Holidays & Hospitals

We had a very nice and relaxing Christmas week, with the exception of a few hospital visits for Great Grammy Helen and myself. I'll go into more detail about that later, but first, here is how our week started...

Owen couldn't wait to go see Santa. For at least two weeks he would tell whoever would listen, stranger or not, what Santa was bringing him for Christmas. "I'm getting a skateboard!" he would say in an excited voice. Then with exaggerated hand jesters he would explain that he was also getting a helmet, and knee pads, and elbow pads. I love how they just assume that they are getting whatever they want. Thankfully, we were planning on buying him that anyway, only we got him a scooter instead of a skateboard.
Since Owen was born, we have bought him only one present for his birthday and Christmas, and then made a donation in his name. This is something we plan on continuing for both kids, however we forgot about Santa! So this year we bought Owen the scooter and helmet as his one big gift, made a donation to Toys for Tots, and then had smaller gifts from Nana and Papa that Nana had thankfully wrapped from Santa. Although if you ask Owen, pretty much every gift came from Santa, even the digital camera we explained that Nana and Papa bought him.
{Pics taken by Owen with his new camera to come!} Thanks for all the nice gifts Nana and Papa, aka Santa!
Because we were going to the Willards' for a couple of days to spend Christmas, we had our own Christmas at home so we didn't have to take even more stuff. Here is Owen opening his scooter.

I think he was most excited about the helmet and knee/elbow pads. So funny!

Then we headed up to Mimi and Grumpa's house, where Mimi had a fun surprise for us. She bought our family a very cute book and doll called The Elf on the Shelf. This is going to be a new family tradition for us. Every year before Christmas you take out the elf, who Owen named Marker, and place him somewhere in the house. As the book explains, each night the elf goes to the North Pole and reports to Santa whether you have been good or bad. Then the next morning you find him somewhere else in the room. We had a lot of fun with it talking to Marker throughout the day and using him to our advantage once in a while too. Below is where we found Marker Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve we went to great Uncle Larry and Auntie Joyce's house for dinner. No pics though because I forgot the camera, sorry. We had a very nice time though and Owen was great entertainment as usual. Grammy Helen wasn't able to make it though because she had spent the night before in the ER. She seems to be doing a little better now, but still isn't 100%. Please pray for her.
Owen and Mimi putting together his new Parking Garage Christmas morning. What a fun gift. Thanks Mimi and Grumpa, we all love it.


Owen and Grumpa playing with everything and having a good time making a big mess.



The rest of the Willards came over for Christmas dinner. We had a wonderful meal and a good time sharing funny stories about the Willard boys, I mean men, as usual.


Teagan loved cuddling with Jessica, and Owen couldn't get enough of Janice.

A family photo before we settled in for the night.

So now here is the story of me going to the hospital. On Christmas Eve we took Owen to his first real movie at the theatre. We saw The Tale of Despereaux, which was cute although kind of slow. Owen did a great job sitting through the entire thing. I however got a very bad chest pain halfway through and was short of breath and then couldn't take in a deep breath without it causing a lot of pain in my heart. I have had this before and didn't think it was that big of a deal, except that it continued into the next day, at which point the pain also moved to the middle of my back. Because of my family's history of heart problems, I decided to go to the doctor when we got back to RI the day after Christmas. She did an EKG at the office and told me to go to the ER because she was concerned it could be heart related, or I could have a blood clot in my lung given that I am four weeks postpartum. Although I felt this was unnecessary I went anyway because I have too much to loose. After more tests, including a CT, they ruled out anything major and sent me home with "abnormal chest pain". Thanks, I could have told you that! Anyway, I am feeling much better now, just a little irritated that we had to go through a night in the ER, but thankful that nothing is wrong. I also had to "pump and dump" as they say for 48 hours because of the IV injection from the CT. Mike therefore had to give Teagan her first bottle, which she took like a pro.


Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas and hope everyone else did too!

Big Brother Owen

Owen is such a proud big brother as you can see from the first picture. I love the face he is making. He wants his little sister to do everything with him. He wants her to nap and play with him all the time, and is constantly trying to give her kisses and wake her up. He asked me why she sleeps all the time and I told him because she needs to grow. Then he got upset and said he didn't want her to get bigger because he loves his baby T. However, he also wants her to play with him and so I explained that she needed to get bigger to play. Then it was ok that she was growing. But the best big brother Owen quote so far was yesterday morning when the four of us were laying in bed cuddling. Owen said, "Mama, I love my little sister Teagan. She is my friend. Thank you for taking her out of your belly." It doesn't get any better than that!


Owen wanted to pretend he was an astronaut so we made this space helmet. The second picture is Owen pretending to walk in space. I can't wait to see the things the two of them come up with together.

Diapers?!

Because we use cloth diapers with Owen, but didn't start until he was around four months old, many people have asked what we are using for Teagan. So I thought I would share. In a couple of weeks we will switch her over to small Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers that we are getting from a friend and then eventually she will use the ones that we have had for Owen. That is part of the beauty of using cloth diapers, you don't have to keep buying them! Until then, I found some eco-friendly disposables that are actually biodegradable. They are from Sweden of course! The company is called Nature Babycare and I encourage you to look at their website if you are in need of diapers and just don't think you can do cloth (although I promise it is easier than you think!). Click here to go to their site, which might be interesting even if you don't need diapers.
We are also using their wipes because they are biodegradable as well. Now some of you might think this next part is a little extreme, however if I am going to do something I am going to do it all the way. I read in a green book for the home that even though some diapers are chlorine free and claim to be biodegradable, they won't actually break down in a landfill because of the plastics in them and methane gasses from other things surrounding them in all the waste. So, because these diapers actually are biodegradable we are composting them ourselves along with the wipes on the Willard property. Trust me, I know I sound crazy, but I'm doing it anyway!


And Owen I am proud to say has pretty much been potty trained for the past two months, with a few accidents now and then. He wears big boy undies all day, even when we are out in public, and then wears a cloth version of pull-ups for naps. The cloth pull-ups are by another Swedish company called Imse Vimse. I love them.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

After three days and nights of rain, we woke up to a new Willard Pond, only this one was too close to the house for comfort. The grassy part of our backyard had almost six inches of water in it and our street was flooded too.


We decided it was time to get out of the house and find something to do! So we went duck pin bowling. Owen loved it! The bowling balls were just the right size for him. This was his first time bowling and looking at these pictures makes me realize just how big he has gotten. This was also my first time duck pin bowling. I think it's an east coast thing.



Teagan of course slept through the entire day. Even our lunch at the famous Rod's Grille where we had weiners "all the way", which is another east coast thing.

TWO WEEKS AS A FAMILY OF FOUR

My dad explained to me that two kids isn't twice as much work, but more like four. Although there were moments these past two weeks it has felt like four times as much laundry, four times as many dirty diapers, and four times the amount of dishes, one thing is for sure...

our new little family of four is filled with much more than four times the love!!!!

Teagan's first two weeks have been filled with joyful days and peaceful nights. She is an extremely good baby, a healthy eater, and would sleep through the night if I let her. Owen has been a very good big brother. He is patient, loving, and understanding. He wants to share with her, play with her, and show her off to others. {I pray that it lasts!}
Here are some pics from the past two weeks... enjoy!

After the doc told me that I could be having the baby in the next 48 hrs, Nana and Papa drove out as fast as they could only to have to wait another week. We spent that time getting some last minute things done. Owen and Papa had fun putting together a new cart for the laundry room, while Nana and I ran errands like we were crazy.

Finally Teagan arrived in all her glory.


Nana, Papa, Mimi, Grumpa, and of course Owen came over right away to see the new addition to the family.

Proud Papa with his sixth grandchild. Now both my sisters and myself have had one boy and one girl, however only Owen is a big brother.

Nana and Mimi were so excited they had a new little girl to shop for that they actually stopped to buy some pink outfits on their way to the hospital. And so it begins...


Already saying hello to the camera. Look at how long she is.

Teagan's first friends came for a visit.

Willy D and Tat

Bethany and her husband Aaron came too with Pat and Amy.

Bethany is above and Amy below.

Then it was time to go home. Owen was very excited to bring Teagan home and wanted to do so the first day, but I was happy to have the rest at the hospital.

When we got home that afternoon we had Thanksgiving dinner since we had missed it the day before. Not that the date matters, after all the holiday is about giving thanks and we definitely had a lot to be thankful for.


Our first full day at home together. These pictures were taken before I discovered a mysterious rash all over Owen's body for which he had to be taken to the doctor immediately. It just wouldn't be our life story if there wasn't some kind of drama to talk about. The rash was viral and took a few days to go away, but it was difficult explaining to Owen that he already had to "leave his sister alone."




After a couple days of relaxing, with a lot of big yawns by all, we got a little stir crazy and decided to go to Newport for the day. We had a nice lunch and then a quick walk on the Cliff Walk before we were all wiped out.



The first week went by in a blink and it was time for Teagan's one week check up. We stopped at the "toy" park to play for a little while on the way. Teagan weighed a little over nine pounds and was 95% for height and 87% for weight.


A classic picture of Nana; playing in the sandbox with her Louis!


Back at home there was lots of cuddling done by everyone and little activities to occupy ourselves. Owen especially enjoyed decorating the gingerbread train.




Teagan's first bath with her big brother helping, as much as we would let him that is. Below is a picture of her crazy hair after the bath.




Saying goodbye to Nana and Papa, and thanking them for everything they did for us over the past few weeks. We will miss them!


The next day we had our first snow!



Then we finally got our Christmas tree. We decided to get a potted tree this year, not only because it is better for the environment, but we thought it would be fun to plant on the Willard property eventually explaining that we had planted it when Teagan was born.

It is hard to see in this picture, but Daddy is in the background decorating the tree basically by himself while Mama fed Teagan and Owen piled up all the empty ornament boxes "working" as he put it.

The finished product.

Once things settled down a little we had visitors at home too. Great "Auntie" Joyce came over for a nice visit, as well as Tom and O'rya with baby Henry, and my coworker Ann.

Then we headed up to Mimi and Grumpa's for a couple of days to visit with Great Grammy Helen and to meet Mimi's new horse Moon.

Moon is a four year old racing horse that Mimi rescued and got over the weekend. As you can imagine everyone is very excited for the new additions to the Willard family whether they walk on two feet or four.