Skiing accident

So we had a bit of a tough time in February.  Glen hit a tree while skiing at Crystal Mountain.  He dislocated his shoulder and broke the glenoid region of his scapula (the top of his shoulder blade).  He also had some bruises and abrasions on his face and leg.  But, he was wearing a helmet and we are thankful it wasn't worse.  His accident was on 2/13 and he had surgery on 2/20 to screw the bone back together because it was displaced 4mm.  He's still on pain medication, but slowly recovering.  He hopes to be back at work part-time soon, but for now we're just getting even cozier together as a family.  He is just trying to stay comfortable, rest while he can, and painfully do his physical therapy.  He can't lift anything (like a baby!) or drive for 6 weeks, so I'm a bit overwhelmed taking care of everyone.  We're very grateful to have family nearby.  My parents and both my sisters have been taking the girls off and on throughout this whole experience.  The girls seem to be loving all the extra attention, although I imagine they're feeling the stress too by being shuffled to different places all the time.

Now to the girls.  Teagan is now 4 months old and here are her statistics:
Weight: 14 lbs. 5 oz (50%)
Length: 25-1/4 in. (75%)
She is still a delight and we're enjoying her big smiles and occasional laughs.  She still has a good head of brown hair, although it's falling out and little blond ones are peeking through.  We thought her eyes might turn brown, but they're still blue, so we'll see.  As she gets older, she is looking more and more like me so that's fun because Claudia definitely looks more like Glen.  Teagan had another appointment for her hip dysplasia, this time an X-ray, and they decided it had corrected itself and that no intervention was necessary.  Whew!

Claudia and I tend to butt heads, so some days are a challenge.  She wants to be with me at all times though, so among the arguing, we still have lots of good times.  We've been reading "Where the Sidewalk Ends" every night at bedtime.  She loves the silly poems.  She is so creative and likes to make up songs and do anything she can to make us laugh.  At preschool she is quite serious and a rule follower, so it's fun that she has a different personality at home and can really play up and experiment with language and all the ideas going on in her head.  She has also been out to the farm (Gina's house) twice now and got to go horseback riding and play with the dog.  Lucky girl!

Miss personality

Teagan's personality is really coming out.  She has started laughing out loud, rolling over (back to tummy; she actually prefers to be on her tummy), and really inspecting toys.  She also like suck on everything: toys, bibs, her hands, or even the side of my arm.  She is a much louder kid than Claudia was.  She is always "talking" and making all sorts of crazy sounds.  She is using the Bumbo to sit up, bats toys while on her activity mat, and actually likes to play on her belly.  We moved her up to medium flow bottle nipples so she is drinking faster and more at a time (3-4 oz).  This has also led to lots of spit up on her and me.  It can strike anytime, even an hour or two after she ate.  I don't really understand it.  I have her on a new brand of binkies (MAM) that she likes better, so I'm trying to use those to keep the spit up down, but it's not always successful.  Teagan is fascinated with Claudia.  She follows her every move around the room.  Claudia also loves being a big sister and is always trying to find ways for them to play together, like building a blanket fort and having Teagan come inside with her.  She has told me that Teagan is her best friend and she likes to sing songs about how much she loves her.  On the flip side, she sometimes accuses Teagan of stealing her toys or tattles on her for hitting.  It's always so silly to me that I laugh, but Claudia is actually serious and then she gets mad at me when I don't take her side.

Quarter birthday

Teagan is now 3 months old and she is turning out to be quite the talker.  She makes lots of squeals and coos.  She kicks her feet a lot and likes to suck on the side of her hand or my arm.  She started spitting up more and drooling a bit too, so we've had to pull out the bibs.  She had her first cold recently, which luckily was mild, but all the same, it sure is irritating for a baby to not be able to breathe through her nose.  We're not used to fussy babies, so it was very hard to listen to all the crying and frustrating to not be able to take away her discomfort (or mine!)

Claudia is super into writing right now and it's really clicked that letters make words and words make stories.  So she wants me to spell words for her to write and she has been writing her own mini-books.  She tends to write her words mirror image (backwards), so we will keep working on the correct orientation.  She likes to help us with shopping by writing her own grocery list and referring to it while we're at the shop to make sure we get everything.

We all had a great Christmas and New Year's celebration.  We started with a quiet Christmas Eve of just us, and on Christmas Day my parents hosted a lovely party for everyone.  Then for our New Year's, us, Neely & Emilio, and my parents all went out to Alta Lake.  Glen & I got to go skiing at Loup Loup twice.  It was cold, sunny, and no wind.  Absolutely perfect.  We had so much fun.  There was also over a foot of dry snow on the golf course, so Claudia got to go sledding for the first time.  She also made snow angels and a snowman.

Right after the holidays, my grandparents (my mom's parents) have had some health setbacks.  Grandma fell and although she didn't break anything, she was still in pain and needed a lot of assistance so she moved in with my parents to recover.  Since she's my Grandpa's primary caretaker, they decided it was time to move Grandpa into a dementia special care facility.  It's a quality place and he's doing quite well there, but of course it's hugely sad for everyone.  After Grandpa got settled, then Grandma started to get disoriented and slur her speech, and it was discovered she had acute hyponatremia (low blood sodium) and needed to be hospitalized for a few days.  It's a potentially very serious condition, but thankfully easily treated with electrolyte replacement if caught in time.  They tracked it back to a blood pressure medicine she had just started.  So it's been a very stressful and emotionally challenging time for everyone involved, especially my mom.  Grandma is currently living with my parents because she still requires a lot of care.

Christmas Eve at home.

 

Christmas Day throwing confetti around.

Snow!

A video of Claudia sledding!

Hanging out at home with my girls.

Christmas is coming

We're getting excited for Christmas, only one week away.  We built gingerbread houses this year--Neely had the neat perfect one and Grandma & Claudia had the candy bedazzled one.  Somehow the candies keep "falling off" whenever Claudia is "looking" at it, so she has to eat them.  Claudia's preschool class went on a field trip downtown on the Metro bus and they got to ride the carousel and see the giant gingerbread houses at the Sheraton.  Claudia is not the greatest with new experiences.  She basically just gets a dull expression on her face and clings to me the whole time.  Once she is familiar with something she gets more interactive, so we will have to try taking the bus again.  She started Lil' Kickers soccer class recently and she is loving it.  She also gets to see her favorite friend from her old preschool because they're doing it together.

Teagan had her 8 week check-up.  Here are her statistics:
Weight: 12 lbs (50-75%)
Length: 23-3/4 in. (75-90%)
Head circumference: 40.3 cm (50-75%)
So, she's thinning out a bit, but still quite tall.  Her feet hit the very end of her 0-3 month clothes.

Pucker up!

 My two little cuties.

Claudia is wearing Daddy's PJ pants and Mommy's slippers.

The Wall Piano at the Northgate Mall play area.  We just came from seeing Santa.

Teagan looks like me as a baby in this close-up.

The carousel at Westlake.

All smiles

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Teagan is already 6 weeks old, which went by in the blink of an eye.  We're just wrapping up introducing her to my side of the family, including my 96-year-old grandma who shares Teagan's birthday.  Just like Claudia did, Teagan melts everyone's heart with her cuteness and easy nature.  Now that I have more perspective, I really do appreciate that I have easy babies.  Teagan has become more alert now and is making lots of smiles, cute expressions, and little squawks.  She has also started batting at toys, so Claudia has fun shaking them in her face, which thankfully Teagan doesn't mind.  The only thing challenging about Teagan is that she still eats 2 oz. every 2 hours, which is a lot of bottles.  Although she does one 5-6 hour stretch at night.

Claudia is currently obsessed with a TV show on Sprout (PBS Kids) called Caillou, which is about a preschooler and his adventures.  She never had much of an interest in TV or movies before, so it's surprising how quickly she has become obsessed.  She is always asking to "watch Sprout" and gets so excited when Caillou comes on that she jumps up and down and insists that we come look.  If we don't come look immediately she gets upset and has a meltdown.  Oh, the mood swings of a 3-year-old!  We have our struggles at home all day together.  She likes to stall, whine, and generally disobey me.  It's emotionally exhausting and I start to lose my patience after awhile.  And I feel overwhelmed at times because there always seems like more to do.  It's one long string of meals, dishes, laundry, picking up, etc. that never has an endpoint.  Although, going to preschool for a couple hours helps break up the day and keeps us on a somewhat normal schedule and out of our pajamas.  And visits and help from family (i.e. adult conversions) keep me sane.

When I was busy feeding Teagan a bottle and my back was turned, I thought Claudia was painting a picture.  Turns out she was painting her nails!

Daddy & Teagan.  She looks so much like Claudia in this photo (when she was a baby).




















Some cute photos of the sisters playing on a blanket together.

4 weeks old

Teagan had her 4 week visit at the pediatrician and here are her stats:
Weight: 11 lbs. 2 oz (95%)
Length: 22-1/4 inches (90%)
Head circumference: 38.5 cm (85%)
She's big and proportional!  She got a bad case of baby acne on her face and chest around 2 weeks, but it's already a little better and the doctor said it should clear up soon.  Teagan continues to be easy and fun.  She sleeps on and off most of the day, which allows me to give more attention to Claudia, and then her big awake time is from 5-10pm when I have Glen's help.  She's down to just waking up twice at night and even went a couple nights only waking up once.  She is very expressive and makes lots of cute faces and smiles, as well as lots of grumpy faces.  She tracks objects well and amazingly seems to like taking a bath.  Her hair is falling out on the sides, so she is getting a very stylish mohawk.

We celebrated Halloween and Claudia was Tinkerbell and Teagan was a cupcake.  We tried out mall trick or treating, which was stimulation overload, so I think we will just stick to houses next year.  We did some door to door in my parents' neighborhood and Claudia really enjoyed that.  For the start of November, Claudia started at a new preschool.  It's an age 3-5 co-op, so Claudia goes 3 hours, 4 times a week and I work one of those days.  It's a lot of coordination, but thankfully Auntie Neely & Auntie Gina are helping me a lot.  I like being more involved with her learning and it's good for us to get out of the house each day.  Claudia always struggles with new situations and people, but she is doing well and is excited to go, at least until she has to say goodbye to mommy.

Halloween:

Hanging out at home:

Teagan is 2 weeks old

Teagan is 2 weeks old and her statistics from the pediatrician are 10 lbs. 1 oz. (90-95%), 21.5" in length (75%), and 14.5" head circumference (50-75%).  She is still a poky eater compared to Claudia, but getting better and more often taking 2 oz. bottles.  She eats every 2 hours and takes about 30 minutes to eat and diaper, so Glen and I definitely have to work in shifts so that we get some sleep.  The jealousy has really kicked in for Claudia and she has been agitated and whiny, but she is still eager to help out and she follows my rules like not putting anything near her sister's face.

Last week we drove over to Alta Lake for a few days to enjoy my parents' "big house", the wide open spaces, and so Glen could get in a couple rounds of golf.  Unfortunately the weather was unseasonably cold and it rained about half of the time, but we still had fun.  The drive over and back was thankfully easy.  Teagan is still a bit nocturnal and sleeps most of the afternoon, so we timed it (and got lucky) so that she slept the whole drive and we just had to stop twice to feed and diaper her.  Claudia loved playing with all Grandma's toys and we also carved a pumpkin for Halloween.  This year Claudia really got into it and even picked through the guts to find the seeds with me.

Pumpkin carving: