Big Sis Taylor Lee

Taylor is a GREAT big sister to Robbie,

and she can HARDLY wait to become a big sister to Little Buddy.

She might be surprised when his name isn't ACTUALLY Lil' Buddy....

Every time I have a doc appointment

(twice a week these days,

as I have a Non Stress Test on Mondays and Thursdays

to check my uterus contractions and listen to Little Buddy's heart beat)

she'll say, "Mom, where you going?"

to which I respond "Mommy has an appointment with a Doctor."

"Why?" she'll ask.

And I always say, "For Little Buddy."

To which she excitedly exclaims with great hope, "To take him out of you?"

and I always feel bad that I have to say not yet... =)

She LOVES to dress up

and she LOVES cowgirls

and she LOVES that she's from Montana!

When we were driving back to Billings from Big Sky

we were trying to keep her entertained after she woke up

and so we were pointing out all of the hay bales

being wound up into beautiful spools by the farmers.

"There's a lot of hay in Montana!"
she exclaimed loudly!

She also thinks that farmers have the best jobs,
as they get to take so many breaks!

That's right, you heard it here first folks.

(this is her logical conclusion:
you only see a farmer out in the field of hay
about once every few months--
so where are they the other days when we drive by?
Taking a break, of course!)

Some of her other very funny sayings of late,

I have texted to myself in the moment,

just to be sure I don't forget her precious interpretation of the world!

One of my favorite pronunciation errors she makes:

"Can I have some more tater totters and han-ger-ber please?"

If we are doing something,

and she asks a question

(I would bet she asks 250-300 questions a day AT LEAST)

and we don't know the answer we'll say,

"I don't know babe."

And she'll respond with a sugary sweet voice,

"But... please can you tell me?"

We've tried to reason with her-

saying that we can't tell her cuz we don't know

(like what is that stranger's name?)

We've been watching LOTS of Orioles baseball on tv,

and sometimes we eat dinner while Daddy leaves the game on mute.

So you can often hear the Hickle family chanting

LET'S-GO-O's! over the dinner table.

One day Taylor was playing in the house,

and started running around the kitchen, and asked me to cheer for her.

"LET'S-GO-TAY!" I said while clapping.

She stopped running and said,

"You can call me O's if you want"

She often starts a conversation by saying,

"Oh, well the thing is..."

When she awoke one morning

she asked if she could ride her bike

(a DEFINITE favorite pastime these days)

and I told her maybe after downtime that afternoon.

Well- I hadn't looked at the forecast,

and when she got up from her downtime

it was cloudy and beginning to sprinkle.

She looked out the window and dramatically cried,

"This can't be true!"

As we drove from Colorado to Montana

we had to drive through Wyoming.

She fell asleep, and then woke up later,

while we were still in Wyoming, asking,

"Are we still in nothing?"

She enjoys the movie Robin Hood

(the ole' classic Disney with the foxes and bear)

and the other day was walking around the house shouting,

"On the clock allus whale"

Again, upon waking in the morning,

Taylor asked if we could go to the park.

I told her we had other plans,

and that it was time to go upstairs to eat breakfast.

She moped a bit and then said,

"I swould we could go to the park today."

(I'd like to copyright that word! We should all use it!)

When we leave her with a sitter,
walk away from her room at downtime,
or Greg goes off to school,

she always has some kind of advice or gift to give us.

"Don't drink any bad juice!"

is one of my favorites! 

She says this one often!
Yesterday as I left her in downtime she said,
"Mommy, please take good care of Robbie!"

If she gives us a gift it is often,
"Here's your big puppy."
and she tosses us an imaginary puppy.

(If she does give you that puppy,
she'll most likely ask you if you still have it

the next time she sees you!)

After playing outdoors for a while

I told her she had to come inside for dinner.

She dramatically and tragically blubbered,

"I miss the rollie pollies!"

While listening to
"My God is big so strong and so mighty
there's nothing my God cannot do."

on the VeggieTales CD in the car
she asks us to stop the music and says,

"But God can do everything so why is Mr. Lunt saying he can do nothing?"

She recently chatted with her Buela on the phone.

Their conversation has to have lasted at least 20 minutes.

She told her all about everything she could think of.

Another time she called and Buelo answered.

She quickly exclaimed,

"Hi Lelo! Is your wife there?"

We have called her "Baby Girl" since we found out she was a girl,
and we have always called her "Babe" as a shortened version of that.

But sometimes, as do most teachers and parents,

we'll slip up and say the wrong name.

We'll be immediately reminded,

"I'm not a bud, I'm a babe."

This little girl keeps us on our toes,

and we LOVE to hear her take on the world!

She has a huge vocabulary,

picks up on little nuances in the English Language,

and it's amazing to watch her mind put it all together!