1st Birthday!

I can't believe our baby boy just turned 1 year old! He is such a smiley, happy, easy going little boy. He loves to play with Teagan and I often hear him squealing with delight. When he hears music, he drops everything to dance! Right around his first birthday he started to get a lot more confident with taking steps. He will now take 5 or 6 stops at a time. He has been walking with push toys for several months now and has really been enjoying a new dump truck push toy and ride on that we gave him for his birthday. I am still following a pretty strict grain free, dairy free, and many other things- free diet with Asher. It was a challenge to find a birthday cake that I felt comfortable giving him, but we were able to do one made with white beans and coconut flour. He really seemed to enjoy his first cake.



Seven months after we first started dealing with Asher's eczema, we still haven't been able to figure out what is triggering it. After seeing a chiropractor, a homeopath, our family doctor, a pediatrician, and a dermatologist, the only thing that has ever helped clear it up was the prescription steroid cream. I am not comfortable using that on a regular basis, so we are still looking for other options. An allergy to cat dander did show up on his allergy testing though, so the cat has now been permanently banished to the backyard.

I guess it's about time for us to take down the last of Asher's First Birthday Party decorations! We had a fun party with our family and Paul grilled rack of lamb to celebrate the occasion.

4TH of July

We continued our 4th of July tradition this year by attending the Plano parade with Beth, her kiddos, and my Dad and Marsha. It was quite hot, but we survived. Teagan seemed to like the clowns. Asher acted rather un-impressed. I guess he could take it or leave it. After the parade we all went for brunch at the Pancake House. At least that was air-conditioned!

3 Years Old!

Teagan's 3rd birthday didn't go exactly as planned, but we still had a good time. On her birthday she decided that she wanted to go to the zoo. We had a lot of fun seeing some of the new exhibits at the Dallas Zoo and having a picnic lunch. Teagan really enjoyed seeing the elephants and watching a giraffe eat right next to us. After we left the zoo, we went to Duncanville to visit family, including my Aunt Pam who was visiting from Indiana. As soon as we made it back home, Teagan helped decorate her own birthday cake. We had plans to do a family birthday party over the weekend and Teagan had a bunny cake picked out that she wanted to make for her party. Unfortunately she got sick the day before her party and we had to postpone it. We pushed the party back another week and celebrated her 3rd birthday and cousin Audrey's 5th birthday. Paul was out of town on his Montana fishing trip so we took some pictures to email him. Teagan has been enjoying all her new presents. Some of the things she got were playdoh, fingerpaints, wood paper dolls, a balance bike, a backpack, a toy shopping cart, and a dress for her to wear with one that matches for her doll.

Arboretum

We are having really nice spring weather, so we headed out to the Arboretum with friends for Dallas Blooms. They currently have castles set up with themes from different fairy tales. The kids really enjoyed checking out all the castles and of course just running around and playing. I of course enjoyed all the tulips, my favorite flower! I always leave thinking about how I need a gardener! It's one thing to hire a landscaper to do all the planting, but I need someone to maintain it.

Perfect Playmate

Asher seem to be the perfect playmate for Teagan! Her favorite thing to play is "cooking" in her toy kitchen with all her pretend food. And since Asher's favorite thing is to put things in his month, he "eats" up everything she serves him!

1st Haircut

At 33 months old, Teagan finally had her first haircut! We had talked about it on and off for awhile, but her hair was getting kind of stringy at the ends, and she had been asking to have it cut. Of course she only wanted Tracy, who cuts my hair, to do it. I guess she didn't want to miss out on the salon experience. She did a great job holding relatively still while Tracy just trimmed up the ends. She still has her cute little curls, but now her hair is all even on the ends.

Christmas with the Kiddos

I think Christmas is one of the most fun times of the year with young kids. There are so many fun and festive activities and events to attend. During the last few weeks up until Christmas, Teagan asked daily, "Is it Christmas time yet?" She had a favorite page of toys in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, and made a Christmas wish list by cutting pictures out and gluing them to some paper. She was pretty excited on Christmas day to find by the Christmas tree the double stroller from her list. Asher was pretty happy with any toy he could get his hands on, especially if it was something he could chew on!

We were lucky to have nice not too cold, but cold enough to feel like Christmas, weather for our annual outing to Santa's Village in Richardson. We didn't spend much time going into the little houses, but mostly just let Teagan run around with her friends. We spent Christmas eve with Paul's side of the family, Christmas morning at home, and then Christmas afternoon with my side of the family. It was pretty busy and Asher did not appreciate all the drive time back and forth from Duncanville!

Asher is such a smiley baby and Teagan seems to be really enjoying how interactive he is now. She loves to give him a big pile of toys and one of his favorite things is to watch her jump. He really giggles when she is jumping. When he wakes up for a nap, Teagan likes to climb up on the bed next to him and say, "Hi little guy. Did you wake up from your nap?" On New Years Eve I was telling a friend how Asher wasn't that interested in sitting independently, and then on New Years Day he was sitting well by himself. He's just growing and changing so fast!

Teagan's big interest right now is watching baby care videos on YouTube. She watches videos about changing, feeding, burping, and calming babies. Then she re-enacts them practically word for word with her dolls. She is constantly stealing Asher's cloth diapers and spends a lot of time diapering all her dolls and stuffed animals. She's going to be one heck of a babysitter one day!

What a mess!

Teagan seems to have a fascination with dumping things. Usually it's something like a box of crackers, or dumping a snack out when she decides she is done. It's not usually a big deal, but she got a little more creative today. I was changing Asher's diaper in the downstairs bedroom and walked out into the kitchen to discover that she had poured out a container of flour and was scooping up handfuls of flour to pour on her head. I reached for the camera and turned around to find her on the ground "swimming" in the flour. Her clothes, face, and hair were covered in flour! Luckily the flour container wasn't very full and I found her while the mess was contained to a pretty small area.

Halloween

Maybe I should actually get the Halloween pictures up before Thanksgiving! As Halloween was getting closer, I started discussing costume options with Teagan. We looked at pictures of kids in costumes and tried to think about what her favorite things were. Somehow she came to the conclusion that she wanted to be a ballet dancer. We went to the fabric store and she helped pick out the tulle that she wanted for her tutu. I made her a tutu and we bought a leotard, tights, and ballet shoes. She had a lot of fun dancing around the house in her tutu and looked really cute in her costume on Halloween. Since I knew Asher would just be in the sling, we decided to not do a costume for him this year. On Halloween we went to Beth's house for dinner and Teagan went Trick or Treating with her cousins. When I explained to her the concept of knocking on people's doors and getting candy in the bag I made her, her eyes lit right up!

Fall days

I can't believe October is almost over already! This month seemed to go by so fast, but we did get a chance to do some of our traditional October activities with friends. The pumpkin patch at Owens Farm and the Arboretum. Teagan really enjoyed the pumpkin patch. Her favorite part was feeding the goats, and she had no interest at all in doing the hay ride. When it came time to choose a pumpkin to take home, she grabbed the first one she saw and seemed pleased with her selection.

The highlight of the Arboretum trip was all the houses made of pumpkins. Teagan was quite willing to pose for photos, as long as she could do her silly, cheesy grin. Asher of course slept comfortably in a sling for most of our outings.