Go Stars!

Paul thought that it was about time Teagan had her first hockey jersey. Now she can match her Daddy when they watch games together.

Teagan's 1st Christmas

Maybe Teagan doesn't want her first Christmas to be over because it is after 8pm and she is still up! We spent the first part of the day at home opening presents and getting ready to go to Duncanville in the afternoon. Daddy kept Teagan busy playing with her new toys while I made rolls. We drove down to Duncanville for dinner and opened presents with my side of the family. The ride home went much better than yesterday since I was able to keep Teagan farily happy until she actually fell asleep for the last 10 minutes. Unfortunately that little catnap is probably the reason she's not in bed now. We still have one more family Christmas to celebrate once her Aunt April, Uncle Adam, and three cousins arrive this weekend.

Christmas Eve

The anticipation of Christmas Eve must have been getting to Teagan because she had a really hard time settling down for bed last night. And she hasn't even heard of Santa yet! Teagan and I got to open some of our Christmas presents early this year, but poor Paul chose a present that is on back-order until January. Paul assembled Teagan's new play table today and we just couldn't wait until tomorrow to go ahead and let her play with it. She really seemed to enjoy it. She also enjoyed opening presents in Duncanville with Paul's family. The paper was really fun! Oh yeah, and the toys were nice too.

I scoot

Well the simple times of setting Teagan down to play while I sew are now over. As of Friday, Teagan is officially mobile. She's not exactly crawling yet, as she hasn't quite figured out the hands part, but she's able to scoot herself around. It's actually quite funny to watch. She'll lay flat on the floor and use her toes to dig into the carpet and push herself forward. Most of the time her hands just move backwards underneath her. It's hard to see in the video, but she actually moved 3 or 4 feet across the carpet. On the to do list for this weekend...vacuum all the floors!

Snow!

Teagan enjoyed her "snow day" today. Paul stayed home from work in the morning and we made cookies. It snowed off and on most of the day, but after Teagan's nap in the afternoon it was really coming down (by Dallas standards, that is). Teagan really wanted to go outside and play, but she doesn't have a snow suit yet. She settled for just watching the snow out the window.

Playhouse

Teagan's playhouse has become a new fixture in our living room. The bright primary colors just blend right in. Teagan loves that she can open and close the door and the window shutters. She has also started pulling up so that she is playing in high kneeling and likes to roll her toys down the slide. When we slide her down the slide she thinks that is pretty fun too.

Funny Games

Teagan's favorite games right now are "Peek-a-Boo" and "I drop it, Mom picks it up." She will play peek-a-boo with whatever she can get her hands on. Her bib, burp cloth, or even her shirt. She also thinks it is just hilarious when she drops toys and we pick them back up. She promptly drops them again to continue the game.

Clapping is also one of her new skills. She smiles when we say "Yay, yay, yay!" while she claps. She also has started patting our back while we hold her. I guess she figures since we do this to her so often, it must be a nice thing to do for others. Teagan is also getting her first top teeth. She has two coming in right now. She's not yet fully crawling, but she sure is trying! "Singing" and "dancing" are two other things she is really into right now. You'd have to see it to fully appreciate her talents.

It's the simple things

Recently Teagan has been having great fun playing with a laundry basket and socks! Even if she is being a little bit fussy and not wanting to be put down, if I set her in front of a laundry basket with clothes, she is just fine with that! I have found that if I don't want her unfolding a whole laundry basket of clothes, she is just as happy to play with socks. I guess it's the simple things!

Peaches!

I gave Teagan peaches today for the first time and she loved them! I typically prefer to buy produce that is organic or local, but when I saw some good looking peaches at Whole Foods today, I decided I couldn't wait until next summer's Texas peach crop. They were conventional and from Chile, but I'll try not to think about the pesticides and the long distance they traveled to get here. I was worried that she might have trouble picking up the slippery pieces of peach, but she had no problems. She also thought it was fun when I used a metal spoon to scrape some off her bib and then fed her from the spoon. Hopefully I didn't confuse her though. She eats a lot of pears, and I kept saying, "yummy, pears!" As much as Teagan loves feeding herself, she also loves drinking from a sippy cup. I usually give her a little bit of water after her meals and have been working on teaching her the sign for "cup." She gets so excited when she sees me get her cup out.

Can't sleep

Teagan can be quite the challenging baby when it comes to bedtime. She usually goes down quite easily but then wakes up about every 30-45 minutes over the next few hours until I go to bed around 10pm. I decided to try something different tonight and get her to bed about 30 minutes earlier than usual. She went to sleep relatively easily, but then woke up pretty quick and was wide awake. She must have known the Stars were playing the Sharks tonight. So now she's watching hockey with Daddy and we'll try to get her back to sleep in a little while. She's such a fan! Maybe Daddy should have just told her he would Tivo it for her. Oh well, we'll try that next time.

Thanksgiving

It was quite the busy first Thanksgiving for Teagan. We drove down to Duncanville and stopped by Dad's house to visit before going over to Paul's parent's house for lunch. After our Thanksgiving lunch, Teagan napped and we headed up to Beth's house in Allen around 5pm. Dad and Marsha brought pie and we all admired Teagan's newborn cousin, Gabrielle. Teagan feasted on peas for lunch and bananas for dinner. She didn't seem too concerned that no one shared any pie with her. As we drove home from Beth's, Teagan let us know that she was not happy about riding in the car so much today and cried all the way home. She's finally sleeping now and it's time to start thinking about the next holiday. Hopefully she will stay asleep long enough for me to work on picking out Christmas photo cards. Sleep baby, sleep!

All snuggled up

I think one of the best parts of the day is waking up and snuggling in bed with Teagan in the morning. You can always tell when she is ready to be up for the day because she wakes up smiling. She will just lay in bed babbling and looking back and forth between me and Paul. She likes to make her daddy late for work by being too cute for him to possibly get out of bed and go get ready.

Adorable

Cutest Cutie Pie I've ever seen!

Sharing!

Teagan is doing a great job sharing her toys! The cat wanted to play in the playhouse, so Teagan just kept herself busy with some other toys. How nice.

I do it myself!

Since Teagan hasn't been too excited about me spoon-feeding her "mush," I decided to go ahead and just give her pieces that she can pick up and feed herself. She loves it! So far I have given her avocado, pears, banana, and baked apple, all cut up in strips or small pieces. She hasn't quite mastered picking up the slippery food, but she likes for us to put a strip in her hand and then she puts it in her own mouth. When the pieces get too small or slimy, I pick them up and then she pulls my hand to her mouth to feed her. She ate more today than I have ever seen her eat, and was so excited about it. On the menu for tomorrow: baked sweet potato fries.

Some days

Seems like some days Teagan barely lets me put her down long enough for me to take a shower, and then other days she is quite content to play on the floor while I mess around with my new sewing hobby. Like in this picture. Teagan was having a great time playing with a T-shirt that I cut up to make a prefold cloth diaper out of. I was quite pleased with the results of my work, but considering prefold diapers cost like $2, it probably makes more sense to focus my sewing efforts on something else.

Little Pumpkin

We went up to Beth's house on Halloween to see Connor & Audrey in their costumes and go Trick or Treating with them. Connor dressed up as his favorite hockey player, Mike Modano, and Audrey was a very cute Tinkerbell. I was a Dallas Stars fan and Teagan was a little pumpkin. Unfortunately, Teagan hadn't napped well all day so she was not in the happiest of moods. She was quite fussy and didn't really perk up much when we went outside to go Trick or Treating. After about a half hour we decided to head home. Riding in the car seat did not make things any better and Teagan cried all the way home. Oh well, better luck next year!

Fun Toy

Teagan has been having a great time playing with one of the baby toys her cousins are letting her borrow. It is an easel with magnets. She likes to pull the magnets off and drop them in the basket. I put the magnets back on, and she pulls them back off. Such a fun game for a baby! She also likes to take her other toys and put them in and out of the basket.

I have been giving Teagan bananas the last two days, and she seems to like them. So far, I would say it is the least messy food that we have given her.

Fall picture attempt!

We took Teagan to Huffhines Art Trails today. It is an art festival at a park in our neighborhood. I thought they would have some cute fall decorations where we could get some pictures of Teagan since we may not make it to the pumpkin patch this year. They had several really cute spots that would have made great pictures, but Teagan wasn't having it! She did not appreciate being plopped down on a hay bale and didn't seem that interested in the pumpkins. Even being held, she wouldn't really give us any smiles. When we first started trying to take some pictures, a little audience gathered and someone said, "That's the cutest thing we've seen at the art festival." Oh well, at least we tried.

Mommy & Me!

Just hanging out!

Sweet potato

As Teagan was wearing her sweet potatoes last night she wanted to know "Does this color look good on me?" Clearly, she seemed to enjoy the sweet potatoes. Although, I'm not sure if she actually ate any! She is also really into drinking water out of a glass right now. If it is on the table in front of her, she tries her best to reach it. We use a little glass to give her sips and she also likes to put her mouth on the side of a glass of ice water that we are drinking out of.

6 months

We took Teagan for her 6 month check up today. It's hard to believe how fast she is growing. The nurse said Teagan was so cute she could be in commercials. I agree with the cuteness, but she really doesn't take direction well! Not to mention how shy she gets when we are around other people. Here are her stats. She is now 18 lbs and 27 1/2 inches tall. That puts her at 89th percentile for weight and 96th percentile for height. She's tall like her daddy! We won't say who she takes after for weight. She has a little bit of a cold so I decided not to do any immunizations today. She still brought on plenty of tears for the doctor. How dare he try and look in her ears.

Mmmmm......Avocado!

I had been planning to start introducing some solids to Teagan this weekend since Paul was home, but I changed my mind when Teagan seemed to have her first cold. I thought I would go ahead and wait until next weekend when she would be feeling better. However, when I was slicing up some avocado to put on my turkey burger for lunch today, Paul talked me in to giving Teagan a little taste. Taste of the avocado that is, not turkey burger! I put it on my finger and let her lick it off. She really seemed to like it at first. I will probably keep letting her taste avocado as I eat it this week and maybe start some spoon feeding soon.

Hat?

Sewing project gone way wrong! Enough said. Teagan and I are enjoying having Paul home with us today after his crazy busy hours for the last few months. We were just playing around today and I was trying to decide if there was any reason to keep the first fleece diaper cover that I made for practice. Hat maybe? Always the baby model, Teagan thought it was pretty fun to try on the "hat" while Daddy took some pics.

Crafty!

Usually my dreams about what I can make are bigger than the finished product. However, I have been quite proud of my craftiness lately. I'm on a roll making things for Teagan. She's actually been sitting on the floor with some toys while I do a little bit of sewing. I've made her some babylegs (cute little baby leg warmers that you use instead of pants for those of you who aren't in the know about the greatness that is babylegs), a fleece diaper cover, and some embellished burp cloths. When I am holding her as she sleeps, my mind just goes crazy thinking about all the things I want to make. We'll see how long I stay on this sewing kick.

Having fun

Now that she's a sitter, Teagan loves to sit in front of a basket of toys and take them all out one by one. She can actually entertain herself for short periods of time doing this. I was looking for something in her closet and she actually sat on the floor with her toys for about 15 minutes. I was quite impressed! Notice how many more toys are around her in the second picture. She did that all by herself and seemed quite proud.

She's a sitter

Teagan's newest accomplishment is sitting on her own. She does very well with just a little bit of support, but will sit for brief periods all on her own. She now prefers to sit up to play rather than lay on her back or tummy. Now that she is pretty steady, Paul and I were actually able to eat a quick meal tonight at a restaurant while Teagan sat in a high chair. A meal without a baby on my lap, now that's progress! She did very well and only got a little upset at the end when somebody sitting near us sneezed. She still hates that!

Friends?

Teagan and the kitty are definitely very aware of each other. The cat certainly gets a lot less attention since Teagan took over. I was actually hoping that the cat would be afraid of Teagan like she is of other kids, but unfortunately she is quite curious. We don't have the friendliest cat around so I definitely don't ever leave Teagan alone in the same room as her. I was taking a picture of Teagan and the cat having a stare down, but quickly intervened once Teagan started reaching for the cat.