my before and after poster, because he looked really cute. I was being a perfectionist and decided to use the clippers just one- more-time on his cute little ear when.....I cut a chunk out of it. Yes, a CHUNK out of his ear. I was standing there in disbelief while he bled all over his perfectly clean.... and.... clipped.... and.... brushed white fur (try not to feel too sorry for him, he yipped once and then I think he forgot all about the whole thing, never acted like it hurt again - not to mention he had been trying to bite me the whole time I was grooming him). I literally could not believe I had done this. I was standing there in disbelief and horror. Now I had at least another hours worth of work to do, not to mention I was going to have to tell his owner what I had done. To make a really long story short I got out the hydrogen peroxide and cleaned him up. His owner wasn't as horrified as I expected, but she was very concerned. I gave her a healthy discount and told her to bring him back if she had any problems. The worst part about it is that a "Westies" ear is a pretty big part of his character, and now poor Riley is missing part of his.....not that you would notice it at first glance, but his owners are sure to see it everyday for the rest of his life. Pretty sure I have lost that client. Here is an example of what they look like - with two complete ears. Pretty cute huh??

Owell, nothing I can do about it now and I am not going to stress myself out about it anymore.

Back to the updates. Taralynn is getting a tooth! On the bottom. It doesn't really seem to bother her, she isn't especially cranky or unhappy. In fact I wouldn't have know it was there if I hadn't felt something sharp in her mouth when she was chewing on my finger the other day. She also has her first cold, and again she is being a little trooper. She is more tired than usual and she is congested, but other than that she is just fine. She is also REALLY crawling now, and pulling herself up on anything and everything she can! I finished her baby quilt (that I started while I was still pregnant!), and have it hanging on the wall in her room. Last but not least; we are headed to Florida next week! Hoping the plane ride won't be too hard on Tara. I am planning to buy Rocky lots of drinks. The next post should be full of adorable Taralynn playing in the sand and surf pictures!

A Dog Like Crash

I have recently come to realize that owning a dog like Crash means learning to accept certain things. Here is a list of my top 10.

10. It means knowing every time you give him a bath he will go directly to the nearest skunk carcass and delightedly roll in it at the first opportunity.

09. It means realizing that it is actually your fault he woke you up at 2 am by trying to kill the new kitty on the front porch, because you were the one who brought the kitty home in the first place.

08. It means constantly having to explain to people that he really is a purebred dog, and no we don't groom him to look like that - he comes by it naturally.

07. It means knowing your horses are going to be practically "bomb proof", because he is sure to flush every pheasant within 10 square miles directly under their noses when you take him trail riding.

06. It means knowing you have the best nap-time buddy ever, because sleeping in bed with mom rates right up there with rolling in dead skunks.

05. It means knowing you really do have great neighbors when all they do is laugh when he wakes them up at 2 am by scratching at their door to be let in.

04. It means knowing your blood pressure is going to be off the charts every time you call him and his response is to immediately turn around and look at you (you can actually see the wheels turning) and when he comes to the conclusion that you are too far away to do anything, he goes back to doing what ever he was doing in the first place.

03. It means when you do finally catch up to him he will become the most sincerely apologetic and pathetic dog, begging forgiveness by crawling on his belly toward you with his tail wagging and then finally rolling over on his back - making it impossible to stay angry.

02. It means when you wake up in the morning to find his face is twice its normal size and his resemblance to the Elephant Man is quite striking, that once again you are thankful that you work at a vet clinic, otherwise you would be in serious debt due to all the x-rays, stitches, porcupine quill removals, and medications that he has required - just this summer.

01. It means despite all of this you can't help but love him, because he is just so darn cute. I just hope he knows how lucky he is!

Surprise

I set Tara in her crib while I went to change the laundry today. I expected her to cry the whole time, but when she only cried for a minute I thought 'wow, she must have been really tired to fall asleep so quickly'. This is what I found when I got back.

Learning

She is trying really hard to crawl these days, and can pretty much scoot herself anywhere she wants to go.
Scroll down for more pictures.

Cute Pictures

Bath Time!



She can't actually pull herself up, but she can hold herself up, and she likes it!

High Chair

We got a new high chair, and Tara loves it. She really likes to sit in it while I am cooking or cleaning in the kitchen, in fact she loves it so much that she actually fell asleep in it the other night. I was amazed because she always has a really hard time going to sleep, even when someone is holding her.

"Princess"

I swore that I would never dress my daughter in something that said "Princess" (no offense Presca!!), and now look at her! The weather has gotten colder and left us unprepared. We took a look through our boxes of goodies that Auntie Presca and cousin Ally sent, and we found all kinds of nice warm outfits. So here are few a pictures of my "Princess". Thanks Auntie and Ally for all the good clothes, they sure have been a life-saver!

New Dress

Tara's Granny sent her a new dress, and she looks so cute in it I just had to show it off. She loves being outside so much. I don't know what I am going to do when the weather gets bad, because sometimes taking her outside is the only way I can get her to stop crying!