Solids Eater

Teagan seemed to not love baby food for a while, but now she is getting the hang of it!  This was her while eating bananas and oatmeal for dinner.  She also eats Puffs which are like little cereal pieces and seems very proud when she can put them in her mouth and gum them all by herself.

Christmas Ornaments

Teagan got 5 very special gifts for Christmas that we will cherish forever.  Some very special people in Teagan's life got her ornaments for the Christmas tree.  Each is very unique and very special.  The pictures aren't great but they give you an idea of what each looks like.

Star ornament from Mommy and Daddy - engraved with "Teagan Avery 5/29/08"

From Grammy Sue, a pretty Lenox Baby's First Christmas ornament

  A Swarovski crystal snowflake with a 2008 tag at the top - a gift from Grampy C to commemorate T's birth and T's first Christmas.  2008 was a special year indeed.  The picture just doesn't do this ornament justice.

"Teagan's First Christmas" baby girl ornament from Grammy and Grampy George 

A stocking ornament from the Crowe, O'Donnell and Walker families in Albany with "First Christmas" in pink on the top.

Teagan's First Christmas Part III

Teagan was lucky enough to have two more Christmas celebrations after Christmas day.  She celebrated with Grammy Sue, Uncle Chris, Aunt Naomi and Aunt Jenna.  She got lots of wonderful gifts, including a very special book, some much needed bibs, and lots of toys and clothes.  She also got a special gift from her Great Grandma and Grandpa N.  Today she celebrated with Grampy C where she got some books and a beautiful and very special Swarovski crystal snowflake ornament.  Teagan truly is blessed to have such a wonderful family who loves her very much.  Unfortunately, Mommy wasn't on top of things and doesn't have many pictures to show from these celebrations, which she regrets!  

Teagan's First Christmas Part II

This picture would have been cuter if T was actually looking at the camera

Teagan with Grandma and Grandpa George

Teagan playing with Melissa

Teagan posing in her second Christmas outfit

Christmas dinner

T playing with one of her new toys at dinner

Silly T at the table

Teagan's First Christmas Part I

A "Teagan's Eye View" of the presents and tree

Teagan and Uncle Mike

Teagan, Aunt Melissa, and Josh

Teagan and Daddy

Even Teagan got toothpaste in her stocking

Ooohhh Presents!

Look at the excitement!

Teagan's favorite activity of the day - eating wrapping paper!

More pictures to come in post II......

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

All of Teagan's guests arrived on Christmas Eve (Grandma and Grandpa George, Uncle Mike, Aunt Melissa and Josh).  We enjoyed a nice dinner and visiting.  Before Teagan went to bed, Uncle Mike gave her a special gift - a large 'Twas the Night Before Christmas book.  It was as big as she is!  All of the stockings were hung (but not by the chimney with care, because we have a gas fireplace).  

Bath Time Baby

I had fun playing in the bath with Teagan tonight.  She had fun picking up each toy that floated by, chewing it, then picking another one.  As usual she giggled with delight when I dried her off. She was very photogenic, as usual.  Big blue eyes and long lashes just like her Mama.

Early Christmas

Teagan got an early Christmas celebration.  Saturday night she opened 2 gifts from Great G&G. The first was a board book about a kitty, and the second was her very own stocking, hand crafted by Gr-Gram herself! Everyone in the family has a hand-knit stocking with their name on it, and now Teagan is the newest proud owner.  

Sunday morning, Teagan was the recipient of another very special gift.  Great G&G gave T a wooden rocking chair that was Great Grandma's when she was born.  It is from 1932.  Teagan enjoyed sitting in it, as I am sure she will for years to come.  

We headed home mid-day, back to see the kitties and face the reality of another work week. Teagan has been a little under the weather this week, with a fever on and off.  She is likely fighting the stomach bug going around at daycare.  So far nothing worse, but I had to pick her up a little early today due to a 102 degree fever.  A little tylenol and a snuggle/nap with Mom and she seems to be back to her normal happy self.  We will see what the night brings!  Can't believe Christmas is just around the corner!

4 Generations!

4 Generations!

Happy T with Dad!

T with Grandpa George

Ice Storm!

We arrived Friday night to Grammy and Grampys in Albany only to find ourselves in the midst of a major ice storm.  No power, no heat, limbs down, ice covering everything!  We found an open pizza place for dinner and pondered what to do next...the house was a frigid 45 degrees! We decided our best bet was going to Grandpa's cousin's house.  The only problem was the storm took out their phone line!  

We drove 40 minutes through what looked like ghost towns and showed up at their door unannounced.  Being the wonderful people that they are, they gladly took in 4 people and a baby.  After visiting for a bit, all the while laughing about the oddity of the situation, we finally crashed on the living room floor, warmed by the wood stove in the basement and the fireplace next to us.  We spent a majority of Saturday there too.  Matt and Grampy went looking for a generator, and were finally successful.  They worked all afternoon on getting it set up.  We met back at the house where Teagan's Great Grandpa and Grandma from CT were waiting for us around 3:30.  After only a few minutes of sitting in the car (because the generator still wasn't fired up) we decided to see if any restaurants were open (with heat! and warm food!  and bathrooms with flushable toilets and hand washing facilities!) 

After driving from restaurant to restaurant, we finally found one that was open - a Ruby Tuesday's.  We found a cozy booth and ordered some hot food and hot drinks.  Teagan played and we ate slowly, awaiting news that the heat was working.  Finally at 6 pm, the generator/heat were fired up and we headed home.  We snuggled extra close because it was still chilly as it came up to temperature. Below are some pictures of our adventure:

Fallen branches and ice-covered trees

Teagan playing with cousin Leah

Staying warm at Ruby Tuesday's

Bela Fleck Concert

Just a quick snippet since I am hijacking baby T's blog.  Matt and I went to Buffalo to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones last Wednesday. Here are some pictures I took.  We always enjoy seeing them when they come to town!

6 Month Check-up

Teagan's 6 month appointment was today.  She handled her shots well.  We talked with the pediatrician about eating, sleeping, and teething.  Teagan weighed 17 lbs 6 oz. and was about 27" long.  She got a clean bill of health.  We go back in 4 weeks for a flu shot booster.

Snuggle Bug

This morning Teagan woke up babbling to herself after a really good nights sleep.  She had some trouble around 10 pm, but after a quick snack she was back to sleep until 7:45 this morning.  Unfortunately, her 12+ hour snooze meant her diaper leaked (usually she has an early AM diaper change because she wakes up).  Since it had been 9 hours since she had eaten, she was a hungry girl and didn't want to wait until clean PJs were on before she ate.  So after a very quick diaper change, a mostly nekkid T joined us in bed and ate.  She was all snuggled in so I snapped some pictures. We played for a little while just relaxing in bed while Matt checked the Sunday ads on the laptop.  It was a nice, relaxing Sunday morning.

This weekend we put up the Christmas tree and I made some pumpkin spice bread.  I worked on Christmas cards this afternoon. After underestimating the number of photos I would need, and wrestling with the cards to get the pictures in place I decided that only a select few get picture cards!  My patience is apparently not what it used to be - maybe it's the lack of sleep! Although Teagan is on her way to sleeping through the night again.  Today she even fell asleep on her own in her crib for a nap.