Oster Christmas 2010

Shiny Happy Smiles Christmas

Personalize your Christmas photo cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Next Came October

In October, Leighton continued in his quest to become "The Toddler that Drove His Parents Stark Raving Mad with His Shenanigans and Boyness". In other words, Leighton is a trouble maker. He likes to stand on tables, knock people over, give headbutts and bite. His body is in constant motion unless he's asleep. Aside from the two times his antics landed him in the hands of medical staff who were sewing his face back together, his antics are generally harmless. One particular antic got him in a bit of a pickle, but he was fine once Mom figured out where he was. See, it was a daycare day and Leighton slipped into the laundry room behind Mom. She never saw him come in, and closed the door behind her when she came back out. Not more than a minute later, she discovered he was missing and turned to ask the rest of us kids where he was. None of us knew, but we could hear noises coming from the laundry room. When Mom went in there to check it out, she found Leighton had climbed up onto a plastic storage tote so that he could climb into an exersaucer. Despite having lodged both legs into a hole designed for one leg, he was happy as a clam.

When Leighton isn't getting into trouble (because there are rare moments when that happens) he makes Mom and Dad forget all about it by being adorable and snuggly and loving and stuff.

In October, it became apparent to my family that my trike just wasn't giving me the challenge I needed. So Grandma Jan was kind enough to buy me this beautiful princess big girl bike. Everyone was amazed at how quickly and easily I was able to master riding it. I love my bike and really miss riding it now that we have snow.

Well, October meant Halloween, and that meant we needed to carve pumpkins. But poor Leighton wasn't able to help me and Dad. Mom and Dad were afraid he would just put all the pumpkin guts in his mouth, so they strapped him into his highchair and gave him a cookie to eat. He missed the pumpkin carving fun, but seemed to enjoy the cookie eating.

Dad and I are the pumpkin carving crew. After two years at the job, we're getting pretty good. I really wish I could show you just how good our pumpkins were this year, but I can't find the pictures anywhere. Mom swears she took pictures of them, but they aren't anywhere on her computer or on Dad's. I guess you'll just have to take my word on it.

I got to wear my costume quite a few times. To my preschool, to daycare, to Trunk or Treating at our church and on Halloween day. Here I am standing in front of my locker at school. (With a sucker in my mouth even though Mom asked me to take it out.)

Leighton got to wear his costume alsmost as much as me, but didn't have a preschool to wear it to. Too bad, it was a dern cute tiger costume!

(See this look on my face? That's sweet anticipation of the loot of candy I was about to score.)

My brother and I had a fantastically fun time celebrating Halloween with friends and family. We can't wait to see what Halloween 2011 will bring.

And that my freinds, is October.

Peace out,

Taylor and Leighton

Month by Month

So Leightion and I have been talking and we really want to get back to blogging but in all honesty, we don't even remember HOW. It' s been soooo long. So we'll give it a try here and see how we do.

(OH BUT GOOD GRAVY WE HAVEN'T DONE THIS FOR LIKE FIVE MONTHS AND THERE'S A LOT OF PICTURES AND EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS AND MILESTONES BETWEEN THEN AND NOW AND DO WE HAVE TO PUT IT ALL IN HERE?!?!?)

Wow. Sorry about that. So Lil Buddy and I just put our heads together (actually, he gave me a head butt, but whatever, it worked) and came up with this plan. We'll do one month at a time, starting with September since we at least got pictures out on the internet over on flickr up to that point.

So here is September...

Mom finally gave in to the pressure (mostly Grandma Jan and Papa Steve) had been putting on her for months and took Leighton to get his first haircut. "Amy" at Kids Hair did a hack job and cut off all his curls despite Mom's specific instructions to "PLEASE leave the curls PLEASE and just clean it up a little PLEASE like where you just a little bit off the ends PLEASE so you don't cut off all the curls PLEASE". Mom left fighting back tears and plotting revenge. It's grown back by this point, but the curls aren't the same. (Watch out Amy...)

My big event for September was starting preschool. Mom and Dad weren't going to send me to preschool this year since Mom does a preschool curriculum here at our daycare. But a couple weeks into daycare (i.e. a couple weeks into this new life of ours where Mom and I are together ALL. THE. TIME.) Grandma Jan suggested to Mom that I be enrolled in preschool so I could get otu of the house a couple days a week and have another outlet for some of my special energy. Turns out I love preschool and Mom doesn't mind the break it gives her so it's a win-win situation. Go preschool!

(Disclaimer: This picture was not actually taken on my first day of preschool as is the tradition in most American households. It was taken on my second day of preschool because my mom's a bit frazzled sometimes and things she intends to do don't always get done. It's how she rolls.)

There's no doubt that Leighton is Daddy's boy. The proof is in the pudding. And the pudding is all over Leighton's face in the next pictures. You'll notice he's not wearing a shirt. That's because my mom is super smart and took his shirt so it wouldn't get messy.

And that folks, is September. I know, weak effort. Sorry. We just don't seem to take as many pictures around here as we used to. Now it's time to get some shuteye before we start working on our October entry.

Goodnightsleeptightdontletthebedbugsbite,

Taylor and Leighton

Someday.

We'll blog again.

For now, you'll just have to deal with this teaser.

And if you're really hard up for pics of us and haven't been there yet, head over to flickr. We threw some stuff up there last week.

Love,

The Absentees (a.k.a. Taylor and Leighton)

Haircuts and Headcuts

Some cuts happen on purpose. Like Taylor's haircut. Mom was tired of fighting with Taylor to get her hair into ponytails and equally tired of her hair getting in her food and being messy all the time. So Mom whisked her off to Whitney, Mom's stylist at the fancy salon and paid way more than she should have so she would have the moral support of her own stylist to get through such a big event.

BEFORE:


AFTER:
It turns out everyone, including Mom, loves the new do. Mom can brush Tay's hair real easy and it doesn't hang in her food. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Some cuts happen on accident. Like when I cut my head wide upen when chasing Taylor through the house. We were just having fun, being the super brother and sister that we are, when *BAM*, that wall just jumped out in front of me and attacked my forehead.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Two internal stitches, five external stitches. Ouch. Mom and Dad tried to take me to Urgent Care for stitches, but were told by the nurse there that the cut was so deep they needed to take me to the Emergency Room. Ay yi yi. Well, an hour and a half wait later, I was all sewn up and sent on my way.

Tomorrow I'm off to have my stitches removed. Dad told Mom to ask the doctor if I need to start wearing a helmet at all times. Seems valid.

Stay Safe,

Crash (a.k.a. Leighton) (and Taylor)

Summer Fun

Ah, summer. Full of fun times. And pretty flowers. Like these ones I found in my Greataunt Nancy's yard. She lives out in the country and there's oodles of pretty flowers in her yard. (And a HUGE garden with lots and lots vegetables and blueberries and herbs. It's amazing!)

We went to a barbeque at Greataunt Nancy and Greatuncle Gary's house a couple weekends ago. Mom said we went cuz Gary got a wild hair (whatever that means!) to smoke some food. He smoked ribs, boneless ribs, turkey and brisket. My favorite was the turkey.

Leighton and I had a great time running all over the yard, climbing all over the deck and exploring everything we could.

Leighton also enjoyed some new canine companionship. You know how that guy loves dogs. These ones are named Maggie and Blazer. Maggie is the little one and Blazer is the big one. It's pretty amazing how this kid takes to dogs. Makes a girl wish she could get one for her little brother, but Mom and Dad have made it pretty clear that's not happening at our house. Not anytime soon at least. For now Leighton will just have to settle for snuggling other people's dogs.

Summer also means the bike trailer has found it's way out of the garage. We had some real good times on it two summers ago, but last summer, what with Baby Leighton coming around and with that monitor thing and the cords and whatnot, well it just didn't happen. So anyways, Mom and I bumped our way around the garage the other day and collected the trailer, her bike and the tire pump. Dad helped us get everything set up and off we went. It was GLORIOUS! Mom wanted to ride for a long, long time but we had to get home for my bedtime. We're both looking forward to our next ride.

This summer has also brought about some very silly fun. Like playing dressup and me ending in this:

And Leighton in this:

Summer also means CAMP. That's right, I went to camp. It's called Grands Camp at the Presbyterian Clearwater Forest and I went there with my Grandma Jan, Papa Bob and my cousins, Meggie and Nate. We had a fantastic time. Unfortunately, I don't have digital documentation of camp, but Mom did take these cute pictures of me in the special braids she put in my hair for camp. In the first I'm totally faking a pouty look. (You may have been able to figure that out for yourself.) In the second I'm my usual cute self.

Summer fun also means taking it indoors sometimes. Mom took me, Leighton, cousin Nate and our neighbors to Edinborough, a fantastic indoor park. There's two rooms: one with a huge climbing and sliding structure and a gym with scooters, balls, baskets and a huge jumper. It was AWESOME!

Summer is about halfway over but it feels like the fun is just beginning. Bring it on!!

Viva la Summer!

Taylor (and Leighton)

The summer fun continues to be...well, fun. We've had eight trips to the Splash Pool in the three weeks that Mom has been home with us. Us kids are loving it but Mom's been grumbling a little-seems she's getting tired of pulling Evil Knievel (a.k.a. Leighton) out of the water when we loses his footing and goes in face-first. We're taking a few days off and hopefully she'll be ready to get back at it on Tuesday.

We celebrated Father's Day at our house a couple weeks ago. It got HOT HOT HOT so Mom turned on the sprinkler. She opted to just change us out of wet clothes and into pajamas rather than change us into swimsuits and then out of the swimsuits and into pajamas. Pretty genius if you ask me.

Leighton took a break from playing in the sprinkler to climb up on the picnic table where he tried to take possession of a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew. Because he needs caffeine, right? NO! He does not. (You hear that Lil Buddy, you don't need caffeine! You're a spaz. No caffeine for you until college. You know, when you're out of the house and the only people you'll annoy with your upped levels of spacticity are roommates, not us.)





I thought I would see if the water in the sprinkler tastes as good as the water in the house. It was alright, though maybe a little metallic tasting.






One of Leighton's new Hot Spots is the tub in the bathroom. He's so impressed with it that he actually bypasses the toilet (that's old news I guess) to go head-first into the tub. He'd play there for hours if Mom and Dad would let him. As luck would have it, Mom DID let him play in there the other day and I joined him to see what all the hoopla was about. All I can figure is, it's fun because it's out of the social norm. Leighton is a rebel like that.

So far, Leighton and I are the best of buddies. Mom and Dad are sure a day will come when we don't get along quite as well, but for now, they're are loving the love between us. I don't let Leighton go to sleep without a hug and kiss, I kiss his owies and bring him loveys when he's sad. All in all, I'm Big Sister Extraordinaire.

In closing, I'll leave you with these very special pictures of me. Special indeed.

Peace, love and happiness!

Taylor (and Leighton)