challenging times = bigger hearts

About a week after we got back from Turkey, and right before we moved, Teagan came down with her first illness. We're not exactly sure what she had, but over the course of about 4 weeks, she experienced fevers, vomitting, sleepness nights, and a double ear infection- all while breaking in a couple new teeth. She was such a trooper despite having a mom and dad who were freaking out. (We've been very blessed by Teagan's temperament; experiencing what it's like to have a "fussy" baby really opened our eyes to what it could be like.)

The first night- after she projectile vomitted three times- all over my silk shirt. :-)

We had to use up a free plane ticket so we took a quick trip to Houston over the Columbus Day weekend. Even though Teagan was diagnosed with a double ear infection the day before we flew down, she faired really well on the flights and put up with us as we ventured out to a crazy holiday farm, the Houston Zoo, and to visit friends and family.

After watching the pig races (with Papaw).

Giving Memaw (great-grandma) sweet kisses. Teags= 8 mos. Memaw= 95 yrs.

At the zoo with Papaw. Breaking in another tooth.

At the end of October, the weather started shifting and we've been enjoying more time outside. We spent the day before hurricane Sandy picking out carving pumpkins. 

Luckily, we didn't experience any damage from the storm. Teags was ready for the wind and rain though, in mom's boots!

Also at the end of October, we made the hard decision to look for a new home for Clementine. Over the last nine months, she had become increasingly stressed out by being around the baby (or so we thought). Since September, she started losing hair and wasn't eating much. We found an animal welfare league that was planning to put her up for adoption. Once the vet did a work up on her though, we found out that her kidney disease had progressed rapidly since July (the last time we tested for it). Her liver was failing and she was being poisoned. The vet made the decision to put her down. It was really hard news to bear given that we thought she was going to be adopted. In retropect, some of her behaviors from the last week we had her really made sense, and we felt terrible for not realizing that her illness had progressed so rapidly. Thankfully, she is not in pain anymore. We'll miss you, Clem!

Sunbating the day we said good-bye.

Fake-biting Sean. Her favorite thing to do.

surprise, we're back!!

What could cause such blog-neglect, you say??? Well, I honestly don't know how the time flies, but we have been a little busy lately. In the hope of ending my blogging hiatus, here are a few pics from events that took place over the last six-eight weeks:

Teags turned 7 (and 8- no pic yet) months old!

Celebrated my b-day at Serendipity with frozen hot chocolate. Teagan was a little shocked at the size of it!

Got an early MMR shot for our upcoming overseas adventure!

Mom traveled to California for work...

And got to visit "the Rock!" 

And of course, take this mandatory SF pic.

We traveled to Turkey for 2 weeks! (More pics on facebook.)

Had an AMAZING family adventure!

Had fun with our old friend, Walt. (He's holding the camera!)

Had a successful 11 hour flight with a sweet infant! Both ways!!

Stopped for a couples shot overlooking the Bosphorus Strait.

Enjoying breakfast at one of our favorite spots, Open City.

After we returned from Turkey, we packed up our apartment and MOVED! Not far, only about 4 miles... but it was a feat, nonetheless. Lesson learned: Moving with a baby is infinitely harder than moving as married adults with no children. 

We now live outside of DC in Arlington. It's weird after living in the city for so long, but we are really enjoying the extra space. Teagan has her own room!

On top of moving, Teagan got sick with a nasty congestion thing that turned into a double ear infection just in time for us to travel to Houston for Columbus Day! Luckily, she was a champ on the flights and didn't seem to be bothered by her ears too much. She's on the mend now, but it's been about a 3 week ordeal. Did I mention that she's been growing teeth, too? Count= 3.

I ended up getting sick on Friday- which is why I have time to write this blog (home alone!). I actually had to work from home today so that I wouldn't infect anyone with my own nasty congestion thing. Lesson learned: Cherish every moment of health you & your children are blessed with. 

Things seem to be looking up though and we look forward to posting more on the blog soon once we unpack everything and get settled into our new place! 

Until then.... 

[cough cough] silence please...

Ladies and Gents, our spunky little gal has somethin' to say:

county fair

Sunday we went out to the Arlington County Fair with some of our DC besties, Dille & Lo Lo. As usual, Teagan loved watching all of the people and the exciting games. Although she was too little to participate this time, I can foresee us attending more fairs in our future!

Unfortunately we missed the piglet races. Next time, this will be our first stop!

Fair food.

   

 

Teags sitting up (successfully) in a highchair!

the big apple

Last week I had to attend a conference in NYC so we decided to make it a family trip! We learned a couple of lessons on how to travel / sight see with an infant, lessons that will surely help us on our two week trip overseas next month. We pretty much did every touristy thing you can probably think of when it comes to NYC, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Train ride from DC- Union Station to NYC- Penn Station

High Line Park

High Line Park is an old elevated train track that has been turned into a mile+ long walking path. Very cool art along the way, too.

30 Rock 

View from the ferry leaving Battery Park.

Sean's nerdy influence. This is the original "occupy wall street" park. 

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Totally recommend it- great views!

Central Park

South view from 'Top of the Rock'

North view from 'Top of the Rock'

Central Park

Our hotel (thanks to my work conference) : the Waldorf-Astoria

 

Teagan's friends waiting for us to get home.

Times Square

 

Lady Liberty

Checking in at the east coast's immigration museum. This place was so cool. Go there.

Loved the Mister Softee food trucks.

What's notable about this pic is that we are in a taxi- without a car seat- in NYC. Never again.

We visited the FAO Schwartz store on 5th Avenue. It was crazy to see how quickly Teags reacted to this place- it's like she knew it was a store for kids. Her face seriously lit up at the sight of all of the toys.

This picture reminds me of a story that we heard on NPR... This American Life, I think. I did a search and couldn't find the link, but essentially, the story was about a department store and how little girls could come and adopt babies. Little girls could pick and choose what they wanted their babies to look like- I'm pretty sure that we found the store that the story was about. It was actually pretty creepy, but Teags thought the babies were awesome. She probably wanted to eat them.

Who wouldn't want a rocking polar bear chair?

Whoa. This shark is so cool!

We ran into Spidy on the elevator.

Teagan's favorite toy at FAO was this creepy peek-a-boo bear. Check it out:

I can't believe it's taken us three years to actually make the trip up to NYC- it's so close (only a 3 hour train ride)! We're definitely looking forward to going again sometime soon!