Goodbye, October

I love October. We celebrated Tay's birthday, our anniversary, had an awesome Halloween block party and enjoyed cooler weather. But boy are we tired, and we're starting off November sick. Ugh! Countless hand washings, bottles of disinfecting lotion and numerous spritzes of Lysol haven't done us much good so far this flu season. So not much to blog about but I thought I'd just do this mini post of pictures we took this October. This year has absolutely flown by. Corinne is 9 months, crawling like a maniac, walking across the living room, and climbing up on tables. Taylor is constantly asking me things like, "What are trousers?" and "What does especially mean?" Hi. You're 3. Where is this coming from? I can feel the year winding down, and am just happy we survived it.

Wes and I celebrated our 8th anniversary!










Tay was Alice for Halloween, even though she wears this dress everyday.





Great Grandpa visiting

Lambardi Ranch field trip










Taylor said, "Nana, take a picture of me," and then posed in front of the TV.

Ms. Tay

3 years ago today, I was in a hospital bed at Kaiser Panorama City. At about 5 am I woke up to find a sweet little baby beside me in one of those hospital baby beds, crying softly, with a bruised and bloody ear from being pushed half way out and then shoved back in, only to be cut out of my belly shortly after that. Now we were both tired and recovering, and I paged a nurse to pick her up for me since it felt like my insides had been pulled out and carelessly thrown back in.(Which is pretty much what happened.) Taylor looked at me in that newborn baby way that makes you realize how recently they've left the presence of Heaven. She fell asleep and I fell in love. But I knew that she wasn't just mine. She was sort of there for everyone at that time. We all needed a little hope. She was probably the most anticipated baby in that maternity ward. I remember my sister holding her and saying, "Hello, Ms. Tay." It fit her. Ms. Tay is how we referred to her for a long time, since she always seemed to be a bit older than she was. And today Ms. Tay's 3. She changed our life in so many ways and we love her so much. I want to remember that at age 3, Taylor loves dressing up like a princess. She will sit and "read" books for an hour. She can navigate the computer like a pro. She always says, "I love you dairy, dairy much mommy." She is always waiting for Daddy to come home. She lives to spend play time with family. She wants to put on makeup with me every morning. She loves to reenact "The Lizard of Oz" (not a typo) with me as every character, except Dorothy of course. She reminds me to stop thinking so much and just play. She's helped me clean up my language by reminding me that, "We don't say 'crap' or 'shut up'." And most of all she just makes us happy. Even on the days when she is a stinker and challenges my patience, she always finds a way to make me laugh. I love her more than she will probably ever know. But that just comes with the territory of parenthood, right? I don't think we knew how much love we could have in our hearts until she came to us.

I read an article in TIME about how much kids cost these days. The author summed it up by saying, "Kids give you an excuse to work on your fastball. They're excellent bed warmers, and small fingers can untie hopeless knots. They remind you to be brave and trusting, and that few things worth accomplishing are ever achieved without making a mess first. They often say better prayers than you could ever think to. They smell really good when they're clean. And yes, they are reminders of our mortality-in fact, I know I'm going gray a lot faster than I would have had I been childless, especially now that I have a teenager. But it's a cosmic gift that, in letting us grow up with them,they keep us young, so that sometime maybe we pass each other, the student becoming the teacher, the parent the child, and we will sit back and marvel at who they've become, knowing they are now smarter and stronger than we are. We'll savor their company and feel safe in their hands. Care to put a price on that?"

Questions and Quotes from Taylor This Week:

"Alynna's here! She's ganna snuggle me."

"Mommy, where does Jesus live?"

Tay:"What does it mean?"

Nikki: "What does what mean?"

Tay: "Bide my time. The Wicked Witch says 'I'm ganna bide my time'."

Nikki:.......It means she'll wait.

Tay: Oh.

Nikki:.......stunned silence

She's on a "Snow White" kick this week.

Joseph (our celebrity neighbor) and Taylor, who's so sick of pictures that I promised her tonight I wouldn't take so many.
Corinne, happy as ever.

The police line-up picture.

Sorry, Mickey.

Love this picture of Wes. He likes to play around with beards and mustaches while shaving. This is his Ron Burgundy look.

There are some great things about My Baby Daddy, as the kids say these days. Wes is a go getter. One of the hardest working men I've ever met, and 100% a family man. One thing you may not know about Wes though, is that he can kill small mice with his bare hands. That's right. Even though I'm a clean freak, we've been sharing our house with a family of mice since we moved in. The geniuses at KB built our neighborhood before they built the houses up on the hill. So once construction started on the hill, every furry little critter that lived up there scurried down to our neck of the woods. We started off by taking into consideration that they too are God's creatures. They must also serve a purpose on this Earth and therefore should only be captured and returned to the outdoors, and not harmed in any way. But after 2 years in this house, our philosophy has changed...dramatically. It's us or them and we've declared war on the little buggers. Instead of using sticky pads to capture them and treat them humanely, we've switched over to traps. Nothing brings me more joy than laying in bed at night and hearing the SNAP! of a trap. I've got a baby crawling all over the ground, for goodness sake, so don't judge me. I can't have her picking up mouse poop and mistaking it for a puffy. Last weekend I was feeding Corinne on the couch at 6 a.m., minding my own business, when all of a sudden 2 mice crawled across the living room floor. I screamed like the total wuss that I am and Wes flew down the stairs. One mouse got away, but Wes cornered the other one in the bathroom and killed it with his shoe! A few days later, Wes saw another one strutting across the kitchen and he murdered it with his water bottle. We're hoping that word will get out to all the other mice in the neighborhood. Stay away from the Pollard house. We take no prisoners!!



Totally unrelated pics of the kids

Not a mouse.


Quite possibly the happiest baby ever. She's SO fun, and loves to laugh & snuggle.


Sponge Bob at Universal Studios





Too tired after the water park to be excited about Diego and...that bird whose name I can't remember.







Their future's so bright....

Corinne, waiting for Tay. She worships that kid and is treated like...a younger sibling. Poor thing.

She's Crafty!

(Tay's first picture that actually resembled something a couple of months ago. =) )

Now that Taylor is into doing crafts and drawing, I'm finding that I'm running out of room on the refrigerator for all of her artistic masterpieces. I've even been giving them away as "thank you notes" every once in a while, and have even used them as wrapping paper for birthday presents. But I decided I'm not going to be the mom who saves every macaroni necklace and every scribble that Taylor makes. I'll definitely treasure some special ones but for the others, I've decided to scan them and toss them. They make lovely screen savers and I've even printed some out as 4x6 photos and stuck them in a photo album. I figure they'll last longer that way and it's quicker than scrapbooking. Take a look at some of Taylor's work.

Tay loves these! It's a picture of a haunted house and you put all the stickers on it any way you like.
I was impressed by this caterpillar.



Another cool sticker page

I wrote numbers on the back of the ice cream scoops and she glued them down in order. makingfriends.com has some cool and free printable crafts.

3 Headed Caterpillar

The Boob Tube

A friend of mine in high school had a bumper sticker that read, "Kill Your TV." I remember seeing that and thinking, "Wow. That's harsh. Why would someone say such a hateful thing towards something that brings so much joy to so many people?" As I matured, I began to see the harmful effects of TV. How it numbs the minds of children everywhere and feeds ignorant people a load of crap about a plethora of topics, convincing obviously idiotic people that they know something about something which they really know nothing about.Encouraging them to regurgitate information that's been fed to them via manipulative advertisers and political string pullers. But I digress. Although I still believe some of that to be true, as a mother I thank the TV Gods daily for allowing me to place my beautiful child on the sofa for an hour in the morning and an hour at night. (That tends to be all she watches these days since she's now almost 3 and busy doing so many other things.) But I thought it would be fun to blog about what Tay watches so she can look back at this after it's blurbbed into a book and remember those programs that she loved so much. I can still vividly recall sitting in front of the TV watching my favorite show as a child, "Punky Brewster," and I still have flashbacks of childhood whenever I hear the "M.A.S.H." theme song thanks to my dad. My mom never watched TV much when I was growing up. Now I know why.I almost never get to just sit and veg in front of the boob tube. But on the rare occasion when I do, I'm all about "Dancing With The Stars." Love that show!!


"Yo Gabba Gabba!"



Taylor loves this show. It's hosted by some crazy dj with a furry hat and stars these cheesy muppetesque characters who sing songs like, "Don't Bite Your Friends." It's totally offbeat and I love it.They somehow manage to get big name stars on it too. Reminds me of the old "Muppet Show."


"Ni Hao Kai Lan"

O.k., not sure if I spelled that right. If you haven't had the pleasure it's a show about Chinese characters who talk about feelings. At some point in the show a character has a melt down, be it an angry one, sad one, etc. To which Ni Hao attempts to make them feel better. And along the way they teach Chinese. Taylor picks it up fast, as kids will. When they say a word in Chinese I listen, analyze, question what it sounded like and then repeat it totally wrong. Taylor, on the other hand, will repeat it right the first time.

"The Upside Down Show"


My favorite show by far! It's like watching a comedy sketch show or improv show. It's two guys who are just silly. That's the premise. But they also teach vocabulary and imaginary play. Because of this show, Taylor uses words like "delectable," "delightful" and "marvelous."






"Oobi"

This show comes on at about 10:00 pm, so I have to DVR it but it's worth it. Oobi and his friends are hands who speak in the same syntax as American Sign Language (not sure if the producers even know that.) It's super cute and cracks me up. Taylor loves it when I use her Mr. Potato Head's eyes to make my own Oobi on my hand.

TuTu Tutorial

It's finished! The first tutu I made is Corinne's. I figured she wouldn't complain if it didn't turn out perfect, and I was right. I'm working on a pink one now for Tay. It was really easy and if you want to make one I've included the link for the website I used. You can go a million different directions with it. I hot glued little jewels on it but you could easily add fake flowers and/or ribbon. It cost about $10 and turned out pretty darn cute. Happy crafting!

http://plumtickled.typepad.com/plumtickled/2007/08/tutu-tutorial-t.html

It's A Good Thing

Martha Stewart has this segment called, "It's A Good Thing." Now I'm no Martha, but this little entry is my own list of good things. Blessings, things I'm excited about, and little treasures that make me smile.

#1-The Alice Dress

I love all things "Alice In Wonderland." It was the first legitimate book that I can remember reading and not wanting to put down. I love the Disney movie and was thrilled when Taylor became addicted to it as well. I even handed down to Tay a figurine of Alice that a dear friend of mine gave me. So when Tay announced she wanted an Alice dress from the Disney store, I was all for it. Unfortunately, the Disney corporation knows how little girls fixate on princesses and they price their dresses accordingly! We went to the mall last week and mistakenly walked past the Disney store. Of course the Alice dress was front in center and Taylor clinged on to it and jumped for joy. We had to pry the dress out of her fingers and drag her, kicking and crying from the store. We had some other expenses that took precedence over a princess dress. But yesterday we went back to that forsaken store and bought the Alice dress. Not only because she wanted it, but because it was the only way I could get the kid to poop. No joke. It was going on 6 days without a poop in sight. She was a mess. Cranky. Crying. Walking funny. Ugh! I literally had to bribe her with this dress so she would get the guts to sit on the potty, my poor constipated baby. Ugh. It's a beautiful dress though and at least her Halloween costume is covered.

#2 Preschool Co-Op-

Our set up at my house

Beading necklaces.

Do you have any idea how much preschool costs these days? It's robbery! I was having a hard time finding one we could afford and just wasn't ready to send her off into the big, bad world just yet. So my friends and I have started a little home preschool of our own. We switch off teaching lessons every week in our homes two days a week for 2 hours a day, and so far so good. This was our second week and it's been great. The girls loved it, and it was nice to know I was dropping Tay off with someone I know and trust. Our lessons have all been planned out for the year (thanks Michelle), and we're also planning on doing some field trips. Last week the lessons revolved around the letter A. They measured how tall they were with apples, painted ants, played apple hop scotch, tasted different types of apples, and just had a lot of fun. I feel so blessed to have the great friends I have in our ward. They are so talented and full of ideas. This week it will be at my house. I can't wait!

#3 Dating In The Dark

Oh, trust me. It's a good thing. This TV show is HILARIOUS! It's a true social experiment. If you haven't already had the pleasure, it's a reality show where 3 men and 3 women go on quasi dates in a dark room where they absolutely can't see a thing. After a few dates, they get to see each other in the light and decided if they still feel the same about that person after seeing what they look like and not just based on personality. I laugh my butt off every Tuesday night. You have to watch it to fully appreciate how great it is. My description of it just won't suffice.

#4 Tutu Tutorials

I want to buy a tutu for Tay. They're flipping expensive. So what do I do? Google it. I found a tutorial on how to make one at home. I bought the material. $10 later, I've started making a tutu. Long live the Internet.

Check back for pictures of the finished product.

#5 Diet Coke

So many of my friends are detoxing lately. Meaning they've decided to stop drinking caffeine. I'm sorry people. I understand that plumbers use it to unclog drains. I know it'll probably give me cancer and eat away at my insides. I simply don't care. I love the stuff. I drink at least 3 cans a day. I look at it this way. I don't do drugs. I don't smoke. I don't drink alcohol. So I deserve a nice, cold, refreshing Diet Coke when I'm thirsty. It's a good thing. Takes the edge off.

#6- Corinne's Teeth

It's a good thing this kid is FINALLY growing teeth. 2 on the bottom. Actually,....wait up. I'm still nursing. Not sure if it's a good thing. I'll get back to you on that.

Notice the drool from teething.

She's extremely cute and wonderful! I could eat her up everyday. I just love her to pieces. She belly laughs and smiles at everyone. She throws tantrums when you take away her toys (cracks me up.) She crawls around looking for me if I leave the room and claps when she finds me. I just LOVE her.

#7 Ann Taylor Loft

Wesley, best husband and father on the planet, gave me a generous gift card to Ann Taylor Loft for my birthday. I shopped and shopped. Clothes are a good thing.

#8 The "Compooter"

Taylor has mastered the mouse on the computer for about 2 months now. We've found some awesome websites and PC games for her to play and learn on . They are her "good things." Unfortunately addictive personalities run in the family. She will sit all day and play on the computer if I let her (I don't). Here are some of the sites we like:

http://www.sesamestreet.org/

http://www.fisher-price.com/

http://www.noggin.com/

#9 "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff, And It's All Small Stuff"

I borrowed this book from work and never brought it back. It was in our staff room and no one claimed it for over a month. Finders keepers. I read it and loved it. Wes read it and loved it. And now we own the book on CD. It's a book full of mini chapters on how to find inner peace and happiness. Wes and I refer to it often and have learned a lot from it. It's easy reading and listening and it was great for when Wes had to commute to Pico Rivera for training. It's worth a read if you want a little pick me up.

#10- Sally

Sally is the bath fairy. I can't recall exactly how Sally came about, but now whenever Taylor takes a bath Sally has to magically pop her head out of the doorway and fly around. It's how we bribe her to take a bath if she's being difficult about it.

Tay holding Sally with Daddy.


I just needed to remind myself how blessed I truly am. Thanks for reading and thanks for letting this blog be a good thing too. Your comments and love have been more helpful than you know.