The Taynors

The Taynors

Friday, April 25, 2014

How I met your Father

Last night as I was folding the millionth load of laundry for the day, I was thinking back on our love story. Mike and I don't have a simple story... We didn't meet, start dating, get married. We met, we were friends, we went long stretches of not talking, then get back in touch, then loose touch... It took a while. Whenever someone says how did you meet or how long have you been together, it's always a long story. Here is our timeline:

Fall 2001- we briefly met for the first time. I was still living at home going to community college and I went to visit Heather at Rider University. I was just hanging in her dorm room (which seemed extra cool since I didn't go away to college yet) when a friend of ours from high school came by with his new roommate. Mike was that random roommate. It was a brief hello, definitely not love at first site, and them they were on their way. Mike recalls that when they came by, I was jumping on heathers bed. His first impression was "wow that girl is nuts!"

We met a few other random times that year. I was still with my high school bf and he had his new college romance. Never expected that he would one day be my husband.

February 2003- The first real time we hung out. At this time I was going to school at Towson University. I was "dating" this guy Chris... I use the term loosely because it was more like I was obsessing over Chris while he was casually going out with me. I was having a hard time and Heather said I needed to get my butt up to Rider to visit her and take a break from Chris. So that's what I did. I borrowed Chris' very pretty BMW and headed for a weekend at Rider.

Saturday night heather brought me to a sorority/fraternity keg party... And you guessed it, Mike was there. Heather apparently asked him to hang out with me, keep me company, because I didn't know anyone there. Well he did a great job. We spent the whole night talking, flirting, dancing, and getting very drunk! My night ended with him giving me a shot of tequila. He claims the tequila was "punishment" for talking about Chris all night :)

I had an awesome night, but paid for it big time. I spent the whole 4 hour drive home the next day throwing up on the side of the road. It was one of the worst hangovers I ever had!

Side note- I was about 20 lbs heavier then and wearing an awful corduroy pants outfit... If mike thought I was cute on that particular night, I know he really likes me :)

From Spring 2003-Fall 2004 we barely spoke. There was the occasional IM (good old fashion instant messaging) but really I was living college life down at Towson and he was being a frat guy at Rider. I saw him occasionally if I visited Heather, but there was no special spark like the previous keg party.

November 2004- Heather invited me to attend a formal. Officially I was going as Kenny's date and Heather was going as mike's date. That was the only way we could all go together to this formal. This event jump started the attraction again. This was the night of our first kiss! We had an awesome time and I officially had a crush.

We ended up spending the entire weekend together- the formal Friday night, double date movies and Applebee's appetizers on Saturday with Heather and Kenny, and then I was given last minute tickets to the Giants game on Sunday, so why not invite mike to come with me. I think this Giants game is what I would consider our real first date. It was the first time we did something just the two of us. It was a pretty epic weekend. Lots of fun, drinking, hand holding, smooching. This was the first time I started thing "huh, this guy has potential, I like him."

Something crazy happened after that weekend... We barely spoke to each other! Haha this was becoming our thing, you know spending the weekend together, have a great time, act all couplely, then don't talk for months.

April 2005- another fraternity formal. This time Mike invited me as his date and it was a whole weekend event. It was great, again. We clicked, we liked each other, we had fun. Then I went home, and guess what... We barely spoke to each other again for a few more months.

September 2005- Mike had graduated college, I was done with my associates and had my cosmetology license. We both had grown up jobs. This is when we first started talking a little more regularly. We met for lunch a few times, we met up with a few mutual friends, we occasionally called or texted. But we were still unsure. I kept thinking "ah he is too nice" and he didn't seem overly driven to make anything happen. That Fall I even dated someone else for a little bit.


November 2005- We were finally getting over whatever was holding us back the past 4 years. I was going as his date to work events, we talked daily, the spark was back.

December 2, 2005 we finally went on a true, real date as a couple. Mike surprised me after work with Bon Jovi concert tickets! It was awesome and the first time we were both open about our feelings.

December continued this way. We lived an hour apart, but we spent pretty much every weekend together. New Years Eve it became official. Shortly after the ball drop he asked me if it was okay to change his MySpace status to "in a relationship" (I'm seriously laughing out loud as I type this)!

The rest is history. After 4 years of being all over the place, once we decided to give it a shot, we got pretty serious pretty fast.

St. Patty's day 2006 was the first time he said I love you (and I immediately threw up... But that's a story for another time)

December 2007 he proposed

March 3, 2008 we closed on our first house

And most importantly we got married June 26, 2009!


I can't believe this June is 5 years married and this Fall it will be 10 years since our first kiss!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Coming soon...

Every once in a while I have a brain full of posts, topics I need to talk about, interesting tidbits from my life... but I just don't have the time to sit and write them.  So as a reminder to myself (and as a coming attraction for the few people following along), here are some up coming blog topics:

- Update on Ryan and the process we have recently started with early intervention
-A letter to myself for the future me IF I ever decide to have another baby
-A sentimental post about my best friends
- An update on going back to work
-Maybe if I get up the nerve, an update on PPD round 2

Stay tuned :)

Patrick 3 months

Little late- second baby problems!

But here is Patrick's 3 month update. Boy I love thus baby boy to pieces. He is so sweet and his smile just melts away whatever is bothering me at the time.

-The details: he is 13 lbs 1 oz, 23.5 inches long and in the 50% across the board. He is wearing size 2 diapers and is about to transition from 0-3 month to 3-6 month clothes.

- He is still only breast fed (with the occasional bottle of bm). He is doing great with nursing and we are working through the growth spurts. I pump every single night between 9:30-10 before I go to sleep. I get about 2-3 oz at that time so I'm slowly building a freezer stash. That stash allows me to get awar
- We are slowly starting a basic routine, very basic. He is up somewhere between 6:30-7:30am, he eats every 3 hours (7, 10, 1, 4), the cluster feeds a bit between 4-7, and then bedtime starts around 7:00pm. We try to get some naps in between each nursing throughout the day (eat, activity, sleep) but he is not a good napper so that's a bit rough.

- Night time sleep is pretty good. Last month was great, I was shocked how well he slept every night, but he is back tracking just a bit and waking a little more. I don't feed him when he wakes up until at least 3:30 am. Every night is a little different. Some times he goes right to sleep at night and goes straight to 4am and then sometimes he fusses at bedtime, doesn't settle til closer to 9-10pm and then gets up a few times overnight. Hopefully he will fall back into his good night sleeping routine by next month (fingers crossed)!

- Patrick has a great personality. He is happy most of his awake time, he loves to talk, he is starting to giggle, and his smiles are huge.

- He can roll over, belly to back, but doesn't do it often. We are working on tummy time. He has a little bit of a flat head, so we are doing as much as we can to keep him off his back.

- Chomping on his hands is a favorite activity these days. And the drool is following.

- Cradle cap is still here but not nearly as bad as Ryan had. The baby hair is slowly coming out, and I think the new hair growing in is lighter.

- Nap time is a stress for a few reasons... He has trouble falling asleep on his own (like he seriously fights it), he likes to be moving non-stop (car or rocked in someone's arms), when he is finally asleep he normally wakes up very quickly (like 20 minute cat naps).... And the reason this is hard is because when he gets tired, he gets crazy. My quiet, sweet baby turns into a monster. He has the loudest cry and sounds so angry! We describe him as going from 0-60 in 10 seconds. It's pretty wild to witness. So nap time is sacred and I'm working hard to get a better nap routine. Trust me, I have tried all the techniques, but naps just don't come easy.

I think those are the main Patrick points for the month. Now a lite mommy update:

- I miss nap time (haha I'm obsessed I know). But Ryan's nap time use to be my quick chance to breathe. Now that it's taken up by taking care of Patrick, there is no break in the day. I need to get these boys napping at the same time!

- I hate talking about it, and I really need to write a separate post, but the postpartum blues/anxiety is back. My emotions are outbid control, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster ride, and the meltdowns are frequent. Because of suffering ppd with Ryan, both mike and I were on high alert for it happening again. I think somewhere around 2 months is when I really started feeling it again- the sad, stress, anxious, hopelessness feelings of postpartum. Anyway, I'm back seeing a therapist and I'm trying to stay off any medication at this point. I don't want to go the way of meds because I don't want it to interrupt my nursing the baby. But I have that in my back pocket if I need it. While I'm going through it I don't like to talk about it, it's awkward and uncomfortable. It's much easier for me to tell my story of ppd when I'm feeling better. I know I'll feel better soon, this time around I know it goes away, and for now I just need to take care of myself and get past it.

- I think we have decided that I will extend my leave of absence until July 7 (when Patrick hits 6 months old). The details are still fuzzy so I'll update soon.

- I have been back to pre-baby weight for a while but I need to get my butt back to working out! It will make me feel better and get my body ready for summer. That's the goal this month!


Now here are some cute pics to make us all smile!










Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone