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.

All of her gifts were a hit; perfume & lip gloss from Chase, books and movies from Grandma, a Barbie CD rom, and a new bike from Mommy & Daddy and DeeDee & Grandpa.

"Want some lipgloss? It's Turkish Delight Flavoured."

A couple of days later was Heather's "Welcome to the World" gathering at Carluccio's hosted by friends Laurel and Trina. It was a beautiful autumn day and Heather and I enjoyed a "girls' day out" for a few hours.

The following is a bit of randomness, but hopefully it will bring a smile or a laugh.

Isabelle loaned Heather her Webkinz bunny.

When I first told the children we were having a girl, we took a trip to Baby Gap.

Chase picked out the track suit trousers for his baby sista:

Happy Halloween (thanks for the dental work, Becky!)

Even though I haven't called her "Baby Girl Hulk" in a long time,

Heather has her moments. I found a costume for her at the store, but unfortunately it doesn't come in her size:

But this one does...

Here's the photo we used for Heather's passport (Only 4 weeks old. Isabelle was at least 8 weeks old when we got hers!):

This photo makes me laugh.

DeeDee bought (sight unseen) this little sweater and blanket for Heather.

This is what she looks like when we leave for school in the mornings:

The many faces of Heather:

I'm sure you can tell we are enjoying Heather. Our family just wouldn't be complete without her. Can't wait for you to meet her...

Newest Thread

So clearly, I'm not the best blogger on the internet, or rather consistent blogging has not yet risen to the top ten of my priority list. We have had, however, some fun things happen over the last few weeks;

Chris's brother, Mark and his fiance Katie were married on the Carnival Triumph on January 19 and then kindly allowed the entire Taber Clan to join them on their honeymoon cruise in the Eastern Carribean. We all had a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed having new sisters-in-law to pal around with. Andrew (another Taber brother) is engaged to Polina and their wedding is set for June 22 in New York. 9-10 hours on an airplane with a 5 hour time change is a lot on either end of such a trip, so we all spent a day and half sleeping before we sent the children back to school - what's one more day in the life of a kindergartener or a 2nd grader? So the next day Chris went back to work, the children went back to school, and I went back to bed...for hours. For some reason, I could not keep my eyes open. As it turns out, there was a very good reason. The newest thread in the Taber Tapestry is child number 3!

So I've heard number 3 is the hardest. So far this seems to be true as far as the pregnancy is concerned; I have had to sleep more, and whoever named it "morning sickness" probably was never actually pregnant. The nausea seems to be all day long and the hormones have turned me into crazy person. Fortunately, my family still likes me and Chris says they already new I was crazy, and we've made it through the first 12 weeks. And we are all looking forward to the middle trimester. Not that anyone's asked my opinion, but I think aside from the first time 'round, pregnancy should only consist of the middle trimester. The time when you are typically past the morning sickness, have grown enough to start wearing clothes that are meant for a pregnant body (rather than just making due with what you've got), and are past the narcolepsy and generally you are feeling pretty good and enjoy that new Mommy glow.

Anyway, I recently had my first ultrasound and met with my new health care team (midwife, endocrinologist, etc) at the hospital where the baby will be delivered, and everything seems to be developing as it should.

It's been fun involving the children now that they're really old enough to understand what's going on. When we first sat them down to tell them why mommy had such a short fuse and was taking 3 hour naps everyday, they were both really excited. Isabelle's immediate response was,

"I knew that's what you were going to say!"

"Oh really? How did you know?"

"I prayed about it," she responded matter-of-factly. Ahh, the faith of a child... Since then Isabelle has kept us updated on the weekly developments as outlined in Your Pregnancy Week By Week and Chase has recommendations for names on a daily basis. The first he came up with (supposing it might be twins) was "Batman and Robin." One might think he was just being a cute 4-year-old, but those of us who know Chase recognize that he already has a quick wit! Daddy and I added, "or Kate and Duplicate if it's girls! Or Pete and Repeat!" (in honor of Pete from the cruise) All in all, he actually has come up with some nice names as well, but I think we will wait until we have more of an idea of whether it's going to be a boy or a girl.

Speaking of Batman, Chase just turned 5 on Monday and we threw him a Batman/Superheros party yesterday. He came up with his own guest list including, friends, neighbors, schoolmates, a teenager and some grown ups. We played musical chairs (to the Batman TV show theme), pin the mask on Batman, decorated and ate cupcakes and Chris led the procession outside for some Superhero poses and poppers that shoot streamers. Oh, and Chris had printed out several choices of Superhero symbols for the children to wear - hence the need for Superhero poses. We all had a great time and I am grateful that Chase is 5!

Our next adventure will be another trip to the States in April to celebrate Grandpa's (Alan's) 60th birthday? (Think I should bring the pin the mask on Batman game?)