Chaos and Cupcakes

Looking through more old pictures, I came across some from July 2003.  On July 22nd, we were celebrating Andrew’s first birthday:

And the very next day, I was celebrating something else…

…the addition of another little boy into our family!

And they’ve been the best of friends ever since.  Happy birthday to my sweet boys, Cameron and Andrew!

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Jared and I were looking through some pictures last night and happened upon one of Taylor as a toddler:

Parker has always reminded me a bit of Taylor as a baby, but seeing that picture where he looks exactly like Parker made me realize how much alike they really do look.

Even with a 6 year age difference, these 2 boys are best friends and completely adore each other.  Our sweet bookends.

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“Beware of those who feel obliged to prove their own patriotism by calling into question the loyalty of others. Be skeptical of those who attempt to demonstrate their love of country by demeaning its institutions. Know that men of both major political parties who bear the nation’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches are men of unquestioned loyalty and we should stand by and support them, and this refers not only to one party but to all. Strive to develop a maturity of mind and emotion and a depth of spirit which enables you to differ with others on matters of politics without calling into question the integrity of those with whom you differ. Allow within the bounds of your definition of religious orthodoxy variation of political belief. Do not have the temerity to dogmatize on issues where the Lord has seen fit to be silent.”
-Hugh B. Brown, Commencement address, Brigham Young University, May 31, 1968

Over the last few weeks, Parker has been showing an interest in potty training.  He doesn’t want to wear a diaper and insists on wearing big boy underwear.  I try to get him to compromise by letting him wear undies over his diaper, but he usually will take his diaper off and throw it away the second I turn my back on him.  He also often wants to sit on the big toilet.  This morning he got on the big toilet and went potty and was so excited.  So I decided it would be a good time to get the little Elmo potty out and let him start using that all he wants.  A little while ago I heard shrieking coming from upstairs.  Sawyer and Olivia had just gotten home from school so I figured one of them must have taken a toy away from Parker.  I went to investigate and instead found Parker with his little plastic potty seat stuck around his neck.  He had taken it off the potty and pushed it down over his head.  It was upside down so the hard plastic rough edge was sticking up.  Jared and I could not get it off his head.  Jared had to get hedge shears and cut it off.  Leave it to Parker to do such a silly thing!

Here’s how our morning started:

And here’s how it ended:

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Jared has a new blog showcasing his burgeoning hobby of photography.  I think he is pretty darn good myself.  I can’t wait for him to take our annual family photos soon.  Right now he just has a few photos that he took last week on the blog.  I think his goal for this blog is to do a daily photo.  That way he is continually working on building up his photography skills.  This blog will be different from our gallery where we just throw up all of our photos willy nilly.

I am fully convinced (and already was previously to this) that my kids go to the greatest school in the country.  I love their school and this makes me love it even more:

“One of the pillars of our school is to ‘Inspire integrity and a spirit of citizenship.’   With that thought in mind, we have decided to air the live broadcast of this historical opportunity at the school for students in grades K-8.”

“We will have alternate classrooms with educational activities available for students whose parents would like to ‘opt-out’ of viewing the address. We also will have room available for parents who would like to come to the school to view the address together with their child.”

I am very happy that we are not subject to the decision made by the school district here, which was to not show the address (completely lame).

Obviously, I am just fine with my kids listening to the President of the United States encourage them in their education.  Of course, I also let Taylor read President Obama’s books when he saw them on my nightstand as I was reading them.  He is a very intelligent, intuitive, inquisitive child (although the word child really does not apply to him) who deserves the opportunity to think for himself.

Olivia and I were laying in her bed talking tonight and out of the blue she started asking me these questions:

O:  Mom, do I have to get married?  Do I have to have babies?

A:  Do you want to get married and have babies, Liv?

O:  No.  I don’t want to go to the hospital.  And I don’t like boys except my friends that are boys.  Do you like boys?  Do you like Jared?  I miss Jared.

A:  Why don’t you want to go to the hospital?

O:  I don’t want the doctor to cut my tummy with a sharp knife.  Does it hurt?

A:  Well, they numb you first.

O:  With medicine?  What medicine?  Do they give you the medicine before they cut your tummy?

A:  Yes, they give you the medicine first.  But you don’t have to have your tummy cut with a knife.

O:  So how else would the doctor get the baby out?

A:  Ummm, well, uhhhh, through your crotch.

O:  Really, Mom?  Tell me the truth.  I don’t think you’re telling the truth.  And I’m not letting the doctor cut my crotch or my tummy to get a baby out.

A:  Can we discuss this in a few more years and not tonight?

O:  Only if I can stay here to live when I’m a grown up.  In a big bed like yours.  In a big bedroom with no toys.

Today at lunch, we roughly mapped out the next few years of vacations.  We are a vacation-loving family (especially now that Jared works from home or wherever there is good wireless internet access and the ability to find a quiet room while he’s on calls).

We were having a conversation about maybe taking a long weekend trip over to San Francisco sometime this summer.  Here’s an excerpt of the conversation:

Me:  “Do you guys want to go to San Francisco for a weekend this summer?”

Olivia:  “But I don’t know how to golf!!!!!” (Yes, that many exclamation points were needed to emphasis the depths of despair in her voice).

And then she proceeded to go on and on about how we can’t go to San Francisco until she learns how to golf.

Can someone enlighten me on the correlation between going to San Francisco and knowing how to play golf?  When we went to San Francisco a couple of years ago, there was no golf-playing going on.  I don’t know where she is getting this from!

This is often how our family planning meetings go.  But I firmly believe in letting the kids have a voice and a vote in these matters.  And I also think the things that come out of their mouths during these discussions are hilarious.

Taylor has far different ideas about where he wants to go on vacation than me.  For instance, today he tried to sway me into adding Okinawa to our destination list (he is into World War II history).  He thinks the places I want to go are too trite and touristy.  Just like Taylor, Jared also prefers to go to places with historical significance.  I want to go to places with a pristine beach and a glistening ocean.  Thus why we have to map it out a few years in advance so everyone is happy.  Since we went to California and stayed at the beach this year, Jared gets a couple of years beach free (party pooper).

Remainder of 2009:  Yellowstone (June) and maybe San Francisco

April 2010: Europe (without kids);    Summer 2010:  Seattle / British Columbia

Summer 2011:  Road trip to DC, NYC, and Boston

Summer 2012:  Hawaii

Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that gas prices don’t sky rocket again (although I am sure they will anyway).

I think Taylor is now the only child whose birth story I haven’t posted yet.  His is probably also the least dramatic birth story.  That just goes along with him being the least dramatic child, I suppose.

From the moment Jared and I got married, I couldn’t wait to have a baby.  It was often all I could think about.  A few months after we got married, I started working at LDS Family Services.  I would see all these pictures of little babies who had been adopted and I would hear about the pregnant birth mothers and just yearn for the day when I was pregnant and for the day when I would have a baby.  Jared and I would babysit for the kids of 2 different couples who were friends of ours and that just sent my baby-hunger into hyperdrive.  Unfortunately, I had an early miscarriage about 6 months after we got married.  That was a hard thing for me to deal with, even though I was only 5-6 weeks along.  The very next month I got pregnant with Taylor.  I found out I was pregnant with Taylor on a Sunday and had to wait till Tuesday to see the doctor since that Monday was Labor Day.  The doctor had me come right in and do my bloodwork since I had just miscarried and he wanted to check my hormone levels.  Sure enough, my progesterone levels were extremely low and that was most likely why I had miscarried before.  He had me immediately start on progesterone supplements and I continued on those until I was 14 weeks along.

I had horrible, awful morning sickness with Taylor (as well as with the others).  I remember one morning going to the gas station close to my work to get some juice.  I walked in and was hit by the smell of freshly brewed coffee and proceeded to throw up all over the floor of the gas station in front of several people.  Througout the pregnancy, I would go to lunch quite often with my mom.  She worked at the nearby high school and I would drive over to pick her up.  One day, I drove up to get her and just as she was walking out to the car, I had to open my door and puke.  Just what the students wanted to see, I’m sure.  For the majority of the pregnancy all I could handle eating at our lunches together was either a baked potato from Wendy’s or a veggie sub from Subway.  We became fast friends with the workers at those 2 places and they kept up with how things were progressing throughout my pregnancy.

I found out during my pregnancy that my uterus was tilted backwards.  Because of this, the baby’s heartbeat was very difficult to hear with the Doppler and so I was able to have quite a few ultrasounds.  The most memorable ultrasound was around 20 weeks when I found out the baby’s gender.  I was so excited to finally be able to have a name to call my belly.  Jared and I had picked out Taylor’s name before we were even officially engaged.  Jared is for, obviously, Jared.  Taylor is for my all-time favorite musician James Taylor.  It’s also a family name on my side.

My last month of pregnancy with Taylor was filled with contractions.  All.  The.  Time.  It was so nerve-racking for a first-time mom who had no idea what labor was like to have contractions constantly but never go into full-blown labor.  2 nights before Taylor’s due date Jared and I decided that I should go to the hospital.  I had been having contractions all day and spent the majority of the day in the bathtub to deal with them.  At the hospital they confirmed that I was 4 cm dilated, which I already knew since I had been 4 cm dilated for a few weeks by that point.  In fact, at my 37 week appointment my doctor told me that I was 4cm dilated and that it would be any day now.  Yeah, right.  Anyway, after monitoring my contractions for an hour the nurses sent me home because there was no pattern to my contractions.  Jared’s dad was in town for work and was staying for the weekend in case I had the baby.  So the next day, Saturday, we decided to walk around the mall and go for a bumpy drive to try to get things going.  No luck.  I was still having plenty of contractions but without any pattern to them.  Dad O. left on Sunday still grandchild-less.  On Monday, I went in for my check-up.  My doctor suggested an induction the next day.  The day before (April 29) was the due date based on my LMP, although based on early ultrasound my due date was May 5th.  But with me being at 4cm for 3 weeks, he felt an induction would be safe and easy.  That night I went for my nightly swim with my parents at the rec center in our neighborhood.  (We lived one street over from my parents at the time).  In the locker room, a lady asked me when I was due.  I said, “Yesterday.”  She said, “No, I asked when you are due.”  I said, “Yesterday.”  She didn’t believe me.  I suppose since it was my first baby and my stomach mucles weren’t shot, I never got very big with Taylor.  I actually never got very big with any of them but with him people remarked all the time that I didn’t look very pregnant.

The next morning, Tuesday, May 1st, Jared, my mom, and I headed over to the hospital bright and early in the morning.  I was hooked up to the monitors, started on Pitocin, and had my water broken.  Around noon, the doctor came back to check me and I was still at 4 cm.  He suggested that I have an epidural to relax me and speed things up.  I had wanted to have Taylor without drugs but decided to go ahead with the epidural.  It did the trick and 2 hours later Taylor was born at 3:14pm.  He weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces (my biggest baby).  He had a headful of dark hair, which later fell out and came in white-blonde.

Taylor was an amazing baby.  He rarely cried.  I think he cried maybe a handful of times as a baby.  He was an early crawler, walker, and talker.  I always say that he was never really a baby, but was born a much older and wiser person.  He has always been extremely mature for his age.  I cannot imagine a better start to our family.  He is the perfect big brother.

The 8 years since Taylor was born have absolutely flown by.  I cannot believe I have a baptized Cub Scout now.  I am so proud of the young man that Taylor has become.  I can’t wait to see what the coming years have in store for our oldest baby.

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Olivia potty trained Sawyer last week.  I had planned on doing it after my surgery and mentioned it in front of her.  So she decided, being the little mama that she is, that she would do it herself.  I helped by being the one to set the timer and fill the little jar with chocolate chips for a potty reward.  She would then take him to the bathroom, encourage him, clap for him, and hand him a chocolate chip.  Now we don’t set the timer- she just takes Sawyer to the potty everytime he says he needs to go or she takes him when she needs to go.  And I just sit back and eat the chocolate chips.  It’s a great system we’ve got going here.

Sawyer prefers boxers over briefs:

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