I won the war...

The Spinach Lasagna War. I may have lost the battle last night, but today I won the war.

I made a yummy lasagna for dinner last night. It really did turn out pretty good. The girls wouldn't eat it. Brian just sat quietly hiding behind bites of his second huge serving, trying not to laugh at my glaring while the girls refused every meal-time tactic and strategy we have. Cumorah ate a couple bites and Rivers wouldn't eat any. Rivers usually eats anything. They had small servings of cannelini beans and would have eaten only that, but their mother is just as stubborn as they are. In the end, I think they went to bed definitely not the fullest they've ever been but triumphant in their non-lasagna-eating state. They eat pasta all the time, they eat the veggie pasta sauce I make all the time. I don't get it.

But today, I pulled out the leftover lasagna for lunch with a huge grin on my face, "num, num!" Rivers started flopping around in her high chair. Cumorah poked at it with her fork saying, "I don't like that part." I ate with enthusiasm, "Mmmm! This is so yummy. I love the cheesy spinach part." Cumorah ate a couple bites of noodles. I gave her a bite of the spinach cheesy part with noodle. She ended up eating her whole serving and asked for more. Haha, sweet success. While Rivers did not eat her entire serving, she ate quite a bit of it on her own. And very little of it ended up on the floor.

I'm in a much better mood.

sing

Cumorah is a singer. She sings herself to bed every night, which is incredibly cute. Sometimes I just have to stop and listen to her. It's so precious and she's not going to be doing that forever. She's got a knack for memorizing lyrics quickly. She sings all sorts of songs. A lot of primary songs from nursery. Songs that I sing to her. Christmas songs. Sometimes they're all jumbled up. She'll start out singing one song and mid-sentence it will turn into something else. So fun. I love it. She loves to have music playing and she also loves to dance.

This is a (longish) clip of us doing our naptime rocking thing. I don't sing the girls a lullaby at night so most days we rock in the rocking chair before afternoon nap. Sometimes I want to laugh while we're singing and the girls are going crazy on my lap. I wanted to remember what it was like, so a couple weeks ago I set the camera up on the bed. While Rivers doesn't always fuss, this really is what a typical rocking session is like, though we usually sing at least two songs. (And sometimes we have to break for a mini-discussion about keeping our hands to ourselves and being kind to our sisters.)

I always ask what song we should sing first, and Cumorah always requests the same one...









This clip is a little redundant, but I know that Grandmommy will watch it many, many times. Cumorah most definitely has a favorite song. She knows which one it is in the Children's Song Book and points out the temple in the little picture to us. She often likes to accompany us on the piano.

Easter

This year the Easter season started during the very end of March when Cumorah looked out our living room window and saw the neon colored Easter eggs sticking out of the dirt and hanging from the naked branches of the bushes in the flower beds of Mac and Judy's house. Mac and Judy are our neighbors across the street. They like to see Cumorah and Rivers in the window and always smile and wave. They are grandparents (I think even great-grandparents). Judy brought Valentine's balloons over for the girls. We caroled to them during the Christmas season. Cumorah likes to see Mac with the snowblower in the winter and Judy working in the yard Spring through Fall. There are many reasons that we enjoy having Mac and Judy there across the street from us, but one very fun thing about it is their wonderful holiday decorations. For more than half the year there are fun decorations for Cumorah and Rivers to look at. They do everything, even St. Patrick's Day (they're Irish). This past holiday season (October to present) has been Cumorah's first really, the first that she has been old enough to be aware and really enjoy the traditions. She still gets a little confused between holidays, like when the Thanksgiving turkeys were 'spooky'. She saw those neon colored eggs and she was excited, "Mommy, look, it's Christmas-time, see the lights!"

And so began the introduction to the wonderful world of Easter eggs and Easter bunnies and Spring-time. (She's really waiting for Summer-time so that she can 'be hot and go swimming in her swimming suit'). We took down our felt shamrocks and got out our Easter decorations. This year was exciting for me because I actually really had some Easter decorations. We hit a 90% off sale at Cost Plus World Market quite by accident last year and scored some cute stuff. We have a simple Happy Easter felt banner, a couple ceramic eggs, a few other little things and my personal favorite...an Easter Tree. I don't know if that's really what you call it, but I'm excited to have it. I've had a set of little egg ornaments from the dollar bin at Target for like 5 years now, but nothing to hang them on, until now. Add that to my scaled down collection of ballerina bunnies (I think the Easter Bunny gave me a ballerina bunny of some sort every year for half of my childhood) and my very squishy Peeps (like the marshmallows) bunny pillow and we are all decked out. Cumorah enjoyed helping me set everything out, especially anything 'glass' that you have to be 'very careful' with. Her favorite is definitely the bunny pillow. I let the girls have the Easter baskets to play with, because it is just so fun to put things in them, but the paper grass got put away after a day of play and another day of picking the pieces up from every room in the house.

Cumorah saw the Easter Bunny at the mall the week before Easter. We went to go to the play place and to find some new shoes for Cumorah, poor girl. (We did find shoes, they're cute, inexpensive, easy to put on, what more could you ask for? I love them. They don't match anything, so they match everything.) She saw the Easter Bunny from a distance and was quite cautiously interested. I didn't think much of it. I wasn't planning on visiting him because I figured that she wouldn't want anything to do with him after watching her run-in with Santa at the Christmas party at church. Later, while we were finishing our 'picnic lunch' we brought with us at a table near the waterfall and the elevators, we saw the Easter Bunny walking back to his chair after he had his lunch. He rode the elevator and everything! Cumorah was pretty excited to see him. We went by him one more time soon after that and Cumorah ran around to see what was going on in his corrall. She saw a little boy talking to him and then she saw two little girls climb on to his lap. "Mommy, the Easter Bunny holding the girls!" She was captivated. She ran around the fence to find the entrance as quick as she could, I could hardly keep up. She ran right past the kids in line and into the corrall. I called to her and pointed out that she had to wait for her turn in line. She came back out but could hardly contain herself. The girls were giving the Easter Bunny a hug! It was just too good to be true apparently. When the two siblings that Cumorah was standing behind went in for their turn to meet the Easter Bunny, Cumorah went with them. I watched the whole thing from a little distance. She held back and waited for them to finish giving the Easter Bunny hugs, then when the Easter Bunny turned his attention to her she did a little dance acting kind of silly, her face really happy and excited. She didn't get any closer, but the Easter Bunny held out some paper bunny ears to her. She took them but still didn't really know what to do. The EB held out his arms and Cumorah ran full speed ahead and bear hugged him. It was so cute. Then she ran back to me, "Mommy, the Easter Bunny give me a hug! He give me ears!" I asked her if she had said 'thank you'. She ran back and said thank you and got another hug. She was so happy. It was just the most amazing thing that had happened to her all week. And I wasn't planning on taking her to see him, go figure.



We colored our Easter eggs Thursday night when we realized that Friday night Daddy had board prep. The girls were up until 10. I just have a really hard time doing everything in a timely manner. It was worth it though, our first time dyeing Easter eggs in the Brian Taylor family. Cumorah helped to put the eggs 'so gently' in the pot to be boiled. Then when the cooled eggs were sitting in a large bowl on her little red table and she was waiting for Mommy to finally have dinner ready, she colored the eggs. How else do you color eggs except with crayons? That's how you color everything else. (You gotta love that outfit. We had just received a very exciting package from Grandmommy, a fancy new nightgown picked out by Auntie Amy, new crocs for the summer, and some super-cool women's knee-high socks to be made into leg warmers.) So most of the eggs had some sort of scribbling on them, which was perfect because we drew all sorts of pictures on them before dyeing them anyway, just like my family did when I was young. Brian even made individualized eggs for each member of the family just like my Dad would do. Brian's eggs were a little more, ummm, magazine-worthy I guess. He's a little more artistic. (But Dad, of course your Easter eggs were better, more character...) I did two of my usual tie-dyed eggs. My mom did that with us one year. It can be a little messy, but it's kind of cool and super easy. And then I was mostly done. I'm not a very creative Easter egg decorator. Cumorah was so excited about the whole thing, she was screaming at the top of her lungs, "Daddy! Paint! We're going to color the Easter eggs!" Rivers would not be left out, but was still forced to keep her distance. She was mostly content to play with her blocks and watch what was going on.









The Easter Bunny came to our house Friday night. Our family requested early visits so that we can enjoy all of our festivities and candy feasting on Saturday and have a more relaxed Easter Sunday. Cumorah knew that she was going to get candy and presents, but I think to her candy is more exciting than presents. She was happy with anticipation Saturday morning. She wanted Daddy to carry her into the living room. We kept saying that the Easter Bunny had come in excited voices and I think that she was actually a little bit worried that he was still here. I went around the corner into the kitchen to get the egg cartons so that she could put the colored eggs that were hidden all over the living room back into the cartons. She kind of shirked back into her Daddy's arms when I came quickly back. I think it was a little early for a great big Easter Bunny to be possibly lurking somewhere in her house. When I reassured her that the EB was not still in the house, that he had come and gone while she was sleeping, she relaxed. She laughed at the hidden eggs. The EB is 'soooo silly to hide the eggs'. Rivers watched Cumorah and then picked up an egg from off the floor and crawled over to the carton to put it away. She also found the egg hidden in Daddy's shoe all on her own.

Here is Rivers showing us the egg she found. Here is Mommy hoping the egg dye really is non-toxic and that it will wash off in time for church tomorrow.



Very fun. Cumorah did have a little too much candy and she did take a little too long to fall asleep during nap, but she really doesn't ever get a lot of sweets, so I wasn't too worried. Rivers got freeze dried yogurt drops in her Easter basket, yum, candy.


Easter Sunday was just lovely. It was a beautiful day. After Brian came home from board prep he helped Cumorah bake and frost Easter themed sugar cookies. A jeep-shaped cookie can be Easterish, too. Then we all went to have Easter dinner with friends from school. It was really nice. There were quite a few of us gathered together. Some of the guests I've met before and some I had not. I really had a great time relaxing and chatting with everyone. We all attend different churches but it was nice to gather with people who have a common love of the Savior. Some scriptures were read and a blessing was said. The food was scrumptious. I remember when I realized that we were probably the only guests that have children.

I asked Brian, "They do know we have kids?"
Brian's reply, "They all do."
"They all have kids?"
"No, they all know we have kids and they're expecting us to bring them."

Not only did they know we have children, but our lovely hostess made great efforts to make our girls happy. She hid easter eggs filled with candy and stickers all over the house, she gave Cumorah a little easter straw cup (and filled it with juice), and she even printed coloring pages off the internet for Cumorah. We were very touched by all her preparations for her littlest guests. Cumorah spent a lot of time with her that evening.

The girls have adorable matching Easter dresses that Auntie Amy found. And they really did look adorable. Unfortunately, Amy, I didn't get any pictures of them. They wore them again today. I was going to try and take pictures again. But, alas, it didn't happen. Instead of feeling guilty, I decided that life is just really good for you. You need some sort of aggravation, and I am happy to provide it for you. Wait a minute, you're married to my brother and you live next door to my father...maybe you don't need anymore aggravation. Anyway, before you get too upset with me just try to remember that I am pregnant in my first trimester (the worst for me) and on Easter Sunday I took my 2 year old and my baby to stake conference all by myself. By the time we got home, I was pretty much done for the day and the girls needed naps, and I had to put the finishing touches on the ice cream cake and the jello eggs we were bringing to dinner. And why not pictures today? I'm nauseous, I'm tired, it's storming outside, and by the time I had both girls together this evening Cumorah had green marker on her sweater and face. So this is it, the only picture we have. It's a bad picture. Brian was going to attempt a picture of Cumorah helping Rivers walk but they were too wiggly and we had to go. Sorry. We'll try again...sometime.

reverent

This morning when we sat down for breakfast I told Cumorah it was time for prayer. Rivers (who sits next to me while Cumorah sits across from me) clapped her hands together, held them tight and looked at me with her big goofy grin. So I asked her, "Are you folding your arms for prayer, you big girl?" and then I helped her fold them while I said a blessing on our breakfast. She was so proud after 'amen'. She was smiling very big. I didn't really think a whole lot of it, because I wasn't really sure if folding her arms for prayer was her intention or not.

But at dinner when Brian said it was time for prayer, Rivers clapped her hands together, held them tight, and smiled her big goofy smile at him. So I helped her fold her arms for prayer again. Pretty cute. I guess it's about that time to teach her to fold her arms for prayer. But lest you think she is some sort of wonder reverence child, she crawled away and played with her noisy dinosaur ball toy during our family prayer before bed. However, Cumorah, even though she turned her body towards the noise and was sorely tempted to join in, stayed with us and kept her arms folded until prayer was over before running to play with her sister. I was very proud of her.

life with these girls

I'm tired, I'm a bit nauseous, I feel rather incapable at times (OK so most of the time...) but I must say that I am so happy being a mommy to my two little girls. They are unbelievably adorable. They make me smile. I can't imagine anything else that I would rather do than be taking care of my Cumorah and Rivers.

Wednesday we filled up the water table for the first time of the season. The girls had a great time getting soaked while I got dinner together. They ate at the table in their shirts and panties/diaper. It's the best thing ever for that evening time right before dinner. I can watch them on the deck out the window and the door while I fix dinner. We had to have the it's-not-ok-to-pour-water-on-your-sister conversation that first evening. Sometimes Cumorah brings a bucket into the kitchen for me to fill in the sink. She carries it so carefully outside. Rivers does a lot of finger dipping and sucking which is one of the many reasons we empty the water every night and try to wipe the table out often. At least she's not actually drinking from all the little cups and buckets.

We were having lunch recently when suddenly something was wildly funny. I was totally not in on the joke. The girls just started giggling like crazy. Then they would take turns doing cheesy 'haaaaaaaa' kind of laughs. Then go back to giggling. I just looked from one little girl to the other and couldn't keep from laughing myself. Sometimes there is an obvious game associated with the giggle fest, such as banging hands on the table, throwing a bean on the floor (this one is not funny to Mommy), rolling a straw cup back and forth or making a funny noise with your mouth. But I really don't know what this was about. Spontaneous giggling. Just wait until girl number 3 arrives, Brian. Perpetual princess slumber party.

Rivers takes naps in Mommy and Daddy's room. When she wakes up from her shorter morning nap I often let Cumorah go 'get' her. She loves to open the door and go play with her. Sometimes it's a really good thing, because I am trying to finish a certain task before I get Rivers out and they can be quite happy for 15 minutes or so. Cumorah slides her body under the portacrib so just her head and arms are sticking out and talks to Rivers through the mesh. She makes a lot of her special noise, too. It's really hard to explain, but she's been doing it since a little before Rivers was born. I call it her 'aggressive affection' noise. It almost sounds threatening and she does clench her teeth. It rather concerned me at first when Rivers was tiny and Cumorah would hold Rivers' little foot or hand and put her mouth up to it and make her noise. I kept wondering if she was going to suddenly bite Rivers or something. But no, it's really just one of her (bizarre) ways of showing affection. (I have mentioned that Cumorah is a little intense, haven't I?) Sometimes Cumorah gives Rivers toys to play with in the crib. Today when I went in to get Rivers out of the crib, both Cumorah and Rivers were in it. Cumorah got her trusty bathroom stool and climbed in.

Rivers is learning to fight back when Cumorah takes something away. She really grabs at Cumorah and one of these days she is going to bite her. She opens her mouth really wide and goes for her but just hasn't actually clenched down yet. I know that I really shouldn't think this, but right now I actually think that some of their little fights are kind of cute and funny. I don't think it will take long for me to not find it so amusing anymore.

Table manners are a constant work in progress. Rivers has recently discovered the throw-the-food-you-don't-want-on-the-floor game that so aggravated me when Cumorah did it. It is a little different with her though. With Cumorah it was often outright defiance and refusal to eat certain foods. With Rivers it seems more often than not extremely random, like a whimsical pastime. I'm highly suspicious sometimes that she throws it there in an effort to save some for later. If I clean up Rivers and let her down before I clean up the floor, I run the risk of her scavenging in the food she just threw down. Kind of annoying. I watched Cumorah eat yogurt the other day with her trusty Baby Bjorn bib that catches anything and everything you throw at it and was appalled at the mess she made in it. I realized that she was making no effort at all to eat neatly because she knew she had no reason to, the bib would take care of everything. So now we are talking about eating neatly, wiping the bottom of your spoon on the edge of the bowl, and leaning over, etc, etc. Sometimes I don't let her wear the bib at all. I discovered that she is actually quite capable of eating neatly, if she wants to.

Cumorah likes to help Rivers walk. They hold hands facing each other and Cumorah walks backwards. Very cute.

I like baby girls, they're a lot of fun. I'm still a little trepidatious about teenage girls, but I have a little way to go before that, right?

2 Nephi 9:34

I just want to quickly correct any confusion that may be out there because of Brian's last post.

Brian is a big liar...

I mean, Brian is a big tease.

We do NOT know the sex of our third child just yet. If you ask me, I think it's a girl. I've been telling him since we've first been married that I thought he was going to have to get through three little girls (sweet darling daughters for him to love and adore) before he gets any boys. I also think Brian is a desperate man. I could be wrong. About the having another girl part.

It's a boy!

Because our last ultrasound was so poor, we decided to get another one. And from the looks of it, we are most definitely having a boy. The doctor thinks he's going to be quite intelligent. We're leaning towards the names, "DeWalt" and "Bosch."

I know some of you thought we were having another girl. But since the thing is due to arrive on my birthday, I feel pretty comfortable saying it's going to be a boy. Yep. Definitely a man-baby. Yes Sir.

I guess it's time to take down all this pink girlie stuff and hang my John Wayne picture back in the living room where it belongs.

3 under 3

The blob in the dark circle is a baby. The line is measuring it from head to rump though I don't quite remember which end is the head and which is the rump. Oh well. Very disappointing quality but that's how they usually are. I have an ultrasound picture of Cumorah around this same time that is quite clear, you can see the little arm and leg buds and everything. She looked like a little bean sprout. I don't know why it was so different, of course it came from an emergency room after an especially bad Crohns-ish episode. (Technically, I'm not allowed to eat french fries anymore. Ever. But especially not when I'm pregnant. I said 'technically'.)

Anyway...

The girls and I went to visit the tiny-baby-doctor-who-takes-care-of-babies-in-mommies'-tummies today. I felt just a little conspicuous dragging my stroller and two obviously young girls from room to room, pee in the cup (i have go potty too, where's my cup?), exam room (doctor check you mommy?), ultrasound room (see the tiiiiiiiiiny baby on the computer, it's not talking), and the lab (getting blood, mommy?). Fortunately, they were really good and extremely cute so everybody smiled at us, except the receptionist. Cumorah stood on a chair next to me and watched the computer screen during the ultrasound. She was really attentive. We learned a new word, sonographer, when we asked the ultrasound tech what we should call her since I didn't think nurse was right. She was really sweet and really talked a lot with Cumorah pointing out the little heart beating to her and agreeing with her observation that the baby is not talking. Cumorah is now really into putting her little pointer finger and thumb together and putting on this funny scrunched up face look to say, "The baby is sooo tiny, just little little." She also told me later in the car that she saw the baby screaming. She kept saying it and I couldn't figure it out. I told her that the baby wasn't screaming, the baby was happy and comfortable. Cumorah said, "The computer screaming, mommy, the baby screaming." Aaahhh, I understood. I then explained about a computer SCREEN and that nothing was screaming. After the ultrasound, we learned about the word 'phlebotomist' in the lab. Cumorah sat next to me on the bench and got to pick out the color of whatever-you-call-that-plasticy-wrap-stuff-they-wrap-around-the-cottonball-after-they're-done-poking-you. She chose purple and was even given her own purple bracelet minus the poke and the cotton ball. Rivers just kept talking and leaning way out of her stroller seat the whole time.

As we were leaving the little lab when we were all finished (everything is in the same office) I replied to one of the nurse's congratulations with, "Yep, pretty exciting, we'll have three under three for just a little while." From down the hallway I heard a nurse say, "That sounds like a party."

So here's to our upcoming party beginning sometime in mid November 2009. We feel very blessed.




p.s. If you see me and you think I'm starting to show, please, keep it to yourself. I shouldn't be.

blue lovies

Cumorah has Blue Bear.



Rivers has Blue Bunny.



Not very creative names, I know.

Grandma and Grandpa Taylor gave Cumorah blue bear for her first Christmas when she was only 10 days old. He's really soft, though he's looking decidedly more matted than in previous years. She must have Blue Bear in bed with her now (glow worm too).

Grandmommy sent out Blue Bunny a few months ago for Rivers. He is in her crib and she loves him. He's really cute and floppy. Lots of great appendages to hang on to. She likes to grab one and shake him. She's not attached so much like Cumorah, but Cumorah wasn't that attached to Blue Bear at 11 months either.



Blue Bunny was made by our very talented and lovely friend Anna, who sells the floppy bunny along with some other very cute little creatures on her etsy shop, minelolly. Check it out. I just saw the singing squirrel and almost died from the cuteness. Though I also really love the monster and abducted twice. They're all so stinking cute. You can also see some examples of beautiful quilting done by her also very talented and very gracious mother. I have a few Luan Zenk originals myself. I'm pretty spoiled.

we have communication

We're not exactly sure which word to claim as Rivers' first. Cumorah was easy, it was most definitely 'fish', both verbally and with signing. Rivers first began saying "uh-oh" a month or two ago, but at first it was just an imitation. Then it began to be her reaction when she dropped something. Around the same time is when she began to say 'up' and pull on Brian's legs in the evening while he is doing dishes. Her first noun is definitely banana, though she says it 'nana'. She LOVES bananas. She DEMANDS bananas if she sees them. The video with Rivers spacing out was Brian's first attempt to get her to say 'nana'. His second attempt only produced a repeated signing of 'please' as in 'open it up and give it to me to eat now'. The third attempt finally captured 'nana'.


Just a little while ago she started signing. I think she has been occasionally saying milk (as in mommy's milk) for a while now, but it's hard to tell because she sometimes just moves her hands like that randomly. I also think she learned 'please' a couple weeks ago, she was just using it again today a few times. I think that to her 'please' means 'give it to me'. She definitely started signing 'hat' yesterday and was having a ton of fun conversing with me. It's funny how much a not quite one year old enjoys a conversation that consists of a single repeated word. She likes to pull off hats and then try to put them back on, unsuccessfully. But she keeps trying, passing it over her head and behind her back over and over again.

Today, Rivers surprised me. The girls were in the kitchen playing (making a huge mess out of the contents of the red cupboard) a little while before dinnertime and I said, "You guys want to take a bath?" (we took a bath before dinner tonight so we wouldn't be up too late with family home evening) Rivers turned immediately with a huge smile on her face and followed at top speed to the bathroom. When we got there she stood up at the tub and unmistakably signed bath. She knew exactly what she was saying. It was so cute. So begins communication.




I am most definitely not even close to being proficient with sign language. I just know some very basics. Actually, I think Cumorah knows more than I do. She loves watching Signing Time. I am very much an advocate of signing with your babies. It saved a lot of headaches for us with Cumorah. She could tell me what she wanted or needed instead of just screaming. Nice. I remember the first time I realized what a good thing it was. I put Cumorah down for a nap and she was just having a cow. I had no idea what was wrong. She had a clean diaper, it was time for a nap, she had been having a good day... Right before I left the room to see if she could just cry it out in a few minutes, she signed 'water'. She wanted a drink of water. I brought her some water. She stopped crying and went to sleep. Nice.


And these videos of Rivers from tonight are just cute. Rivers is very proud of her clapping. She took forever to start clapping. She claps whenever she gets a sock off her foot. The longer video is an example of her perseverance. She will patiently spend forever doing things. Cumorah would have been screaming and biting something 20 seconds into a situation like this, well maybe that's a little extreme, but you get the idea. (So Rivers is wearing the same jammies as in the nana clips, but the nana clips were filmed a couple weeks ago.)

Jamie leaves an impression

We had a freak break in the weather a few weeks back when my sister came to visit us. I think she brought it with her. Jamie, come back!

After church on Sunday, Cumorah, Jamie and I road tested the new minivan with a trip to Adam Ondi Ahman. We very nearly got stuck in the mud at Haun's Mill (they weren't kidding with all those warnings on the map). Then we ended our whirlwind adventure eating bananas and fruit snacks at the temple site at Far West.