Sunday, January 31

Reading Ready

So, for months now, Teag has enjoyed sitting and being read to or reading to herself...sometimes the same book over and over and over again. Her mama will sometimes hide certain books & puts out different ones, just so she can have a break.

As I've always been an avid reader myself and having encouraged language & reading with great joy when I was teaching, I LOVE that Teagan loves books!

Here's just a "few" shots of her over the past 3 months....

Month 8

Month 9


Month 10

Reading on the Go


Googly-Eye Animal Book: always a fave

The Hungry Caterpillar: another favorite!


Month 11

Month 12

Month 12


Teag doesn't limit herself to simply reading books, she also will read magazines...or my mail!
Sunset Magazine: planning her spring planting

Hmmm...should I get a credit card?
What is a credit card?!

Oh~and here's a classic: reading while sitting in her favorite little chair:


So...Teag's 1st birthday is coming up in just a few weeks. The theme? Why, building Teagan's personal library, of course! Everyone is to give Teag a copy of one of their favorite books~regardless of the reading level. That way she'll have something to read at all times as she grows! My problem is choosing which books to get her...there's so many to choose from!!!

Saturday, January 30

Keep Prayin...

Afternoon update:
Ashleigh is in recovery & is doing well. The baby's heart-rate was low due to the anesthesia, but they are monitoring him. So keep those prayers coming!

Morning update:
According to Ash's sister who is posting for her on her blog....the surgery seems to have gone well. But continued prayers never hurt, right?! Of course, right!
"closing her up"
Ash went in for surgery a little behind schedule...about 7:45am.
At 9:15 we got the word that they were "closing her up" and they had saved the ovary. Tommy the tumor is OUT!!

Friday, January 29

Please Pray

Please pray for my dear friend, Ashleigh, who is at the beginning of her second trimester with a high risk pregnancy & has to undergo surgery tomorrow for a tumor on her ovary. This is very precarious & I am worried over them. 

On the bright side, they found out last night that their new baby is another boy! Yay! They are great parents to big-brother Carter & I know they will be fabulous parents to baby boy #2.

Anyway, please set your alarms, as I am, to wake up bright and early tomorrow morning at 7am to pray for Ash & baby "Shadow" as they go into surgery. JK-you can pray for them tonight if you want to!

I love you, Ash!!!

Teagan Rose is Pretty in Bows










Wednesday, January 27

You've come a Long Way, Baby

I have a little "baby" chair that was mine when I was a toddler...I'm not sure but I think it may have been my aunt's before me...and probably someone else's before it was hers...

Teagan has been trying to figure out how to sit in this chair for months now. Turns out: sitting is a lot harder than it looks!

Here we are @ month 7...notice her little legs barely even reach the middle bar, let alone touch the ground! She wanted to sit in the chair but had to be lifted in to sit down~but it made her happy to be sitting there.
Fast forward to month 10, when she tried & tried to figure out this whole sitting thing...the backing in is just crazy in her mind. She would face the chair, put her hands on the arms or seat, and then squat in front of it wondering why on earth she wasn't in the chair...



....However, once in, she enjoyed sitting there:

















Kicking Back

Watching TV














Reading

Notice her feet still don't touch the ground!

By month 11, Teagan figured out that perhaps practice makes perfect...

So first she practiced with a friend:

And then she tried it on her own...sadly Auntie M had to help her get her bum into the chair by turning her about and pulling her into the chair. Sitting is seriously hard!!



And now we have arrived at the 12th month of her little life: in just 3 1/2 weeks our little baby girl will be a year old!!!! Her feet almost touch...but the sitting concept still eludes her a bit...but I think she's gotten the hang of it...for the most part! She still needed a wee bit of help from Mama.

Sitting Take 1:


Sitting Take 2:
Notice how happy she looks sitting in her chair with her legs crossed and that satisfied look on her face!

How cute is that?!?!



Soon she'll be able to tackle the little baby rocking chair her Grandma Sue got her...sitting down and rocking: whoa!!! Look out world!!!

Monday, January 25

Catching the Sun


When Teag was here the other day, the sun was shining and the sun-catchers in the windows were casting rainbows around the living room. I carried her over to the window & spun the crystals so the rainbows bobbled and danced across the walls, ceiling, and floor. Then Teag & I sat in the middle of it all.


And then she looked at me with wide eyes and said in an awed and hushed voice, "Wow!!!!!!!" She repeated this over and over again with a soft and breathy voice.

It was a magical time.

I tried to recapture those rainbows today (so I could blog about our experience) but the sun wouldn't cooperate. Nevertheless, I did capture these images, which, I believe, are also worthy of a "wow..."



















Wednesday, January 20

A Day of Firsts

First ponytail.






First time wearing shoes. (And not crying about it)





First time playing at the playground.




Playing on the Pirate Ship




First tumble at playground due to unfamiliar shoes & tan bark. (Sorry, no actual picture. Auntie M was giggling too much--bad Auntie M!...but I did get her before she was picked up and dusted off)




First time going down the slide.






First swing ride.




So serious!!



• First time crying out  Mama in fear…of the birds (she is not a big Hitchcock fan!)

Okay...so it was a lot of birds



Comforted by Mama...can you see the bark dust in her ear from her earlier tumble??

Moving right along, we left the birds behind and went on a nature walk (through trees, not birds!)




Sitting w/Gramma

 
 

Walking through the park
 
 
It was (overall--tumbles not included) a wonderful day!!!

Tuesday, January 19

The Little Prince


If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. It was written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in 1943 and remains relevant and touching nearly 70 years later.

It is a story of  eloquent observations... and with each reading, different elements are highlighted to the reader. It is heart-wrenching, up-lifting, inspiring. It is a book like none other. I am reading it again, for the billionth time, per the recommendation of my sis(in-law). (Thanks, Dani!!) And this time, I read it with Demetri in mind...our own sweet little prince...


If you have not read it, I do not want spoil it for you...if you have read it, you will understand these quotes.... Either way, they are beautiful....


I did not know what to say to him. I felt awkward and blundering. I did not know how I could reach him, where I could overtake him and go on hand in hand with him once more.
It is such a secret place, the land of tears.




On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
(It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.)


"The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen...The desert is beautiful...What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well..." said the little prince

Yes...the stars, the desert--what gives them their beauty is something invisible!"

As the little prince dropped off to sleep, I took him in my arms and set out walking once more. I felt deeply moved, and stirred. It seemed to me that I was carrying a very fragile treasure. It seemed to me, even, that there was nothing more fragile on all the Earth.....I said to myself "What I see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important is invisible....What moves me so deeply, about this little prince who is sleeping here, is his loyalty to a flower--the image of a rose that shines through his whole being like the flame of a lamp, even when he is asleep..." And I felt him to be more fragile, as if he himself were a flame that might be extinguished by a little puff of wind....And as I walked on so, I found the well, at daybreak.


He laughed, touched the rope, and set the pulley to working. And the pulley moaned..."Do you hear ?"said the little prince. "We have wakened the well and it is singing."

"The thing that is important is the thing not seen... It is just as it is with the flower. If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers... It is just as it is with the water. Because of the pulley, and the rope, what you gave me to drink was like music... And at night you will look up at the stars. Where I live everything is so small that I cannot show you where my star is to be found. It is better, like that. My star will just be one of the stars for you. And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens...They will all be your friends...


"You--you alone--will have the stars as no one else has them... In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of the stars I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night... And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure...
"It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh." And the little prince laughed again.
When I succeeded in catching up with him he was walking along with a quick and resolute step. He said to me merely: "Ah! There you are..." And he took me by the hand. But he was still worrying. "You will suffer. I shall look as though I were dead; and that will not be true...You understand...It is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy. ... But it will be like an old abandoned shell. There is nothing sad about old shells."

 ....He made one more effort:
"You know, it will be very nice. I, too, shall look at the stars. All the stars will be wells with a rusty pulley. All the stars will pour out fresh water for me to drink...."

"That will be so amusing! You will have five hundred million little bells, and I shall have five hundred million springs of fresh water." And he said nothing more, because he was crying...


And so, I shall look up to the heavens with joy because I know that living there with Christ, laughing there, drinking deeply there is our little prince, Demetri, who is no longer here with us but lives forever in a place that is prepared and waiting for us, one day, when our journey is over, to join him.