BONUS!!

Alex and Teagan play together.

Picture Time!

Tuesday evening we took Alex to The Picture People at Northeast Mall to have his birthday pictures taken. The girls working there thought Teagan was so cute, that they took some pictures of her, too. The Picture People have gone digital, and I really like their new setup, and while Alex wasn't totally cooperative, we did get some cute shots!

Why Alex, That's FANTASTIC!!

On Sunday, Pete was hard at work finishing up the installation of our new threshold between the carpet and tile at the kitchen/living room transition, so to keep Alex out of his way, I got out his piggy bank and helped him count the coins we've been saving for him since before he was born. Mostly it's just a collection of pennies and pocket change, but we've added a couple of five dollar bills that he got from Gigi and Popski for ice cream. Alex really enjoyed the counting, though he doesn't seem to grasp that the different sizes of coins symbolize different things. I'm not even sure that he really noticed that there were different sizes. However, he is quite aware of the paper money, which seems to utterly fascinate him. He insisted on holding the paper money, which he dubbed "tickets" and running circles through the living room shouting, "My tickets! That's FANTASTIC, Mommie!" I'm still not sure where he picked up the word 'fantastic' but it was probably on one of the PBS Kids shows that we've been watching lately. Additionally, he's broadened his scope by not only soliciting friends with the conversation opener, "Hi! I watch Little Einsteins!" but also with variants including Caillou,Jay Jay the Jet Plane and Roger's Neighborhood (Mister Roger's Neighborhood).

Teagan's a Crawley Bean!

Last Wednesday, Teagan started to crawl!! It's not your standard hands and knees crawling, rather a military-style low crawl on her belly, but nevertheless, she can travel across the room in a matter of seconds. I think it's just a matter of figuring out that she can go faster if she gets on her hands and knees and she'll be off and away. Can you believe it? Alex didn't crawl until he was ten months old!

Back into the Blog!

I've been doing a hideous job of maintaining the blog, so I'm going to make a genuine effort to get back into the swing of things!

Adventures in Swimming

This weekend, we decided to take both kids swimming. Alex got himself a Coast Guard-approved life vest, and Teagan got a bathing suit.

The first trip to the pool in Grapevine worked out pretty well. Alex [reluctantly] went under the raining umbrella and even got into the big pool, but it was clear that he wasn't terribly excited about the prospect of swimming just yet.

The second trip was a dual visit to the South Euless pool and Splash Island. Alex is slowly adjusting to his life vest and being in the water; Teagan, on the other hand, enjoyed every minute of it ans splashed the whole time she was in the pool.

In addition, Teagan has begun to enjoy [semi-] solid foods. Kellie succeeded in feeding her both applesauce and rice cereal with bananas, so maybe they will both be sleeping a little more soundly at night.

Both Teagan and Alex seem to be developing rapidly.

Teagan rolls around to reach things that she wants and is starting to put things in her mouth to teethe. She is one step away (metaphorically, anyway) from crawling.

Alex is beginning to understand and respond to questions in an almost adult manner. When asked where he had found the elastic band he brought us from his room, he replied, "Aunt B.'s hair." It was Brigette's hairband that she had left when visiting the weekend earlier.

I guess we shouldn't be too surprised - she's six months and he's almost two - but they continue to astonish us on a daily basis.

[--CLICK HERE FOR BONUS ALEX MOVIE--]

I Go Splash Island - - Pump Broken

We've been trying to take Alex to Splash Island for several days now with no luck. Pete tried to take him Saturday; when they got there they found out that the pump was broken, or there was a clog in the line ... whatever the case, there was no water to play in, and "no buck dump-it". Sunday was a busy day filled with surprise celebrations and gatherings in honor of Pete's birthday, and Monday evening Pete had a Kiwanis meeting so there was no chance for Splash Island on those days. On Tuesday, the 4th, Pete and Alex geared up to go just in time for a thunderstorm to roll in. No complaints from me, as we are in desperate need of the rain! The majority of Wednesday was punctuated by rain and thunder showers, and I noticed Alex for the first time actually listening to the weather, "make sounds". He even went over and stood by the fireplace listening because he could hear the tinkling sounds of raindrops hitting the metal exhaust on the exterior of the house. Finally, this evening we thought all was in order for an enjoyable outing (for the whole family) to Splash Island, and when we got there, the pump had evidently given out again. Though it couldn't have happened too long before our arrival since there were about half a dozen little wet Tongan children running around the water-fun area. Pete and I had an aside about how Alex was so looking forward to getting to play there, and decided to take him over to a park in Grapevine where they have a couple of dolphin statues that spray water into the air. Also, while we were there, we noticed the Grapevine public pool which has a neat "raining umbrella" and a toddler wading pool. So, we plan to take him back over there another evening to experience that. I always feel so bad when we promise something fun to Alex and then it doesn't pan out, and you see that look of disappointment on his little face. And now he has a good enough grasp on language and what's happening around him, you can bet that he'll tell at least the next seven people that he comes in contact with, "I go Splash Island - - pump broken - - daddy fix it! mommie fix it!" And then follow that up with whatever movie or television show he watched. What a cute little guy!

Alex the Lumpy Head

Despite our best efforts to prevent Alex from getting insect bites (i.e. spraying him down with OFF!) he still managed to take one on the right temple as evidenced by today's pic of the day. The pic was actually taken a couple of days ago as the bite was received on Monday night, and most of the swelling has subsided. I just wanted to let everyone know that it was just a mosquito bite and didn't want anyone to be concerned that he had taken a blow to the head.

Toofer number Two!

This morning I noticed that Teagan's second tooth is poking through her gums. It's her lower left front tooth (the lower right front tooth was the first) and it doesn't seem to have caused her nearly as much discomfort as the first. Now if I can just get her to swallow some cereal instead of pushing it back out of her mouth with her tongue, maybe I can get her to sleep more than 2 consecutive hours at night.