Connor

My sweet angelic Connor has learned how to spit!

My sweet angelic Connor has learned how to make sounds like guns, growls, and grunts.

He can climb, crash, run, crawl, wiggle, jump, collapse, throw, ram and just plain out maneuver his granny.

He can converse. Do you want a sandwich? No.
Do you want macaroni and cheese? No.
Do you want yogurt? No.
Do you want a hotdog? No.
Do you want cereal? CHEERIOS!

Connor: Cookie?
Granny: No. Pear?
Connor: No. Cookie?
Granny: No. Pear?
No. Cookie?
No. Pear?
I believe that one was a tie.

He can snuggle, we spent several hours snuggling.

He likes to be read to. I think through out the day he brought me twenty books to read. Especially when it was time to take a nap. Five books is the going rate for naps.

He can kiss, giggle, tickle, smile, and blow the sweetest soap bubbles.

Only one potty accident.

When I arrived I entered through the garage and called up the stairs to Stephanie that I was there. I could hear Connor running down the hall, crashing down the stairs, and then flying into my arms all the time calling out; Grannies here. Grannies here. Grannies here. Grannies here.

It only took one hot bath soak, two pain pills, and 1 1/2 hours of groans on the couch to regroup. I can't say I am over it yet.

All in it was a pretty grand day and I get to do it all again next Wednesday.

Confession

Do you know what red tomatoes look like when they are wrapped up in green cellophane? They look like some strange fruit that looks half like a plum and half like a tomato. Silly me! Don't tell anyone I did that.

But thanks to Nila, and her master gardening husband, I have a bowl full of bright red garden fresh Roma tomatoes. My favorite food in the world! Just ask Janice. One summer it is all I ate at her house.

I was able to get all of my cooking, laundry, movies watching, and book reading done yesterday. Today I'm off to watch The Connorman.

Oops, there is more...

I looked out the window and Possession Sound is covered, covered, in thick thick fog, low down and beautiful. Beyond the fog the sun is shinning on Whidbey Island, brilliant, brilliant, sunshine beautiful and inviting. Then the fog takes over again and obscures the Kitsap peninsula and the Olympic Mountains, beautiful beautiful.

How is your world today?

Sweet and Sour Liver

I'm looking everywhere for my sweet and sour liver recipe ( thanks Amber) so I can cook it up for my family at reunion. Sweet and sour liver for everyone. Just a thought.

Can we have a red underwear day? Or red shoes, or at least a red hat day? With all the OU and UA paraphernalia floating around I'm sure people can secure a red hat. Just a thought.

I was trying to figure out a game for the family to play at reunion and you all know how bad I am at games, so the game thinking turned into story telling thinking. I'm going to ask for stories so come prepared. You might have to tell a story about Summer or Jacquie or Cathy or Taylor or Jason or Christian. Just a thought.

Or a kind words day. I know this family is snarky and sarcastic, but maybe, maybe, just once sitting around the campfire we can say a kind word about the person on your left. Yes, even if it is Tal. Just a thought.

I hope Connor finds a turtle. Maybe I'll offer a prize to a turtle finding family member. Someone who can wander a little further afield than Connor and his granny. Just a thought.

I hope Nora finds an owl. She will have to offer her own prize.

Mark, per your blog request for T-shirt ideas, I think we need a Taylor Family mascot. Something bullish, fattish, hot dog eatingish, maybe a little fishingish, cookingish, nappingish, camp fire sitting aroundish sort of mascot. My favorite quintessential photograph of the reunion is last year's photo of Jeff -- relaxing in the camp chair. Its on last October's blog after the reunion. Or when the boys fought over leaves. Wasn't that Clark and Blaine?
Or "Connor's Staff" t-shirts works for me. Just a thought.

Also Marc I was asking about symmetric molecular quantum mechanics because I'm reading this book Andrew mentioned. You kindly offered you and Marc taking a shot at teaching me, but if the truth be known I don't really want to understand it, I just want to wonder at it. However I'm glad there are nephews in the world who do understand it. Thanks, you'll be my hero for a while.

I know Brittany's hero is usually her daddy, but who is every one elses?

Fried balony or phony balony soup? Just a thought.

My kitchen counter has some strange looking purple type fruit sitting on it. It looks half like a plum and half like a tomato. Ian must have brought it home last night. I'm thinking about waking him up and asking him, What the heck is this? But I guess I'll let him sleep a little longer, after all he does haul in and put away all my groceries for me. I don't want to upset the balance here.

My weekend is looking busy.
Yesterday I met Claire at the optical place to help her select new eye-glasses, yes she asked me, but rejected the orange and gold ones I thought were perfect. Nice dinner at The Ram after though.
Thursday instead of a playdate I'll have a playday with Connor. Babysitting duty, the folks have to work and the day care is closed. Oh woe is me...
Friday I'm off for a visit with Lynn, I haven't seen her since June I don't think. Anyway we'll do breakfast/lunch and maybe a drive. Always a pleasure.
That means I have to do everything else today. Cook my food for next week, get the laundry done, watch my movies, finish my Andrew book, and blog -- so here you are.

Blogs done.

Chocolate! We could have a chocolate day/evening! Then after the chocolate feast, THEN we could ask everyone to say something nice about the person on their left. Just a thought

Reunion is on my mind.

T shirt ideas

For any of you reading this, please send your 27th annual Taylor family reunion Tee shirt ideas to mark16708@yahoo.com

Some of the ideas I already have been given are:

Some arrangement of all of our names, either all or just the descendants (circular or in some shape)
A smiley face of sorts with the words "you make me smile"
Something nostalgic like the pickup truck design from TFR 23
Some sort of animated character who is representative of the quintessential Taylor

I also plan on designing a bacon poster to hang for the great Taylor Family Reunion recipe cook-off

Please reply this week with your idea or a vote for one or two of the ones above (front and back)

I'm Wondering

How is Marc's business growing?
Why I told Amanda I would help with mentoring five days after I told her I would never do it again? She did promise me someone easy, a delightful young gentleman, and overtime. Well, reunion is approaching and OT talks, so what the hell?
Why my ankles and knees hurt?
What is worse, 93 degrees temperature or 93 degrees of humidity?
It is MUGGY today!
Why Ian, who has shuttled dozens of folks to and from the airport, doesn't have a ride when he is about to fly off to FL?
Will I ever get to FL?
If I will actually make cookies, jambalaya, and get my hair cut today?
How Nora is liking her new hotel?
Andrew his new apartment?
If Roger and Stephanie can get any busier?
Last night Stephanie came home, hugged Connor and left for a five mile run. Then she came home, grabbed a hot dog, hugged Connor and left for a homeowners meeting.

Connor joined the menfolk in the garage last night as the big guys plotted their 100 mile bike ride for Sunday. He grabbed his helmet and then couldn't decide which of his two bikes to use, but he was fully engaged in the bike stuff activity and wasn't going to be left out.

What is Jean cooking?
Will the republican jockeying campaign get any more amusing?
If politics can scare Americans any more than they already do?
If Mark would like the film Lourdes? About Lourdes miracles.
If I will ever send Emma a reading list?
Can Jane be anymore elegant?
When will Art get back on the golf course?
How many miles Julia and Jeff have walked this year?
I know Julia will have the statistics.
How many miles Dan, Jacquie and Benjamin have walked this year?
When does the Muppet movie come out?

Can the Taylor's love their children any more?
How much fun will I have watching Connor at reunion?
What cabin will we Washingtonians have?
How entertaining will the four now five year olds be?
If Michael will remember I'm his favorite Uncle Jan?
How will Connor like turkeys, deer, wagon rides, balloon animals and snakes?
What Jeff will have in his Snack Stash?
And how long will it take Connor to discover the freedom of it?

How many steps from mundane to profound?
Will I ever understand chirality?
How does life work?
When will we connect with alien life forms?
Are we an alien life form?
Have you listened, lately, to Harry Nilsson's The Point?
"Hello, is their anybody out there?"
What will replace oil?
What would world peace look and feel like? Imagine.
Six Degrees of Separation -- I believe in that.

Back to the mundane:
I'm going to watch a movie, Himalaya, take a nap, and go have coffee with Carol.
Screw the cookies and jambalaya.
It's 93 degrees humidity.

May you have a nap-ish sort of day.

Now what am I going to do with this?

I read recently a devotional that advised, when faced with a difficult situation, one should NOT ask "why", but rather, "what". More specifically it said, now that this is my reality, what am I going to do with it?

The verse quoted was Philippians 4:8, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (NIV)

The author called this verse “directions on where to park my mind.”

What does this have to do with the Harris part of the Taylor clan?
Within the last month we've had some "stuff" happen that most would consider bad. Hannah had her first fender bender in her car and I cut my foot on some broken glass that I caused to be broken. Both incidents were the result of less than brilliant behavior.

But were they "bad"? In Hannah's case we were very lucky. No one was hurt and the damage to the other car was less than $1000 and therefore will not affect her insurance rates. Furthermore, her car (covered by liability only since it is not really worth that much) was "fixed" by a friend for only $565. Which is only $65 more than what my deductible would have been had it been covered by insurance. The good part to all of this is that it has provided an opportunity, for a relatively small price, for Hannah to fully understand the consequence of not paying full attention to her driving. The price tag is a bargain.

As for my foot, I've got 4 stitches, that should have been 8 -- due to the fact that the doc-in-the-box urgent care "physician" is apparently paid by the job and not by the hour. My doctor is being very cautious and has asked me to stay off of it as much as possible so it will heal. With reduced circulation in my feet, we do not want to take any chances.

What have I learned from this? For the most part, patience. Don't climb on a stool and stand tip-toed to rearrange stuff on a top shelf without your shoes on (see, I told you it was stupid). Stop, wait, put your shoes on, get a proper stool, or ask someone tall to help you (we have two such persons living with us -- for those of you who don't see him often, you won't believe how much Blaine has grown. He's now taller than Hannah). I need to learn that acrobatics are not my forte. Not in the shower, not on a stool, not even walking across a restaurant floor. I am definitely not ready for either Cirque de sole or the Ed Sullivan Show, although the spinning plates might have fit in nicely (watch out Topo Gigio)

So, what am I going to do with this experience? First of all I'm thankful I didn't break any of my wife's brand new fiestaware dishes. If I had, you all would probably have been attending my funeral and I certainly would not have been home today from work blogging. But more to the point, hopefully I will use it as motivation to continue to become more healthy -- eat right, exercise, and be more active... But probably not above ground level.