a blended life

I'm trying really hard to be interested in Barack Obama's speech right now....the first half hour was good, but my political patience doesn't last that long. We've had two days of twin-sitting and I think the consensus is...uh, no thanks. The babies themselves aren't bad, but my girls are terrors. And any kind of change makes Leah spin out of control. We'll do one more day and then decide if we want to take them for the semester. Leah has fallen in love with a book about how to play the harmonica and decided that the girl twim would want to hear it. Leah held the baby for as long as she could and said "Mom, I love her so really much." Well, the love didn't last past day one. Leah also decided that she was going to squeeze herself into Hannah's pajama's. Leah wears a 6, Hannah wears 18 months. It took her a long time, but she managed to pour herself into them. She couldn't stand up straight in them and is scratched in the neckline where ...

Leah took a very telling picture of me-wrapped up in my favorite blanket, rocking back and forth. Give me a break...it's been a little rough around here. August has been an ugly month for us and I feel beaten to a pulp, but I'm hopeful that things are getting better. So I decided I wouldn't write much and depress everyone because the last thing we need is a big downer of a post. Tomorrow should be better, maybe. A friend from church offered to pay me to babysit her four month old twins (one boy and one girl-very cute), so we are going to have a few days of trial sitting, mostly to see if my girls will pummel them. Leah had another schedule change-she got into some swimming lessons at the last minute (long story), which she loves, but had a meltdown when it was time to leave. I'm not sure why she loves the pool so much except that I think the weightless feeling must feel good to her. She's always had a lot of sensory issues. Her language has really improved, but she...

I can't pass up an opportunity to quote Paul Simon: "Gee, but it's great to be back home." It was fun to visit mom and dad this week, I just think we were all grateful to walk in the door of our humble abode today. And I'm sure M and D are glad to have their house back. Here's a little of what we did the past few days: Leah was a rooster. She doesn't pretend to be something, she IS that thing, and expects to be treated accordingly. Dad was a king crab. He's a bit stressed right now and was decidedly irritable. Here's a picture of him teaching the girls how to be scary. Me and Brian were love birds (not really). I just needed to point out that we went on a date which is RARE for us. Thankfully, our Red Robin burgers weren't rare. The date was not quite romantic- someone passed gas right before the waiter showed up and he smelled it. I was a sloth. We didn't sleep well and I couldn't shake off that groggy feeling. Mom and I were qui...

We decided to get the heck out of Cache Valley for a few days and come visit my parents. Their house is huge (three floors, six bedrooms) so we can all find something to entertain us...or at least we can hide from each other if needed. Dad's a little cranky these days-lots of job stress, but we'll forgive him. I found this old picture on my parent's computer. Aren't they precious?

Have you noticed the trend recently for a business to call a big sale an 'event'? "Kohl's Lingerie Event" or "National Dodge Clearance Event". So I'm declaring today an event of my own (no, I'm not selling my kids on eBay. Brian wouldn't like that.) The event is hard to describe, but involves...sleep. Leah spent a majority of the morning on the couch, napping on and off, and Hannah fell asleep on the floor. Maybe you are thinking 'more boring pictures of kids sleeping...what's the big deal?' The deal is that my kids sat still long enough to have their eyes closed, and that is an EVENT in this house. I'm committing to being more positive this week-lots of happy comments and heartwarming stories *oozes with sarcasm*. Sometimes things can only get better, right?

Logarrhea is one of my favorite words-diarrhea of the mouth. I thought of it because Brian just spent 20 minutes telling me a story about work and I got lost somewhere around 10 minutes. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I started laughing and had to admit that I had no idea what he was talking about. Ironically, this post will be a little of my own logarrhea. You can skip this altogether and I won't be offended. Luckily, our week has improved slightly. Leah has stayed in her carseat without flying, violent trantrums-any day without that is obviously a good day. There is still the question of what do we do the next time that happens...but I don't want to think about that tonight. So, a blog isn't a blog without some animal pictures, right? Our friend Dan came over to help Brian haul his stupid, broken scooter to the shop (another story that I don't care to get into. Too raw.) Dan brought his daughter, Baylee, and his 'dog', Max. Max is technically a ch...

This was one of those particularly horrible what-in-the-world-do-we-do-with-this-crazy-kid kind of days. Leah, for some unknown reason, was completely beyond anyone's control today. It was more than just a misbehaving, let's put her in time out kind of events. One minute she was screaming and thrashing, dumping water, knocking food off the table, slamming Hannah's fingers in the door, then in an instant she would be cheerful, happy, silly, spinning around and trying to play games with Hannah. When she gets like this, we used to put her in the back of the van, in a seatbelt of course, and drive around. Well, she figured out how to unbuckle her seatbelt. She got out of her seat and started attacking Hannah (that means screaming in her face, pulling hair, and hitting. And throwing things at her.) We pulled over and she started attacking Brian. What are we supposed to do at this point? She is way beyond reason, and doesn't respond to an 'if-then' consequense-'if...

This post is just for Jo, who recently sent some clothes in a nice package. We missed seeing you a few weeks ago and are looking forward to our next visit, whenever that happens! I would like to say to all my inlaws: I am glad I married into your family. I think you are great people with many, many qualities that I hope my kids inherit-you are smart, loyal, supportive, funny. It's hard to live so far away; I wish we could be closer and be able to spend time together. I have enojoyed our visits and wish they could happen more often. It's important to me that my kids know that we love both sides of the family (my family and Brian's family) equally. Here's a shot of Leah in her new pink dress. It was her idea to pose while reading a book-where does she come up with this stuff? She really is quite dramatic. Hannah is ready for church and looking adorable in her new duds. Too bad she screamed the whole way there, then for the first 20 minutes of the meeting (and I mean SCREA...

In light of my last post, and in honor of my recent trip to D.C., I decided to add a survey about Van Slow (the car formerly known as Van Go). You decide what kind of museum our van belongs in. Don't be shy, now! I'll never know who voted for what. I need to point out that although it's the butt of many jokes around here, we are grateful for it and for the fact that it's still running. Barely.

This is one of my favorite days of the year because of the very cool date. I've been planning an 8 party all week, and of course nothing ever came of it. My favorite part was going to be a drink called PowerEight (like Powerade, get it? eh?). I thought I was being so funny and when I told Brian, there was a big long pause. "Um, that's sort of dorky," he said. Which made me laugh even harder. Well, I didn't get my PowerEight, but we did have some events today that shouldn't go unannounced. 1)Brian Grew Up You're probably thinking one of two things: "finally!" or "that's so rude!" But the truth is, almost all wives secretly hope that their husbands will grow up in some way. I get the feeling in my short seven years of marriage that it's a process, and in 20 years I will be writing a post titled "Brian grew up again." And he'll be writing one called "Carrie learned some manners." Getting to the point... Bria...

Our little piglets gave us a run for our money today (an ironic saying because we don't have any money. or piglets.) So they're going to tell their story-which happened within a two hour time span this morning. We won't go into the rest of the day. LEAH- This is what happens when I'm out of preschool and I don't have a schedule anymore. I literally spin and jump out of control. I also jump on my parents. It's so fun! I can't decide if they like it or not. Where are all those bruises coming from, anyway? HANNAH- This is what happens when you put a bath toy in the broiler. Mom didn't get the memo about my experiment until she smelled burning plastic instead of the sticky buns that were baking. Don't worry-I didn't like that toy. HANNAH AGAIN- This is what I do for 45 minutes when a)I have a huge diaper blowout on my softie (favorite blanket) b)Mom and dad put my softie in the wash c)no one would give me more apple juice Rule #1 about softies-there ...

Hard day with Leah. Too many Oreos eaten to cope. She's probably losing it because her schedule is out of whack. One word that would describe her behavior today-impulsive. Here's a few examples: at dinner, she was blowing bubbles in her cup to make Hannah laugh. Out of nowhere, she dumped the whole cup on the floor. No warning-just BAM, water everywhere. A little later, she grabbed a book I was reading (ironically called Bipolar Kids) and started tearing pages. This was the norm the WHOLE DAY AND I AM LOSING IT. Both kids were in bed by 7, which was probably way too early, but I couldn't deal anymore. And they went to bed without a fuss, so I know they were tired. I threw in that last line so I wouldn't seem like a really bad mom.

Today marks the first day of a vacation/camping trip that I am supposed to be on and couldn't go. I don't want to get into the reasons that I'm not there...that's another topic, not one I care to discuss at the moment. My family is getting together at the Oregon Coast to camp for the week, near Tillamook. I already had a fabulous excursion this year, so I don't necessarily feel slighted, just....empty. The Coast was our vacation spot for years, ever since we moved to Washington. Sometimes we were there three times a year-Spring Break, summer, and Thanksgiving. A huge piece of my soul has been sitting there ever since. The drive to the beach is almost as important as being there, like going through the ups and downs of a pregnancy before the birth of a child. The Dalles, the Columbia River, Multnomah Falls, Cascade Locks. The big Flying J outside of Portland, an important stop for gas and a bag of chips. Portland is a beautiful, interesting city. The freeways are lin...

Leah has progressed so much this summer that she barely shows any signs of autism to the outside world. It's really exciting and we're very hopeful for having her in school and in social activities. She still struggles to communicate and describe what she wants, which is hard because she has very specific ideas about what she wants. Things need to be executed in an exact way or there is a meltdown. We were putting her Polly Pockets to bed (she calls them 'holly') and she asked me to sing the night-night song for them. I started to sing--which is a story in and of itself because I lack pitch--and she cut me off. "You're supposed to sing loud with a noisy mouth." I started belting out the song at top volume. That wasn't it either. To make a painful story short, I still, after fifteen minutes of trying to figure out what she was talking about, didn't get what a noisy mouth was. She was frustrated that she couldn't tell me, I was frustrated that I ...

Here's some day to day happenings at the Taylor household. I would like to remind everyone that I started this blog for personal reasons and would like to continue to write about things that are of interest to me and not necessarily the outside world. Having said that.... Hannah wins the award for Most Involved With Food. She takes culinary love to a new level. Andy doesn't really appreciate this about her (picture someone turning green, holding down a vomit). She demonstrates her devotion in this picture. We all know that there are many ways to eat an Oreo, or Reese's, or whatever. This is Hannah's preferred method of eating an Oreo-break cookie apart, suck out filling, then gnaw on leftover cookie pieces until they form a paste. Spread paste over all exposed body parts, including hair, so there will be some leftovers for later. She will spend up to 30 minutes in the high chair on one item of food. Unfortunately, this picture doesn't really show off her true capabi...