Out of such amazing sorrow, there is love

No parent should see the passing of a child.  It's not fair.  This past weekend we went to the memorial service for our niece (Matt's brother and his amazing wife's daughter), Rhiannon Lynn Taylor.  Rhiannon was born October 27, 2009 and lived for 5 amazing months - she was born with Trisomy 18 so the fact that she lived for 5 months is a true miracle. 

There have been a lot of lessons over these past months.

Rhiannon's lessons: Rhiannon was the epitome of love.  Looking into her eyes, anyone who got to meet her got to look at love.  She was a beautiful angel (her mom called her "my little angel") and you could tell that she adored her parents.

Rhiannon's parent's lessons: I am in awe of Gabe and Amanda. Often times, parents leave children with Trisomy 18 in the hospital as they're too scared to take care of them, or don't know what to do.  That's OK.  What Gabe and Amanda did, I think is inspirational beyond belief - they decided they wanted to make Rhiannon comfortable and give her all the love they could. Their family is beautiful and you could tell (and still can) being with them it's a family of love.  At the memorial service Gabe and Amanda spoke of their sweet baby girl - the 150+ people who were there cried, and then truly celebrated her life. Amanda is the most astonishing mother I have ever met hands down - her patience, adoration, and love are inspirational. Both Amanda and Gabe are "rocks" - together I truly think they can do anything.  Together they gave Rhiannon an amazing life filled with love, their time, and even laughter.



Seeing someone so young pass away of course raises a lot of questions.  What was God thinking?  How is this fair?  Why?...  It is also a reminder. Love your family.


Here is Rhiannon's song (by Fleetwood Mac):

For you, there’ll be no more crying

For you, the sun will be shining

And I feel that when I’m with you

It’s alright, I know it’s right

 

To you, I’ll give the world

To you, I’ll never be cold

‘Cause I feel that when I’m with you

It’s alright, I know it’s right

 

And the songbirds are singing

Like they know the score

And I love you, I love you, I love you

Like never before

 

And I wish you all the love in the world

But most of all, I wish it from myself

 

And the songbirds keep singing

Like they know the score

And I love you, I love you, I love you

Like never before

Like never before

Like never before

Confessions of a twin mom

This is likely more information than you'll ever want to know, but these are the facts ... the truth, and only the truth.  Being a twin mom is the most amazing, awesome, wonderful thing imaginable.  It also is pretty darn gross - and the weird thing? I don't think "gross" is gross anymore. 

I'll explain ... here are some of the highlights of being a twin mom:

• When we took the boys for a swim lesson, we tried to blitz and change them next to the pool (the other parents did).  Lisa got Cole swiftly into his waterproof diaper / swim suit and tossed his wet diaper.  I pulled Wilson's diaper off not thinking a thing and looked down to see my hand was full of poop.  Yep, good 'ol #2.  I didn't want to be "that nasty mom" by the pool, so I discretely put it back into the diaper (the boys are on solids - if you're a parent, this is all you need to know), wiped down Wilson, wiped myself, pre-rinsed, and jumped in the pool. 
• Sometimes I go days without washing my hair - this wouldn't be gross if the boys didn't wipe their spit-up on my face and in my hair.  Who knows, with all these crazy beauty products, maybe someday this'll be one of them.
• When I'm giving the boys their snack, I sometimes take a few melta-ways (think Cheerios for babies).  I can't help it - they're delicious.
• The boys LOVE naked time.  When I get home from work I often strip them down and let them lay on the blanket in their room.  A few times the boys have wee'd on the rug - I blotted it up, but between dinner time, bath time, story time, and bed time, I neglected to do a serious rug clean.  Oh well, our building just got sold so maybe we'll be out of here soon anyhow ... so bad.
• Sometimes, at 5am when the boys are howling from a bad dream, or just want to play early, I bring them into bed.  Matt says (and he's right) I need to let them self-soothe, but I always assure him that they will only learn that with cuddle time.  Makes no sense, I know, but I love early morning baby cuddles.

So that's it (ish).  The truth, the whole truth, the gory twiny truth. 

Taylor Twins' first swim class

Today Lisa and I took the boys to their first swim class at Golden Gate Swim and Tennis club - it was SO fun!


We did "the babies in the pool go kick kick kick" (to the tune of Wheels on the Bus), "jumping" in the water, and dunking under the water.  The boys loved swim time ... getting dressed after the pool when it was cold outside was another story entirely...

Cole the Monkey Man

An ode to an awesome song ... thanks Toots.

The boys learned to clap today!!!

Weekend Roundup

It's been quite a weekend!  Friday was a mellow(ish) night at home with the boys. Saturday I had a 30k trail race, then made it home to go walking with the boys and my mom while Matt went climbing off Chrissy Field.

Saturday night my mom and I went to see The Little Mermaid ballet with the San Francisco ballet.  We didn't get home until 11pm and I was BEAT! I didn't love the ballet ... I'm more a fan of the classics, then again I say that with my favorites being the Nutcracker and Tom Sawyer (which I was in as a kid) - not so classic I guess (not the Firebird).  I was expecting the ballet to be reminescent of the movie The Little Mermaid, but instead it was base on the old fairy tail - I didn't understand what was going on until reading the handout at intermission.

Sunday was a rather lazy day in the city.  Bright and early (like 8am) we went to Whole Foods and were headed to check out the JCC swim school until we realized it was too early.  Later in the morning I brought the boys for a long walk playing at Michaelangelo park and then on the swings in Washington Square. After that we hung out in the back yard of our house listening to the parrots of Telegraph Hill and "discovering" grass (the boys were, not us).

In the afternoon wet met up with the Russian Hill parents' group for some home-made treats and trips down the slide (the boys on our laps).  By dinner time we were thoroughly beat, but we still had bath time - today we let the boys take their bath in the "grown up tub" and they love love loved it!  Wilson kept scooting around the tub and Cole kept kicking his legs and splashing his arms.

Race report: Rodeo Beach 30k

Boston is coming up in a few weeks and I have not been training - the twin + full time job + volunteer work juggling act doesn't give tons of time for long runs.  I do try to race once a month, though, and yesterday I was signed up for the Rodeo Beach 20k, but Matt convinced me that in order to really leverage this for training I should do the 30k. Getting to the starting line I still wasn't sure if I wanted to switch up (20k is my longest trail run and even that is really tough) so I decided if they'd let me switch distances (every distance was sold out) I should do it.  Done and done.

When running I always go back to the saying "the mind tires before the body." I firmly believe this (I believe it in all aspects of endurance).  The race was tough - very tough - and at mile 16 my brain kept yelling "stop!" It was just around then that I saw a hare on the trail and decided to push on. The funny thing was I wound up passing the hare (he veered off the trail to eat) ... does that make me a tortoise now? One of the nicest thing about this distance is it put me so high up in the Marin mountains over the water and in the trees - I didn't see houses for miles ... or people for that matter. Instead I saw and heard the waves crashing, enjoyed blue bonnets along the trail, and saw countless lizards and more.

By the end of the race I was hobbling - my body did indeed start to tire. But the finish line and the knowledge that diet coke, gummy bears, and beef jurkey waited there kept me going.  That and knowing the sooner I finished the sooner I'd get home to the boys.

In the end I placed 2nd female and 9th overall (out of 91 people).  After thoroughly sugar and salt loading, stretching, and catching up with GGRC I sat in the car prompting my foot to step on the gas. It took a bit (guess the legs gave out more than I thought) but thinking back to the race I realized that's the first 3hours I've had alone in months.  It was awesome.