little dude

Here's my baby boy.He likes his bubbly, peaceful glowing seahorse. I often find it singing next to him while he's sleeping. Cumorah likes to turn it on and set it beside him.


He's smiling at me even though his binky is strapped into his mouth. He smiles a lot at his sisters and his Daddy, too. Cumorah loves it when he smiles at her.


Rivers gives Sidon LOTS of kisses. She gave him a kiss and said, 'He needs a tissue.' What really happened was, Rivers needed a tissue and smeared her snot on Sidon's cheek, felt it when she kissed him and thought it must be him. She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and smeared her snotty nose up to her eye. Nice. No wonder Sidon has a cold.


Can you find his serious face? I love that look. He has been intently staring at us since his first week. I used to think that he was going to be a very serious little boy, and be like his Great Grandpa Hulbert. I've heard that his mother said he was born an adult. But now Sidon smiles a lot (after he eats and gets a diaper change). But then again, Grandpa smiles a lot, too.



Sidon's many names:

'Hey dude.'
'Hi buddy!'
'What's going on little guy?'

My favorite is when Rivers refers to him as 'dude'. So adorable.

now I know

what projectile vomiting looks like.

I smell like sour milk. Again.


And apparently Rivers does know where she put the only binky Sidon has when you give her the right look that puts her in fear of her life and say, "I know you had the binky. I want that binky, and I want it NOW."

the ultimate multi-tasker

The four actions that define a newborn baby's existence:

eat
sleep
poop
cry




My son can do three of the four amazingly well, all at once: eat, sleep, and poop


Genius.


And Brian, the profoundly proud papa, joyously declares, "My son toots like a MAN."

As for myself, the mother, I must admit (though decidedly not as enthusiastically) that he is quite impressive.


I'm not sure if it's possible for an infant to do all four at once. The crying at the same time as eating and sleeping is the tricky part. Maybe my children are just not quite as gifted as others. Sidon is, however, very adept at crying in general. Especially between the hours of 8pm and 10pm. Yes, very good at crying.

He's also good at banging his face on my shoulder. And snorting.

Oh, the satisfaction of being the mother of such a talented son.

the men

'No Girls Allowed' says Brian as Cumorah tries to get in his picture.




She is extremely offended, but you have to give Brian a little allowance for such things as he is just super excited to have another male in the house. Let him revel in the manliness of having a man-child. Besides, Cumorah and Rivers definitely get PLENTY of Daddy attention... especially since Brian is still a Maryann-it's-broken-come-take-this-thing-I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-it-etc.-etc. kind of Father to crying newborns. Even the third time around.




I love my Daddy.

As long as I'm not hungry...




Yesterday was Sidon's first day to church. Doesn't he look so handsome in his Sunday clothes?

modern nativity

Cumorah was playing 'Mary' on the couch. She had her pink blanket on her head and her naked baby doll was playing 'baby Jesus' wrapped in a cloth diaper. I peeked around the corner once from the kitchen and saw her sitting there. Suddenly she whipped out her pink Disney princess cell phone and opened it up.

"Hi. This is Mary...and Joseph. Where are you shepherds? We're waiting for you."

lullaby

Almost every night I sing to the girls last thing before they go to sleep. After family prayer and scriptures and Daddy story time, Brian takes Cumorah and Rivers to their room and helps them say their prayers. Yes, 'personal prayers' we call them. And if you were there listening in you would just die from the cuteness. Though in truth, it can be rather frustrating for Brian at times. Cumorah is getting pretty good at it, but often she has a hard time kneeling and being reverent and lately I heard a rumor that she was saying silly things like she was grateful that Rivers could be in the gorilla family. (The gorilla family is a common subject at our house.) Rivers' prayers are exceedingly adorable. Being the verbose child that she is, at home at least, she has been saying her prayers since she was 15 months. She doesn't generate her own things to say a whole lot, but she sure does enjoy Brian's help. They sound something like this...

" Ahh Fodder, dank you famimimilee. Ahhh Fodder, please bless sister. Ahhh Fodder, dank you Sidon. Ahhh Fodder, sleep. Ahh Fodder, teeth feel better. Christ Amen"

I'm not sure why she says 'Ahhh Fodder' before every sentence, and while she mostly talks in complete sentences to us, when she repeats Brian's promptings it is often just one or two key words. So cute, I'm really glad Brian takes the time and has the patience to help them with that every night. Anyway, I digress. I usually do.

My part is to go and sing them lullaby after prayers. Rivers picks a song first and then Cumorah. Top choices right now are 'Little Stream' and 'Little One' respectively. But sometimes it's 'Child God' or 'Famimimilies Gether Ever' and, as of late, 'A Manger'. So last night I had a disgruntled son and I heard Brian taking over lullaby duties. Usually, if I am unable to come sing right away he gets away with simply winding up their music box that lights up and projects animals on the wall, affectionately called 'Moon'. But for whatever reason he actually did singing that night. I do like to hear him sing a song his mother sang to him when he was little, it's very sweet. Last night he sang 'I Am A Child of God', I'm assuming for Rivers. Then I heard Cumorah ask ever so (not) politely, "I want Little One!" (We're working on that polite thing.) Brian replied that he did not know it, but she insisted. So he put on his best high girlie voice and went at it.

'Little one, little one...you're so little, you better be careful or you'll be stepped on. Little one, little one....you're just so short...and little...'

Yep. It was definitely quality singing. The girls were giggling and saying, "Nooooooo."

It's good to have a dad around. You should hear Brian's versions of 'The Velveteen Rabbit". We have a copy with really nice illustrations. Brian doesn't want to read the whole story as it is kind of lengthy, so he just makes it up. Problem is, I'm not sure he really knows the story. I've heard versions with everything from aliens to houses burning down because people weren't careful with the candles to the boy getting sick from turtles with salmonella.

Sidon Kent Taylor

Maryann and I have liked the name "Sidon" for some time. In the scriptures there is a wonderful story of a great battle which took place at the River Sidon. The good guys were completely outnumbered and they had a lot to lose, including their homes, liberties, wives, children, etc. But they put their trust in God, were strengthened and pulled out a win. I like this story because many of us today are fighting to preserve those same cherished blessings. It is my hope that our little Sidon will remember to ask God for help when things get tough so that he too can pull out a win. And "Kent" happens to be my father's middle name (Timothy Kent Taylor). Sidon currently is the lone "Taylor" heir.

Maryann's water broke last night around midnightish. Our dear friends, Mark and Aupreille, came to our house in the middle of the night to be there when our children awoke. We hung out in the Methodist Hospital luxury birthing suite waiting for Maryann to contract. As usual, she needed some wonderdrugs to get it all going. The picture below is Maryann watching her contractions on the monitor and wondering why the heck the anesthesiologist hadn't given her the epidural.



Apparently he had been tied up with back-to-back cesareans in the OR and was too busy to get her started. He finally did show up about 30 minutes before the baby. He went ahead and tried the epidural but only managed to numb the one side of Maryann. The meds had just started to work when the baby came.

Our sweet doctor had me gown up and help deliver Sidon. He was my very first delivery and I feel especially lucky to have been able to welcome my first son into the world this way.



Mom and baby are doing great. Both appear to have made it through the ordeal without any significant problems.



Interestingly, he's the blondest baby we've made yet. Sigh. His eyelashes are nearly white.



Sidon has his own look. It's very much a "man look". I told the nurse that it's a good thing he's a boy because he sure would make an ugly girl.








Thanks for all your prayers. We are exceedingly blessed!

fun in fall

Here we are again: another fall in Des Moines, another mess of leaves to bag up, another gigantic 9-month-along pregnant wife, another season of holiday fun.

Maryann hasn't let being 9 months pregnant slow her down any. This morning after hours of laundering random objects, she reported that she was nearly through for the day. Some 5 hours later I came in to find her still going at it, this time scrubbing the kitchen floor with alcohol wipes. She finally sat down around 9:30 tonight and took to knitting a baby hat.












The girls both carved their own pumpkins this year. We never did get pictures of the pumpkins they carved themselves. Rivers had all the skills of a knife wielding serial killer. I was jabbed about a dozen times. Good thing those knives are so dull.





These pictures are from our most recent yard cleanup. Cumorah demonstrated to Rivers the sport of "leaf tossin". When we got through the yard looked great... at least for about a day. You've got to love the Iowa wind.



The girls have been preparing for their baby brother's arrival for many months now. I've inserted a little video footage of them in action.

dancing cupcakes

Tonight was beggar's night. Brian took the girls out to about 5 houses or so. Lucky little cupcakes. They were so excited (and cold, it was 40 outside and they weren't wearing coats) when they got back and dumped their tiny little candy piles out on the floor for me to see. Cumorah really figured out what was going on this year and Brian said she would have done the whole street if Brian had let her. We still don't have good pics yet, but we'll get some family ones tomorrow. I know there are interested parties (mostly grandparents) who wanted to see the costumes so I thought I'd post this little clip I had to get. Brian put on one of his Johnny Cash cds while I was getting them dressed and this is what happened.

(A BIG THANK YOU to Grandmommy who worked her magic yet again and made the super cute little strawberries for their hats and sewed all the sweet little bead sprinkles on their frosting collars. All I had to do was say something towards the end of August. Something like, "So....I was thinking this year that the girls should be cupcakes for Halloween." I think it is a creative outlet and a stress relief for her or something. I'd be pretty stressed about sewing all those beads.)

Brian looked pretty cute too (in a manly way of course) in his baker costume. I took a peek out the window and saw him walking down the sidewalk in his big white pastry chef hat holding the hand of a bouncing little cupcake on either side, and it just melted my heart.

-Hi. This is Brian. I'm adding some pictures to this post. These were taken during the church Halloween party.

(not) so brave

I took the girls to the pediatrician's office to get their flu shots on Friday. Cumorah was telling me during the ride there about how she was going to be so brave and how Rivers was going to be brave, too. We had talked a bit about the whole shot thing. I don't think she really remembers much about getting shots herself, but she saw Rivers get four shots at her 15 month appointment and was rather somber. Cumorah and Rivers are so in love with Curious George right now (the old school books). Cumorah's favorite is Curious George Goes to the Hospital. We talked about how George gets a shot and says that it really wasn't so bad and it's over quickly. I really thought that we were as prepared as we could be. We even talked about getting a treat afterwards. Cumorah told me that the doctor would give her a treat and Mommy would give her a treat. Greedy child. In fact, she even demanded that Daddy give her a treat when he got home later that evening.

Anyway, the time comes for their shots. Rivers went first. Cumorah had been saying that a lot in the car as well. Gives you a little clue about how brave she was. Quick little prick in the thigh, a little bit of crying, a kiss and a hug, and Rivers is good to go. I turn to get Cumorah and she immediately says, "I don't want a shot anymore." Of course she doesn't. Then the screaming bloody murder, flailing, falling to the floor, writhing and more horrible screaming begins.

Oh. My. Goodness. I cannot describe the scene she made. Good thing there weren't any poor children waiting for their turn to witness her display. The nurse was even a little stunned, and you'd think that she would've seen it all before. To make matters worse I had just tweaked something in my back getting the girls in and out of the van and it was seriously painful. I thought I was going to cry by the time we were back in the car after the ordeal was all over. Somehow I got her up on the table with a little bit of thigh exposed and the nurse said, "If you can get her top half, I'll get the bottom." It probably hurt a lot more than it should have because her little thigh muscles were so rigid from her efforts to escape. The nurse gave her a purple band-aid and said she could go get a sticker. Cumorah informed the nurse in a not so nice tone that she did not want any lousy sticker that she had to offer. So maybe she didn't say that much, but it was pretty clear how she was feeling. In the end, she did pick out a sticker and she even was admitting that it wasn't so bad. It hurt, but it was over fast. But when she ventured to suggest that she had been brave I had to be honest. I said, "You know Cumorah, you really were not very brave at all. Maybe next time." She did get a tiny candy treat still. After all, I never said she had to brave to get a treat.

Fearless

Our dear friends from church gave us this fancy roller-coaster months ago. The girls have absolutely enjoyed it all summer long. And so far, no major injuries.