Playing catch-up!

On Thursday, I meant to do a little 21 month old Taylor post.

On Friday, I meant to do a Christmas decorating post.

And today, I was going to post a few highlights about this year's Holiday Open House fun from last night.

But all three will have to happen today. :o)  Back up to Thursday...

Taylor turned 21 months on Thursday. Last year at this time she was just getting used to having more mobility with her new crawling skills. Now she is a running, chattering, rambunctious little person that keeps us moving all the time! Shapes, letters and numbers are quite intriguing to her, and she can chime in with a few letters while we sing the ABC's. The letter "y" is her favorite, and one she readily recognizes, too.
For her 21 month picture, I have to include this one of Taylor with one of her new aunts (Taylor had only uncles until this past month, and then both my brother and Ryan's brother got married - yay for more family!! :o)). Here is a picture of Taylor with her aunt Liz.  Liz was babysitting Taylor and when I got home she had put this little shirt on her. Too cute. :o) 

Moving on to Friday, we decided to take advantage of dry conditions and warmer temps to put up our outdoor Christmas lights.

But first, the mass had to untangled from last year. I think Taylor was thinking that we would never get this mess figured out. :o)

From the moment I plugged in the first strand to test them out, Taylor was hooked. She said "oh, wow!" over and over, and kept coming over to me to give big hugs as if she wanted to thank me for all the pretty lights. :o)

No pictures from the outside yet, we won't turn them on consistently until after Thanksgiving (and we have a few strands that need to be replaced - apparently it is too much to ask to have Christmas lights work for more than one year at a time.)  

Fast forward to last night - our yearly stroll downtown for the Holiday Open House! As always, it was packed with people, and there were carolers, lots of free treats and goodies, lots of familiar faces, chestnuts roasting, and a few sightings of Santa and Mrs. Claus. We took very few pictures, and most didn't really turn out (it is so dark outside!), but here are a few....

Seeing Santa and the Mrs. (and I feel like I look 38 wks pregnant, not 18 :o))

Taylor watching the carolers - she stood in one spot and watched them sing 4 songs in a row, clapping with the crowd and asking for "more" between each song.

Taylor had started to develop a cough, so we put her right to bed after we got home, and were woken up at 2am by hoarse crying/coughing and a very warm little lady. Immediately after determining she had a high temp, she showed us just how yucky she was feeling by getting sick all over me. After we got her cleaned up and changed, she was completely trashed and slept through until morning. She woke up not sounding much better and with no appetite, so we went to urgent care and were in and out in a half hour with a croup diagnosis and an oral steroid (that will last a week, so hopefully she will be like new well before Thanksgiving!).

Waiting in the urgent care room, and yes, this picture is black and white to help hide my tired mommy appearance... :o)

That's it, we are all caught up. :o) Big week ahead with the holidays, and lots of family fun...here's hoping for a healthy week!!