Summer Days

While the days here are still sweltering (and humid!), our summer has officially come to an end.  Our short but sweet summer was filled with:

• The arrival of the sixth member of the Taylor family, Liam Chase
• Lazy mornings and late breakfasts
• Playing in the pool: Gabe learned how to do freestyle stroke, the butterfly kick, and a double somersault underwater & Bella learned how to dive to the bottom of the pool & Ari started going off the high wall with Britney
• Eating popsicles outside
• Going to visit friends and having them come by too
• Visits from cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunt, great uncle, greatgrandma
• Playing with Britney on the regular
• Watermelon for dessert
• Pinterest craft ideas
• Getting caught in a few dust storms
• Enjoying Jake’s masterful creations on the Green Egg BBQ smoker
• S’mores in the courtyard
• Trips to the library
• Two family reunions in Holbrook

I was pretty busy clinging to something way cuter than my camera for many of these good times, but I did manage to make a couple tangible memories.

Our visit from Jake’s sister Ali, and her sweet family.  I love them and think it’s so cool that we managed to somehow age-match our kiddos.

   

Taylor babies basically never left the water the whole two months.  One time, a lizard joined in the fun.

4th of July celebrating involved great friends and food, more swimming, Gabe and Lana’s “sneaky” wedding, and viewing the fireworks from a friend’s pasture.

 

Liam at 1 Month

Little Liam Chase is still a bundle of sheer joy at one month old.  I’d bite my tongue, but he deserves credit for being my easiest baby so far (and Bella left big shoes to fill).  He eats very well and is showing it by weighing in at 10 lbs. 2 oz. at his one month appointment (that’s 3 lbs. 5 oz. over his birth weight!).  He is also 21 3/4 inches, falling squarely in the 50th %tile for both height and weight for his age.  If he’s anything like my other three babies, It won’t be long before he surpasses that. 

He has been sleeping on average 4 hour stretches during the night, sometimes less, but one or two nights as much as 6 hours.  He also sleeps quite a bit during the day, but I guess that’s to be expected with all the growing he’s been doing.  He has such a calm and easygoing personality.  He really doesn’t fuss much except when he’s hungry or overstimulated.  He has begun to make eye contact and his eyes are more fixed and not so googley anymore.  He has started cooing and making noises other than cries and grunts, which is adorable and even makes Gabe melt to bits.  At two weeks old, he rolled over from tummy to back once, but hasn’t done it again since.  He has also started showing interest in his musical, light up toys during the short periods that he’s awake. 

Most importantly, he continues to melt my heart every single day.  I look for every excuse to hold him and smoosh my cheek up next to his and rock is chubby little bod.  Yesterday, I observed a Conductive Education program for Ariana to be a part of next summer and I got to hold Liam for three full hours without interruption.  It was so special.  I am so happy he came to us!

Potty Trained!

Before I say anything, I need to mention that this post is a full four months belated! 

So, as you can probably guess from the title, we’ve had a huge milestone achieved in this household.  Ariana has been going number one and two on the potty successfully but did not know how to hold her bladder in between potty trips for two whole years.  Now, she has now nearly mastered the skill. 

With the help of skittles, support from preschool and respite, and my new best friend, the Malem Ultimate Bedwetting Alarm, we’ve made a huge victory.  What the alarm does is ring to remind her every time she starts to get the tiniest bit wet so that she stops wetting and also begins to recognize the feeling of needing to go.  Ari still wears the alarm, but it normally stays silent.  Around the time Ari turned five in February, she had gotten it down.  Now, she has good weeks and not so good weeks, with the good weeks being all dry all the time, signing “potty” whenever she needs to go, and the bad weeks being an accident a couple times that week (always on the heels of swimming).  She still wears a pull up at nap time and to bed, but sometimes those stay dry too.

I have said it a thousand times now, but I’ll put it in writing, that this is the single biggest milestone and relief in my mind since Ari started eating real food.  I am so proud of her and I am grateful every single day for this achievement and for her ability to do it.  I’m sure that nighttime potty training is in the near future, but we are just enjoying the freedom that comes with daytime training for right now.

What can I say?  We are all ecstatic.

  

First Tooth for Gabe

Gabe has had a loose tooth for a few months now.  He hadn’t really been in much of a hurry to turn it into a lost tooth, but two nights ago, it just couldn’t hang on any longer.  It was the kind that poked out between your closed lips when you’re not even talking.  He was horrified of the blood he tasted in his mouth after wiggling it, so he forbade us from messing with it or even discussing it for a couple hours.  Right before bed, he pulled it out on his own.  He was motivated by the threat that the tooth fairy would only come if he did not swallow it or lose it while he was sleeping.  He thought it best if the thing found its way safely under his pillow.  Lucky for him, because the tooth fairy puts a high value on first teeth and he made a whole $5 off of pawning that beaut. 

And it looks like hanging on to that baby tooth for so long might not have come without a price for mom and dad.  I’m not talking about $5 either.  We might be talking orthodontic work here.  His adult tooth seems to be about a centimeter behind the row of baby teeth!  We’ll all soon see how that pans out.

Right now, we’re celebrating getting ready for kindergarten, and how much more ready can you be with a big hole where your front baby tooth used to be?  Pretty cool.

 

2 Weeks Old

Here is a peak at Liam from two weeks ago.  I can’t believe he will be four weeks old tomorrow.

Liam Chase Taylor

 

little smiles.

 

sleeping angel.

 

Dance Recital

Isabella Juliet made her stage debut a couple weeks ago when she had her first dance recital.  She had been anticipating this day since we started dance last summer, and I think it was everything she’d hoped it would be and more.  Bella got to wear a “Belle dress” and do her tap number to “Be Our Guest” from the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack.  She was enchanted with the idea of wearing makeup and earrings and having a “big bun” (which took me forever to do and even longer to learn).  Family on both sides came to watch her perform, and she impressed all of us with her stage presence and confidence.  Friends on both sides of her in line copied her moves (even when they were totally off… hahahaha) because girlfriend knew how to make it look good.  Bella proudly informed me that spent her time backstage diligently observing the big girls while they practiced.  She came home with a new set of sexy moves that didn’t at all resemble the shuffle step she’d been practicing in class ;).

     

Way to work it on the red carpet baby!

 

First Week at Home

I am so in love with my little bundle!  Here is a little photo update from our first week with baby boy:

2 Days Old:

6 Days Old:

All three of my kids have been so wonderful with Liam.  Gabe has been so patient and is such a help to me, as usual.  He loves playing with Liam, holding him for short periods – like a minute (typical male), and reading to him while he’s in his bouncer.  Gabe gets such a kick out of Liam’s facial expressions and can often be heard bursting into hysterics at the sight of Liam’s funny faces.  Ari is over the moon in love with Liam, as we knew she would be.  She never wants him out of her sight, and gets upset at me whenever I have to take him away to feed him.  Ari has been communicating a lot more with us when it comes to Liam, such as telling me when I’m being too noisy while blow drying my hair by covering her ear and pointing to Liam and telling me to feed him when he is crying.  She also mentions him constantly using her “talker”.  Ari has been learning to be more gentle with Liam, which requires basically all of her will power to reign in her excitement.  She still sometimes lets it get the best of her and taps him too forcefully on the head or sticks her finger in his mouth, but overall, she’s been a very responsible big sister.  Ari has also started learning how to tone down her voice when talking to Liam.  It is so sweet to listen to her jabber to him in her “baby voice”.  Isabella has started requesting that I call her “Big Mama”, because of her role with Liam.  She is so patient and tender and syrupy sweet with him.  I have never truly seen this side of her until now, and I love it.  She wants to help me with everything from fetching things to propping up my arm with pillows when I’m nursing to cradling him when he’s upset, and she’s been begging to change his diaper since before I even had him.  Although not a typical summer full of camping and water parks and travel, it has been a very special summer so far.  I love watching my children blossom into the great people they are becoming.