Happy Halloween!

The Trio on Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all the ghosts and goblins out there! Teague was a lion for Halloween. He was more like the cowardly lion from Wizard of Oz as his "roar" was really not too intimidating. It's actually kind of a sweet little baby boy roar. ahhhhh. Anyway, we put him in his costume before he went to Tina's today and after I dropped him off he went right down the stairs to the daycare and I stayed upstairs talking to Tina for a few minutes. I heard down the stairs "AAAAHHH, look! It's a LION!" and a bunch of little girl screams as if Teague were so scary. Poor monkey (or lion, whatever). Tina said he wore it for quite a while, but Maddie (same age as Teague) kept following him around and pulling his tail. Finally he walked over to Tina signing "please" and tugging at his costume. Apparently he had enough of the abuse.

Before we left for Tina's this morning.

After school and daycare we took him home and put him into the "official costume", face paint and all. The face paint didn't stay on so great. Oh well. Anyway, we took him back into town and went to the kiddie Halloween parade and to the city center for a party. He was really unimpressed and really didn't think the other kids were very cool. As a matter of fact he seemed unsure of them. If only he had looked in the mirror before we left, he would have realized that he looked like most of them. So then we took him to 4 places total: 2 houses and 2 businesses and we were all ready to just go home. This is obviously still an occasion for his crazy parents and not for a 15 month old. Once we got home it was like he was so relieved to be home and bathed! He was so much fun once we were home and playing. Maybe next year??

Nicole - one of my students - and Teague. Wow, look at how cooperative he is!

Maggie (or Marge) - one my students - and Teague

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE. NOW!"

This video shows what he thought when we got home and he saw himself in the mirror!

"I am so happy - look at me all clean and in my jammies helping mama cook!"On Wednesday we carved pumpkins. Okay, I carved pumpkins. Ryan took pictures and Teague wondered around the garage getting into mischief. He could have cared LESS about me carving any pumpkin. And I believe Ryan felt the same way, but someone had to be the photographer!

In the beginning it was fun...

He's still SORT OF interested...Well, we are losing interest. Daddy's sandals are cooler now...And I am pretty sure he has officially lost interest (notice how I am still carving away - "what toddler is throwing a tantrum? I can't hear anything")FINALLY. The finished product. And then it was time for bed.

After we got home tonight I had to get stuff ready for the "tea party luncheon" that I am hosting tomorrow in celebration of my friend Lindsey's upcoming baby's birth! It should be a good time. Hopefully the food turns out okay - that's always a fear of mine when hosting any kind of get together!! Other than that we don't have much planned. I am trying to battle a cold, so rest is hopefully in the forecast for me!

Hope you had a great week and have a great weekend!

Misc. Dusha Business

Here are a couple of pics of Teague with his buddy "Lewboski" in Seattle. One of the pics he just got out of the bath. We wouldn't normally allow him to wrestle with the cat naked or anything!

Not much is new in our world. We are just going about our little work and daycare routine. It's nice that Halloween is on Friday since bedtime usually happens at our house on "school nights" during a time that could interfere with such festivities!

Last weekend Ryan went to Mpls for a basketball coaches clinic. Teague and I headed up to Morris to be with Nana and Papa and then on Saturday we drove home through Alexandria and visited my friend Kelly who just had her baby, Dayton, 3 weeks ago (congrats Kel)! He is so dang adorable and of course Kel looks fab-u-loso. Teague really liked their cat, Ramsey, more than he really cared about trying to play with her other son Devin or poking Dayton in the eye. He would run over once in a while when Dayton was in the bouncy seat and crouch down and say "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" and run away. Devin thought it was great fun to be able to pick up Teague (Devin is 4 and probably weighs about Teague's weight). Yesterday we hung out at home since it was FREEZING outside. Monday's are getting tougher in our house as we all have a hard time getting up and starting a new week. I am lucky because Teague seems to like sleeping in like his mom and dad, but waking him at 7:30 because we need to get going is not fun for anyone. I am usually sweating by the time all is said and done from chasing him, catching him, getting one more piece of clothing on him, chasing him again, etc., you get the picture.

Here are a couple of videos while we were in Seattle. He really loves animals right now. Everyday he tells me a new sound of a new animal. Here you can hear the "top 4" animals.

In this video you can hear him giggling in the car. All I was doing was putting his foot up by his face. Hilarious I tell you.

Sleepover in Seattle

We had a great time in Seattle visiting Auntie Grummie and Ken. They were awesome hosts and we were impressed with what a gorgeous city it was. We took in a few sights, but most importantly just got to spend time with the two of them (plus a few other friends of theirs) and visited. I was a little worried about the flight and time change (they are two hours behind us) with Teague, but all went so well. He didn't sleep on the plane ride there, but was really good. He slept like there was never a time change and slept on the plane ride home. What a super little traveler already! I was also wondering what we would do to "entertain" Teague while at their house, but they had just gotten a kitten a few weeks beforehand and Teague was in heaven playing with "Lewboski". Teague would run and the kitty would chase him and on occasion would "sneak up" behind Teague and cling onto Teague's pj's. It was super cute to see them playing together. He would get so excited to see Lewboski in the mornings. I have posted a TON of pictures with descriptions of each. Thanks Grums and Ken for a great time!

The Trio on the shoreline in Edmonds, WA (near Grums' house)

Ken and Teague on the shoreline Oh Monkey. He would throw a rock in the water and then clap for himself and run back for another rock to throw. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Teague, Ken and Grums...he was getting another rock from them to throw into the water. Our visit to Pike Place Market - famous in many movies - you know, where they throw the fish (Sleepless in Seattle anyone??). Very cool, but a bit crowded with 4 adults and a stroller.Teague and a big "monk fish". He doesn't seem very impressed. Maybe nervous??Teague at the Seattle Aquarium. Now this is what he was impressed about. He absolutely loved this place and LOVED being able to touch the starfish, etc.
Doesn't he look impressed, my little squid??
He also loved the otters and seals.
Oh cute. It's Grums and Ken!
The 5 of us on the U of WA campus (where Grums works)

Grums and Teague
Who knew...Melrose Floral has a chain in Seattle??
And Earl's bar too??? Melrose is the place to be I guess!
Teague in his pj's, boarding the airplane - goodbye Seattle.

Monkey had his 15 month appt. today. He is still off the charts for height and 95th percentile for everything else. He hated his shots, but when he saw the sucker he was signing please like crazy! Silly monkey.

SURPRISE! We're in Seattle!

Here is a quick video of our surprise trip to Seattle to see Dana (Ryan's sister) and Ken. Ken and Sheri (a Seattle family friend) were in on the trip and we met them at a restaurant after we flew in last night. Here is Dana's reaction to seeing us... Also, Teague is a bit of a crab as he just woke up from a nap in the car.

Pumpkins, Petting Zoo and other chaos.

Pumpkin Patch Trio

I have wanted to make it to a corn maze/pumpkin patch/hayride or something fall like for kids all fall. Every weekend it has either rained or we had other commitments. Even though it rained a lot this morning, we still made it to the Collegeville Orchards - there weren't many pumpkins left and we couldn't take a hayride because the orchard was quite wet, but we did get to take in the petting zoo, paint a couple of pumpkins and buy some real honey. All in all, check - got it done!

We had my niece and nephew with us - their mom was at a wedding and their dad is hunting. I can tell you that being a mom of 3 for the day was a lot of work, and Ryan was even there! Teague wanted to spend his entire time in the petting zoo area oinking, mooing, barking, quacking and neighing at every animal but the correct animal! He had a near breakdown everytime we wanted to get out of the barn - ahh, the love of toddlerhood. Here you can see in the first picture the attempts of Skylar to hold Teague in place after leaving the barn - such a nice little background and nobody looks happy! =)

And finally, a sad picture of Teague having his "breathing treatments". He will finish them on Monday and we have come a long way with them. The first couple of treatments we tried the correct and patient parent approach; you know we put it up to our own faces "look at mama" or "look at daddy" - "Do you want to try it?", which worked fine until we turned it on and he would promptly throw the mask on the floor (didn't like the noise). So we would start all over "mama do it?", "daddy do it", "Does Teague want to do it?" and he would shake his head "no". Then we just said forget it and held him down. One of us would read to him and one held the mask in place. Worked well, but sucked to listen to him wail. Finally it dawned on me to put him in front of the computer so he could "play" his toddler computer game. Bingo. We are in business.

And exhale.

Well for the first time in about two and a half months I feel as though I can relax about this whole illness fiasco we have had with Teague. We had (hopefully) our last appt. today and it came back all clear. Thank you to all of you who cared and sent emails, calls, etc. It meant a lot and now I finally feel like I can exhale.

So onto more fun stuff. My friend Amy's little girl raises her hand whenever someone asks her questions like "who's crazy". I laughed so hard at that and so I started asking Teague and he does the same thing. It's really cute. Here you can get a small glimpse of it as he is very busy with something else to be bothered by me asking him such a thing!

We were in Morris and celebrated Papa's birthday. We had a nice time. Then Teague stayed at my parents while Ryan and I went out with some friends for dinner, Molitor's Haunted Acres and Rockband Party, Part II. I didn't bring my camera, so if I am able to get some decent pics from the night I will share them later. Here is a pic of Teague with Papa on his birthday and one of him trying to eat all of Papa's golf balls.