Sneak Peak!

We had a local professional photographer do some photos of Teia on her birthday. We set up a little autumn ambience in our backyard and if you click on this link it should take you to the blog where you can see a few of the photos. Teia wasn't her usual smiley self that morning thanks to tooth #5 and needing a nap but the photos are awesome!

http://nicolebarkerphotography.blogspot.com/2010/10/teia-bedford-ma-children-photographer.html

Little Peach had her 1 year pediatrician appointment on Wednesday and she outweighs her big brother at this age. She is 21 lbs and 12 oz which puts her at the 60th percentile for weight. She is 3o inches tall so she is at the 80th percentile for height! I wasn't too surprised at our little Amazon because she is taller than a lot of tots older than herself that she walks up to and kisses at the playground. Teia is big into giving kisses and she has a number of boyfriends already. She has charmed all of the little brothers that she hangs out with at Kai's preschool pick up and on the days that she is not with me, they are all sadly disappointed. Today two of Kai's school friends came over to play and while they were having fun with Kai and his toys, they frequently asked when Baby Teia was going to wake up and were quite competitive over her once she did emerge from her afternoon slumber. They presented her with cookies, dolls, pretend milk bottles, noisy toys and asked me if they could "pet her." It was pretty cute and she lapped it all up like the little princess that she is.

Teia is a very busy one year old. She has taken over as the resident lap walker in our house and has chosen the same well worn route that Kai used to travel as a tiny tyke. She is not quite running but she is one speedy walker. Thankfully she tends to squeal and holler while she is walking so usually we can keep track of her. When all goes quiet we can usually find her on the floor getting into some mischief or in the bathroom dropping toys into the toilet. One downside of potty training Kai has been that Teia Bean now thinks the toilet is the most interesting thing in the house. And seeing as Kai likes to imitate Teia he has taken to tossing a few items into the old lou himself!

Teia loves all her birthday presents and has been busy feeding her new babies and pouring tea from her new teapot and playing with all of her new toys. She is surprising us all the time with how fast she is learning new things. Tonight I asked her if she wanted to dance and she turned to me and started bobbing up and down and wiggling. Kai joined in with a bit of a stiff legged waltz around the living room. When is someone going to invent a video camera that is voice controlled and can come on surreptitiously at a moment's notice?

A double header!!!!

Not only was yesterday Teia Bean's first birthday but we welcomed our first nephew, Dax David, a healthy 8 pounder who decided to come a few weeks early. I think he knew that he'd be getting a little bit gipped in the candy and party department if he decided to have a hallowe'en birthday so figured he'd rather share a birthday with his little cuz. Makes sense seeing as Karen and I almost share a birthday too!

So now we've gone from no October birthdays in our family to 3: Auntie Aynsley on the 16th and Teia and Dax on the 18th.

Congrats to Karen, Mac and Allie. We can't wait to meet your little man!

1st year - done!

Hey all, Teia here again. Today was my 1st birthday. My mommy keeps saying she can't believe I'm already 1 but as for me, this day couldn't come fast enough. (Only 15 more to go before I can start bugging daddy for the car keys to hit the beach w/ the peeps.)

I'm not quite sure what the big to-do is about 1st year birthdays. We had another woman w/ a big camera come and take like a kajillion pictures of me in an extra long white dress that was classified by mommy as "Adorable". I think this is somewhere between "Tooo cute" and "Precious".

One thing I like about this birthday thang is the presents. Lots of 'em. Even my brother gave me one, a little doll that I can force-feed nasty, cold formula to all day long. Just like my 'rents do to me!

Anyhoo, I wasn't too impressed with pictures at nine-oclock-naptime and I was able to maintain a pretty stern contenance until Poppa Mike came outside. By then, I broke down and let a few smiles out before clamping my jaw shut again. Grandma & Poppa Mike came down for a visit and kept me and my bro entertained while mommy conjured up some yum-yum soup for our big din-din. I think I'll keep my mommy, she's aight :-)

Until she put this ridiculous contraption of a hat on my head. With an elastic string that was a virtual tourniquet on my jaw! Not cool, peoples... Everyone was laughing too. What, is this some sort of big 1-year birthday joke??? We'll see who's laughing at 3am later tonight, people!

Fortunately, amends were quickly made w/ this hum-dinger of a cake. Look at this thing! Its like as big as me! Mommy left it in front of me for 5 minutes - I was so shocked I could barely react, but I was able to scoop out a few slurps before it was taken away to be shared by all those people who were laughing at me earlier. I was about to protest this injustice when mommy gave me some more cake & ice cream. OK, deal.

So that wraps it up. First year birthdays - they're sooooo yesterbaby. I'm a toddler now!

Running with 2 kids

Given Greg's hectic schedule most weeks and my current inability to get up and run at 5 am, I have taken to running during the week while pushing both munchkins in the double chariot. Although they don't feel much like munchkins once we start heading up a hill....together they weigh somewhere around 60 lbs now!

Some days I wonder if it is worth all the effort. Take today for example:

1:50 - get cleaned up from lunch and get Kai on the toilet (oh doesn't toilet training throw some new challenges into the day?!)

1:55 - help Kai get his pants on by himself through calm, patient, encouraging guidance :-)

2:05 - pants finally on. Guidance starting to feel a little less calm and patient. Start getting coats and socks, shoes on both kids.

2:10 - one shoe on Teia before she escaped.

2:15 - both shoes on Teia, kissed a boo boo after she tripped over her brother's legs.

2:20 - help Kai get his socks on. He decides that putting shoes on without socks is a better idea. Then he decides wearing shoes on his hands is the best idea of all and runs off laughing.

2:25 - return to Teia to get her coat on.

2:27 - get one shoe on Kai and resume search for the other one that has fallen off his hand and gone AWOL.

2:35 - shoe found and put on foot. Find my own running shoes.

2:40 - lace up ankle brace.

2:43 - help Kai get his coat on with the utmost patience - airplane arms - up, up and away!

2:45 - go pee myself while trying to stop Teia from climbing up on Kai's hand washing step stool. Realize I am now a cliche (I just want to pee by myself for god's sake!)

2:50 - notice time and realize that Kai will now need to use the toilet again. Put Kai back on toilet.

2:55 - while sitting on toilet Kai decides to take his coat off. More airplane arms.

3:00 - Pee in toilet, pants pulled up and all of us out the door. Teia deposited in chariot.

3:02 - Kai decides that he does not want to go in the chariot but negotiates to go in the joovy. This is NOT a running stroller.

3:05 - Kai loses that negotiation and ends up in the chariot. We finally begin running.

Did that really take over an hour??

Videos Finally!!!

Seems we might have solved our technical difficulties just in time to capture some of Teia's walking! Enjoy!

Here is one of Little T giving hugs which she accompanies with a very cute "awwww" wonder where she learned that?

And finally one of the Kai Guy reciting a rhyme he learned at school!