You'd never know by these smiles, but Tegan fought his morning and afternoon nap like a CRAZY man! I thought I was going to pull my hair out. Oh, and he did it again at bedtime a few hours after these pictures were taken. Regardless of the above, he's still the sweetest person I ever knew. His smile just makes me melt! :) 
I thought they really highlighted his beautiful blue eyes... 
Many of you have asked in passing where Tegan got his eye color. Here's what I know. My dad has blue eyes. I had blue eyes until I was 5 or 6 years old (from what I remember). Brendan's sisters both have blue eyes. That's what I know.
YAY! Sleeping is very erratic lately, Tegans and subsequently my own. Some nights he'll only wake up a 2 or 3 times and other nights (like last night) he's up more than that... I stop counting after 5 times. I don't know if it's teething, growing, being hot, cold, wet... who knows. We put him in the Pampers Baby Dry diapers, so he's not peeing through his diapers, though they are soaked when he wakes up. Any suggestions, as always, are welcome.
Jenn and I (yes, Abbie's mom has a pretty cool name) took the kids to the Como zoo and conservatory in St. Paul. Abbie was pretty tired, so she slept for most of the time but Tegan really seemed to enjoy most of it, especially the conservatory. 
There were points in the conservatory where he just couldn't hold his excitement and got quite vocal, it was very cute! I guess when you love nature, especially trees, a conservatory is just amazing! :) 
The only thing that us moms didn't like about the whole date was how darn HOT it was. And the conservatory... it was down right tropical in there, and I'm not referring to the plants. SO HUMID! 
Tegan woke up at 5:45 and would start screaming in a seemingly scared tone whenever I tried to leave the room... I wonder if he had a bad dream. :( Sooooo, I brought him into bed with me on the futon in his room to avoid him waking up Brendan should he not fall back asleep and be loud. We both fell back to sleep really quickly and woke up at 7am when Brendan came in and took pictures :)
Well, yesterday around 7 a.m. we packed up the car and headed down to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa to visit Tegans great-grandparents, a.k.a. Brendan's paternal grandparents. About 5 hours later we finally arrived, but not quickly enough for Tegan's liking. :) Thankfully, though, Brendan and I split the driving, so Tegan was able to look at a new face just about when he was ready for a change. Don't get me wrong, though, Tegan is a pretty darn good traveler, especially compared to other babies (which I won't name) who I've heard some not so fun stories about.
Not a whole lot to say other than we really enjoyed our time with the great-g'parents, short, but nice. 
AND, I'm pretty darn sure meeting and spending some time with Tegan made their day (if not their week or month)! 
Then, I really printed the picture in the middle of it (the one where they have their pinky fingers linked) and, forgetting it was still in the photo envelope, ripped up the envelope, so they never got it. OOPS!
CRAZY! Yes, the bird died... I think upon impact because it didn't move at all. And yes, 
that's Kaela's phone in the corner of the photo... she was taking a pic too.
Yesterday I gave Tegan his first try of Cheerios. He enjoyed moving them around on the tray of his highchair for a good 10 minutes or so and even grabbed a few with his fist, but not with his thumb and forefinger yet. I'm in awe of how intensely focused Tegan was with picking up the Cheerios... he was definitely getting frustrated towards the end after he couldn't get one from the tray to his mouth by himself. 
I finally took one and offered it to him and he immediately opened his mouth up wide...once the cheerio was in there, though, he wasn't quite sure what to do with it and then it started to gag him, though I think it was just his natural reflex to something solid like that sitting on his tongue. So, I swiped it out and that was that. I'll give it a try again another day. 
Tegan really had a fun time with Grandma E. They were singing and talking and doing all sorts of fun things. Grandma even road her bike along side T and I on 'our' run, which we (really I) really appreciated to help take my mind off of how flippin' windy it was! MAN! I thought that we were going to be blown off the sidewalk. CRAZY!
I really wanted to share this picture because it is my new favorite picture of my mom...even though it's a bit blurry, I think it is still SO neat. Grannyhood (if that's a word, we'll assume it is) really suits her well! She's just radiant!
This picture displays Tegan in his new outfit...size 6-9 months! Did I mention in my last post about Tegan's size? I don't think so. Well, he was weighed when he went to the doctor for what we thought was an ear infection and the kid just won't stop growing! 19 lbs!!! No wonder my back is getting more and more sore each night! At least he's tall/long, too. That's why I had to buy some bigger outfits. The 3-6 month outfits are too short and I can't snap most of them in the crotch any more... Brendan and I both have long torsos, though, so the T-man was basically guaranteed to have the same.
Well, we are back and even though we had a wonderful time with the fam, we are glad to be home! Tegan did relatively well despite all the excitement and even slept in his pack 'n play for the majority of the night 3 out of 4 nights. Last night was the only night that he ended up in bed with us before 5 or 6 a.m.
Seems that Tegan may just be a pool lovin' baby! We had to ease him into the water each time since it was 
a bit chilly (evenf or us!) but once he was used to the temp. he loved for us to hold him under his armpits and pull him as he kicked his little feet like crazy! Pretty neat how he/babies already know what to do in the water (kicking that is).
Great-Uncle Tegan & TeganArmed with my new knowledge, Tegan and I stopped at Target on the way home to pick up some more infant Tylenol, teething rings and other teething accessories. I even bought these neat little net-like toys that you can put frozen or chilled fruit/veggies in for baby to chew on. It enables them to not only soothe their sore gums, but also enjoy fresh or frozen food! I now have sliced bananas in the freezer for T to enjoy tomorrow using this neat device. :)
