A Day at the Park with Grammy and Gramps

I've gotten a bit behind on my blogging, so now I'm trying to catch up a bit.  The last week that the Taylor's were here was busy, busy, busy.  We got to do lots of fun things, but there wasn't much time to rest and do extra things like blog.

One of the fun things we did was a day at Muddy's.  We took a picnic lunch and it was a fun, relaxing, beautiful day.  The older kids hunted for shells on the tiny strip of beach, and then they all had a blast playing in the fountains.

Cool Dude!

Just Hanging Out

Help Me Decide.......

Ok, so when I look at little Elijah, I just feel like he looks so familiar.  Maybe it's just because he's MY baby.  Or maybe there's some feature that is just very similar to how some/one of my other babies looked at this age.  So I went back and compared newborn baby pictures.  Here are all of the Taylor babies, as newborns:

Kaitlyn   (Wow!  I forgot she had that much hair!)

Nathan

Justin

Julianne

Elijah

So what do you think?  Which one does he look the most similar too?

Happy Birthday Justin!

Tuesday was Justin's 5th birthday.  Wow!  Where have the last 5 years gone?  Seriously, it doesn't feel like it was 5 whole years ago that Justin was the tiny little guy wrapped in a blanket.

I was seriously worried that Justin would be sharing his birthday with his new sibling.  Thankfully, Elijah decided to come 2 days before, so both boys will have their own birthdays.  I've always found "The Birthday Week" with Kaitlyn and Nathan to be a bit crazy.  Their birthdays are just 4 days apart, so planning two separate parties and making two separate cakes always makes for an exhausting week.  But that should be a piece of cake from now on as Elijah and Justin will be having birthdays just 2 days apart!!!  At least for the next couple of years, Elijah won't know anything if we just skip the party! =)

Because I had just come home from the hospital the afternoon before, I wasn't up to planning a huge party.  So we just had a little family party.  The kids had fun playing with the glow-in-the-dark necklaces, glasses and earrings that Grammy brought them.  Then we opened presents and had cupcakes and ice cream.  Pretty simple, but I think Justin enjoyed himself.  I was glad after the all the fuss over the new baby that Justin could get his special day and have some of the focus be on him as well.

Check out Julianne's glow-in-the-dark earrings... who knew there was such a thing!

Glow-in-the-dark glasses: how cool is that?!

This is one happy kid!  Cars are his most favorite toy in the world!

The rubber cobra was a huge hit!  Kaitlyn and Nathan picked it out for Justin, and it was his favorite gift!

Elijah Matthew

It finally happened!  Little Elijah decided to not wait to be induced on Wednesday, but he came on Sunday evening instead. =)

He was born at 7:17pm on Oct 23, weighing 7 lbs, 4.5 oz, and was 21.7 inches long.

All wired up for the hearing test

Elijah's First Bath

 Kaitlyn got to help give Elijah his first bath.  She did a great job.  Elijah started crying when he first went into the water, and Julianne was almost in tears as she turned to me, pleading for me to get him out, because she was afraid the nurse was going to drop him under the water.  Once she realized he was going to be ok (and when Elijah stopped crying), she settled down and just watched.  What good big sisters little Elijah has!

Brothers Adoring Each Other

The Whole Gang

Ahhhh!!!

Cuddling with Grammy

While We're (Still) Waiting.......

Here we are:  Day 8 overdue with Baby.  Sigh.  If something happened today, we could still tie the record with Julianne, who was also 8 days late.  But nothing seems to be happening.  After yesterday, I thought maybe things would be kick-started, but nope, not even lots of hiking has motivated this little one to come.

Yesterday was one of the first days I've actually seen blue sky in quite a while!  We've had record-setting rain here in Cairns (Tuesday set a record for the rainiest day in October, ever, with 8 1/2 inches!)  And there's been rain every day since then.  But yesterday we decided to take advantage of the break in the rain and headed out to the Cairns Botanical Gardens in the afternoon.


It's a beautiful place with lots of paths winding all around.  Of course, with my kids, you don't really slowly stroll along and look at everything.  With them, everything is a race to see how quickly they can cover all the various paths.  Usually taken at almost a full sprint.  =) 





We walked thru the gardens, and then along the boardwalk that runs thru a marshy area by some small lakes.  Right at the end of the boardwalk it started raining again, but thankfully it was short-lived.



My intentions were to walk until I got this baby moving.  Right in the same place there is this awesome hiking trail that locals use for a running track.  It goes up I-don't-know-how-many flights of stairs.  Up at the top there are several lookouts where you can see all of Cairns, and overlook the airport.  So we stopped at the closest lookout and sat and watched a jet land.  The kids love that.  Then we came down the many stairs on the rest of the loop.  Kaitlyn, Nathan and Justin always amaze me with their endless energy.  The first half of the trail is entirely up (with numerous flights of stairs) and they ran the whole way (this after running all around the Botanical Gardens and the Boardwalk).  They would wait for us a ways ahead, and then as soon as they saw us, take off again.  We rarely saw them.  Julianne was also amazing as she did most of it on her own as well.  Matt carried her on a few of the stairs, but she did most of it.  I've just got 4 natural-born hikers!

It felt great to get out and moving, and I was definitely feeling tired by the end after lugging my stomach up and down all those stairs.  I thought for sure I would have something in the way of contractions in the night because of it (2 years ago, that's when Julianne finally came... after 2 nights and a day of contractions that started after this same hike).  But nope.  Not a single twinge.  So we're still waiting.  At least we had something fun to do while we waited yesterday.

39.5 Weeks and Counting

Well, I'm down to just three days before the "official" due date for Baby.  Due dates (for me at least!) are rather depressing times.  They arrive, and then they get passed, and nothing happens.  Sometimes for quite a long time.  So I'm not holding my breath that anything will be different this time around.

But I did decide that I should do a belly shot.  I usually hate any pictures of me huge and pregnant, but I figured that I should have at least one picture from my five pregnancies to show that I really was! =)

So, we never find out the gender of our babies ahead of time.  I just think it's more fun that way!  But I do have my strong suspicions about who this baby will be.  I've been wrong (several times) before, so I guess my "suspicions" aren't necessarily credible! =)  But after having two of each, I have definitely noticed some trends with each.  If you think you know, I'd be curious as to what you think! =)

I think we finally have names picked out as well (but we don't share those either!).  A couple weeks before the due date is definitely an improvement to some of the babies (like Justin) who's name was settled on while in the hospital shower, roughly 45 minutes before he actually came out!  I've decided to never let it get that close again! =)

So now we're just playing the Waiting Game.  It could go on for some time.  Thankfully, Matt's parents will be arriving in just 2 days, so that will be a great distraction.

And then we'll see when Baby actually decides to arrive.  The official due date is Friday, 14 October (that's still Thursday for all you US friends!).  Anyone have a better guess as to when Baby will actually choose to arrive???

Matt's Birthday and Other Fun Stuff

Friday was Matt's birthday.  We didn't do anything super exciting (once Matt's parents get here this coming week, I'm hoping we can get out for a fun date, just the two of us!), but it was a nice day.

In the afternoon he got to open a couple of presents and we had ice cream cake.  Yummy!

Helping Daddy blow out the candles

On Saturday, we went to a couple of my favorite places.  We took a picnic lunch and spent a few hours at the Lagoon, swimming and playing.  (and I worked on perfecting my "beached whale" appearance!)

Then it was off to Rusty's where I stocked up on fruits and veggies for the week.  Grapes, oranges, apples, kiwi fruit and mangos are some of the yummy things we've really been enjoying while we're here in Cairns!