Happy Birthday Brad

Today Bradley came one year closer to forty. It is interesting that I seem to remember his age correctly, but continue to forget that I am no longer 32. Ah, but what's in a number? As you will note from the picture, birthday cakes are still a tradition in the Taylor family. Gone are the days of Spiderman cakes (although, Robb would probably like to see his Spiderman cake return), but each cake has to have a theme. Since Bradley is a huge "24" fan, this year his cake (made by his Mom- don't confuse to whom the credit goes) was in honour of Jack Bauer. I believe Michele was the creative brains behind the idea & Dale was the baking & decorating talent.
Sydney would not nap this afternoon, so we decided to get the Daddy/Daughter picture done before we left in case we had a sleeping or cranky little girl after dinner. Of course we were really wanting her to nap because we were going out to a restaurant for dinner, The Mandarin. It was pretty good. Since it is also the Chinese New Year, they had more items out on the buffet. Of course that also means that it was very busy. Sydney & Max liked the fish & I think if we didn't hold onto Sydney she would have tried to get right in there with them. Not surprisingly she crashed in the car on the way to Grandma's & Grandpa's and went right to bed when we got there. So Max stepped in for the photo opportunity & blowing of the candles.
My Mom also came down yesterday to spend the night with us & to provide free babysitting so that we could go out to dinner & to a hockey game with friends, Paul & Janet. I think Sydney had fun with Nana and she has gotten quite good at saying "Nana". She also had the best sleep she has had in about a week, so Nana definitely did something right. Our time out was fun...the food was good, the company was fun, but honestly the game was boring. The Bulldogs just didn't cut the mustard. Thankfully Janet shared my lack of enthusiasm so that I had someone else to talk to instead of continually bugging Brad. The most interesting part of the game is when the "Whistleblower" (she was actually wearing a pin to say that's what she was) came and gave me crap for having my feet up on the seat. She really appeared quite angry with me too...I guess she expected more out of an adult.

Sydney's developing language skills....
On Friday Sydney & I went shopping for Daddy's birthday present & when we were in a store she saw a bin of balls & pointed at them and said "ball!". I was so happy, excited & proud...I bought one for her. Brad is just thankful she didn't say "horse" (he thinks he's funny) It's neat, in the last couple of days Sydney has actually added a bunch of words to her vocabulary. Finally. She now says dada, mama, hat, ball, Nana, bye bye, night night, milk, more, ba ba (which is Grandma/Grandpa) and dog. I am sure that there are more that we have not even realized yet too. She is also trying to say more words when we ask her to repeat them. I find it quite exciting & can't wait for her to say more. I am sure I will be eating those words in my future though.

Yesterday was my kind of January

I realize that when we have a winter like we have had so far we usually pay to some degree in the spring or summer. But I was not thinking about that yesterday when we were playing at the park in fall jackets!!!
Wendy, Ellie, & Katie came over to play for a bit before we ventured out to the park. Katie is now 6 weeks old & it was a good reminder of how much time it takes to get organized to get out of the house with a newborn. Add 2 toddlers to the mix & you are definitely spending as much time getting ready to go out as you are actually spending being out. Since Katelyn is a little young for swings & slides, she wasn't as keen to stay at the park as the other two girls.Below is Sydney's sign for please. Wendy is in the background getting Katie ready for the walk home, but Sydney has other things on her mind. "More slides please Mommy?"

Could tantrums be starting already???

I realize I have not posted since New Years & no nothing is wrong. There just hasn't been anything too eventful to report. Last weekend we took Sydney for a sleigh ride in her sleigh that she got for Christmas- we had a bit of snow, so we thought we should take advantage. However, I did not take a picture to mark the event so there is nothing to share. Then on Sunday night, Brad's parents took us all out to Outback for dinner to celebrate THEIR anniversary (which was way back in November). We never figured out the logic of them paying, but they would not take the money & with the service we received there is no way we were leaving any extra money on the table. Let's just say, none of us will rush back.
Now for the title of this entry...tantrums. In the last week, Sydney on a couple of occassions has gotten very upset for reasons that are not immediately apparent to me. Two times it has been during the supper-prep hour so I just stacked it up to her being tired & wanting more attention than I could give her at that exact moment. Well, yesterday was not one of my proud Mommy moments. We were at a play date at a friend of mine's & it was my first time meeting her neighbours. There were two other children around Sydney's age & the others were young babies. Well, a little boy had brought his Magna-Doodle type toy. Sydney started off by playing "OK" with him & then decided she wanted to walk around with the toy. When I told her "no" it resulted in a crying fit like I have never seen...I'm thinking who is this kid? I had to take her out of the room & let her calm down. Nothing I did was working & she just kept walking backwards in any direction that was away from me until she backed herself into a corner. If I made any motion towards her she would start thrashing about & crying more. So, I just sat on the steps & waited her out. Well finally, she came running to me & put her head on my shoulder and whimpered a little more until she was done. To me it felt like about 20 minutes, according to my friend it was not even close to that long. All I know is that if this is a "stage" we are entering into...I hope it is short!
Since I have no new pictures to report, I thought I would post a couple to show what Sydney looked like a year ago. Oh baby, how you have grown. For anyone that comments on her cheeks now, they are nothing compared to a year ago!
Maybe should go...sounds like another fit is starting. I think we are definitely entering the stage of independence and "my way or no way". No fit- all is well already. But, she does want her way! But then again, what girl doesn't?

Happy New Year

I do believe I can officially say that I have overcome my New Year's curse. Starting in highschool I had many consecutive years where "something" happened on NYE that you do not want to happen at any time. A few examples: getting lost, friends (yes, friends) making a disaster of your house, burning your upper lip prior to a big dance, breaking up with your boyfriend, the list goes on. As a result of this consecutive chain of events I am not a big "lover" of the NYE hype. I would be just as happy to treat it as any other night & be in bed by midnight. But my husband won't let me...so you need to get creative to find ways to enjoy it. Also, the curse has not hit since Brad & I have been together. Coincidence? Probably not.
Well, this year I loved New Years. Since it was our year to host the house party I suggested to Brad that we have a kid friendly party as well as an adult party. So, yesterday afternoon we had a "play date", then a pot luck dinner & then in the evening Brad's single or child-free friends arrived. Can you imagine they did not want to be amongst the squealing kids?
I think everyone had a good time, but if you were to show up at our house around 5pm...it was crazy! We had 16 adults and 8 kids under the age of 4, plus 2 infants (3 weeks & 5 weeks). I think both kids & parents had a good time.
These pictures don't get all the kids at once, but you get the idea of the craziness.
There were some definite favourites for the kids & they were...
Rice Krispie squares, as good on your face as in your mouth;
tearing through the room on the gliding horse;
the star-shaped glasses, to reduce the glare of course;
Sydney's evil cabana (it's a tent/mobile thing), although Matthew managed to get himself quite stuck in the windows...so parental supervision advised;
Peek-a-boo, the timeless favourite;
Sydney's new learning mat, aka the dance mat- I know you are wondering what it up with Sydney's tongue- well it was out all day, she must be getting another tooth;
& playing toss with Daddy or talking with Mommy, also two timeless favourites.









Sydney was quite curious about the new baby in the room (3 weeks old), but did not get upset when Mommy was holding her. I think she was just curious about this little thing that looks remarkably like her dolly, but moves. As you can see in this picture, Katelyn has a very strong rooting instinct- can't misread this cue. It was time to hand her off to her Mommy.
Katelyn was much contented with a full belly, but really this little baby seems to be content all the time. Looks like Wendy & Jason are going to be lucky to have another dream baby, just like...
Katelyn's big sister, Ellie.
Evelyn was the first to head home to bed, but did not leave without a goodnight kiss. We were wondering how successful we were going to be getting Sydney to bed as the picture below was taken at the exact time that she is normally going to bed.
But, alas, all good things must come to an end & all little girls must get their beauty sleep so Sydney was in bed (not willingly at first) by 8pm & thankfully didn't wake up before her usual time this morning. With her, the later you put her to bed, usually the earlier she will wake up. It will take a couple of days to get her back on track now...today was not a good nap day!