Into Everything

Lately, I've found that I am more and more exhausted at the end of each day. I suppose it is because I spend two hours wrestling a wild animal before getting Taylor to bed, and then the clean up begins. Our girl is crazy! She is into everything, and she is smart. Just yesterday, Taylor and I were outside watering flowers when the phone rang. I opened the door to answer the phone, and Taylor was off. I was on the phone for about 30 seconds. When I hung up, I started looking around the house for Miss T. Where was she? In that amount of time, she had run across the ground floor, scaled the stairs to the 2nd floor, opened the gate (which wasn't entirely closed), walked into my bathroom, opened the top drawer, pulled out my makeup bag, unzipped it, and unscrewed all of my makeup (mascara, eyeliner, shadow, lipstick, etc). I should have taken a picture because the girl was covered in black and pink (mascara and lipstick). She is such a stinker. I have baby-proofed almost everything else in our house, but I do not know how to babyproof drawers. Any suggestions? Opening drawers is one of Taylor's favorite pastimes now, and it means a lot of cleaning up for mommy. The next time my wild animal takes charge in the bathroom, I'll get some pictures.

I suppose these activities are normal for an 18-month old, but boy oh boy, is it exhausting! I used to enjoy a nice, quiet evening with Tommy after putting Taylor to bed around 7:00. Lately, Taylor has been going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00. Once we get her down, it takes almost another hour to clean up the massive amounts of food she threw on the floor during dinner, clean up all the water she splashed in the bathroom, and collect all the toys, tupperware, books, toiletries, and clothes she has strewn all over the house. But of course, we love every minute of it (well, sort of!).

We are off to Hilton Head tomorrow for a week's vacation. We are spending the first half of the week with my parents and brother Ryan. Then, we are taking the ferry to Daufuskie Island to spend the second half of the week with my girlfriends from college. It will be a fun, yet exhausting, adventure! We are looking forward to lots of pool, ocean, and beach time with Taylor!