London's Look

 Last Wednesday we had London's eye appointment. I mentioned to the doctor that he had a new "dirty look" that he gives us when he is sullen or in trouble. It involves closing his left eye almost completely and looking at us out of the top or side of his right eye. It has nothing to do with his vision, I think he is just learning to "use" his droopy eye for maximum effect. I finally managed to capture "the look" on my camera.

This effect is his happy ornery look.

 This look indicates that he knows he is cute and little.

 This is his warning look, cast sideways at Jack. He is grumpy and does not want to be messed with.

"Am I really in trouble?"

None of the posed looks in this post were real, except possibly the smiling ones. He was just practicing his different faces while playing with play-do. 

Christmas Memories

 London and I took this tree down yesterday. It took us about 2 hours to get the totes, take all the lights and ornaments off, disassemble the branches and stand, and pack it all away. That may sound long, but London is 18 months old, we wrap almost every ornament individually, and it took us about 6 hours to set the whole thing up! The following pictures, excessively detailed though they may seem, depict the course of those 6 hours.

 Jack, the do-it-yourself man, Jon the multi-tasker, and London the unbalanced koala. Below is a picture of London rolling around on the floor throwing a fit. He was not as helpful setting up as he was tearing down. I thought he looked hilariously pathetic lolling about on the floor.

Our traditional tree topper. Unfortunately, they always end up needing clean diapers and food and never make it through the Christmas season up there.

 Happier after a good nap and finding his elf slippers. (made in New Zealand from lama wool for anyone who wondered...)

 These pictures are slightly out of order. We didn't vacillate between having lights or a top on our tree. Once they were on, they stayed on until yesterday.  

 Keep an eye on that lower left corner of the tree. It ended up hosting about half of the ornaments on our tree, all packed 2-3 to a branch. Cozy, eh?

The happiest of all. Jack was a blast this Christmas. He soaked up all of the sights, tastes, sounds, and traditions. I taught him how to squint his eyes to make the lights on the tree sparkle and dance. He can sing about 4 carols all by himself, and he enjoyed reading Christmas story after story after story after story. We haven't pushed the Santa issue, we just tell him that Santa is a guy in a lot of the holiday stories, and Jack thinks he is pretty nice. Kind of like Clifford the big red dog. Someone told him that Santa was going to come to his house and Jack got all excited about having waffles with him and maybe building a fort. So innocent and friendly. I love it.

Christmas is gone, and the lights are packed away. But, I am thrilled at the thought of doing it all again next year with Jack old enough to ice cookies, London repeating Jack's excitement from this year, and Blake watching the train run around the tree.

Blake Part II - The post with too many sleeping baby pictures

 We have been really enjoying the transition to three kids. We had to look up the old show "My Three Sons" to find out what sort of statement people were really making when they title us the same. It seems to be a goldie-oldie, so we won't complain. We kind of prefer the old-fashioned "work-hard-get-along-with-each-other-mind-your-manners-clean-up-after-yourself-and-laugh-a-lot" mentality of child raising anyhow. I hope our house is a bit cleaner than theirs, but we have a mother in our version afterall...

 Jack tends to be very involved in relationship development with Blake. He is super excited about the day Blake stays awake a little longer and is ready to play. London is my dependable helper that will deliver diaper after diaper after diaper while I am changing Blake. London will be a self-cleaning molly maid as soon as he is tall enough to run the real vacuum and strong enough to carry pots to the cupboard. He loves chores and helping.

 Nothing strikes the maternal chord harder than seeing my baby hold my baby. It is precious.

 My dad happily acquainting his 12th grandchild. Blake evened the numbers to 6 boys and 6 girls.

 Blake is the sleeping champion around here. He doesn't have his days and nights mixed up, he just sleeps through them both indiscriminately.

 My mom has been the servant of all. She is willing to help in any capacity that we need. I am just now reclaiming my laundry responsibilities. She is the woman I want to be.

 Blake's first outing came a little earlier than we were planning. He is 4 days old here. Snug little bug.

 He has 42 frowns. This is one.

 Pardon me while I put my heart back where it belongs.

 Look! He has eyeballs! He is 2 days old here.

 This is another one of our family's blessings. Aunt Sarah. She works hard for that title, and the boys love her.

 Chelsea made sharing Blake double happy by delighting in his hiccups, sneezes, frowns, and yawns. I laughed at her laughing at him staring at her.

 A gentle frown.

 Blake's first skype date with Nona and Papa T. He was a fan. Ok, he slept through it...

London personally introduced Blake to Aunt Carol. He loves his great Aunt and sharing Blake with her just seemed right.

Ok, I will try to reincorporate actual events and stories into the blog again. Blake keeps getting in front of my camera for some reason. We are all rather taken with him.

An Early Christmas Present!

I think this is a very appropriate picture to begin this post with. To begin with, I was starting to think that the baby intended to stay inside forever, and I would always look like this. That is kind of fine with me, maternity clothes are way more comfortable. The picture is also out of focus, which defines the 2 hours following the picture very nicely. Jon took this shot "just in case I was in labor" as our traditional walking out the door photo. Good thing, because the baby walked out the door about 90 minutes later. I think. Blurry, like I said.

 We are super happy to have chosen to do a home birth with Blake, these two ladies are our midwife, Debbie, and her apprentice, Cheryl. Blake was her last apprentice "catch" and she is now on her way to being a fully-certified midwife too. We are excited for you, Cheryl! I would define our entire labor and delivery as calm, warm, and natural. 

Weighing Blake about an hour after he was born!

He has had his mouth full almost since birth. Fists, blankets, sleeves, thumbs, food...

Our little labor team has always included Jon and my mom with me and my dad is officially the toddler wrangler until further notice. Both boys were already in bed and slept through Blake's arrival. So, his job was relatively easy that night...

All of this hubbub happened between 10:45pm and 2:00am. Then everyone left and we were alone with our new little man.

Introducing:

Blake Isaac Taylor

December 17th, 2012

12:18 am

7 lb, 7 oz

20.5 inches long

and our first newborn with blue eyes. We'll see if they stick around.

P.S. Don't you think it's nice that Jon dressed up for this event? I was a little sad he lost the tie before he got swept along in the momentum of husband/new father/and my helper. Next time I'll rent a tux for him.