And then there were four

I'm not one that usually jumps straight into talking about personal things such as toothpaste preference, number of traffic tickets given, or ya know, pushing a kid out your woo hoo...but today, I am making an exception. Don't worry, it won't be graphic or even that detailed, it's just a story fit for the movies and how can one not share such a story?? Apparently it's impossible.

So as many know, our darlin lil Wynn joined us Tuesday January 7th, 2014 at 6:58 in the morning. What most don't know is that we didn't leave for the hospital until 6:40...Let me paint the picture. I had been up since five with semi consistent contractions. I was just hanging out and getting things together when the contractions started heating up, so i woke up the hubs at 6, Pat called my sister to get Tay, and he called the doc. Seems normal enough right? Right! Except for the fact that all the sudden my contractions were only 1 minute apart and not the most fun thing I've ever experienced (I had been debating going natural again or not, and with those contractions I told Pat there was no way I wasn't getting the drugs. What I didn't realize is that was because I was pretty much in transition). So right when Chels picked up Tay we headed to the hospital. As we were in the car, this little baby decided she had waited long enough (mind you her due date was the 10th and I was in labor for 19.5 hours with Tay. Talk about being pumped to come party with the fam!) I'll spare you the details of my screaming profanities, yanking the o'crap handle, and pushing with every contraction - just know the scene was something like this.

I have to take a sec to give a HUGE shout out to my amazing husband who stayed calm (at least on the outside) while he was going as fast as possible on the icy roads while talking me through every contraction. Yea, the man deserves a huge party. At least a Chipotle burrito. We definitely burned some rubber as we  screeched into a parking spot right when my water broke. We ran into the hospital just in time for me to grab onto Pat and start pushing yet again (every mom knows, when you gotta push, you gotta push. No amount of leg crossing, praying, or cussing will help).

So at this point, Wynn's head was coming out and I feel like it was completely justified, but I was just a tiny bit panicked and started yelling things like "this baby is coming right this freakin moment!" at absolutely everyone in the vicinity. All I could see were people looking at me like I was crazy and them moving in slow motion. The reality is, everyone was actually moving pretty dang fast. These two nurses who were on their way out the door because their shift was over, grabbed a wheel chair, shoved me in it and ran to the elevator. Poor Wynn, not even born and I was already sitting on her head. We got up to the delivery ward, they found me a room (all while I'm yelling at everyone mind you), I stood up and Wynn's head was already completely out. They hurried and got me on the bed and bam, there was our baby. The doctor hadn't even gotten into the room yet, I still had my boots on, and all the  nurses had just started their shift. Told ya, story fit for the movies!

Needless to say, we were pretty much in shock as we sat there looking at our little baby who came barreling into this world like a freight train. We signed the "yes you can deliver our baby" paperwork after she was already there, and she was well known in the hospital as the lobby baby (and the cutest baby they had ever seen of course). She was 7lbs, 10oz and 20" long we think...she doesn't like being messed with and would not let the nurse straighten her leg. She is a surprisingly strong and stubborn lil newborn...Tay is absolutely in love with her and wants to hold her and give her kisses all the time. Pretty much, life just rocks. Love my family, love good stories, and love this whole thing called motherhood! Welcome baby Wynn!

 

Holy Two Year Old Batman!

I happen to be a HUGE fan of Halloween. Seriously, how fun is dressing uP?? (I really just like any excuse to bust out the black lipstick..) So needless to say, it was a pretty exciting day when I realized I now had four people to dress up! But how on earth was I going to match the greatness that was Tay's costume last year? She really did make the world's cutest mad scientist.

So what to even do this year? And do we be all cute and make it a family theme? If so, what costumes would work with a belly? My creative juices were running super low, so I came up with the only logical solution. Let Tay pick. Yup that's right. I put all of my trust for brilliant costumes into my almost 2 year olds hands. Images of Tinkerbell and her crazy posse of fairies came to mind, and while that made me shudder, I still gave her the power. (Pat could totally rock wings and a tutu, just saying...) And this is what she did with it. 

Oh yea, that's right. My awesome child picked Batman! Just look at how happy she is! Luckily (and not surprisingly) Aunt Riley and Uncle Dustin happened to have a Batman costume complete with pecks and a six pack. Tay may or may not have sported it for a whole two weeks before Halloween (cereal eating and bike riding will never be the same) The best part? The Batman 'tude she got when she put on the costume. She was definitely ready to protect against crime. Her older cousin Quincy was a little concerned with her choice of costume on account of it just not being fancy thus the black tutu. 

Being a huge advocate of Halloween - we definitely hit as many hip happening happenings as we could. Trunk or treating, wandering Pearl Street for the munchkin masquerade, and of course good ol' Trick or Treating. I think she loves this holiday as much as me. She had a blast running from door to door, and she'd say trick or treat, thank you, and then "more house" and scamper off to the next one with her cape flowing behind her. If someone was already up at a door while we were walking up she'd yell "i'm a coming! i'm a coming!" Yup, she was a hit. And a hit = a buttload of candy. Now of course, Pat and I had to sport our costumes too. Say hello to the Riddler and Wonder Woman. And yes, his jacket and my boots are made of duct tape...

 All this fun Halloween-ness would have been enough fabulousness for anyone, but we weren't even close to being done! We had a two year old Birthday to celebrate after all! Tay's b-day just so happens to fall on the day before Halloween, and I have decided that is a pretty freakin' fantastic birthday. You get to celebrate on your actual birthday, then have Halloween, and then have a birthday party all in one week! And as much as I love Halloween, I am an even bigger fan of birthdays. So on the actual day she of course woke up to balloons covering the hallway (squeals of excitement), special breakfast and a hot chocolate, and then family day at the zoo! Tay is probably the most efficient zoo goer ever - she knew exactly which animals she wanted to see, look at 'em for a few minutes, tell us where she wanted to go next, start pulling the wagon, and we would be off! Yea, I think she gets that from her daddy. I tend to linger and wander aimlessly...surprising I know. We ended the night with a Thriller dance party and pumpkin carving at cousin Quincy and Olive's house. Winning.

Then on Saturday it was time for her Monster Party! Great friends, monster food, party hats, more balloons, and a tie-dyed monster cake - pretty much it was monsterific and Tay was beyond excited. We might still be finding blue icing all over the house from my crazy cake making skills, but hey, it was all in the name of birthday! (Yea, not going to go into cake decorating anytime soon. But at least you could tell it was supposed to be a monster, that's something right?) 

Still can't believe I have a two year old - it's gone so fast, but boy howdy has it been a fun ride! Love this little girl!

Wait a minute, what day is it???

So, not only is it 2013, but I have an almost 15 month old. What the crap is up with that?? Everyone always warned me that when you have a kid, all the sudden time goes into warp speed. And I nodded, and said "oh I'm sure!" But now that I'm in it, I all the sudden realize the infamous they were not only right, but there's not a dang thing I can do about it. The best part? I don't even know what I've been doing for the last year! (apparently warp speed makes everything a little blurry.) I know there were a lot of laughs, drumming on everything, food fights, diaper changing, tons of trying out new hair dos, Frankenstein walking, and even more laughing. Oh and then of course I remember Christmas, cause how can you not?? It's only the happiest time in the entire year! And it helps that it was only a month ago...but other than that I don't know what I've been doing that has made this year zoom past!

But the things I can remember make me smile so we must be doing something right. The little tyke made it to her first birthday - that seems like a huge success for us parents. Granted, she wasn't too excited for her party considering she was a little sick and didn't sleep the entire day, but it wouldn't be our daughter if she actually smiled for the camera.
 

Don't get me wrong, she smiles all the time, just not if she knows you want her to. Little sassy pants, no idea where she gets that one from...So a quick update on the cutest kid in the entire world. I know I'm partial, but if you've had the privilege of meeting Taylee, or Tayzila as we like to call her at the moment, you know she's pretty much the most amazing, hilarious thing in the entire world. She's now walking around all over the place, talking non stop and even saying words you can understand (ok, ok that's not completely true...she more just makes animal sounds. She knows woof woof, ah ah ah (that's a monkey), quack, and roar (that one is probably my favorite), she's a pro at using a fork, gets extra loopy when she's tired so people think we've slipped her booze, she runs in circles shaking her head so her red semi-curly hair goes all over the place, she throws her hands up when you say touchdown, she says yea, no and meh (meh is when she doesn't care or doesn't know what you're asking her), ya know just insanely cute baby stuff like that.

Our little Pebbles

Or our little Gavroche...

 

 ...or our little Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle...

...or just the cutest little thing ever!

As for Pat and I, we're just truckin right along. Loving our new place, making new friends, continuing an on-going water fight, actually keeping score at games we play (which is not smart, we both are a teensy bit competitive), and eating. Oh how we love to eat. I've decided food is my kryptonite, and I've also decided I'm ok with that. So bring it on food, bring it right on! Oh and we are squeezing working into the mix, but really the important stuff is the playing. So here's to another year, and since I am now aware that I cannot slow this warp speed flying umbrella down, I'm just going to hang on for dear life and try to enjoy each blur as it whizzes past! I'm excited for even more laughs and crazy Taylee stories. Woot woot to 2013!

Spooktacular Munchkin

Alright, I have a dilema and his name is Halloween costume. So as many of you know, Taylee has what we like to call a butt load of hair. So how can we put her in a Halloween costume that doesn't play up the hair? The answer is we can't, we can't not play up the hair. The problem? Most of my grand ideas just happen to be guy characters and I can't decide if that's bad...here's what I got so far. And I added a few pics of Tay's crazy hair just so you can envision it, i know I'm a giver.

Exhibit A - Einstein (ha it would be fantastic, you know it)

 

Exhibit B -  Wolverine (and yes, Pat and I would be X-men characters as well, cause come on, we are kinda super)

Syndrome from the Incredibles (could do a troll too but they kinda scare me....don't have a pic of Tay to go with this one..)

An Emo kid (not the best pic of Tay, she kept moving, but hopefully you can get the concept...)

And then of course that brings us to the most obvious choice...Pebbles. But here's my problem, is it too obvious of a choice?

Ha yea so pretty much no matter what choose, it's going to be a blast. But let me know what you're rooting for i=or if you have other fun ideas!

Proud Moments

There are moments in every mom's life (at least I'm assuming..haven't gotten around to talking to every mom yet...) when you happily sigh and go, "yup, that's right. That is MY kid!" I had that moment yesterday. Our lil 10 monther was happily scooting along the floor backwards (we have been practicing going down the stairs and off the bed backwards - well apparently she likes it so much that she now does the Michael Jackson mooncrawl all the way across the floor.)  and she stopped mid backwards crawl, stuck her finger up her nose, and then put said finger directly into her mouth. Yea that's right, we are focused on teaching her the most important things in life. I imagine that is going to be a hard proud mom moment to beat.

Now just as there are proud mom moments, there are also a fair share of bad mom moments. Like your kid rolling off the bed, or eating a dead bug, or getting completely wedged behind a couch...not that I have had any of those moments...but tonight I did have a bad mom moment. I was driving home and was getting a tiny bit bored and sleepy and needed a little munchy something something. Welp all I had was Taylee's lil snack cup that had those melt away cracker things in it, and before I knew it, the entire cup was gone! I thiefed my daughter's snack! Who does that?! They aren't even that tasty! And even though I can just re-stock the cup without her ever knowing, it's the principle of the matter. 

So since it's been just a little bit since I've last tippity tapped on the keyboard for this here dandy blog...I've decided the easiest way to catch up is to just throw a ton of pics on here from the last few months. And come on, who doesn't want to see pics of the cutest, funniest kid??

• So this is sad that I"m just now posting this, but here are finally pictures of her blessing day. We blessed her on Easter which means she was six months and just a little bit big. She kept grabbing the microphone :)

• And here are the crazy men in my life enjoying Resses Easter eggs like g.q. or something..
  

• So a month ago we drove all the way to Minnesota with Pat's parents and sister (yup 17 hours in a car with a teething almost 9 month old. You know you are jealous) and got to hang out on farms all week. Taylee and I are working on becoming rednecks so we can move to Minnesota, ride tractors all day, and watch lightning bugs all night. I was in heaven.

• side note - I might've dropped my phone off of the balcony at Mall of America..and by might've I mean I did. Surprisingly it didn't shatter, but I can only see half of my screen now. So if you can't decipher one of my texts, quitting your day job and becoming Sherlock Holmes is not your calling in life.

• Taylee now has seven teefers with a huge gap right in the middle of the front two. So we're thinking Madonna for Halloween. The hunt is on for a baby pointy bra. I tried to get a pic of her gap teeth but that was a big pile of fail. That child is fast!
• Tay is now 29" and can tackle the outdoor chess pieces! Bring it on chess, bring it right on.

 

• So we had to go get her bangs trimmed because she has a ridiculous amount of highlighted hair. Not only is it long, but there are layers upon layers of strawberry blonde strands. But bad mom moment, I didn't take pics of her first haircut. But here are some classic Taylee hair pics that just make me smile. 

 

 

 So as you can see, we are just living and loving and laughing at our darling, hairy, chunky, wanna be walking pro (she pulls herself up and walks along thing, but no walking on her own yet), little kiddo! Oh and good news, we found a place to live! Woot woot. Yup, as always my socks have been rocked right off by this game called life. Till the next time, keep on keeping on.

Sporty baby Taylee

So way back in the day when I was preggars, Pat and I happily frolicked to the hospital to see if the wee lil Stephens was a he or a she. While we both said the classic phrase, "we don't care what gender this lil one is, just as long it is healthy" we both secretly were going "boy, boy, come on baby boy!" Now of course, we are greedy and want at least one of each, but we both had it in our head that we would have a boy first. I think part of it is because we're both used to the boy being the oldest. Pat is the oldest in his family and I have an older bro (coolest guy ever, if you don't know him, that's a shame 'cause he blows all other bros out of the water.) Another reason for wanting a boy is that Pat is a super sports freak and I have always been a little bit of a tomboy and am allergic to lace and pink. Now don't get me wrong, I can handle the hot variety, but it's that pepto bismol pink that frankly..well makes me need pepto bismol. So when our girl made it very clear that she was a little girl (her legs were straight over her head during the ultrasound) we both went "Sawheet!! But, ummm what do we do with a girl?"

Well I must say, now that we have a little girl, it freakin rocks! And while I still think the boy cargo pants and sweater vests are to die for, I have found myself loving looking in the baby girl department! Some stinking cute stuff for girls, am I right or am I right? Plus, my fair skinned daughter doesn't even look good in the pepto bismol pink! It's like she knew! We're already so connected. With that being said, I don't know why Pat and I worried that a kid of ours wouldn't at least appreciate sports. We took her to her very first Nuggets game when she was two months old and she absolutely loved it. I was at a friend's house and got a call from the hubster that went something like this, "Hey, so we have free tickets to the Nuggets game, ya think Tay can handle it....Meg...hello?" There was no time for a response, we had a game to get to! I think she was the tinniest fan in the whole place and she kept smiling and cooing at everything going on. Yay for an insane amount of lights for her to look at.

And she made her daddy very ecstatic this morning. We have discovered that not only does she like watching baseball highlights, she also likes to cheer them on. Yes, my 3 1/2 month old was lying on her back on the bed staring at the computer and every time someone made a good play, she would squeal or laugh. So then of course, Pat had to bring her closer to him and begin to teach her what baseball is all about.

Pretty much the cutest thing ever. But I'm partial. And just to prove even more that I'm embracing this whole girl thing, here's a pic of Taylee with a flower in her hair! (yea, that's right, I put cutesy things in her hair. And only half of the time they are black. Baby steps)

Aw parenthood. Sweet bliss.

I am proud to say, Taylee has made it past a month! That means we must be doing something right. :) Time usually has a way of flying by, but I tell you what, this month didn't fly at all. It shot straight into warp speed. But it has been one awesomely fantastic ride (had to use double adjectives there to really emphasis my point.) Being a mom rocks my socks and I credit that to my baby girl - she really is the cutest thing ever and she's already taught me a lot.

Lessons from a 1 month old -

1. Don't ever plan on being anywhere on time. Instead, plan to be half an hour early. This way, you'll ensure that you're only 10 minutes late.

2. Whether your baby has zero hair, wisps of hair, peach fuzz, or a butt load of hair like Taylee..they will be called a boy. Even if you've had brilliant ideas like a hot pink car seat, cute little bows, or girly outfits...your baby is still a boy. And all you can do is laugh 'cause you know you've been guilty of calling little baby girls boys too. Aw the little old man stage. Luckily I hear most babies grow out of it..

3. Scarves are your best friend. Yes we all know that if a woman breast feeds, her once fun perky boobs now become leaky faucets and whether you have a pad on or not, there will be some days you will leak through your shirt. A scarf is the perfect solution to hide said leakage. But not only that! It also has the magical ability to hide the loving gifts your wee one will leave you on your shirt. These precious gifts range from projectile spit up, poo, pee, and pretty much anything else your imagination can come up with...

4. Girl or boy, babies have an amazing talent of being able to shoot their pee absolutely everywhere. Quite impressive actually. This brings us to lesson number 5...

5. Babies come with a sense of humor. Tay not only loves to try to shoot you with her bowel movements right before you get her new diaper secured...she also loves to get you to say the most bizarre hilarious things. For example, I called the hubs and the first sentence out of my mouth was "our daughter just peed my pants!" Ummm yea, these are things that you never even think of let alone think they will ever come out of your mouth. And in all honesty, it was my own fault for getting overly confident. I'm not a huge fan of changing Tay in the bathroom changing things that they provide, so I've gotten really good at changing her in the car on my lap. I put down her little changing mat and go as quickly as I can. Well I had become a pro and like I said, a little overly confident, so I let my guard down and didn't go as fast. Well Tay decided she wasn't done peeing so before I closed up her new diaper, the river came. And where did it flow to you ask? Yea, slid right off the mat into my lap. There was no mistaken that someone had peed their pants - but what wasn't perfectly clear was that it wasn't me. But how do explain that to people who are looking at you weird? Oh you see this pee all over my pants? Yea..it doesn't belong to me. It belongs to her... So instead of trying to explain, I just strategically placed the diaper bag so it hid my booty and pulled my shirt down low and held Taylee so people would focus on the cute baby and not the awkward mom...(yes, I still went into the mall..we were already there..never mind that it is only two blocks away from my apt..)

6. No matter how cute another baby is, yours will always be cuter. Just don't tell the other mom that...

7. Babies have a magical way of making everyone smile and forget that you accidentally dropped one of their cherry pies on the ground and now the floor at whole foods is laced with smooshed cheeries, crust, and is getting spread throughout the store from people stepping on it..they can also get the gruffest of men to talk in high pitched voices and sing twinkle twinkle. Priceless.

8. Whether they are smiling due to gas or smiling back at you, it doesn't matter. It is the cutest little thing ever. Especially cute if they do it right before they blow out their diaper during a silent moment in the middle of Sunday school - loudest noise ever that causes everyone to look at you. The only logical reaction? Blame your husband and then quickly exit the crime scene with baby and diaper bag (bag that is stocked with extra onsies, socks, pants, jacket, and scarf for mom) in hand.

9. Your life gets turned upside and you all the sudden realize that that flip actually made your life right side up.

10. And now the last and biggest thing my 1 month old has taught me is to just enjoy every single second. It's amazing how quickly she is already growing. Each day she discovers something new, gets stronger, smiles more, tracks things more (melts your heart when someone else is holding your baby and you start talking and they start looking around for you), grasps onto things, she found her thumb a few days ago, etc. The second you have their schedule figured out, they change. Always keeping you on your toes and it is so fun to grow and learn with them.

Needless to say this past month has been a blast. Taylee makes us laugh everyday with her grunts, her cheerio faces, her diaper changing experiences, the cute little sounds she makes (my fav is she'll sneeze and then go oooom..doesn't do it justice in writing, but it is really cute), and much much more. Having a blast and so insanely in love.