Kids

The Containment System is in Place

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MC & I have procrastinated long enough.  We spent months pondering what baby gate system we should get.  In our defence we had issues with the length of the opening of the play area by the living room.  We wanted a friction mount system but nothing would work with a friction mount at that size.  We also didn’t want to drill a hole into the molding around the opening we were going to use.  We ended up having to buy a system that we drill into the wall but also figured out a way to not touch the molding.  Once we figured that out we bought a system but then found excuse after excuse not to set it up for 2 weeks.  Finally we found time to do it today.  The bigger gate took a while to get right, but the smaller one we use to block off the kitchen was thankfully a friction mount and it only took like 10 minutes to setup.

Teagan was babbling and crawling through the kitchen and turned the corner and saw the gate for the first time and just stopped talking and stopped moving to stare at it.  When we are with her we leave the doors open so she can crawl out and explore with us in toe.  She crawled into the living room and then started playing with the door.  I think she will be locking us out very soon.  At least we can contain her in her play area when we want to.  Well that is until she learns to climb over the gates.  She has already figured out that the bars are great for helping her stand up.

T Standing on Her Own

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Sometime in the past week or so T started pulling herself up to a standing position.  She would try before and we would help her do it but within the past week she has been doing it much more frequently and totally by herself.  it is pretty cool to see her mastering a new skill.

She is also able to sit back down with some difficulty but she can do it.  M saw on a parents news group people saying their babies had trouble doing that for a while so at least we hopefully dont have to keep going into her crib to sit her down once she figures out how to do that in there.  Please no one tell T that she can do that.  She hasn’t figured out she can stand up in her crib yet.

She has been teething a lot recently.  Drool is everywhere but at lest she has 4 teeth showing now.  Two on top and two on bottom.  If I didnt see them I would hear her grinding them all the time.  Apparently that is her latest play time activity.  It sounds like it would hurt a lot but my dad said it doesn’t and she is testing out her new weapons.

Baby Proofing

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Baby proofing tonight or attempting to. We need an extra extension on the baby gate so we are not going to get those up today. The edge cover for the coffee table we got is horrible so we need to find an alternative because my glass coffee table is awesome looking but a huge hazard for Teagan. What we have now is good for a few days but we need to replace it.

My 2nd Attempt at an iMovie Did Include Babies and Animals

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After our trip to Jayson & Gretchen’s we had a ton of video of Teagan.  I wanted to share it with our family but some of it was long clips with not much action and then we had several clips that were very short.  Lauren’s awesome job of putting together my dad’s 70th birthday video got me to finally try iMovie a week or so ago.  It went so well that I wanted to take the footage we had of Teagan with Jayson’s dog and clip it together.  By doing that I learned that 1, it is pretty fun and cool to do.  2, its a huge time sink.  Thankfully it was only 3 minutes of video i created in the end but i can see even slightly more elaborate videos sucking up my time.  I already want to go back and make a montage video of Teagan’s first year, but I just dont have the time to do that right now.

Maybe i didnt try the software enough but I don’t remember iMovie being that easy a few years ago.  I know Final Cut Express was not very easy and after trying both of them I gave up on video editing for a while.  I am glad I gave it another try.  These video’s wont be my last that I work on!

Long Commute Home

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Sat on the subway for an hour getting home tonight. Only saw Teagan for 5 minutes or O before I had to feed her and put her to bed:(. She was tired though and went right down after I put her in her crib

Hung Out at Home

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We took our last day of the 4 day weekend and decided to relax a bit.  We went out to the farmers market near austin street and got breakfast.  We sat and ate in the shade in the park.  It was nice, even if it was super hot.

We decided to spend most of the day at home and try to unwind before the work week started.  Teagan however didn’t get the memo.  She was crawling everywhere.  This weekend she figured out she can use her new crawling skills to get all over the apartment.  We do not have any baby gates up yet so we have to follow her around the apartment when she goes off on any adventures.  Until this weekend she has been great so far and only stayed in her play area.  After running around MC and I decided to finally order the baby gates and some additional safety gear.  We were held up because we have an opening by her play area that is over 80″ in length.  We didn’t want to drill holes into molding but no friction mount system will work on a space that large.  We (MC) figured out a compromise that will get us to drill holes in the walls avoiding the molding.

In the late afternoon MC took Teagan to the pool but couldn’t get in since it was so hot and the pool was at capacity.  She ended up in the park using the sprinkler.  They both had fun even if they couldn’t goto the pool.  It was a nice end to a great activity filled weekend.

Road Trip to Jayson’s (and Gretchen’s)

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Today we got up early and got a Zipcar and went to Jayson & Gretchen’s for the day.  It was funny since we thought there was going to be a BBQ but they canceled the BBQ since it was going to be super hot and they just wanted to catch up with us.  The drive up was ok.  Teagan was fussy for the first 45 minutes to an hour.  We are not sure why.  She typically goes right down for a nap in the car but didn’t this trip.  After stopping for a few minutes along the way she did settle down.

We got to see their new garden and chickens they were raising.  I still find it a bit funny that Jayson is trying to raise chickens but I also think its really cool.  I am not sure if I would put that much work into it.  Teagan got to pet some chickens.  She also got to play with Seth and Eli.  She got along with both of them but her new friend is Seth.  She was making her laugh so much it was so cute to see.

Teagan also got to play with their dog Hemmi.  As we were driving up MC asked if we could take Teagan to a dog park one day.  I then was wondering who we knew with a dog she could play with instead.  Then it dawned on both of us that we were driving to a friends house who had a dog.  Teagan chased Hemmi all over.  She was generally gentle but did pull his ears a bit.  She had fun, and i would like to think Hemmi did too.

On the way home we were smart and finally asked Jayson & Gretchen the best route to take since the way we have been going to them has no traffic but its a very tight windy road.  They told us a better way that uses interstates.  it may get more chance of traffic and be slightly (5-10 minutes) longer but it was worth the risk and the ride was much easier.

Overall it was a good day with old friends.

Flushing Meadow Park Take Two

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Today we went to flushing meadow park. Last time we went Teagan ended up sleeping through the Zoo and was only mildly interested in the Animals at the petting Zoo.  Today we wanted to take her to the carousel.  She has been riding her Lion like a horse so we thought she might enjoy the carousel.  First MC took her on a little train ride.  It was just a train that went around in a circle but it was a perfect ride for a 9 month old baby.  She enjoyed the train a lot, and I was able to get a bunch of good photos of her and MC on it.  The carousel on the other hand Teagan did not like as much.  I put her on one of the horses that move up and down since she always tries to rock on the lion we have.  She was very excited when she was sitting on the horse before we started moving.  As we started moving however she was less happy.  She didn’t really cry but you could see from her face she wasn’t having a great time.  I am not sure if it was the speed, the wind, or the going up and down that wasn’t fun for her.  Next time we will try a non moving horse.

After the rides we went to the petting zoo.  Teagan got to pet a few animals and feed one or two.  It was super hot and there weren’t as many animals out as there was the last time we went there.  After a short time at the petting zoo we headed home.  MC took Teagan to the pool in the late afternoon while I got ready for the reunion that I will write about in the next post.

T at The Beach for First Time (Sort of)

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Today for the 4th of July we went with my mom to the beach.  T was at the beach once in Florida but she never got out in the sand to play so today was really her first trip to play at the beach.

My mom’s beach club is near the beach club we went to when i was growing up in Atlantic Beach.  We got a late start but once we arrived my mom got a baby pool with an umbrella setup for T.  She had a blast playing around in the pool.  She also tried her hand at eating sand.  She didn’t like it, but that didn’t stop her from trying again, and again.

After the kiddie pool we took her to the ocean and stood her up and let the waves crash into her legs.  she had a blast doing that.  Since M, T, and to some degree I am sensitive to the sun we didn’t stay at the ocean that long.  After that T hung out in pool again, ate, and then we took her for a walk on the boardwalk and she feel asleep for a nap.  After that we headed home.  My mom was nice enough to give us a ride to and from the beach.  it was a nice day.