Gold Medal Party

A couple of weeks ago friends of ours sent out an email inviting us to a "Gold Medal Party". Of course at that time there was the assumption that the men's team would make it to not only the medal round, but the Gold medal game. What a disappointment that was! Looks like the party should have been set up to watch the women's game. The women ROCKED the Olympics!
Well, being the good sports that Wendy & Jason are- they still welcomed us into their home at 8am on Sunday morning- why not? We are all up at that time anyways.
Well, it was a good game even though it did not include Canada. The company was great & the hosts were fantastic! Although, next time you have a breakfast party- remind me to bring my coffee maker (ha ha)!
Hayden didn't like all the ref's calls. Sydney doesn't know the game that well, she has no idea what Hayden is talking about.






But she sure remembers how to say "CHEEESE!!!". Evelyn chooses to ignore her when she is showboating.
I think Ellie enjoyed having the kids around to play, but she mostly sat back and watched all the action. The kids will have to watch out for this one! She has so many words, she can put them to shame.

Mr. Max

Last night we babysat Max while Robb & Michele when to some African drumming thing in Toronto. We had a great time with Max & I had to take the picture that him & Sydney will be cursing me for when they get older....the tub picture!!! And Max taught Sydney how to say "CHEEEESE!!!"

Places to go, friends to see...

The past week was busy going here & going there. The bad thing about so many of your friends living in other towns is that it is often a challenge to coordinate schedules to allow for a good visit. The good thing about it is that you have many opportunities to get away from home for a bit.
Last weekend we went to visit Kim & Pete to go out for Brad & Pete's "birthday dinner & a movie". It was an overnight visit that gave Nana the perfect opportunity to babysit. I am sure that Regan & Sydney were perfect angels for her. Prior to us going out they were playing in Regan's room & their faces were the picture of innocence, even though they were just caught jumping on the bed.
The next day was a visit to see Monica. This is one of my friends who is MOST difficult to coordinate with- the woman keeps herself much too busy. We had a great visit & enjoyed meeting their little guy, Max (6 months). Jim had Max stylishly dressed in a Ramones t-shirt & I had to admit that was the neatest shirt I had seen on a little baby. For Monica & I's mutual friends...here are some pictures of Max and his proud parents.

I never seemed to capture just the right shot of him, but he is definitely a happy, smiley baby. Although, I am not sure what pose he is striking here with Sydney.
Our last jaunt out of town was on Friday to go meet Laura, Morgan, and Marley. Probably the 2nd hardest person to tie down for a visit. Although I realized that if we leave Patrick & Brad out of the equation, it is much easier to coordinate- sorry guys. Morgan is 2 1/2 years old & Marley is 3 months old. I think Morgan was really excited to play with Sydney & then was quite disappointed when Sydney was happiest playing alone in Morgan's kitchen- sorry Brad, but one of these things is going to be coming to our house sometime in the future. Sydney loved it!
Next was "snack time" and although Morgan's little table is perfect for her, Sydney has too many ants in her pants to be sitting at these little tables yet. She nearly flipped herself too many times.
And of course the other people that we were there to see...Laura & Marley. Again, Sydney picked up a little dolly anytime that I was holding the baby. I can live with that- at least she lets me hold one!

Jealousy may be setting in...

Yesterday we had a couple of visitors, Noreen & her little guy Will. I think I have said before that Sydney is quite facinated with babies right now. Well, she was quite interested in Will yesterday & was showing Noreen where his belly is, his nose, and his eyes. The problem is that her little finger is not always gentle when she wants to point these features out. Hence the frown (which is a common expression of hers these days) when she is directed away from his face.
Will was happy enough for her to be playing with his belly, but a little curious about why she is so interested in this game. When she couldn't play with Will's nose, she had to show us where Logan's nose is- who is becoming increasingly tolerant of her. Good girl Logan.As is typically the case when around a toddler for any length of time, things did not go well for the whole visit. Noreen stayed to have supper with us & I held Will so that she could get her food. Well, although it was OK for me to hold Will earlier- it was not OK to be holding him while Sydney was being put in her highchair by her daddy. Although you don't want to give in to them & their demands, I have to admit that once Noreen had her food I did hand Will back to her hoping that Little Miss would sit down in her chair and have her supper. It was the first time that we experienced "jealousy" & hope not to see too much of it in the future.
Well I am not sure if it is related to yesterday, but this morning I was not allowed to sleep in. Brad got Sydney out of bed & thought they were going downstairs for breakfast, but someone pushed open the door & came over to get into bed with me. Then wanted nothing to do with Daddy. She expected Mommy to get out of bed & come for breakfast. So when you have been jumped on & pulled on, who's going to get more sleep? So, what did I do? Got out of bed & went downstairs. So that now makes 2 wins for Sydney.

Special Delivery Expected....

Well it looks like Sydney is going to become a big sister this summer. She of course doesn't know this yet, but hopefully in the months to come she will start to understand & be happy about the concept. My prediction is that Sydney will adjust to another baby in the house much better than Logan will.
The official due date is August 14th, but I personally will be aiming for the first week of August- especially if it is a hot summer! For those of you who like to make fun of my obsessive planning nature- I am on track to fulfill one of my "life plans". I wanted to have all my children before turning 35 & if things go well I will acheive that goal- although I am cutting it close.
Here is a picture of our ultrasound done today. It did not scan as clear as I hoped, but I think you can see enough to know it is a baby. Currently she (just a guess) is 67mm long and has a heartbeat of around 140 bpm.

Husband Swap?

Michele & I truly love our respective husbands and love that they are the father of our children. As we are each very different from one another we have chosen the right brother to spend our lives with. However, it is a little eerie that each of our children have a striking resemblance to their uncles. More so than to their own mother or father. You be the judge.

It was only recently that we identified Sydney's resemblance to her Uncle Robb. After pulling out Robb's baby picture, it could not be denied.
No offense intended to Robb, but I sure hope the next one looks like me.

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.