So, we (Chris and Isabelle, really) have decided that we should update and post frequently on our blog. This may appear to be a "New Year's Resolution" but I prefer to think of it as a change for the better. As many of us, I don't tend to do well with resolutions set at the beginning of a new calendar year, but rather the beginning of a school year or just when there is a schedule change in general - it's easy to add in something new. This blog thing, however just happens to coincide with the new year. So now that I've rambled on about that, here's an update on our life:
Monday, January 2, 2012
New Resolutions
So, we (Chris and Isabelle, really) have decided that we should update and post frequently on our blog. This may appear to be a "New Year's Resolution" but I prefer to think of it as a change for the better. As many of us, I don't tend to do well with resolutions set at the beginning of a new calendar year, but rather the beginning of a school year or just when there is a schedule change in general - it's easy to add in something new. This blog thing, however just happens to coincide with the new year. So now that I've rambled on about that, here's an update on our life:
Posted by TheDancingQueen at 9:03 AM 0 comments
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Springtime for Hulk and Germany...
This afternoon the sun was shining such that's it's invitation to come outside could not be turned down. So we broke out all the bikes, strapped on the helmets and went on a bike ride. Heather was a little more tolerant of her helmet this time, though would holler at us whenever we stopped, as if to say, "If you're gonna make me wear this stinkin' thing, the least you could do is keep moving so I'm entertained!" The nickname Hulk seems to suit her more and more each day. Fortunately, she is hilarious and sweet and loving enough to make us all forget when she is Hulkish.
Posted by TheDancingQueen at 6:41 PM 3 comments
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Joyeux Noel!
True to Taber Tradition we are moving again. We loved our time in London and wish it could have been longer, but it is time to move on to our next adventure. Fortunately, Chris had earned enough hotel & Eurostar points that we decided spend Christmas in Paris before crossing over the pond (again).
Lights on the Champs Elysees
Posted by TheDancingQueen at 2:00 PM 5 comments
Sunday, October 12, 2008
I Like My Birthdays
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future...
Sorry (again) for the lengthy spaces of time between blog entries. I guess better late than never; As of a week ago (11 Oct) Heather is 1 month old. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. She is becoming much more alert and stays awake for longer periods of time, esp when the other children are getting out of school. She occasionally thinks about smiling, but still only offers a real smile when she is sleeping and dreaming with her eyes open (creepy...). Her eyes are still blue but they seem to look a little darker everyday, so I'm secretly hoping they turn brown.
Isabelle turned 8 years old a couple of weeks ago (25 Sept). I made Funfetti cupcakes from an American mix and took them into her class at the end of the school day. Her teacher Mr. Underhill led the class in a chorus of Happy Birthday and four "Hip Hip Hoorays" which made Isabelle grin and blush. Isabelle requested a family dinner at China Buffet (all you can eat for £5.99), so we had planned to celebrate. She had gone there with a friend for her birthday a few months ago, loved the food and has been talking it up ever since. Unfortunately, when we got there there were signs in the window indicating that they were closed for renovations, "Sorry for any inconvenience." Evidently Chase was looking forward to it as much or more than Isabelle because he burst into tears. I don't think he understood exactly what "renovation" means because he thought the restaurant had closed for good and therefore lost his opportunity to eat there. He got over it though, as soon as I explained it to him. So, then we opted to go to our favorite restaurant on the high street, Creperie Parisienne. However, when we got there (opposite end of Chiswick) it had already closed for the day. So we finally ended up at Pizza Express. Isabelle was disappointed despite her hunger and two strikes against her, but she enjoyed her birthday dinner anyway, and the promise of presents to open at home lifted her spirits.
The following is a bit of randomness, but hopefully it will bring a smile or a laugh.
Isabelle loaned Heather her Webkinz bunny.
Posted by TheDancingQueen at 3:49 PM 4 comments
Monday, September 15, 2008
A Few Days of Heather...
When the world was created, the hillsides were bare, and it was decided that a plant was needed to beautify the slopes
The giant Oak, strongest of all trees, was asked but he declined saying that the soil was too shallow for him to take root and flourish
Then the yellow-flowered Honeysuckle was asked if she would spread her beauty and fragrance throughout the hills. She, too, refused because there was nothing in the inhospitable terrain against which she could grow.
The Rose, sweetest of all the flowers, was the next choice. However, she explained that she would not be able to survive the hillside’s bitter winds and driving rain.
Then a small low lying green shrub with tiny petals, some purple, some white, some pink, was chanced upon.
It was Heather!
The Heather was asked, "Will you grow up on the hillside to make them more beautiful?"
The Heather reflected on the poor soil and harsh climate and was not sure whether she could do the job; but to the delight of all, she replied that if they wanted her to try, she would do her very best.
They were all so pleased with the Heather that they decided to bestow three gifts upon her.
- The strength of the Oak – the bark of the Heather is stronger than that of any other tree or shrub
- The fragrance of the Honeysuckle – the Heather’s gentle fragrance is used to
perfume soaps, potpourris, and cosmetics.- The sweetness of the Rose – the sweetness of the Heather makes her one of the bee’s favorite flowers
And to this day Heather is renowned for these three gifts as she fulfills her task.
When it was Chase's turn to hold Heather he began singing Hush Little Baby and Chris managed to capture it on video. He told me later that on Thursday before coming to see the baby for the first time, Chase and Isabelle went home and listened to the song on Isabelle's iPod until they had every word memorized (including the additional verse of humming at the end). Chase has now been enlisted as the official soothe-by-singing technician when Mommy needs a minute or two before she can nurse the baby.
The Girls waiting for the cab to pick us up from the hospital to go home.
Daddy and Heather watching football.
Warning: the video is probably only cute to watch if you are the mom, the dad, or one of the grandparents. Otherwise you may get slightly bored. It is filmed in real time and has not been slowed down.
Mommy's little baby.
Baby number 1 (Isabelle) only cared about eating every 4-6 hours and even then we had to strip her down to get her out of her warm comfy-cozy zone before she would wake up to eat. (DeeDee prayed she would outgrow that habit by Prom. I think we're out of the woods on that one). Baby number 2 (Chase) ate about every 4 hours, though did not need quite as much coaxing. This one thinks she needs to eat every 2 hours, but then she falls asleep two minutes into it and then gets mad if mom "closes the kitchen." So, Sunday afternoon, we decided to try giving her a pacifier to see if we could hold her off long enough to build up a better appetite so that feeding her was more productive.Hmmm, I think she likes it!
Don't you just love those little fingers?
Bath time!
Daddy quote, "Oh! That's not cute at all!"
DeeDee, notice the soft cushy knitted blanket Heather likes to sleep on in the push chair.* Grandma, notice the redwork on the cloth.
*Noun 1. top-up - an amount needed to restore something to its former level
*Noun, British, Push chair - a small folding chair on wheels in which a small child can be wheeled around: escalators are difficult with pushchairs
Posted by TheDancingQueen at 1:15 PM 3 comments
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Heather Londyn Taber
Name: Heather Londyn Taber - We had originally been leaning towards Londyn Heather, but everyone, from Chris down to Chase said when they held her that she just seemed more like a "Heather Londyn" than a "Londyn Heather"
Born: 3:50 am on 11 September 2008. After a 24 hour delay due to no beds available at the hospital (first 12 hours of delay), then not enough doctors available if Anne's labor progressed quickly (ha! not this time! - second 12 hours of delay), Anne got started at 7:30 am and labored until almost 1:00am. Thankfully, she got an epidural at about 6:00pm and had a much better time of it after that. I'll leave the rest of the details for one of Anne's posts
Weight: 4.514 kg, or 9 lbs 15 ozs. For those keeping score at home, this is slightly larger than Isabelle (9 lbs 6 ozs) and much more than Chase (6 lbs 15 ozs).
Length: 22 inches. This is an unofficial measurement, since they don't measure length for babies born in the UK - they measure the circumference of the head - which I suspect most Moms would find a more useful measurement than length, but what do I know? (Of course, I forgot to write down the circumference measurement, so I'll leave that to Anne to share)
Hair: Yes. Lots of dark brown hair, similar to Isabelle when she was born. In fact, see if you can tell which is which from the photos below...
Eyes: Dark brown, though Chase and Isabelle are convinced they are dark blue. I will say that the light in the room where we were when the children came to visit was not the greatest, so this "stat" should also be considered unofficial.
Now a few FAQs from some of the emails and Facebook responses I've been getting from people over the past few hours, so I don't lose track of who asked which question when:
- How is Anne doing? She's doing well - exhausted, but well. I took the children over to visit from 10:30 or so this morning until about 4:00, and then left for the day so that Anne could get some much-needed rest. I then fell asleep on the bus several times and Isabelle and Chase had to keep waking me up to ask if we had missed our stop - we hadn't. I'll go back in the morning after taking the children to school (they didn't go today) and hopefully they'll be able to come home then.
- What was it like giving birth in the UK vs. the US? I'll let Anne give more details if she likes, but overall I think Anne had a fairly positive experience, though being far from family and not having any of them here this week meant that we had to rely on our extended ward family to help us out with taking Isabelle & Chase to school, letting them stay overnight, etc. - even laundering their school uniforms when we they had to stay a night longer than expected. They were absolute lifesavers!
- What's the standard of care like in the NHS? Again, Anne can share her opinions, but one thing we were really grateful for was to be able to deliver in the newer Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea hospital rather than the older Hammersmith hospital which adjoins it(and we're talking WWII-era and looks like it hasn't been updated or cleaned since then). Probably one of the biggest adjustments was adjusting to the different names and terminology used. Anne's diabetes management had to switch meter readings from mg/deciliter to mmol/liter, two totally different scales where the adjustment factor between the two is to multiply the latter by about 18 to get the former, so lots of mental math involved. Diapers are nappies. Finger sticks (to check blood sugar levels) are referred to as BMs...took me awhile to figure out why they kept asking about that once an hour or so. Not all "doctors" are referred to as "Dr." So-and-so, but some are "Mr." or "Mrs.", while others are "Dr."... The doctors refer to the midwives as Sister So-and-so, even though this was not a Catholic hospital.
- How do British and American hospitals differ in their philosophies on childbirth. Agin, my male-oriented observations only at this point, but it seemed to me that this time around, Anne was really encouraged to take things as slowly as possible, whereas in the States, sometimes it seemed like "OK, we need you to move along now, so we're just gonna do this with your medications, etc."
- Will the baby have dual US-UK citizenship? Most likely not. Everything I've read seems to indicate that since 1983, the UK does not automatically grant citizenship (or the right to dual citizenship) to babies born here. In order to claim dual citizenship, we'd have to either show that the baby's grandparents were British Citizens or that we had a reasonable expectation to remain in the UK indefinitely, neither of which are true (though my father's mother was born and raised here)
I think that covers the most frequent questions we've been getting, so if I missed one, leave a comment and I'll try to respond.
Posted by Tablogger at 3:31 PM 9 comments