In Case Anyone Needs a Good Laugh :-)

This picture always cracks me up, so I thought I'd post it for fun. This is just an afternoon in the life of a toddler......no inhibitions and no need for symmetry (hence the one sock).

Love from my baby girl....

Okay, so as much as Taylor is overly affectionate to pretty much every one BUT me (no explanation for that sad fact...I just tell myself it's because she sees me ALL THE TIME so the novelty has worn off); so the other night when she was hugging and kissing on me, Josh actually grabbed the camera to get proof!!
FYI--don't worry I'm getting my roots highlighted on Friday :-)

Sasha Steals Aunt Carrie's Heart

The Reunion!

Here is a video clip of me and TayTay reuniting at the airport Sunday. By the look of my tears, you'd think we'd been apart for months! At one point, she runs her fingers down my cheek and says, "Mommy?" as if she can't believe I'm real---sooo cute! Sorry the quality of the video is so poor, but something was wrong with the original video so Josh used a different camera to tape the video playing on the tv :)
I'll soon post some pics and vids from my time with my sweet, gorgeous, loving nephew Sasha (oh, and I believe Sandy and Nadya were there as well ;-)

The Martinek is shining through!

The other day I needed a couple minutes to finish cleaning the bathroom so I told Taylor Bug to go play in the living room and I'd be in to play in a little bit. After about 3 minutes I realized it was TOO quiet in the other room so I snuck in to see what she was up to and this is how I found her; she had pulled herself onto the chair, positioned the pillow under her head, and was reading herself a book :) Love her love of reading!!

Halloween 2009

Walking into someone's house to check out their toy selection---while we were trick-or-treating.
Helping Dad carve the pumpkin--and not really understanding why her baby butter knife wasn't working properly.
We let her have a mini Tootsie pop so she was in a slight sugar coma in this picture.
This is the look of terror......she had already tossed the candy and was trying to jump into Grandma's arms.

So this is Taylor's 2nd Halloween and she--I think--finally got the concept of knocking and saying Trick or Treat!! Of course, when she was actually looking at someone she would whisper it. Then she would put her head in her bag and stare at amazement that someone just gave her something for no apparent reason. Of course, Josh and I were more excited about the candy because we'll be the ones actually eating it :)
On Friday night we took her to Boo Fest in Baraboo where she helped Grandma Monica hand out candy to all the trick-or-treaters downtown. She was hilarious because it almost looked as though she was making everyone "earn" their candy. She would hold out the candy, look at everyone up and down, stare at them a little longer, and then finally drop the candy in their bucket. If you were one of the costumes that happened to have your face completely covered, well, then TG would drop whatever candy bucket she was holding (throw it actually) and jump into the arms of whichever of her people were close by enough to grab. It was sad that she was scared, but hilarious at the same time!!