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!

Brooke & Bailey

This week we had our nieces Brooke & Bailey spend a couple of days with us. It is the first time they have spent this much time with us & our first time having them overnight. I am happy to report that all went well & I returned them to my brother unscarred.
Bailey loves dogs & Logan was not too impressed with our little house guests, especially when she was required to pose for pictures. Sydney also enjoyed having her cousins stay, to an extent. We saw the beginnings of an unwillingness to share emerging. It seemed that Sydney wanted to play with her toy (any toy) only after it was being used by someone else. The worst part about this now is that she has a renewed interest in her gliding horse, but will only stay on for about 20 seconds at a time. Up, down, up, down.During Sydney's afternoon nap, Brad took the girls to an indoor playground that we heard about. Since we heard that it wasn't really appropriate for Sydney's age, she missed out- the twins had a blast. They have a huge jungle gym with slides & battery operated motorcycles. I can hardly wait until Sydney is old enough to go. Hopefully it will still be around. Here are some pictures from their fun (Bailey is in pink & Brooke is in stripes).
During this trip, Brad got to learn some valuable parenting skills. The main one? Using the flip a coin method results in less tears & pouting than the turn-taking option.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year

Well another Christmas has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Every year it always seems that it goes by so fast in comparison to all the time you spend preparing for it. This year seemed especially fast for me. One of the things I always love about Christmas is getting together with my extended family. However, this year I feel like I hardly spoke to them. When you have a little one, it seems that you don't have the same opportunity to get into any deep conversations about how things are going. Mind you, I would not trade it for the world. The joy you get from watching your child interact with family, new toys, and new experiences overshadows anything else you might be missing. I also know that in a few years Sydney will not care where Mom & Dad are & will just want to be left alone to play with her cousins.
We spent Christmas Eve with the Taylor's and between Sydney & Max we heard the songs for the dancing snowmen countless times (not one snowman, but two)! It's a decoration that is great to have at Grandma & Grandpa's to entertain them rather than at home. This is Max's play with the snowman.
Christmas morning we were actually waiting for the kids to wake up instead of the other way around. I am sure that there won't be many more years that we can say that! Santa brought Sydney a little sled which I think was one of her favourite gifts. However, we will have to see how much she likes it when we put her in it to pull in the snow. She seemed to think it was more of a jungle gym to climb in and out of for the bulk of the morning.After Santa presents, then came the opening of the other presents & with the stack we were thinking we might be there for hours. Amazingly we completed this task in just over an hour. It seems that Sydney's favourite gift from this stack was her cousin Max's cell phone. Which since this post has taken me 5 days to complete I can now advise that Grandma & Grandpa went out to get one for Sydney in the Boxing Day sales...spoiled or what?
Our trip to my family's Christmas was much better than our last trip where Sydney cried to whole way...the Nap God was present for the drive. Sydney kissed & made up with G.G. since the last time we tried to get a picture, Sydney cried. Our family always does a pot luck for lunch & this year the "young girls" (that's me & my cousins) were responsible for dessert. Well, I don't think my Aunt Lois will make that assignment again. We had NO PIES!!! There were a lot of great desserts, but they all had whip cream. I have decided that I can no longer put off my pastry making lesson with Brad's Mom. The next time I am assigned dessert, I want to be sure there is a pie! The day was filled with family, fun, and presents. Sydney enjoyed her day with her cousins & had minimal injuries (stepped on a tractor in her bare feet & has a little wee bruise). Our final travel destination for Christmas was to my sisters. Since we were the first to arrive (because the chances of Craig ever beating us are slim) we got the official showing of Regan's gifts. Her parents actually chose to give her a toy electric guitar...can you imagine? That is one noise making toy that does not need to be handed down to Sydney. Regan asked Uncle Brad to play UNO with her, but he got ditched as soon as the twins showed up & Regan informed him that she had to go becuase "her friends are here!" Poor Uncle Brad.Regan is crazy about horses. I've never seen anything like it. Her Mom & Dad got her this "pillow" to lie/sit on the floor, but Sydney seemed to like it too. Not only do all Regan's gifts have a horse theme, but the gifts she chooses for others do too. (However, Tyler seemed to be spared from this present theme.) The twins got My Little Pony & Sydney got a Little People horse stable. Which turned out to be a nice match to the farm she got from Grandma & Grandpa. Nana gave Sydney this Leap Frog toy "Tad" which I learned that you need to record stuff that is specialized to Sydney...still need to improve this feature.
It's fun to see how some of the old favourites from when we were kids are still around. The girls got Kerplunk (spelling?), but we learned that the game is not well suited to be played by 3 very excited 4 year olds.Finally, this is the picture that some of you received in your Christmas card, but most of you did not. Brad liked one with her smiling better. I like this one because I think Sydney looks like she is singing & Logan is looking at her like..."are you ever going to be quiet?", which I think closely resembles Logan's thoughts towards her sister. So with this, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas & have a safe & happy new year.

Took the wind right out of my sails

The content of this Blog has been removed by Brad.

Who can figure them out???

Last week, Sydney was grumpy in the morning & grumpy in the evening. On the weekend we assumed it was due to teeth and/or the shots she had gotten on the Friday. By Thursday night, I was beginning to worry that there was maybe something wrong with her. She had really been Miss Cranky with us all week. Then Friday I didn't work & got to spend some real quality time with her & it seemed that magically we had our happy little girl back again. Could it be that all she wanted was some "Mommy time"? I'd love to flatter myself to think so & allow my heart to swell with love for her...but if that's what she needed, why did she go running to Grandma when it was time to leave on both Monday & Wednesday??? Who knows what goes on in their pretty little heads sometimes. This picture taken Friday afternoon, is definitely not the little girl we had all week. Besides playing with the layout of this website (Brad, not me- I don't think he could accept that there is more you could do with this site than I had done...without trying to fix it), yesterday we really introduced Sydney to the snow. We bundled her up in her one piece snowsuit & headed outside to play in the snow. It's amazing that she can move in this thing as she looks as wide as she is tall. Her interest in snow angels was non-existent, wasn't even impressed with Daddy's snow angel. The only thing that seemed to entertain her was the throwing of snowballs, so she dug right in & tried to help out.Today is a lazy day for Sydney & I. Brad is helping Robb & Michele move into their new house after spending the last couple weekends painting...hopefully they can be settled before Christmas to have the chance to enjoy their new home. So, Sydney & I spent the morning playing & are heading out to see Grandma when she gets up from her nap. Sydney spent most of the morning playing with her little ride on truck. I say playing with rather than playing on, because she tries to carry it as much as she tries to ride it...mostly backwards.

Happy Birthday GG!!!

This week my Grandma, Sydney's GG, turns 83. At 83 she still lives on her own, drives her own car, has quite an active social life, and still enjoys her crafts. I think that's pretty good for an "old girl" and hope to see it continue for years to come.
Our drive to the "birthday brunch" was not one of the highlights of the day. I was considering turning around when Sydney was still crying 45 minutes into our drive. I honestly do not know how people do it when their kids always cry in the car. We were pretty sure we knew why she was crying & knew we couldn't do much to help her, but it did not make it any easier. She currently has two teeth cutting through (possibly 3) & was not a happy camper to be strapped into the car seat. I prayed to the Nap God to come help her (us) have a happier trip, but no deal. We stopped part way to give her some Motrin, but still no relief (for her or us).
Things improved once we got to Aunt Debbie's, but there were still moments of tears. The picture shown above was not the first picture taken, this was....
Don't take it personally GG, it really had nothing to do with you! Happy Birthday!

Also, thank you Nap God for overtaking our daughter for the ride home.