Cousin Asher is born

We're excited to announce a new addition to our family, Asher Jackson Beltran, born March 28th to Neely & Emilio.  Teagan is now 18-months old and is officially no longer the baby of the family.  She loves to point at Asher and say "baby".  He's super cute and seems to have an equal mix of mom's and dad's looks.  We think he looks a bit like Teagan as a baby.

In other news, Claudia turned 5!  We had a low-key birthday party with family, complete with a Doc McStuffins themed birthday cake that Claudia helped make and decorate.  We also surprised her with news that we're taking her to Disneyland in two weeks.  She's not overly excited because I don't think she really knows what that means, but I'm sure once she gets there she will.  Teagan is going to stay behind with Grandpa & Grandma half the week and Gina & Chase the other half.

Teagan has been quite challenging this last month.  All four of her canine teeth erupted, which led to lots of drooling, fussiness, and nighttime awakenings.  She is also transitioning out of her morning naps, so she seems chronically tired and her acting out (hitting, biting, hair pulling) seems to increase with tiredness.  But, on the positive side, she's showing signs of wanting to potty train, so we're going to start introducing that.  She also loves to do a "nudie run" by running circles around the house naked.  We tried not to encourage this, but it must be ingrained in development, because Claudia went through a stage like this too.  I have to admit, it's adorable, but not so adorable when she pees on the floor.  So, we just have to time it right, like after bath time.  We only do baths 2-3 times a week though because Claudia has mild eczema and needs to limit her baths, and also they both get so wild splashing water everywhere, that some days I'm just not up for it.  They do love it though and when summer hits, we will definitely explore some local splash parks and wading pools.

Blanket

Teagan has entered the gatherer stage where she wants to take an armful of toys everywhere she goes, including a baby doll, purse, and of course her blanket!  She has latched onto a particular one, a green jungle-themed blanket that Claudia rejected and was stored on the bottom of the pile for the last 5 years.  So as to compete, Claudia has decided that her ladybug blanket is her favorite and now we have to drag them both everywhere.  Although it is cute that the girls go and find them for each other and know they are special.  Her other favorite thing lately is mirrors.  I think she knows how adorable she is and wants to look at herself all the time.  Although, we also have one not so pleasant stage that Teagan is going through, which is tantrums.  She struggles with transitions, especially leaving places and getting strapped in the car.  I don't blame her though because she gets strapped into the carseat a minimum of 4 times a day with drop-off and pick-up for Claudia's preschool.  She runs away, screams, and arches her back while I pin her down to get her in her seat.  Poor thing!

Claudia is super interested in reading books now and although she still doesn't have the patience to practice her words with me very often, she likes to sit down with a stack of her favorites and "read" the story to herself.  She especially likes The Berenstain Bears and (cringe) Dora the Explorer.  She borrows Glen's Kindle Fire and has her own profile to access the kid's books and games.  Teagan also loves books and her favorites are the Sunny Day Fairy series, which were Claudia's favorites at that age too.  I'm so glad Neely bought us the whole series because they're out of print now.  The stories are very basic, but the illustrations are beautiful and there are lots of animals and other common objects for us to point at and practice saying. Claudia's other new thing is telling jokes, especially Knock Knock ones.  She doesn't understand how to make them funny yet, but she keeps trying.

We're getting a couple sunny days now that it's March and a lot of rain, but when we see the sun, we run straight out to the park.  Neely is so close to having her baby, only a couple more weeks.  We're getting excited for her.  Also, my dad had a hip replacement surgery last week and it went well.  He needs to use a walker and take it very easy for 4-6 weeks for the bone to attach properly to the implant, but after that, he's hoping to get back walking without pain and playing golf by this summer.

Uh-oh Spaghetti-oh

Teagan is now 16-months old and is quite the talker.  She is adding several words every week, some more clear than others.  She has mastered "no" and says it in a very cute soft voice, unless you ignore her, then she starts waving her hands, shaking her head, and yelling, so it's best to listen to her!  She calls Claudia ga-ga or sometimes whispers her name, which sounds pretty accurate.  We have taught her to say uh-oh spaghetti-oh.  She nails the first part, but the rest is kind of slurred.  It's cute to hear her try out new words and combinations.  She's also working on animal sounds (meow, woof, baa), clothing (shoes, socks), and body parts like hair, eyes, and her favorite, belly button!  She loves books and points the objects to have me identify them.  She can now blow kisses, close her mouth to do an actual kiss, and wave bye-bye.  She seems to take a lot of pride in knowing how to do these things, and although she has never had bad separation anxiety, these new skills make it easy for us to say good-bye.  Overall, she is quite clever and a joy, except for one thing, the head butting!  Claudia went through a stage, but she would butt the ground, Teagan likes to butt people.  It especially hurts if you get it in the eye socket or nose.  It seems to be behavioral, like when Claudia is getting more attention than her, so I'm always on high alert to intervene and pull her away.

We had a small snowstorm come through in the city and we got about 2 inches, although it only lasted one day.  Just long enough for the Glen & Claudia to build a snowman.  In other news, the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl for the first time ever, so that was exciting for our city.  Other smaller celebrations were a baby shower for Neely and the girls had a Valentine's Day party and sleepover at Grandpa & Grandma's house while Glen & I had a hot date.  I was still getting over a cold, so it was a pretty tame evening, but we still appreciated our night together.

Starting out 2014

Teagan is such a little girl now.  Her hair is long enough that I have to put it up every day, usually in a "whale spout" or if I have the patience, pigtails.  She is 15-months old now and here are her stats from her last appointment:
weight: 22 lbs. 12 oz (50%)
length: 31.25" (75-90%)
head: 49.25cm (97%)

She is really into carrying around objects and will drag a doll (or two), a blanket, or even a toothbrush and toothpaste out of the house every time we come and go.  She is also especially attached to her binkie now.  The doctor suggested we give it up at age 1, but she didn't use it much except at bedtime or in the car, so I didn't think we needed to.  Well, I must have missed my window because now she wants it at all time.  Luckily I think it's cute and it certainly is not hurting her language development.  She has added so many new words: strawberry, cheese, jumper, diaper, bubble, grandma, papa, woof, sock, shoe, belly button, blue, purple, and many more.  She's averaging two or three new words per week.  She is just a delight and I enjoy her so much.  How lucky am I to get to spend all this time with her.

Claudia is quite the character too.  She is like a sponge lately and is understanding so many complicated things, but it's cute that other things just totally go over her head.  We've had a dry winter, so even if it's cold, she has been doing adventures with my dad outside and learning about trees, fish, and other interesting things.  My parents (and often Neely too) still watch her twice a week while I work, so she gets lots of opportunities to do crafts, puzzles, and cooking.

As far as family news, Gina & Chase got engaged at the end of December and are planning their wedding for June 22nd.  Whew-ho, we're excited!  For New Year's, Glen had to stay home and work (boo), but the girls and I carpooled over to Alta Lake with Neely & Emilio in their new car (Nissan Pathfinder) and we spent almost a week just hanging out with our family and having fun.

Lots of Talk

Teagan has been talking up a storm.  She's says a lot of "b" words like ball or book and is into expressions like whow and uh-oh.  She also nods her head purposefully for "yes" and understands so much; it's really quite amazing.  Teagan is also a climber, hoarder, and snuggler.  She likes to jump on Claudia and forcibly snuggle her.  She also (unfortunately), bites and pulls hair.  She is very fascinated by socks, underwear, and bras.  She wears my undergarments around her neck and pulls them out of drawers and hides them in other places.  She has also recently mastered walking backwards and likes to "moonwalk" on the kitchen floor.  Her climbing has gotten out of control and she can get up on the coffee table or kitchen table.  Let's just say, she keeps me on my toes.

Claudia is also quite the talker.  She sometimes barely takes a breath between sentences and can go on for 20 minutes easily without taking a break.  She even likes to watch herself in the mirror while she talks and monitor her expressions.  She is now able to hold thoughts and memories longer, so we have to be careful the conversions we have because she often remembers it and brings up all the details later.  Although, her speech is quite good, she still says a few funny words like "Cos-ca-co" (Costco),  "in case of" (instead), and "borning" (born).  I've tried correcting her, but certain wrong words have just stuck.

We got a mini-vacation last month, with my parents buying us a night at the Great Wolf Lodge near Olympia.  Teagan stayed back with Grandpa & Grandma, but Claudia, Glen, and I had fun going on water slides, playing arcade games, and playing mini-golf.  Claudia injured herself twice at the water slide park and may have a scar on her chin from one bad cut, so we kept mostly to the arcade.  Her highlight was me winning her a Hello Kitty backpack in the "claw" game.  It was also her first time in a hotel room, so she loved just having a big bed all to herself and played for a long time with the telephone because she had never seen a land line before!

I'm sad to report that my Grandma O. (dad's mom) passed away in November.  Here is a link to her obituary.  She was in nursing care for a long time, so visits from my girls as well as my Dad sharing photos and videos of them had definitely been a highlight for her these past 5 years.  She lived a long full life, and I'm thankful for the memories I have of her.  Teagan shares her birthday, October 14th, with 96 years between!  You will see photos of Teagan's 1st birthday party below.  We just had a small party at our house this year with family and a couple of friends.