Where is the "Good" in Goodbye?

Yesterday we said our final goodbye to our pastor and his family. It was a bittersweet day filled with laughter and a lot of tears. Brian lead our church for 14 years, and Rog and I were with him for 10 of those years. He and his family have become personal friends and have made a permanent imprint on our hearts. We will never forget them.
How lucky we are to have known these people that have been so hard to say goodbye to.

Water Baby

Yesterday was a spontaneously fun day. Rog ended up getting off of work early, so I decided to take off a couple hours early, and we picked up Teagan to take her to the pool. The girl at daycare told us that they had tried to get her to go to sleep for her nap, but she and her friend Jocelyn had instead figured out how to fold the mattresses in their cribs and bounce on them, so they spent their naptime occupying themselves that way instead.
After learning of the lack of a nap, I was a bit apprehensive about taking her to the pool, but we decided to go for it. We were meeting Aunt Erin and some friends and were looking forward to it. She fell into a deep sleep in the car on the way there. We got her out of the carseat, in through the gates, laid her down on a lounge chair and smothered her with sunblock, and she peacefully snoozed through it all. Finally we took her into the pool with us and carefully splashed a little water on her to wake her, but not shock or startle her. She did finally wake up and she was in a surprisingly great mood. The water was a little cold, but it didn’t seem to bother her much. She got to play with her buddies Quinn and Brendan for a little while, and she loved watching her daddy jump off of the diving board. (She wanted to give it a try, too!) We all had a really good time!

Caught in the Act

There's No Place Like Home

Thank you Aunt Erin, for the sparkly ruby slippers that Teagan has attached herself to so completely. Playing dress up is now a multiple time daily affair in our household.
Saturday morning, our daughter went to spend the night at Mimi and Poppi's house, and she came back home on Sunday with lots of treasures. Some new shoes, a "new" purse, and lots of "new" costume jewelry. She's been walking around our house decked out in shorts, a t-shirt, her ruby slippers, her purple patchwork purse, and piles of necklaces around her neck and on her head (some necklaces don't fit over her head, so she just sets them on top and thinks it's hilarious.)
The things she has been picking up lately are amazing me. Yesterday she wanted to brush her teeth at the same time that I was, and she had to have me pick her up and hold her over the sink so she could "spit". She's even gotten into my makeup bag and gone through the motions of putting it on herself. It's like having my own little shadow every day. We'll ask her to say words, and even though a lot of times her words don't sound anything like our words, she says them with confidence and usually gets the inflection exactly right. I never knew having a toddler could be this much fun!

So You Think You Can Dance?

Has anyone out there been watching "So You Think You Can Dance" this season? I started watching last season and enjoyed it, but this time around I absolutely fell in love Katee and Joshua, Twitch and Kherrington, and Mark and Chelsie. And I love Cat, too! I've been faithfully sitting on my wooden kitchen chair in my bare bedroom with the TV on the floor watching since the show started in May. (Yes, the bedroom is still under construction, but my Tivo is still plugged in!) I've even burned each episode on to a DVD, as well as burning a compilation of all of my favorite dances so that I can watch them over and over again. I'm not sure how I can adore and appreciate dance so much when I've never made it through a single dance class in my life. I actually did try to take a class a couple of years ago and it was laughable. I can barely put one foot in front of the other without falling on my face, but then again maybe that makes me appreciate the strength and grace that dancers have even more!
Anyway, kind of a random post, but since the finale was last night, (and it was an awesome finale), I've been thinking about it most of the day.

Fabulous Fun Friday

Friday was an interesting day. When I woke up, my head felt about 3 times larger than actual size from the cold that I had felt coming on. When Teagan woke up, I was upset to see that her finger looked infected, so I knew we had to get her in to see the doctor. Fortunately I was able to arrange to work from home that day. Since the appointment wasn't until almost noon, I took her to daycare for a few hours so that I could get some work done. I estimated that I would be able to use my lunch hour to pick her up, take her to see the doc, drop off the prescription to be filled and drop her back off at daycare in about an hour. Wishful thinking. We got to the doctor's office, waited almost an hour before we saw anyone, then we were given the prescription and asked to go to St. John's hospital to get the finger x-rayed to rule out any possibility of a fracture and infection of the bone. By about 12:30 (45 minutes past her normal lunch time and 30 minutes past her naptime), we were on our way to the hospital. Fortunately, the hospital really had their act together, so there is no nightmarish story of waiting for hours. Overall we were only there for about an hour, though it wasn't all that fun with a relentlessly runny albeit stuffy nose and a crabby, tired, hungry toddler that insisted on mowing down innocent bystanders with her stroller in the waiting room and REALLY didn't want to hold her hand still for the x-ray. After the x-ray we had to wait for the results and Teagan was sawing logs within two minutes of us sitting back down in the waiting room. Fortunately there was no fracture, which I kind of figured, but better safe than sorry. I brought her home instead of taking her back to daycare so that she could get better sleep. (She slept obliviously through all of the transfers). Once I laid her down, I realized how awful I felt, so I closed my eyes to rest and opened them an hour and a half later when Rog got home from work. (Oops!) So much for a productive work day...
I ended up sleeping even more on Saturday (sorry I missed the Fortel's gathering, gang!) but when Saturday afternoon rolled around, I started feeling much better. Teagan has been on the antibiotic for 3 days now, and her finger already looks so much better. It looks like we're on the upswing!

Southpaws Rule!

Roger and I have been trying to figure out if Teagan prefers to use one hand over the other. Rog is rooting for her to be right handed, I wouldn't mind a little lefty like myself. But she hasn't really shown a preference, and seems to use both hands interchangeably.
However, she had a minor accident at daycare on Tuesday. I'll spare the details so it doesn't make anyone squirm, but she lost an entire fingernail on her right hand. We've been taking great care to treat it and clean it, but it's obviously very sore. Her right hand now remains carefully suspended in the air while she uses her left to do everything. I have to wonder if this short period of time will actually force her to choose her left hand over her right. It will be interesting to find out.
Below is yet another dress up session. Teagan is wearing an Okie Dokie onesie hanging loose for the summer season, accessorized with a brown leather belt and glittery Snow White pumps two sizes too big. For extra flair, she has added a white barrette and a "Hello Kitty" bandage on her finger. Fabulous!