All smiles

Well, it is true what they say...a newborn does seem to turn the corner around 6 weeks old. Maggie has been doing so great (not that she ever wasn't doing great, but she seems to be a new babe now!). She has been giving us pretty consistent and reliable sleep now at night of at least 5 hours. She even stretched it out to 7 hours last night!
Maggie is also starting to coo and smile some, and I find myself obsessing over trying to catch one on my camera. Haven't had much luck yet, but I'll get one eventually!

I also can't believe Colin will be 2 next month. I am starting to get some things organized for the party and we've been working on Colin saying "two" so he's ready to tell people how old he is.
He still loves being outside, so we are going to be planning some outdoor activities for his birthday. My girlfriend from college that lives in South KC is going to let me borrow her bounce house for the kids to play in, and we will have a pinata and, if Brian gets his way, a slip-n-slide. I hope the parents don't mind getting wet. There's a good chance the weather will be very hot, so perhaps they will enjoy the water, too!

Colin playing some baseball. He loves "beeball" so much!

The end of a cute, quick, smile. I'll catch one eventually! She is looking so grown up!

Maggie's Big Day!

Maggie and cousin Johnny got baptized on Saturday, June 25. It was a beautiful ceremony done by Fr Mike at St. Therese Church (he married Brian and I).

Mommy and Maggie before the ceremony (excuse me, I probably haven't even washed my face yet, and honestly, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I've put on makeup since going on maternity leave 6 weeks ago).

The cake

What a great picture (thanks to Tiff for taking the pictures for us)

The proud grandparents

Maggie's Godparents, Katie and Michael

Brian and I with our new Godchild, Johnny.

One of our best family photos...Colin would've preferred to be running around and wasn't really holding still. I guess I should get used to it...

Auntie Dus and Uncle Len (from Vancouver, Canada). We were so glad they were able to stay for the baptism.

The best picture of the Dudley side...sorry Tiff, you got tucked on the side...we'll have to get another one later...

Brian and Colin after the ceremony

playing around with Daddy & Uncle Dave

Odds & Ends

You really do have to take it day by day with a newborn. Maggie will sometimes have great days with terrible nights, okay days and sleep great at night, and it's always different depending on how many errands need to be done and how much sleep we get the night before. But, overall, she's a great baby, just as sweet as can be. Really only cries when she's extremely mad or tired (both of which we try to avoid, obviously!)
Maggie does seem to be having a little bit of an issue with her tummy though. Typically breastfed babies have no problems going poop on a daily basis, however that has never really been the case with Maggie since her 2nd week of life. She will, at the most, go every other day, and sometimes will go a week in between. This was concerning to me, but not to our doctor. I guess some babies are just so efficient at using all of the nutrients and proteins/fats from the milk that they don't produce much waste. If Maggie appeared to be uncomfortable though, we should give her a teaspoon of Dark Karo syrup in a bottle with her milk for one of her feedings.
We did this, and magically, it worked! It will be a good trick to have up my sleeve in case we need it anymore.
She had her 6 week checkup (a little earlier than she was supposed to, and so we have to go back next week for shots...yuck!). She must be going through a growth spurt because she gained 11 ounces from last week and has been eating like crazy today. Somehow I managed to get in a nap though, a very nice surprise!

The magic corn syrup


We also had another first for Colin...his first time falling down our backyard steps off our deck. I was outside holding Maggie (trying to get her distracted and calm) while Brian, Uncle Len and Aunt Dusty were finishing their dinner. Colin came outside and was playing with his lawnmower and just running around. Well, he saw a bird out in our yard and wanted to chase it. I heard him say "bird" and then head for the stairs. He has always done really well on the stairs, holding onto the railing and going slowly, since he is such a cautious little kid.
I saw it happen...almost in slow-motion...he just mis-stepped and started to log roll down the stairs. Brian must've been watching me, because I stood up to put Maggie down on the deck (I still am not sure what I was going to do), and before I could do anything, Brian said he saw my face look scared and my eyes get big and he leaped up and was out down the steps before I even got Maggie down. I swear he did it in one big jump, and he made it halfway down the stairs to Colin, where he had stopped, thankfully. Colin was scared (as were the adults), but Brian just checked to make sure he was okay and off they went to get that bird.
Thank Goodness God had His protective hands on us that moment...

the stairs...there's a ton of them

keeping busy...

I literally have been trying to do a blog post for about 5 days now and just haven't had a free minute (or trying to get some sleep or a shower sounded like a better idea). In any case, things have been hopping around the Teson house.
Kitchen renovation is still underway...but it coming to a close very quickly. Here are a few of the before pictures...
There was nasty hunter green (very dark) laminate countertops and a lovely white ceramic backsplash with hunter green diamonds on it. Not quite our style. So, we got a much more neutral and trendy laminate and some (clearanced) backsplash tiles and voila...a new and improved kitchen. The guys (Uncle Len & Brian) worked a ton on it, even on Father's day. And I only went 1.5 days without a kitchen sink, which is even better. I helped Uncle Len do the grouting earlier this week, and found muscles in my shoulders I never knew I had! It is even complete with a new light over the new sink (because the previous light fixture put out the same amount of light as a Bic Lighter, according to Uncle Len).
The guys just have to switch out some electrical outlets and Uncle Len will do a silicone caulk strip around the edges and the kitchen will be complete.
YIPEE!!

The new laminate on top of our old laminate

After the tiling was complete (no grouting done yet, though)

Another view of the kitchen in progress...

Uncle Len snoozing with Mags

A cute pic of Mags (weighing in Week 5 at 10 lbs 3 oz)

Everyone (except Colin, Maggie and I) went to a Royals game on Tuesday night. They had a blast, even though the Royals lost and they didn't get a free t-shirt. Maggie was being difficult that evening and cried for pretty much 4 hours straight (the entire time they were gone). Colin, however, was an angel. He watched Elmo and entertained himself with books and puzzles while I was busy monkeying around with Maggie. At one point I was in her room trying to get her to sleep when he came in carrying my camera and saying "cheese". I started snapping some pics and got a few cute ones. Please forgive his dirty mouth, I gave him a couple M&M's earlier and they were apparently very yummy!

A busy 3 days

First off, I can't believe Maggie is 4 weeks old already. She weights 9.5 pounds and overall, is still a really great baby. She doesn't cry often (except at night, boo!) and lets me lug her all around town running errands.
My Aunt Dusty & Uncle Lenard drove from Canada to do a long vacation trip (they took about a week to drive down here, stopping at multiple places along the way, including Wichita and Branson) and ended up here in KC for a bit. They just absolutely adore Maggie & Colin (I mean, really, who doesn't?!) It's so nice to have some extra hands around the house while we are still getting used to being a family of 4.

Here's a pic of Daddy and Colin vacuuming. At first, about 3 months ago, Colin hated the vacuum and was very scared of it. Now, it is another obsession of his. He LOVES it and this requires Daddy and Mommy to vacuum our house every day. But, it is a good bargaining chip for us to use if we need Colin to do something or behave differently.

Colin was vacuuming with his golf set. What a great helper!

Colin and Daddy watching for Uncle Len and Aunt Dus to get to the house... For the past couple of months we have been talking to them once a week on Skype, trying to get Colin reacquainted with them both. The last time Colin saw them he was 10 months old when we went to Vancouver to visit his Dudley side Great-Grandparents.

Colin being a great big brother and playing with Maggie

Dusty and Mags

Len and Mags - this is often how she looks in his arms...he's got a magic touch with her.


On Monday morning, we headed off to Deanna Rose Children's Farmsted again since Colin had so much fun the first time we went about 2 months ago. Well, the weather did not cooperate for us. We got out there about 9:20 and was told there was a lightening warning for the city of Overland Park and we needed to all go to a shelter area at the farm. We chose the dairy barn (along with A LOT of the other people at the farm) because they were going to do a milking demonstration at 9:30. I found this particularly interested considering I am breastfeeding Maggie and often feel like Hazel, the cow we saw being milked. However, she produces 3-3.5 gallons of milk each milking, and I am nowhere near that (thank goodness!). Colin loves Mooing at cows and really enjoyed the demonstration.

Colin, Daddy and Hazel the cow

They put some of the milk in bottles for the baby calves to drink. Colin got to help feed one of the calves. He kept saying "more" after he was done because he was the last one to get to feed them and the bottle was empty. He wanted someone to refill the bottle for the calves.

Hey Calves!

Colin and the ducks. One of them nibbled at his hand when he was feeding them some straw, and he kept saying "no ducky, no" to him...

Turns out, the farm had to completely close down at 11 due to the lightning warning, so we headed to Crown Center so we could have some lunch at Fritz's. We have gone to Fritz's once before for Colin's first birthday, so it has been a while. This was the restaurant that delivers your order by train that circles above the restaurant booths. Very fun atmosphere, a bit pricey for the food, but lots of fun for kids.

Choo Choo!

Our first picture of the 4 of us. I can't believe it took that long for us to get a picture, and for our first picture, we all have on funny hats. Oh well!

The whole group at lunch at Fritz's.

Colin with Auntie Dus' shoes. He loves these shoes and likes to wear them all over the place. Recently, Dus found them in the backyard, but he carries them all over the house. Too bad they are one of her favorite pairs of shoes and he's not going to get to keep them!

Uncle Len and Colin playing in our backyard. I just realized our lawn looks terrible in this pictures, however, we purposely put the playset there since there is a slab of concrete under the lawn there and we can't keep our grass healthy there.

Well, we started a new home improvement project...we are taking up our countertops and replacing the ugly hunter green laminate with a nice neutral color. We are also going to redo the backsplash and get rid of the green there, too. So, after these 2 changes, there will be no more green in our kitchen, thank goodness! Uncle Len is working hard on our kitchen, and I am so glad, because currently I have no kitchen sink and we are doing dishes in the bathrooms. Not fun! I'm sure it will all be worth it soon!

Maggie enjoying some tummy time with Dus. Such a happy girl!

As you can tell, we have been very busy, and will continue to be busy for a while. I will try to get more pics up as we do more activities.

Cute kids

Suddenly, I am outnumbered...
Now that Brian is back to work...and Meemaw is back in Topeka...
I now have 2 kids and 1 of me.
But, I have done the "double duty" a couple of times now, and it seems to be going well. You just have to be that much more organized or else things can come unraveled very quickly.
Luckily, Colin seems to be adjusting very well to having a baby sis, and minus a few meltdowns, is being that awesome little kid I know he is. He does like to be held quite a bit more, but we can usually work around that.
The problem is that is has been so stinkin' hot outside, and we can't just spend hours outside running off steam. Colin has been wanting to watch "Elmo" lately, and has been willing to sit and watch for a little while, enough for me to feed Maggie.

It's hard to get pictures of the 2 kids together, but I did manage to get a couple of them separately. ENJOY!

Colin suddenly looks very grown up to me.

Especially in this picture...

Maggie just being cute! (and stretching, I had just woken her up to eat!) I know, I know, I shouldn't wake a sleeping baby, but the doctor wants me to during the day until we really get this reflux issue under control. It is very important that she continue to gain weight so she is more likely to outgrown the issue quicker.

Stretch....

Falling over...

Jacob Todd

Well, we all know dogs don't live forever, but our Golden Retriever, Jacob Todd Teson, is unfortunately getting pretty sick. At the end of February (while he was still living at Grammie & Grandad's house since our house was on the market), we noticed a change of behavior in him. He wasn't nearly as energetic - well, as energetic as a 12 year old dog could be. He wouldn't eat some days, began throwing up randomly, wouldn't hardly move on some days, literally laying in the same spot for multiple hours.
We got some blood work done on him, the vet was suspicious of an enlarged heart. Sure enough, the blood work came back and he had elevated cardiac enzymes. To be sure, we did a chest x-ray and it didn't show anything wrong with his heart. But, it did reveal some sort of a mass that appeared to be coming from his spleen. This is very common in large breed dogs and typically shows up later in life.
The symptoms are fatigue, abdominal distention, lack of appetite, general weakness (likely from anemia from the toxins released from the mass). The mass can be benign, but will eventually rupture, and can cause him to bleed to death. Or, the mass can be a hemangiosarcoma, a cancer, and this will eventually spread to other organs in his body. The only real solution is to have his spleen removed, however, it could have already spread and the surgery could be for nothing.
So, we are just going to watch it and carefully keep our eye on how Jake is acting. If he starts having more "bad" days than "good", we will likely take the next step and make that horrible, but necessary, decision to possibly put him to sleep.
Jake has been at our house since Brian and I got married. He is just as much part of our family as any of our kids. He is such a great dog, very gentle, patient, and well-behaved. We definitely lucked out to get such an awesome dog! And...Colin just ADORES him. First thing in the morning, he asks "where gake?" and finds him, giving him a hug, telling him "hello" and we let him outside to go to the bathroom. I guess we should just enjoy the time we have left with Jakey Todd. The vet said these masses can grow very slowly, so he could have quite a bit of time left in his life. However, if and when they decide to rupture, it goes quick from there. Ultimately, we just don't want him to be in any pain or discomfort...

Such a sweet doggy!

Okay, now that I am done wiping my eyes and blowing my nose...
Here's another picture of our beautiful Maggie Mae. She has got some mad baby acne right now, but that will go away soon hopefully. She's a great sleeper, especially during the day, and I have to wake her up during the day at her 3 hour feeding intervals. At night, since she has reached her birth weight, our doctor said we could let her sleep as long as she wanted. Some nights she will give us 5 hour stretches, which are like heaven!! I am still pumping pretty aggressively to build up my milk stores for when I go back to work. Once you stop breastfeeding as often, your milk supply goes way down, and with Colin, I struggled so much to produce enough milk for him. I don't want to put myself through all that stress with Maggie, plus with me starting school again, that would just be one more thing for me to worry about. I hope this helps to alleviate any stress!
Maggie continues to be a very laid-back little girl, she only cries when she is hungry or really mad at us (like when Colin kicked her in her face with his shoes on, or when we are giving her a bath). Could we be lucky enough to be blessed with 2 easy-going children? I don't know, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed :)

Maggie at 2.5 weeks old (8 lbs 12 oz)