Clan McFarland

Travels with Aaron (as of Jan 2011)

2011-01-25T11:31:00.000-05:00

visited 7 states (14%)
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Teagan's Travels as of May 2010

2010-05-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

visited 19 states (38%)
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Grand Adventure West

2009-04-20T19:08:00.026-04:00

So I guess this is where I'll write out our grand adventure West for prosperity sake. :) There are 118 pictures over on Facebook. If you read this and want to see them, head over there. It's limited to friends only though, just fyi. I'll post a few highlight pics here but not a hundred of them.

In typical McMillin fashion, what started as Matt taking a trip to Seattle turned into a big family vacation spanning from Seattle to San Francisco. :) So, we spent 10 days for our 10-year anniversary visiting people I hadn't seen in over 10 years. It went something like this....

Wednesday, April 8 we left EARLY from Cleveland to fly to Seattle. Thanks to Andrea for driving us to the airport and then returning our car to our house for us. We left at 7am, flew through Minneapolis and arrived at 11am Pacific Standard Time. The kids did well with the flights. Nothing really to report.

Uneventful plane ride

When we got there we found our rental car and our hotel. Thanks to Michelle for finding Cedarbrook Convention Center in Sea-Tac, WA. It was near the airport, the highway and walking distance from the gaming convention and was generally a VERY cool place to stay. It's set back from the main strip on something like 18 acres of wooded property with a pond and a nice walking trail. In our building there was a 'parlor' (lobby) with a TV with DVD and complimentary snacks (fruit, chips, chocolate covered things, string cheese, yogurt and water). At 9:30pm every night they stock deli sandwiches for what they call "raid the pantry"...also free. LOVE LOVE the free snacks. :)
Plus there was a complimentary extended continental breakfast and the room was lovely.

The back of the Cedarbrook grounds

The kids on our walk, Cedarbrook

Anyway, after getting settled we went to pick up Michelle and head downtown to Pike Place Market for lunch and sightseeing. It was chilly and overcast, but very tolerable. Pike Place Market..HUGE! Had nice hangouts and foodstuff and back to the room.

Thursday, April 9 we went to Seattle Aquarium which was a lot of fun. It's small, but still plenty to see. Teagan had fun dragging Michelle all over the place. :)

Michelle, Teagan, Matt at Seattle Aquarium

Cael explores the octupus

Then to the Space Needle and Experience Music Project. Personally, I think $16 is a bit much for a trip to the top of the Space Needle. There was some interesting literature up there, but in hindsight probably would have been better to have lunch in the revolving restaurant. The EMP was a lot of fun. They had an exhibit about Jimi Hendrix (whom I love) and poster printing which was cool. They have a sound lab which would have been much more fun without the kids since they couldn't reach most of the instruments anyway. Both Teagan and Cael LOVED the virtual drum circle though. Very promising for involvement in future drum circles. :) The night ended with attending the Spring Sing at Michelle's kids' elementary school. It was packed. They did a nice job. Good times!

Teagan and Mama, top of Space Needle
(Cael was sleeping in the stroller which wasn't allowed past security so he didn't go up)

Teagan and Cael pose for a picture, bottom of Space Needle

Teagan and Cael at virtual drum circle, Experience Music Project, Seattle WA

Friday, April 10 was mostly spent at Norwescon at the Doubletree and while there were plenty of fun costumes to look at, there wasn't much gaming going on so we ended up back at the hotel for games and a movie.

Teagan tricks in the lobby

Saturday, April 11 we took Teagan (4 1/2 years), Cael (10 mo) and Alisdair (11 yrs) to Woodland Park Zoo for their Easter festivities. Teagan collected eggs with the 3-5 year olds and we saw some really nice animal exhibits. The kids really enjoyed playing at Zoomazium which is their indoor playground, complete with huge tree, boulders and caves. Michelle's son William joined us after his baseball jamboree for teriyaki dinner and dessert. Can you say Best Tiramisu EVER!?

Teagan at Woodland Park Zoo Bunny Bounce

Alisdair and Teagan at Zoomazium

Cael liked the Zoomazium too!

Will, Michelle, Alisdair Teagan, Heather, Matt, Cael

Sunday, April 12 was breakfast at the hotel and then on the road to Portland. We made it to Pioneer Courthouse Square before noon so we could see the Weather Machine, but when nothing happened by 12:15pm we found out from a security guard that it was under repair. Bummer!
We hiked our way over to Powell's City of Books. A full city block of books. It was immense! We detoured for a yummy lunch at a cafe and chocolatier. Well worth it. Powell's was awesome too!
Then we headed out towards Bagby Hot Springs on the recommendation of my brother. However, after 2 hours and no acceptable lodging near the hot springs we turned around and ended up driving down to Eugene instead.

The Weather Machine; The Road to Estacada; Cael's makeshift bed area
Portland, OR Whiteaker Hostel Loft Eugene, OR

Monday, April 13 was spent in Eugene, Oregon. After getting diaper laundry and breakfast out of the way, we spent the day with Walter, Christina and their 6-year old daughter Sierra. The girls hit it off great! We had a delicious lunch at Cornucopia, coffee at Laughing Goat, played on the playground until it got too cold and rainy. We retired to their house for cards (Frank's Zoo and Palabra) before dinner at Pizza Research Institute. SO much fun! Love Love Love this family.

Cael, Heather, Teagan
at morning coffee

Sierra; mocha monster; Teagan

Bike Art; Walter, Teagan & The Playground; The Lapchynski Family + Teagan outside PRI

Tuesday, April 14 we had to head down towards Northern California. Our goal was to drive along the coast from Grant's Pass, OR to Oakland, CA. It was a bit chilly and Cael was particularly fussy, but the drive was gorgeous! We drove 13 hours and only made it to Ukiah, CA (110 miles north of San Francisco). We got to look for whales, walk on the beach, hug a redwood and generally enjoy a beautiful day driving through the mountains and valleys of Northern California. No complaints there!

Now, I have been accused of posting loads of "people pictures" so I give you a landscape tour of the trip from Southern Oregon to Northern California.

And now back to People Pictures. haha

The McFarlands Meet The Redwoods

Wednesday, April 15 we finished the drive down to the San Francisco Bay area (to San Jose, actually) and after having some suprisingly tasty lunch at a little Italian seafood place on the strip, we visited Winchester Mystery House. What fun! We ended up taking the 65 minute tour (unfortunately we couldn't take the little ones on the behind-the-scenes tour) and then visited the rifle museum, garden and arcade (Matt, haha). We then drove up to Stanford Medical Center so I could see my Uncle Bill who was back in the hospital that morning after a fainting spell at home. He's under treatment for leukemia right now and the theory is that he was just dehydrated. Unfortunately, when I got up to his room he'd just been wheeled down to ultrasound so I wasn't able to see him. We headed back to San Jose to my cousin Maya's house where we were met by Marissa (her 2.5 year old daughter) and my aunt Sandy. I haven't seen Sandy in probably 25 years (seriously!!). So we caught up while we waited for Maya to get back from dropping my aunt Leah off at the airport (she'd flown over from her vacation in Las Vegas for the day for testing as she's the most likely bone marrow donor for my uncle) Confused yet?
The rest of the evening was spent going to dinner and hanging out with my cousin Maya and her family. Which was AWESOME! Circumstances being what they were, their guest room was unexpectedly available and we hadn't booked a hotel yet so we stayed with them. Thanks to them for their generous hospitality!

I have a million pictures from WMH. They are on Facebook.

The Girls: Teagan & Marissa and Marissa & Teagan
(the cousin bath: a McMillin tradition?)

The Boys: Tyler & Cael; Tyler (and Heather)

The Marcus Family at breakfast
(should have made them really take a pic, ah well)

Thursday, April 16 after a lazy morning with Maya, Dave, Marissa and Tyler we headed up to San Francisco for a little tourism. We met with Mark and Abby for lunch at WeirdFish. Mark is another writer for CCP/White Wolf. They then took us to this cool little sci-fi bookstore. Good times! From there we went to Fisherman's Wharf to see the seals,etc. We had lunch at Boudin Bakery & Cafe so Matt could guarantee he'd have seafood on the coast. They are also known for their interesting bread sculptures so that was fun. Then it was time to head over to Oakland. As it turns out our friend Sarah (from back in the day of Sufficient Grounds in Toledo) is living in Oakland as is my friend Matthew. We were able to spend a little time visiting with each of them that night. So much fun!

SAN FRANCISCO

OAKLAND

Left: Sarah & Hazel + Fam
Right: Pic of Matthew from his LJ (should have had Matt take a pic of us, alas)

Friday, April 17 we got up early and made our long trek home via Salt Lake City and Minneapolis before arriving at 10pm in Cleveland. The kids did VERY well on the trip home too. Matt's mom picked us up at the airport and brought us home again, home again.

SO, all in all. I count this vacation as a HUGE success. In typical fashion we crammed A LOT into the time we had. Matt is learning to be more flexible about plans and that worked out extremely well for us this time. :) We both agreed we'd happily do this trip again, but with a few modifications. It'd be nice to hike through the Redwood National Park next time and more time in the San Francisco area would have been lovely too. So...next time! :)

So I imagine if you made it all the way through this in one go you might feel a little bit like we did after the whirlwind trip out west! :) Hope you enjoyed the ride! I know we did!

March update

2009-03-23T19:44:00.005-04:00

Ok, I know it's been a while. Most of you know I'm on Facebook and are there too so you've heard what's going on and you've seen the pictures, but just in case. Here are a couple of Cael and Teagan from today.

Life keeps keeping on. Cael is getting teeth #5-8 simultaneously but is keeping pretty good temperament through it. Just not sleeping so well. Teagan is still in preschool and juggling playdates a few afternoons a week. Her storytelling and imaginary play is expanding greatly. She now plays multiple roles (with different voices and everything) within a story and the stories are getting much more elaborate. Her favorite theme to play right now is pet shop where she is the officer who finds a mean cat and asks the sarge/master if she should throw it in the lake or give it to the pet shop, then she plays the pet shop owner and the little girl who buys the cat and teaches it to be nice. :) So cute.

Anyway, on with the pics.

My kids love the camera!

After previewing the movie and reading the book, we took Teagan to see Coraline.
She thought some parts were scary and that the book was better, but that she really
liked it.
Here she is with button eyes.

Oh, and did I mention that Cael has started pulling to stand now!? He's definitely on the move.
He's pretty well figured out crawling (as long as it's not on wood floors) and is moving effortlessly in and out of sitting and as of TODAY he started pulling all the way up to his feet and taking a few supported steps!

Look out world, here I come!

Photos Jan 2009

2009-01-10T21:08:00.005-05:00

If you haven't checked out Facebook and want to see more pics or hear more about what's going on, head over there. Plenty posted.

I'm so far behind here I might just jump ahead. Here are some pictures of Teagan and I playing in the snow today ans then just random pics

If you haven't checked out Facebook and want to see more pics or hear more about what's going on, head over there. Plenty posted.

I'm so far behind here I might just jump ahead. Here are some pictures of Teagan and I playing in the snow today.

Facebook

2009-01-03T06:24:00.000-05:00

I've recently discovered the joys and mayhem of Facebook.
Check it out! There are TONS of photos in my albums there.

I'll post here again soon. I haven't forgotten I need to finish
blogging the Hawaii trip and now there's the story of Auntie Jenn and Brian's
visit over the holidays. It's been a whirlwind of a 2 weeks and they finally
had to return to Australia yesterday. :( Before they left there were sparks
of conversation about the next great McMillin family adventure. Maybe the ecovillage
in Mexico? Mom says, "start saving". :)

Hawaii, part 3: Beaches

2008-11-23T10:05:00.012-05:00

First, an overall agenda for our week. Mostly for my sake:
Mon: Slaughterhouse beach snorkeling
Tues: Iao Valley
Wed: Maui Ocean Center (aquarium), Luau in Lahaina
Thurs: dying from space plague, Maui Tropical Plantation, Matt to airport
Fri: Molokini
Sat: Brian/Jenn to airport, Haleakala & Winery at Ulupalakua Ranch
Sun: Drive along northern coastline of West Maui, Mom/Dad to airport, Paia, we fly out

Kahana beach, just outside our condo

Gavin's first visit to the ocean

Cael's first visit to the beach. It was windy. He
liked digging his toes in the sand, but then the water came up
and it was a bit shocking to us both! This is the only photo I have of
us on this outing. Keith has the rest.

Keith and Matt took Gavin and Teagan out for a swim
at Kahana Beach.

One nice thing about going to Maui with Brian and Jenn, who lived there for 7 months, was their knowledge of the best beaches to visit. Our first snorkel from the beach was at "Slaughterhouse Beach" and it was gorgeous!

View from the road

I brought the porpoise pouch thinking we'd go in, but Cael mostly slept and Teagan went in for a few minutes, but then came back to the beach, snacked, slept and played in the sand. Teagan declares "I don't like the waves, Mama".

Liz, Keith and Gavin

Teagan *looks* fearless as she heads out to Matt. I think this might have been before she met the waves for the first time

Gavin gets a little mama love

Auntie Liz plays in the sand with Teagan and Gavin

Grammy gives up on the waves herself and holds a sleeping Cael while I go snorkeling.
Thanks Mom!

And last but not least, on our last day we went to Paia, a little town not far from the airport. We stopped at a little park on the way and said hello to the ocean for the last time.

The last of the McMillin clan left on the island

Cael before - Cael after

Tree on the beach (if you know me, you know I LOVE trees)

Hawaii, part 2: lounging

2008-11-23T09:36:00.004-05:00

After much discussion in the planning stages, we finally opted for a 3 bedroom condo on the beach just down the road from my aunt Leah's studio timeshare in Kahana located in West Maui. It was an upstairs unit, but had an upstairs loft and really felt like a house. Matt, Teagan, Cael and I had one bedroom downstairs with a queen and twin bed. Keith, Liz and Gavin (with rented crib) had the second bathroom downstairs with doors that closed off the living room and their own entrance to the main bath. My parents had the master loft bed and bath upstairs and Brian/Jenn slept on the sofa bed. There was a galley style kitchen open to the dining room/living room with a large sectional sofa. I think we borrowed some extra folding chairs from my aunt's studio apt so when all 12 of us were there, we could fit around the dining room table. :) Oh and let us not forget the lanai. Also everything was really open with cathedral ceilings, lots of skylights and slatted windows that opened to the sound of the ocean. Just outside the condo was a grassy area the kids could run, a gate to the beach and a swimming pool.

When we weren't running around visiting the sites, we just hung around, played with the kids and caught up. (kinda the point of the vacation)

Our first morning all the kids were up circa 6am so we decided to puppy-pile
Auntie Jenn and Uncle Brian. :) Good morning! Welcome to the world of having kids!

Brian and Cael

Gavin, probably causing mischief, as all 15-month olds do :)

Matt, Cael and Teagan hanging out watching a movie

Uncle Brian and Teagan play with her new wombat puppet
while Cael looks on

Speaking of puppy-piles :)
Left to right: Auntie Jenn, Auntie Liz, Teagan

Brian reads stories to Teagan. She loves her new "Josephine loves to dance" book about a kangaroo that wants to be a ballet dancer.

Hawaii, part 1: travel

2008-11-23T01:49:00.003-05:00

As previously mentioned, we had to leave at 3:30am on Sunday, Nov 9 for the airport. The best priced flights were through Akron/Canton and all flights to Hawaii (regardless of airport) leave this area at 6-7am. Just do. So, with little to no sleep, we headed to the airport and got checked in. There were issues with the reservation, but mostly it was sorted out by Keith/Liz before we got there. Omg, it was SO cold on the way in and also, we had a moment of realization when we arrived that there was no way we were getting 2 kids and all our luggage in without a cart. This commences our first travel by air with 2 kids.

Cael's first flight: Akron/Canton, OH to Atlanta, GA.
Then there was a 5 hour flight from Atlanta to San Francisco.

San Francisco, CA to Kahalui, HI (Maui)
We were fortunate enough to have an extra seat in our row and rather than have Matt move back from his single seat, I let Cael stretch out and sleep...which he did for almost the entire 5 hour flight. Yea! Such a good little traveller. Teagan, meanwhile, kept herself occupied with videos for most of the flight.

Also, as luck would have it, the people in front of us were willing to switch with Keith and Liz to allow them to have a whole row to themselves too meaning Gavin got his own seat. Whew!
We'd learn on the way home that really it's even better if they sit behind us :)

I wish I'd had a picture of the lot of us going through the airport security. I know on the way home we were a force to be reckoned with. :) You might imagine the sheer volume of baggage there is when travelling with 3 small children for 14 hours. Somehow we survived. :) More from HI later.

Flowergirl Teagan

2008-11-22T14:48:00.012-05:00

Dear readers (ha ha),
You may remember that we were planning a trip to Hawaii when we heard the great news that our friend Ben had proposed to his girlfriend Jami and a Nov 8 wedding date was set. This was the intended departure date to Hawaii, but fortunately we were able to move that back a day. As a result, Teagan was invited to be their flower girl and here are some photos of the big day!

Unfortunately, I'm not so great with indoor photos with not-so-great lighting so I don't have much worth showing from the rehearsal. It went smoothly. The kids were fairly cooperative, everyone seemed to have a good idea of the plan and what few little kinks were worked out. Note, Jami's son Jon has become quite a dear friend to Teagan and was the ringbearer. At the tender age of 5, he's already stated he plans to marry Teagan. :) Teagan's not so sure. :)

On with the photos!

Flower girl Teagan and ringbearer Jon practicing their walk down the aisle

Matt and Cael hanging out in the back

The Boys
My brother Keith and his long-time friends Luke, Ben and Edmund
(left to right)

Also, most of my wedding pictures were teh suck as well...here's what I could salvage...

Teagan and Cael at the hotel suite. Yes, he's wearing a dress shirt and pants. He wasn't too thrilled about it either. This is the only photo you'll see too as he slept through the wedding (thank goodness), made early rounds at the reception, nursed and then was back to sleep again.

I do wish I'd gotten a video of Teagan trying to get everyone to do the "coolie dance" at the hotel suite. She was quite enthusiastic :)

Teagan and Jon all dolled up :)

They had both practiced dancing at home before the wedding, not that you could tell.
We kept reminding Jon he had to be gentle on Teagan. They did have a good time though!

Grammy, Teagan and Auntie Liz dancing on the sidelines during the wedding party dances which included a first family dance with Ben, Jami and Jon. So sweet!

The happy couple

A true mama! When Jon decided to lay down on the floor
during the reception, Jami joined him without hesitation.
Ben was being attentive, as always, and Teagan was in her usual
state of curiosity and need for being involved. :)

All in all, things went very smoothly for the wedding as well. We are very happy for them and hope their lives resume a more normal state soon. :)
We didn't stay too late as we had to get Teagan to bed before leaving the house at 3:30am to get to the airport for the trip to Hawaii. That post will be up soon! Stay tuned.

Midwives found to aide babies survival

2008-10-14T10:13:00.001-04:00

A study out of Australia....

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/midwives-found-to-aid-babies-survival/2008/10/09/1223145542010.html

Random Photos

2008-10-04T22:31:00.006-04:00

Above: Cael and his chameleon :) and yep, he just fell asleep while I was cleaning
Below: Hydrocephalus Association walk Sept 26 at Mayfield Heights Park...SO GREAT!

Teagan had such a wonderful time. Here she is schmoozing with the high school gals that were doing face painting and temporary tattoos. See Teagan's collection. I think she ended up with 4 paintings and 3 temporary tattoos :)

I made a pair of recycled wool longies! :)

Teagan on picture day. What a ham!

Cael's monster booty longies arrived!! OH and his weeKilty!

Just pulling some favorites as of late. Just because I don't post, doesn't mean I haven't been keeping track via photos :)

Birthday wishes

2008-10-04T21:04:00.011-04:00

Listening to The Backyardigans.. "into the thick of it..." Feels a little like that here. School is well underway and there is much going on. I don't know if I have it in me to go into all the details, but I'm going to at least post about Teagan's birthday party. Teagan says it was "awesome-cool". :)

Nana (Matt's mom) really outdid herself. She planned a Dora the Explorer Extravaganza! Everyone Teagan invited came! I believe there were 9 kids including my friend Robyn's kids Alyssa (4) & Aiden (2), nephew Gavin (1), "boyfriend" Jon (5), a boy I treat Kyle (4), and 3 friends from school: Carter (3), Angelina (3), and Cami (3) and Cael (4 mo). I suppose I should mention that Teagan dressed like Dora :) She really embraced playing the part.

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, they snacked on cheese and grapes and colored and played with Dora playdoh playscapes. Matt & Cael stop for a picture. :)

Then they went on an adventure to find the candles that Swiper swiped (complete with a swiper that says "You're too late. You'll never find it now" :) and backpacks with binoculars, compasses, and of course maps). They all wore their explorer hats and really got into the adventure. They used their maps to see that they had to go over the river (a long blue shower curtain with construction paper rocks), through the tunnel and to the pond (a swimming pool filled with stuffed animals, some of which had candles taped to them & Swiper). Teagan had Boots to help. :)

After they found the candles they had a star scavenger hunt. Each kid had a color star that they had to find on the bags of their treats. They all needed adult help and everyone had a great time trekking around the small wooded area behind Nana's house. Each kid had about 10 things to find ranging from sunglasses and small chalkboards to bendy robots and whistles. "Trinkety stuff" as Nana would say.

Then it was time for lunch. All natural hot dogs, bratwursts, sauerkraut, mac'n'cheese, baked beans, Dora Jell-o jigglers, applesauce... Then gift bags for the kids. Score! More playtime. An awesome cupcake cake that had the adventure landscaped across it and homemade ice cream. More playtime and then once everyone left, we let Teagan open the pile of gifts while Gavin played with the paper! :)

It really was awesome-cool. Everyone was very impressed and had such a great time!
Teagan turns 4-years old on Tuesday. I'll wait til then to make the birthday reflection post.

First day of school

2008-09-02T10:09:00.003-04:00

Well, it's true. As I write this (with one hand as Cael is in my lap), Teagan is at her first day of preschool. She'll be in Mrs. Cooke's 3-year old/3-day program on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8:15-11:15a.m. Teagan has said, "Her name is Mrs. Cooke but she doesn't cook much of anything" :)

Our morning went pretty smoothly and yes, we made it to school with a few minutes to spare. Fortunately it's about a mile from our house :) I gave Teagan 3 choices of outfits this morning and she insisted on the purple top. I need to get some brown socks. She didn't want a shower (she bathed last night) and agreed to let me braid her hair instead (the hair was pretty wild upon waking). We used the spray-on conditioner and that went well. It even tamed it enough that we didn't have to braid it, but she still wanted the braids. Go figure! This is new. Normally she doesn't like anything in her hair. We had a test run on Sunday with braids. We'll see if they make it til the end of class. :)
As soon as she was dressed she asked, "Are we going to school this very minute?" I assured her we had some time to have breakfast and get our stuff together. I was good and packed her bag last night with her paperwork, requested dish soap and labelled ziplock bag of extra clothes, but I went through and showed her each item. She had her usual breakfast, which is to say, not much... an organic vanilla milk box and less than half a strawberry cereal bar on my insistence. We'll see how that goes over as snack isn't until near the end of class and she's used to snacking whenever she likes. Once we were dressed and packed and ready to head out the door we got her bookbag on (which is very large comparatively, but she needs to be able to put art projects in it) and she said "Okay, Mama, I'll see you later" as if I was just going to let her go on her own. :) So independent. I let her know that I'd need to drive her to the school and that I'd pick her up (with Grammy) after school so she could go to Grammy's with Cael and I'd go to work then.

She didn't have any problems leaving with the class. She was able to find her nametag with a little direction to narrow the field of choices. She was almost left behind as she was at the end of the line and had stopped to visit some older girls at their lockers. The rest of the class had continued on and Mrs Cooke was wrangling the lone screamer of the group, but Teagan ran to catch up and made the corner and then I left. Whew!

I wish I'd thought to bring the camera in, it was really cute to see the whole class line up and head down the hall. :) Here are a couple pics from this morning before we left though. :)

The height shot. I imagine we'll use this tree each year to measure. :)

Couldn't decide which picture I liked better so you get to see both. :) She looks so proud!

The hair and the backpack she picked out. Wild, huh?

Cael sees his big sis off to her first day of preschool. Yea!!

Another comparison

2008-08-21T00:33:00.007-04:00

Looking back at how the two kids measure up.

Teagan, at her 2 month checkup was a mere 7 lbs! Cael was 11 lbs, 12 oz.

Top: Teagan at 2 months Bottom: Cael at 5 weeks

Now, here's where it gets fun because by 3 1/2 months, Teagan was 12 lbs. Cael is just under 3 months and about 12 lbs, so let's see....

Top: Teagan 14 weeks Bottom: Cael 10 weeks
(I'll try to get a better smile photo)

And yet here's Teagan at 5 months:

Anyway. That's all I've got for now. They are awfully cute though!

A Week Away

2008-08-20T22:31:00.005-04:00

The subject is really two-fold. The first is, omg school starts next week?! And Teagan starts school the week after! Is it possible?! It seems so fast.

The other is what I'll expand on. We spent the last week away! First to Columbus for the annual Ohio School-based OT/PT Conference. Teagan stayed with my parents, THANK YOU THANK YOU and Matt came with to keep Cael nearby. An adventure to be sure, the three of us in a single room. It worked out alright, I think. Matt didn't sleep as much as he normally does what with "the little snuffle-snort", as we call him, waking in the middle of the night. The first day of the conference was intruiging. Barbara Connolly, PT spoke about dyspraxia. It was a condensed 16 hour course in a 6-hour session. The next day was "Addressing Sensory and Motor Needs through an Educational Team Approach" which was not-so exciting. Dinner at an Irish Pub with Jeff & Angela and a trip to Jeni's Splendid (and they mean Splendid!) Ice Cream. Yum!

THANK YOU THANK YOU to Andrea who brought Teagan from Cleveland to Columbus so we could complete the trip to Indianapolis. The convention was alright. It went by fast. Definitely some things we will do differently next time, including staying downtown again. Staying off-site didn't save money, I don't think with the drive and paying for parking for two cars and the convenience-factor shouldn't be overlooked. Next year I will take time to play some games too and be firmer about making plans with people. Anyway, got to see some out-of-state friends, of whom I didn't take pictures, sadly. I spent a ton of time with the kids, which was stressful at times, but overall lovely.

And here are some photos of our time together...

Silly Nekkid Time :)

Teagan adoring Cael. She still loves to pet him. :)

After bath-time...
.....more giggles!

A self-portrait. 2 of my 3 loves.

Matt's birthday dinner at Mikado.
Matching Hypnotoad shirts (Thanks Mom!)
and Matt with his little girl

Sunday before we headed back to Ohio, we stopped at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It was awesome! Wish we'd had more time to spend there. Definitely a highlight and we will make it an annual stop whilst at GenCon. One of the special exhibits was about comic book superheroes. Here's Teagan running around in a Flash costume! :)

And that's all she wrote... for now ;)

Stats and Flowers

2008-08-09T16:52:00.007-04:00

Cael had his 2-month check-up with the nurse practitioner on Wednesday.

He is now 11 lbs, 12 oz and 23" long which puts him in the 50th percentile for height and weight and having gained nearly 5 lbs in 6 weeks! Everything else checked out fine. He's met all his milestones for 2-months and is even showing an emerging responsive smile and coo. It's adorable. :) I'm trying to get a picture of it, but it's hard to capture. :) He got his DTaP immunization for diptheria, tetanus and pertussis which are most common in our area. I'll be taking him back in 2 weeks, along with Teagan, to get his next shot (either HiB or Prevnar) and the rest of her shots needed for preschool. Then before Hawaii he'll get the other immunization and possibly a second DTaP since we are travelling during cold & flu season on an airplane. He did fine with the shot. Actually recovered quickly in the office, but was fussy off and on the rest of the day.

Speaking of Teagan's shots for public school, we got the letter in the mail today about her preschool schedule. We have a parent meeting on Aug 25. On Aug 26, she gets to go to school for an hour with some of her classmates to get acquainted and then she starts Tues Sept 2. :) Her first monthly tuition is due August 15th! How much does preschool in Berea, OH cost?, you might ask. $120/month for 3-days a week, 3 hours/day.

Meanwhile, last night we got a call from Auntie Liz requesting our presence at David's Bridal as Jami and her bridesmaids were dress shopping and the wedding dress & coordinating flowergirl dress were discontinued, but in the shop. Time to buy! I've included pictures. Teagan was a riot! She wanted to know what her boyfriend (Jon, Jami's son) would say and then she wanted a purse and hat. :) Such a cutie!

On with the pictures....

Cael June 12, 2008 vs. Cael Aug 5, 2008

Princess, I mean, Flowergirl Teagan. Just FYI, the bow will be black to match the
bridesmaids dresses. This is almost an exact replica of Jami's dress, btw. The bridesmaids
will have red (maid of honor) and black (bridesmaids) dresses in a similar style, matte sateen fabric with the same sort of pick-up style skirt. :) Gorgeous!!

And while I'm here....

Happy 1st Birthday, Gavin!!!

Keith and Liz hosted a fabulous 1st birthday party for Gavin at Oak Grove Picnic Area in the Brecksville Metroparks. The weather was great. They cooked up hamburgers and hotdogs, made homemade potato salad, had grapes and watermelon, and a delicious almost-casada cake. (sans custard layer...so basically white cake with whipped cream and strawberry layers) So yummy! They had gift bags for each of the kids (including Cael), a frisbee and kite (until it got stuck in a tree), bubbles, swings nearby and most importantly lots of close friends and family. It was a pretty awesome party for a very awesome kid! (and awesome mama and daddy!) Congrats on surviving your first year as parents, Keith and Liz! Love you! The adventure continues!! :)

Forsaking sleep

2008-08-04T22:58:00.004-04:00

I really should be sleeping, but instead I'm catching up on oh, billing, LJ posts to try to sell dipes, and this mini post.

Life is consuming, but I have been taking some pictures. So now I share a few of my favorite recent photos.....and I just realized that I'm in most of these.

So Some Things we've been up to...

Teagan has been working on her photography skills. She LOVES to take pictures with my camera. Prior to this photo the exchange went something like this:
T: Mama, say "Hotdog"
Me: Hotdog
T: Did you just call me a hotdog?! :) (just like when she gets her photos taken)
so cute. Here's the pic she took.

And she likes to take pictures of herself too.

Mom got this bike from the girl across the street for $5.00. :) Teagan's tolerance is still very short, but we're excited just the same.

Cael is officially 2 months old now! At 8 weeks I took this photo. It might be a new favorite.
I don't have his stats until Wednesday, but he's growing! Oh is he growing and I think his social smile is emerging!

Last weekend we were busy. Friday we went on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. They had a special "The Little Engine That Could" ride. It was a nice afternoon. Here's photo from Andrea of my brother Keith, his son Gavin, me, Cael (in the sling) and Teagan. Teagan really loved the inflatable train and the pet zoo with pony ride.

Saturday we(I) walked 2.4 miles to the other side of Berea for an ex-coworkers party. Teagan had a great time with the other kids. She was so good. It was nice to get some exercise and have a sense of pride in walking rather than driving. No pics.

Sunday we did the 15th Annual Richfield Sweet Corn Ride....a family 10-mile ride. Lovely day. Keith hauled Teagan and Gavin in his ladybug trailer. We were joined by Liz and Mom. Dad rode the 25-mile with the Konsens and Matt, my darling, watched Cael so I could get back on my bike for the first time in almost a year....it felt great! No pics.

And last but not least, Cael's been loving his nekkid time.

Has it been too long?

2008-07-09T14:07:00.006-04:00

Life is happening in this weird time-space-continuum. Slow, slow, slow paced at home and yet to find time to do much seems hard to come by. When there is an outing, it is a monumental undertaking and yet not all that complicated...just really time-consuming.

And whenever I finally sit down to get something done (like this post) Cael starts to fuss. Doesn't matter if he's been fed, if I've just set him down or if he should be by all intents and purposes...ASLEEP.....

(several hours later)

Trying to think of what we've been up to....
July 4th was fairly uneventful. Teagan was in a "young patriots" parade in my parents' neighborhood (quite by happenstance...she had spent the night). They decorated her tricycle and he made a flag and had ice cream. Sounds like she had a good time.

(2 days later)

July 5th had us visiting friends for a somewhat impromptu engagement party. Ben went to high school with my youngest brother. They were both in Dayton for college before Ben joined the armed forces (not sure which branch) and was sent off to Iraq. He's back now and has been dating Jami for a while now. (not sure of the exact duration). Jami has a son Jonathan, who will be 5 years old next month. We like them all very much. They are getting married in November and have asked Teagan to be the flower girl. We didn't think this would be possible as we were scheduled to be in Hawaii, but that may be postponed long enough to attend the wedding...seeing as how my brother will be in the wedding party. I believe the plan will be wedding Sat Nov 8, leave for Hawaii Sun Nov 9. But that's neither here nor there. Somewhat related....they are hoping to move up to Brecksville which means Teagan will have another friend nearby, which is great news. Stay tuned. The party was fun.

July 6th we had our Big Sister/Little Brother party. It was lovely. Sue made lots of very tasty food and overall it was pretty laid back. Two of our friends came with their kids (Penelope, soon to be 3 yrs; William 6?; Alex 8 and Mia, also soon to be 3). Overall, pretty small turnout but lovely just the same. Thanks to those that did make the effort to come help us celebrate despite the holiday weekend. :)

Well, onto the pictures as I don't want this post to go another day and it's time for me to get Teagan down for nap. Oh! Matt, Cael and I went to see a double feature at the drive-in Wednesday night. We saw Wall-E....very cute, and The Hulk...decent superhero flick. Cael managed to sleep through both movies!! Meanwhile, Teagan had her first sleepover at Nana's since she got the new bed. Of course, she didn't SLEEP in the convertible bed, but maybe next time. Tonight Matt and I are going with friends to see Hellboy2, oh yeah! Very exciting! And Dark Knight (the next Batman movie is next Friday). My folks are watching Teagan AND Cael. This will be Cael's first time staying with someone other than a parent. I've only been able to leave him on 2 occasions to run to the store while he napped and once so far for a treatment session.

Did I mention I picked up the extended school year contract? It's pretty light. 6 sessions each for 2 kids (each once a week, one for 30 minutes and one for 60 minutes). I'm able to bring Cael with me for the 60 minute session as arranged with the parent and so far that's working out alright. I leave Cael home for the 30-minute session.

Ok. Pics and then nap....and of course, who's waking up?
You got it! Cael!

Below: The new shark diaper sent from Morgan, Jon and family in GA. It's soft too!

Ok, not a great picture of Cael and he's wear a huge cloth diaper, but he is getting chunkier! :) I can attest to the amount of hours he has put in working on getting the chub on ;)

Photo Shoot July 1

2008-07-01T23:54:00.007-04:00

So, we made it to Portrait Innovations today for our first professional photos as a family of four.
It didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped as we got a late start and then got lost (following internet alternate directions) limiting the amount of time I had to feed Cael. All in all I think we did alright. Here are some highlights.

Hot off the press

2008-06-22T12:58:00.003-04:00

I guess we are going to answer the question: Can there be TOO many pictures of the kids in one month's worth of posts? I don't expect I'll keep this sort of pace, but I have some new pics and thought I'd share.

Another attempt at taking a picture of Teagan and Cael. Teagan likes holding him -for about 2 minutes at a time :)

Today we went on our 5th Most Excellent Race benefitting Achievement Centers for Children
Keith, Gavin and Grammy joined us. It was a lovely morning as usual for our 5K walk.

Cael's first Most Excellent Race

Our family of four, plus a balloon octopus :)

Teagan watched a show about making puppets yesterday.
Today she decided to put on a show with her socks as puppets :)

Birth Story- Long , Unedited Version

2008-06-20T19:51:00.005-04:00

I should be working on reports, but this has also been lingering so here goes:

The Birth of Cael Rowan McFarland

Baby Moon's pregnancy was fairly uneventful other than a little spill down the last few stairs at the end of February which left me with lingering sacral pain that I managed with stretching, a warm water exercise class and visits to a chiropractor. Starting somewhere around week 23 or so Colleen (my midwife) said I was measuring 5 weeks ahead. That is to say my fundal measurement was larger than my actual gestational age. However, we felt confident about the due date based on last menstrual period and fairly regular pregnancy testing back in the fall. Plus the ultrasounds at 6, 9 and 20 weeks all matched the gestational age. What this did mean is that by the time I was 35 weeks I looked like I was 40 weeks and everyone assumed I'd be having the baby any day. Little did we know this was true. Coincidence or not.

The date was June 2, 2008. One month and 2 days before the due date. The last week of school. My mom came over on her way to the airport (picking up my Dad who was returning from his biomedical conference in Amsterdam) to get Teagan. They were all going to the Brew Kettle for dinner, but I wanted to go to my warm water class. I had missed the week and a half between Wednesday dinner dates with Matt, Memorial Day and being sick and overworked with the influx of end of school meetings, evaluations, etc. Anyway, class was uneventful and pleasant. It's always nice to be in the warm water pool and I hung around after class chatting with a few ladies and having some "tummy time". The pool is the only place I've been able to lay on my belly for many, many months. I was concerned that Moon might be transverse. I had mom and Keith feel before they left and spoke with Liz who said that when she thought Gavin was transverse, it was actually just the shape of her uterus. Either way, I figured I was getting down to the last month and should be spending time on hands-and-knees and prone in the water to help his positioning. Plus it's just relaxing! :)

After class, I got dressed and went the bathroom as usual. Only when I thought I was done I had a strange sensation: warm fluid exiting my body without any sense of control. Either I just experienced urinary incontinence or I was leaking amniotic fluid. I stood up to leave, but more "water" came out so I sat down. It was clear with a slight pink tinge to it. I tried this maneuver a couple more times with the same result. Stand up, leak, sit down. I knew my "water had broke" and my reaction "You are kidding, right?! 35 1/2 weeks!" I decided I'd better get a hold of Matt, only I wasn't sure where he was. He was supposed to come to the gym to walk on the treadmill, but having only been in the water class and the locker room myself, I didn't know if he was there or home or what. Plus, you aren't supposed to use your cell phone in the locker room (though I suspected this would be an acceptable exception). At 8:30pm I texted Matt: "Where are you?" to which he replied "Home". I texted "In locker room. My water broke. No joke" and he called. We decided he ought to call Colleen. Since he was on his cell phone, he called her on the landline while I waited. She asked where I was and when he explained she told him to have me call her when I got home. I called Rae (our doula) who just happened to be with Colleen in the delivery room. We were supposed to meet Rae that evening for our 2nd prenatal appointment, but she had to cancel because another one of her women had gone into labor around noon. I spoke with Colleen briefly who said that I could come in and labor or go home and labor and come in when I was ready. I decided I definitely wanted to labor at home. I called my mom to let her know what was going on as she was the other person scheduled to be there during my labor/delivery. They were just arriving home from dinner. Matt walked over to Lifeworks to bring me a pad so I didn't soak my pants on the way out. We opted for one of Teagan's cloth diaper inserts to use as a pad. :)

When the manager came into the bathroom she asked if she should call 911. I kind of laughed. I wasn't having contractions, just leaking. :) So we went home and packed for the hospital. I wandered around the house collecting things on the list that we had from Rae's packet. Matt helped by getting the carseat out and trying to get it cleaned up. I'm sure I had him do other things but I can't remember what now. I was a bit scattered. I remember there was a lot of debate about whether he was going to go to the grocery store for snacks and pads, but ultimately I didn't want him to leave and anything we would need they would have at the hospital. The next couple of hours were mostly me wandering around the house collecting things on the list, Matt making phone calls to various people (his mom who went to pick up Teagan from my parents and his gamers to cancel for Tuesday) and both of us trying to get some rest figuring we had a long night ahead of us. I called Lynne (my "boss" for the school contract) and emailed the teacher and family for the Tuesday morning IEP meeting I wasn't going to be attending. The light cramps turned into heavier cramps and then into contractions that were 8 minutes and then 4 minutes apart. I couldn't rest. I just kept going back to sit on the toilet and eventually I went outside to walk.

I'd been reading "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" in which the first 125 pages are birth stories from The Farm. Most of these women were told to go for a hike with their partner. It was a nice cool clear evening. It felt good to be outside even if I just wandered up and down the driveway breathing. The other thing I took from the book is the importance of staying relaxed. I went to a sort of open, relaxed jaw meditative breathing pattern for the evening. When the contractions were about 4 minutes apart and I continued to feel restless, I decided it was time to go to the hospital. Matt had been playing video games to rest and relax so when he got to a good stopping point we packed up the car and headed up to Lakewood Hospital. It was 11:22pm. We called Rae, Colleen and my mom on our way. Contractions were 3 minutes apart in the car. I was uncomfortable but still able to help direct Matt on how to get to the hospital and where to find parking.

At this time of the night, you have to enter the hospital through the emergency department. I was managing alright as long as we stopped for contractions as we walked in. The 2nd shift nurses were leaving and I thought about all the laboring women they must see come in. Once in the waiting room Matt filled out the half sheet with reason for visit: LABOR!. A nice lady directed us to the phone that could be used to get a hold of someone sooner. We were directed to the end cubicle for registration. Two young girls (probably 20-years old each) were working the desk. One training the other. They asked for my social security number and date of birth. Several times as they were having computer problems. Labor continued to progress while they tried to sort out the problem. I wasn't able to sit anymore. I had to move. I wandered around the area. A baby in the waiting room was crying which just exacerbated the contractions. Then I was starting to get shaky. (Rae had asked if I was shaky or nauseated when we were in transit, but I hadn't been). Matt asked if we could skip this and get me to the floor, but they said "no, they can't do anything until we get you in the system". Grr. Finally I signed the paper and we got going. They offered a wheelchair, but I didn't want to sit down so I said I'd walk. And we did. The receptionists walked with us all the way up to the labor and delivery floor. (we found out later that they should have called a nurse escort). I was still focused on breathing and moaning with the pains now and slowing my gait when the contractions came. At one point they asked if I wanted to take the stairs or elevator. "Elevator! Elevator!" I exclaimed. I don't think they realized how far into labor I was; I'm sure of it.

Once we got to the labor and delivery floor, they took us into the triage room. (also something, in hindsight, that was unnecessary) They took me the bathroom and asked me to pee into a cup. Yeah, right! I'd been on and off the toilet all night and right now it was all about the contractions. I tried, but when I told them (between contractions) that it wasn't going to happen they helped get me out of my street clothes and into a gown. I was assisted up onto a gurney (after having to point out I'd need a step stool which they borrowed from the lady in the next bed over). The triage room, by the way, is only big enough for two gurneys with fetal monitors between them. It's a very bright, very small room. Once on the gurney they attempted to put fetal monitor straps on my abdomen (not a comfortable procedure at this point) to get a reading of the contractions. I then promptly threw up all over the monitor, floor, nurse and gurney. I got changed into a clean gown. Then the nurse checked my dilation. Apparently I went from 8cm to complete (10cm) during the examination. The contractions were really strong at this point. I was starting to feel out of control and I suddenly was having what the nurses liked to refer to as "butt pressure". I needed to push. I didn't care where I was. They called Dr. Miller, the house doctor. I remember making eye contact with Matt at one point and that helped. I remember hearing that Rae was there. (turns out she wasn't allowed in triage due to space issues). After they came to the realization I wasn't going to be getting to a chair to transfer to the room and that I was going to have this baby SOON they moved me on the gurney to a labor suite. I remember Rae was there by my head as I left the triage room. She smelled SO good (vanilla) and her voice was calming and reassuring. She ran her fingers through my hair and I felt so much better. It really helped me get collected. Once in the room they had to wait through one contraction on the gurney before sliding me over to the bed. With the next contraction I was pushing Moon out. Rae told me I could lay on my side or sit up. I tried laying on my side, but that wasn't comfortable at all so I sat up and he was out! I didn't even really have to push, the contraction was enough to move him out. Cael was born at 12:26am on June 3, 2008. He weighed 6 lbs, 3.8 oz and was 20 inches long.

Matt said Dr Miller was sort of just getting acquainted and situated when Matt had to direct his attention to the baby's head that was crowning! :) Dr. Miller has a very good energy about him. He put Cael up on my chest for several minutes before clamping the umbilical cord. Matt was allowed to cut the cord this time. They took Cael for a couple minutes to clean him up and suction his airways so he could breathe a little easier. Meanwhile I delivered the placenta. Colleen showed up then (having been paged 3 minutes before Cael was born) and got me cleaned up. My parents arrived. Rae made some coffee in her french press pot, had fresh fruit which she fed me and got me some cranberry juice. She gave me a foot massage, a back massage and recommended I take some yarrow for the moderate blood loss I was having. The nurses kept checking my blood pressure, my abdomen (which apparently was a little squishier than they wanted for a while) and the blood loss. I got to experience some rather unpleasant abdominal massages (almost worse than the contractions, really). Cael got to nurse for the first time shortly after birth. He took to it right away. Keith and Liz arrived not too long after too. We were all able to hang around the room and share in the joy of our newborn son.

At around 3:30am everyone left. I stayed up and visited with the nurses. I was still on a natural high from the birthing experience. I breastfed Cael a few more times and then tried to get some sleep. Mom and Dad came back at 10am. Matt brought Teagan up Wednesday morning to meet her new little brother. "He's so cute!" she'd say. Teagan got a "big sister present from Cael" - a puppy that makes all sorts of sounds, responds to being fed by a bottle and pet. She and Grammy went down to the gift shop where she picked out a little stuffed giraffe for Cael. It's almost as long as him. Keith and Liz came back and brought Gavin and their infant carseat for us to borrow. It was terrific to be surrounded by my loving family. We'd have to stay through til Wednesday so the staff could keep an eye on Cael for any signs of infection since I hadn't had the Strep B test yet. Everything would be fine and Cael would come home with us on Wednesday afternoon....our beautiful, healthy preemie son!

Baby Doll and More Newborn Fluff

2008-06-19T17:28:00.004-04:00

It's really hard to get a good picture of Teagan AND Cael at the same time.
Here he is looking like her baby doll. I promise you she's not trying to choke him; she just thinks having her hand on his chest keeps him safe or something ;)

And then there's more newborn fluff (aka more cloth diaper shots because they are awesome and someday I will sell them and it's nice to have pics on the baby)

Above: The shark diaper my sis-in-law Morgan found. She sent me the link
and how could I refuse? It's a nice fitted with a velour inner. So soft.

Below: The sock monkey diaper (ok, it's a small and we aren't out of newborn yet, but I just got it in the mail. It looks big, but fits at the waist and legs and contained the mess he promptly unloaded into it) :) Oh and did I mention I bought a sundress for Teagan in matching fabric? Pictures when it's warm enough for her to wear. Props to Summer at Sumbuns.

And a couple of pics of the nephew, Gavin with Grandpa and Dad on Father's Day at the zoo.

What a cutie, eh?

Someone stop me!

2008-06-12T21:42:00.001-04:00

I can't help but take lots of pictures of my new little love. He's just so precious. :)

Cael in his new onesie from Andrea. I says "I'm new here" :)

His strange yin-yang-esque pattern in his baby forehead fuzz

Above and below: Cael shows off his wool diaper covers. LOVE them! They seem to breathe well and stay dry to the touch even with with a wet diaper underneath.

And I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't include a pic of BigSis Teagan who was modeling her new head wrap (her jammie shirt...she's starting to get herself undressed and dressed in the morning now all by herself) :) Such a big girl! My little ham. ;)

new favorite pic

2008-06-10T08:56:00.003-04:00

Courtesy of being "forced" to sit on the couch for hours a day..another pic of the kids

B&W Photos

2008-06-08T13:54:00.007-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend we visited our friend Heather Cornelius to have some belly photos taken.
Check out her site: http://www.squish-art.com
Here are some highlights from the photo shoot. :) Thanks, Squish!

GrammyCam June 3 08

2008-06-07T11:50:00.001-04:00

Just a few highlights from "GrammyCam"
June 3, 2008

Mama & BabyMoon

My Girl

Teagan supervises the pediatrician's work

Love this photo

2008-06-05T15:32:00.003-04:00

I love this photo!

Cael Rowan McFarland
June 3, 2008

Misc photos: Cael

2008-06-05T15:31:00.006-04:00

More random photos. Sorry I'm not feeling very chronological right now. Just want to share. SO...in no particular order.... please disregard the little boxes, there are only 4 photos on this page....I'm trying to correct the problem with the original photos that didn't "take".

Cael Rowan McFarland, day 1

Grandpa Carl, Grammy and their 3 grandkids
Left to Right: Cael (1 day), Gavin (9 1/2 months), Teagan (3 1/2 years)

Big Sister Teagan holding Baby Cael. She loves him so much!

Daddy checking internets with Cael before we head home Wednesday June 4, 2008

Misc photos: Teagan

2008-06-05T13:20:00.000-04:00

Random pics from my camera. Above. Matt graduated May 10th. This photo is from outside Brio where we went for dinner after.
I know Mom's photo had the full length so you could see I was very pregnant, but I digress. Happy family!

Teagan on the carousel at Parmatown mall. Matt is standing next to her and each time they'd come around she'd say hello to me. :)

Teagan's best friend, "Annie" (Andrea) at MarCon over Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to Andrea for always being so helpful with Teagan. Andrea has become and adopted "auntie" in our family and Teagan adores her. Like her new "Little Monster" baby cathulu t-shirt? heha Had to get some ConGear. They didn't have onesies or we'd have one for Cael too.

2008-06-04T09:42:00.002-04:00

Just as a comparison....here's Teagan at 1 week old. Remember she was born a week earlier than Cael.

Family resemblance? You decide.

My brother asked how I was doing after all this...here's my response

2008-06-04T08:28:00.000-04:00

I feel exceptionally good. :) 4 hours of labor was efficient and natural and I came through it with flying colors. No stitches required. Natural high. Rae gave me a foot massage and a back massage after so other than the fact that I've been hanging out in this hospital bed for the last 36 hours and starting to get a bit sore from that, I'm feeling good.

It's still pretty amazing to have this little guy here. He's such a calm little boy and has taken well to nursing (better than I have...still working on technique to reduce the soreness). When he's awake he's quiet and reposed, just taking everything in with his dark little eyes and he's already exercising all sorts of facial muscles in some of the cutest expressions. :)

I'm a little nervous, but anxious to be home. I know it's going to be an adjustment and I'm going to do what I always do and just roll with it and see where it takes me. Not really sure what to expect....we're in a different place than we were 3 1/2 years ago when Teagan came home and it seems so far away in time anyway to recall.

Teagan, btw, is doing phenomenally with Baby Cael. She's excited to see him, stops over to check him and comment "He's so cute" and has asked to hold him a couple of times, but does not like it when he starts to fuss. She says "You take him now. Until he feels better" She wants to know what he is saying with every little coo or baby noise or facial expression. She got a little doggie that makes sounds for feeding and drinking from a bottle and when you press it's paw or rub it's belly from Cael as a Big Sister gift. She loves it! (I've been holding onto it for months now in the trunk of my car after she picked it out when she thought it might be just what she needed to sleep in her room....and then changed her mind). She went to the gift store with Grammy and got Cael a little stuffed giraffe that's almost as long as him. And yes I said a little stuffed giraffe. :) So very sweet.

Mom and Dad were here from just after his birth until 3:30am Monday, came back Tuesday 10am-8pm and took Teagan home with them for the night. I suspect at least Teagan and Mom will be back today. Keith and Liz came up just after the birth, stayed til 3:30 and were here for several hours yesterday as well, so it's been nice to be surrounded by the family. Some of our friends are coming up from Columbus this weekend to help clean the house and make us food. :)

So, yes, all is well. I think I'm going to repost this response in my blog for ease of sharing the info. :) And I suppose I'm due to write the birth story as well. :)

Welcome BabyMoon

2008-06-03T21:16:00.002-04:00

4 weeks early, 4 hours of labor (no more than 45 minutes of that at the hospital)

Welcome Cael Rowan McFarland
born June 3, 2008 12:26am
6 lbs, 4 oz 20" long

Healthy and all natural :)

I don't have the camera cord here at the hospital (but I do have wi-fi and Matt's computer) so here's a photo taken a couple minutes ago from my cell phone :)

Welcome to the world, Baby Moon!

More to come. :)

2008-05-04T08:26:00.002-04:00

Has it been almost a month?

Mini updates before I go to work:

New measurements 43" bust, 46" at belly button, 47 1/2 " waist
Very prominent belly. Activity noted at least every 2 hours, more at night, definitely reliable after I've eaten and responds to localized taps 1/3x. Sciatica still an issue, but manageable. Reflux tolerable and not as frequent. Warm water exercise class 2x/week plus walks when able. (though there is pain with walking too much, especially after work). 4 weeks of school!! 9 weeks or so of pregnancy!

Had a lovely chat with my sis Jenn last night. Wish I could say I was weighing the pros/cons of her trying to make it for the baby's birth. For me there aren't any cons. ;) For her there are considerations of expense, travel time and how do you plan a trip around the world to coordinate when a baby will be born?, plus considerations for Brian's feelings re: him not being able to come on that trip and weighing the importance of being here at the birth or around the birth vs just waiting another 3 months to see us when they both can be here. *sigh*
I'd love to her to be here, baby or not to have the sisterly bonding time and the chance for her to be part of my birthing team, but it's a long way to come, I know.
More as that develops.

In other news,...
Matt graduates Saturday May 10th with his MA in Speech and Language Pathology!
Seems like a long time coming and yet here already! I'm so very proud of him. He's been diligent with his school work, committed to starting a new career and really enjoying most of it. (aside from some school-related drama)

OMG I bought a yellow shirt!

2008-04-13T15:37:00.006-04:00

When I was pregnant with Teagan, I had an OMG moment when I bought and frequently wore a pink shirt. ME! In pink! But it just seemed right. Friday I stopped to pick up white & black tank tops (essential for the layering trend) and was compelled to buy this yellow shirt! ME! Yellow!
I think the only other shirt I own that is yellow is the jersey from the Richfield CornRide I did many years ago. But there it is!

Also, as seen above, I've discovered how to use the timer on my camera to take self-portraits. Next time I will place it on something a little more level and maybe a little further away.
Just for comparison sake (please take distance into consideration...haha) I've decided to look back at pregnancy pics from before Teagan arrived. The one below is August 4, 2004 which would have been 2 months before she was born and about 14 weeks from her due date. Right about the same as for BabyMoon now (I'm 28 weeks). Personally I don't think I look that bad for 3 1/2 years and a toddler later, but I DO look "full of baby!" That's for sure!

Meanwhile, Teagan has finished her gymnastics class. We were allowed in for parent visitation the last session and I took pictures, but trying to get a good pic in the gym didn't work all that well. If I'd realized that when I tweaked them on the computer they'd be alright, I'd have been more persistent. She's not going to continue with gymnastics though; she's just not all that interested though I do think she's improved in her attention, ability to follow directions in a classroom setting and overall strength and coordination. I left the decision to her. She did start her swim lessons the next morning and is very excited about that class. I feel firmly that swim lessons are a life skill and not an option for my children so that worked out well. :)

So instead I got all nostalgic and posted a few pictures of Teagan when she was 3 weeks old. I had a moment the other day holding Gavin when the reality of a REAL little baby in our very-near future set in. SOON, we'll have another one of these in our house!!

Hopefully slightly bigger to start. :) Below was our comparison photo so you know JUST how little Teagan was. It'll be exciting to have another baby at home, but I sure am glad Teagan's the big girl she is now. :)

Coronado's Peak

2008-03-30T16:24:00.008-04:00

Monday: Matt, Teagan and I went into town for breakfast at the local coffee shop. Jess & Autumn were off work and school at noon on Mondays but we mostly hung around the house and played games and so forth. No pictures.

Tuesday: After waiting for the plumbers to come fix the drains that were not working, Jess, Matt, Teagan and I drove up to Coronado National Park for a little desert mountain hike. Gorgeous. Mid-70's and sunny. We didn't have a whole lot of time before we had to pick up Autumn from school but it was well worth the trip. :) Jess was again gracious enough to be Teagan's buddy so I could take pics.

Latest profile.... 25 1/2 weeks!

Tuesday night (our last night in town) we went to a little Mexican restaurant in Old Bisbee and for ice cream. Then home for a little Wii action. :)
Here's a photo of the Hartley Clan....

and...

Our little cowgirl! :)

Easter Sunday

2008-03-30T15:59:00.008-04:00

So then we flew off to Arizona. 3 hours to Houston, 2 1/2 hours from there to Tucson and then a 1 1/2 hour drive down to Bisbee. Boy, it was a long trip. We finally arrived at 11:30pm their time, which I believe is about 2:30am our time. It was well worth it though. When asked where we were going on vacation Teagan was equally apt to say "to Easter!" as she was to say "to Arizona!".

After a good night's sleep, we got up early (6am Tucson-time early), hunted easter baskets (or bag in Teagan's case...made packing easier), had some yummy breakfast and waited for the neighbor kids to come over. Jess and I hid 107 eggs in the backyard. The girls down the road (transplanted friends from Massachusetts) are aged 6 to 10 years, so with Teagan at 3 and Autumn at 13 years old, we had quite the span, but they all got along great and had lots of fun!The Girls

My Girl.
Stopped to pose for a picture mid-egg hunt :)

The Loot.
In addition to candy and small toys in some of the eggs there, Jess also put numbered papers in and had a prize table the girls got to raid.

And then there was Clay-o-Rama

Teagan's monster of "9"..her favorite number. So 9 legs and 9 eyes, but it was a good monster so it threw heart-shaped missles :)

Later that night, Jess & Pat took us to Old Bisbee for a little walk-around. Quaint artist's colony and old mining town.

Thanks Jess for keeping watch on Teagan!

And so went our Easter Sunday

Time Flies....Easter Saturday

2008-03-30T15:47:00.004-04:00

I was going to post pictures of the near-blizzard and sticker fun on my belly but in the interest of staying current...I'll put up the latest pictures from Easter and our trip to Arizona.
Matt's mom hosted an Easter brunch on Saturday before we had to get to the airport. It was a white Easter, but full of warmth and family-fun indoors. My folks, Keith, Liz, Gavin and Aunt Leah came over to celebrate.

The Easter Bunny...aka Teagan...had lots of fun finding the eggs around the living room and opening them to find all sorts of surprises. She has three baskets of goodies too! (2 from Nana and 1 from Grammy)
Baby Gavin is getting so big! He's 8-months old already and does a stellar job sitting up and scooting around on his belly. :) Here he is with Daddy Keith. There was some discussion at dinner about which cost more, Gavin's CK jeans or Keith's shirt. :) (they were trying to prioritize which to try to save from the mushy bananas) And for those who can't see the details, but would appreciate it, that's a Mickey Mouse onesie :)
A daunting task indeed....trying to get Gavin and Teagan looking in the same direction at the same time. :) Ah well. Here's the best I've got.
Sue has a glass dining room table. Here's a picture Matt took of Teagan underneath and her new favorite face to make :) Ferocious, eh?

Teagan had been greatly anticipating Easter, what with eating bunnies and dyeing and finding eggs and so forth....her only disappointment was that it only lasted two days. She would rather it still be Easter :) In fact when we were in Arizona she kept saying "When we get back home, it'll be Easter and we'll look for eggs...."

From the News Files

2008-03-20T08:31:00.001-04:00

This was passed along to me and I pass it along to you....
It's not common, but it exists and frequently misdiagnosed.

FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED - We NEED to know this..... I didn't know

(IBC) Inflammatory Breast Cancer news story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmP5QuGc-PE

INFLAMMATORY BREAST CANCER

Very aggressive breast cancer, not detected by a lump AND NOT detected by regular mammograms. Many doctors think it is just a bug bite or something and by the time you know its not the chance of survival is very low. Please watch the quick video.....it is worth your time.

Baby Moon's growth in 6 weeks

2008-03-05T21:25:00.003-05:00

More for myself than anything....

The comparison from last pic to this.

Left was 16.5 weeks, Right is 22.5 weeks

Ouch and still ouch, plus a few pics

2008-03-05T12:41:00.004-05:00

Today is Wednesday. On Friday I was carrying Teagan downstairs in an effort to get her to the potty quickly and missed the last step, fell to me knees and sustained SI/pelvic injury. I'm pretty sure nothing is broken and although it's sore all the time (especially when sitting on the floor, trying to get up from the floor and standing or walking for any length) it is getting better. Ah well. Just thought I'd mention it as I'm using this to keep track of things related to the pregnancy. I was a little worried after the fall; Teagan was okay and I didn't have any immediate signs of greater problems (no bleeding, cramping, etc) but I had to wait a while before I felt Moon moving about again. Just trying to take it easy, but I'm not very good at slowing down and not doing what I usually do at work and home.

And then, a few pictures. I should know better than to ask Matt to do this before he eats lunch, but I wanted to post while I had a few minutes and I've been promising belly pics. So here's what you get. 3 from my phone (my camera is still at Sue's from the bday party on Sunday). The first two from Matt and the last one I took.

Today is 22 weeks, 5 days

Oh and just for fun, my new sexy measurements are a curvacious 43, 42, 44. :) ha!

Snow Day

2008-03-02T10:13:00.004-05:00

We had two snow days this week and no wonder! We seriously got at least 6 inches in our yard. It's impressive and will probably melt today. It took use a few days to get out (Teagan changing her mind the first day) but here are some pictures of us frolicking in the snow. Oh, I might mention that Matt left the phone in the house so these are from my cell phone. :)

Matt presumably took a picture of Me with Teagan, but it is not on my phone. Ah well. Oh, and the tree is the one we finally planted with her placenta (sure, it only took us 3 years but we did it!)

On the way back to the house Teagan was having a blast doing belly flops in the snow. (see above)
And below are a couple pictures from our time at our art table the other day. (again from the cell phone) She's funny about painting, she likes to use the same color paint and paper. For example, "Mama I need red paper for the red paint". In the picture below she's holding her sparkly red glue bottle.

Fun! Fun!

Peter and the Wolf

2008-03-02T09:57:00.003-05:00

February 23rd, Teagan, Sue (my mother-in-law) and I went to Severance Hall for a production of Peter & The Wolf by the Cleveland Orchestra. Although the pre-concert activities were a bit unorganized, the concert itself was delightful with several pieces featuring various parts of the orchestra as an intro to the instruments that have parts in Peter & The Wolf. During Peter & The Wolf there was a narrator and puppeteers (see below). Teagan loved it! Sue bought the book after the show which Teagan has read (or had read to her) dozens of times and we even found the Disney version on YouTube as well as other versions.

See that little girl in the middle of the photo, looking up, that's Teagan! She was fascinated by the big wolf puppet. :)

The Pic

2008-02-19T21:07:00.004-05:00

Introducing Baby Moon, 20 weeks 4 days
For those who need a little extra help, Moon's head is to the left, profile of the head with nose and mouth visible at the top, the spine along the bottom curving upward to the right and the white line top right in the space is his femur. This is not the full plow pose but one he spent half the time in, when he wasn't wiggling and moving around. :)

And the award goes to....

2008-02-19T15:43:00.002-05:00

those who guessed * boy *.

Went for our 20-week ultrasound this afternoon. Active little fella, he was. :)
But unless our eyes decieve us, it surely looked like little boy parts on the screen.

Everything else looks good, he has a nice long spine with lots of vertebrae, a big head,
a beating heart, two arms complete with elbows and hands and two legs with knees and feet. He has a nose and mouth, two eyes, a stomach, bladder, kidneys, etc. He's pretty flexible too. At one point he had his legs all the way over his head (looked just like "plow" pose for those who know yoga)

Got some okay photos, we were over in the XRay dept as the Ultrasound area was full and our tech, who was great, was having problems with the printer printing too dark. Ah well. It was lots of fun to see him moving around in there.

And yes, we are still thinking Cael sound good for a name. I'm sure I'll spend the rest of my life explaining that k-a-l-e is a green, leafy vegetable and C-a-e-l is an Irish variation of Nicholas that means "mighty warrior". Matt likes River as a middle name. I'm still looking but have nothing better at this time. :) Still taking suggestions for first or middle names. :)

And currently I'm at my parents so the pics will be in the next post when I'm back at my own computer and scanner. Til then, be well.

P.S. T-minus 5 days til the Oscars! and 5 more films to see! Oy!

Things I crave

2008-02-17T18:03:00.002-05:00

The ultrasound is in two days. Will we find out? Yes, if baby is cooperative. Do we have a preference? Not in the slightest. We've never had a boy but we have the clothes for a girl and Teagan having a sister is a nice prospect.

I am going to call the chiropractor tomorrow to see about this sciatic/piriformis pain that keeps recurring. Stretches seem to help, but only marginally and I can't help but feel as if some assistance in getting the pelvis aligned better will be beneficial. I know I've been off a long time, but we'll just go and see what she has to say.

Cravings as of late: Well, I can not consume enough pizza or cheeseburgers, but what I really can not get enough of is maple iced cream-filled doughnuts. (and those tasty tasty cupcakes from Giant Eagle) With Teagan I had a serious constant craving of Hostess Ho-Hos. I had one the other day and it just doesn't please me like the doughnut. Ah well. One doughnut does the trick and I'm only indulging every few days. :)
Why can't I crave steamed vegetables? I cannot drink enough water. That's gotta count for something? Right? :)

Misheard

2008-02-12T14:44:00.000-05:00

Disturbing things I've heard Teagan say (or thought I heard her say)

She really likes to ask people if they like to "eat bunnies"

...if you inquire further, you'll find out that she really means chocolate bunnies as she is obsessed with Easter coming. :)

The other day she was talking about "slitting wrists"

....actually what she said was ........something about lists

Today she was running the massager over me saying she was "going to skin you, Mama"

...when what she was really saying was "scan you"

So, who's morbid and deranged? Teagan or me? :) Good thing I know Teagan and am quick to reassess what she's meaning to say....and decode the articulation substitutions. :)

A Tea Party

2008-02-11T15:54:00.001-05:00

Well, unfortunately, no belly pictures were taken at the party, but here are some nice pics of Teagan and her friends. :) Not all of these are from the Valentine's Tea Party as I didn't get a lot of good pictures, honestly.

Grandpa Bruce (above) was not in attendance at the party. He's having health issues and slept the entire afternoon, but I liked this picture from XMas.

Grandpa Carl

Nana (who co-hosted the party) has been grooming Teagan as a hostess and lover of everything holiday. :)

Matt (Daddy) -photo from not from party- showed up after lunch as he had to wait for furnace guy to come an hour late and tell us, after another hour, that he can't fix the furnace afterall.

Our friend, Tom.

Angela and Jeff

Grammy and Grandpa

And of course, me

The party went well. We had super yummy food, as always, which included scones & tea, little sandwiches, choice of chicken bowtie or baked potato soup, jello-pretzel salad, and three desserts: sugar cookies, mini cheesecakes and heart-shaped jello. :) Everyone had a great time, we ate and laughed a lot and played a round of FindIt before heading home for naps. :)

Mini Update

2008-02-09T10:37:00.001-05:00

If I can find the camera, I'll take pictures of Teagan's Valentine's Tea Party today. Also, a new belly picture to be had as I've been a-growing.

Just a quick update though as I had my appointment with Colleen (midwife) and first prenatal with Rae (doula) on Wednesday.

Colleen's appt: All is well.
* My blood pressure was a lovely 112/73.

* I've gained 5 more pounds putting me up to 166.5 - I'm making bets with myself to NOT get to 207 lbs this time. (granted I think 40 lbs of that was A LOT of swelling...total weight gain with T = 66lbs).

* Heard and recorded the baby's heartbeat, but have no way of posting that. It sounds like a heartbeat in uterus at 150 beats/minute. Played it back for Teagan, took a few times for her to hear it but now she reports to people that it's her baby you can hear. Yes, HER baby is in MY belly, according to her. :)

*Colleen and I talked about my reflux and reviewed ways to manage it (all of which I knew already and am implementing, most of the time) as well as plans for hospital location. She is now at Lakewood and as long as I make it to 35 weeks, I'll deliver there. 37 weeks or more and I can have the water birth. :) Both Colleen and I think I'll go over 40 weeks this time, don't know why, just do. I was thinking 7-7 would be nice (Teagan's is 10-7) or 7-10-08 would also be nice. I like play on numbers. If I deliver at any time up to and including 34 weeks, 6 days, I have to go to Fairview Hospital as they have the NICU. Apparently St John's does not anymore. Alas.
Fairview would be alright. Nice birthing suites, but then they move you upstairs for recovery. Ah well. Hopefully not an issue.

*Got requisite for the 20-week ultrasound and it is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb 19th at 1:00pm. Expect another update following. :)

Meeting with Rae:

* It was really nice to see her again, but I think she forgot how much Matt HATES the male stereotypes of husband with pregnant wife. He is kind, sensitive and involved completely.

*She gave us a lot of good resources including a birthing class workbook. We'll read through it and decide if we still want to go to Jill's Bradley Method class. Can never be TOO prepared. :) Also a name of a good chiropractor who I'm going to check to see if she is on our health insurance plan as I'm already having sciatic/piriformis pain.

*We went over our birth plan which was informative and I'm still glad to hear from Rae, what Colleen's practices are and they are very much in line with what I'd like. For example, you can eat during labor (knowing you will probably vomit midlabor, but better to have sustenance), no IV port unless you are Strep B positive in which case there is a need for IV antibiotics, laboring is various positions is supported, and pretty much okay with refusal of any extra medical procedures unless she feels they are necessary for the health and safety of the baby/mama. She even has some nice options to the typical western medicine procedures. Like say for instance, the baby is big and having trouble coming out....they'll do perineal massage and warm compresses to help rather than go right to episiotomy. I like these options and plan to help prep as much for labor as possible

*Rae reminded us, which is always good to hear, that when we go to the hospital it is to labor. Labor is hard work, it hurts and we can do it! :) She has a lot of good techniques in her bag of tricks and has been doing this for almost 10 years now! I'm so glad to have her on our team.

So now I'm in yoga Tuesday nights, Fridays we are taking Teagan to the warm water pool for Family Swim Night (which is a great place for me to workout without the pressure of weightbearing in sitting or standing) and I have the schedule for the aquatic classes. I'm thinking a warm water class once a week might be a nice addition. Need to be prepared for the marathon of birth :)

And did I mention that I can feel Baby Moon once in a while moving in his little womb? It's not real strong yet, but reassuring and odd at the same time.

And there you have it, my maybe-not-so-mini update. :) Pictures soon!

Babies and not-quite-babies and soon-to-be babies

2008-01-22T15:10:00.001-05:00

So I recounted the other day and I'm officially 16 weeks, 4 days along. Next appt is Feb 6 (two weeks from tomorrow). Symptoms, mild discomfort now and then but overall subsided. Belly growing, but feels much bigger than it looks I'm sure.
Name check: Cael River, Cael Skyen, Maeve Summer, Maeve Larissa.
Interesting facts: belly name is Baby Moon, Kale is a moon of Jupiter (liked the name before that was discovered) and Larissa is a Neptune moon. Just for fun. :)

And now for your viewing pleasure.

Gavin, 5 months

Hard to get photos of the two of them, but here's Teagan and Gavin.
She may well be trying to pet him, I'm not sure. :)

The beginnings signs of Baby Moon

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Top Ten Science Breakthroughs in 2007

2008-01-01T22:07:00.000-05:00

I found this extremely fascinating. I hope you do too.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/YE_10_breakthroughs

Happy Independence Day! (ha ha)

2007-12-27T13:47:00.001-05:00

Ok, for the 2 of you who aren't family or on LJ... :)

Yes, the ultrasound mentioned was at 9 weeks of this pregnancy. The gist of it is we found out on Halloween. It's been a rough first trimester with lots of nausea and absolute fatigue, but that's mostly subsided. We had an ultrasound at 6 weeks stat to make sure the pregnancy was viable after I had some bleeding and again at 9 weeks to make sure the baby was growing since my hormone levels weren't rising as much as my nurse-midwife would like. We were able to have a pic from the second which was reassuring. :) I was on progesterone for the remainder of the first trimester as well and am glad to be done with that.

Our next appointment is January 2nd with Colleen, our nurse-midwife and we should be meeting with our doula in January and taking a tour of the hospital to help build our birth plan. :) This one will most likely be born at Lakewood Hospital. I love the idea of a home birth, but not at my house as it is and I love my birth team which requires the hospital setting to have Colleen and Rae. Colleen moved to Lakewood Hospital a couple of years ago, but still delivers at St John's Westshore so that's still a possibility. Not sure if Lakewood has a NICU or not. We were so grateful for that with Teagan's birth even though she ended up moving to Fairview before 24 hours.

Teagan is excited to be a big sister. (she'll be 3 yrs, 9 months at the birth of #2). She's very much into babies now as it is, between her cousin Gavin (now 4 months old) and just being 3 years old and loving to pretend play life things. :)

So, there ya go. Now you know. :)

I'll try to keep you posted. (and yes, Kristy, that means that I'll be consulting in the spring as I'll be 5-6 months along by then, no hippotherapy for me for a while) :/

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-25T08:07:00.001-05:00

Having trouble sleeping lately so I have some quiet time before the Christmas day begins. Btw, Teagan is obsessed with Santa bringing her toys (which figures because we decided not to play that game with her) so I'm curious to see how she handles today. She is still getting (and has received) a lot of gifts from family and friends so hopefully that will outweigh Santa's role. :)

I managed to get the photos off my camera yesterday, so here are some updated photos of Teagan. I haven't scanned the ultrasound photo yet, but maybe I'll get around to that someday. :)

In the meantime, More Teagan! (that's what you come here for, right?)

Wow, all the way back to October! Grammy & Teagan at Gavin's baptism.

And November, Daddy and Teagan at Miss Molly's annual day-after-Thanksgiving trip. :)

Teagan "decorating" fall sugar cookies

Teagan in her Winter Jammies. Arguably, the best shot I have of her recently.

At Cleveland Orchestra Holiday Concert Intermission. She liked the first half, but was ready to go home before the second half. I really like this photo. It was really just a moment in time. Mostly she was running around and having people tell her how pretty she looked. :)

Did I mention I got my hair cut 2 weeks ago? It just touches my shoulders now!

And for good measure, a photo of Baby Gavin with Auntie Liz during our visit to Grandma Hope last week. Grandma kept saying, "she's so cute" which is funny because when Teagan was little she was sure Teagan was a boy. :)

Happy Holidays! Hope they are filled with love, laughter and lots of good cheer!

Fall Leaves, a few more photos

2007-11-22T08:33:00.001-05:00

I'm such a slacker lately. I have new photos on the camera from birthday and halloween and just don't know what I did with my connection cord and haven't the energy lately to get on a computer that can handle it. (the laptop I'm using is severely bogged down)

So, enjoy some pictures from Teagan and my afternoon outside raking leaves and jumping in the leaf pile. (via my phone camera) I didn't have much memory so you only get three. Afterwards I did find my camera and also clear a bunch of photos from my phone. :)

We were lucky. It wasn't too long after our romping around the backyard that it started to get cold and rainy. I have to say, I was in a pretty foul mood in the morning and this surely made me feel better. Even though raking was painful after yoga the night before, it was SO worth it!

This by the way is an annual tradition for Teagan and Mama.

Go Green

2007-11-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'll have time to post more pictures soon. In the meantime, here's a great link to Stanford University's Sustainable Choices website. Definitely worth a look. What are you doing to "Go Green"? Lots of great suggestions here.

http://sustainablechoices.stanford.edu/index.html

Photo Session

2007-10-19T11:03:00.000-04:00

I have some updating to do, like Teagan's birthday party, but for now I'm just going to post the link to the photos we had taken at Portrait Innovations for her 3rd birthday. These are just a few of the 100 or so we had to choose from. :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/McFarlandClan/McFarlandOct2007?authkey=yMnLZaXoRbw

Orchard

2007-10-01T19:46:00.000-04:00

Matt and I met in the fall. We both love autumn and it's many offerings: crisp air, sweet apples, the changing of color....
For 10 years now, Matt and I have made almost annual trips to an orchard. For many years we went up to Erie, MI (which wasn't too far from Toledo) to a little family-owned orchard (Erie Orchard, as it happens) to walk through the orchard, pick apples, spend time together and enjoy an apple fritter and fresh apple cider on the way home. We took Sephi there when she was just a pup, even after moving to Cleveland. Things change and it's a bit far so we found Mapleside in Brunswick. Rumor has it, it'll be closing in the near future as it is allegedly sold and will be replaced with a housing development. This is tragic in my mind. I hope they are able to keep some of this great family place.

Well, last weekend we had brunch with Matt's parents at the Mapleside restaurant and then took Teagan to the play area and down to the orchard. Here are a few pics from that trip.

Ok, so clearly Heather had the camera this day! :) What can I say? I love to take pictures of Teagan and her Daddy. :)

Master of Disguise

2007-10-01T19:36:00.001-04:00

Teagan and her many costumes as of late....

NYC

2007-10-01T17:16:00.000-04:00

NY was great! I drove Matt a little nuts with my lack of pre-planning but things worked out pretty well in the end.

We didn't leave Ohio until after 6pm on Friday as there was so much to do around the house and getting Teagan ready for Nana's etc. We drove 4 hours and stayed at a motel in Danville, PA (arriving shortly after my folks who'd left an hour before us).
Up and on the road early (by 7:30am) we arrived in Newark, NJ around 10:30am to the Sheraton where my aunt had booked us rooms using her Platinum Member Points. (yea! score *2* free hotel nights in a row!...my folks paid for the rooms the first night).

View of NYC from the Sheraton Newark Airport Hotel

The Sheraton was lovely, but we had to take a cab the Penn Station in Newark to catch a train to Penn Station, NY and then by subway to get to Brooklyn only we took the wrong subway and had to get off and walk the remaining several blocks to the theater (both in dress shoes and overdressed for the heat). Then it was at the OTHER theater which meant a few more blocks at what was quickly pressing show time already (2pm show). When we got there, we were probably amongst the more well-dressed in the audience. There were quite a few people in shorts and flip-flops but c'est la vie. The show was INCREDIBLE!!!! Probably amongst the best performances I've EVER seen on stage (and I've been to A LOT of shows). Ian McKellan was stellar! The entire cast worked together to craft a magnificent show. The guy I met on the cruise, Philip Winchester, was REALLY terrific! Matt didn't stop smiling for a day! :)
Then we're back on the run....because I didn't book dinner reservations ahead of time and after trying a half a dozen of our choice restaurants from the Tour Book (all completely booked or only having 5pm or 11pm availability), we had the concierge book us a table. It was in Lower Manhattan at 6pm. The show started at 2pm and runs 3:35 plus a 10min intermission AND is in Brooklyn! We got out at 5:50pm and booked it (in dress shoes ...) but the directions hadn't been clear and so we didn't find the subway too easily, but we did find it. Called the restaurant to tell them we'd be late (which was fine) and continued on our way. We had a LOVELY little dinner at The Blue Water Grill at Union Square to celebrate our 10-year anniversary since our first date. I had butternut squash soup, filet mignon (too charred for my liking) and a chocolate/caramel dessert plus a glass of sparkling red dessert wine. Matt had lobster bisque, lobster and this heavenly banana and hazelnut dessert.
All in all, quite a nice experience.

Matt and I waiting for yet another train :)

We then took the subway to Times Square (less than impressed by this) and walked to Penn Station where we caught the train back to Newark (only tried to go via the airport since there is a courtesty shuttle to the hotel and found it cost us another $11 to get on the Airtran to the airport from the train station) Even though this took longer, it was cheaper than the $20 cab fare we would have paid. Lovely evening after the heels came off and slept like a rock.
Woke up Sunday to my dad calling up at 8:30am to see that we were up and getting ready. Had a free breakfast (thanks to Aunt Leah) and we took the multiple transits back to Manhattan and the American Museum of Natural History to see the special exhibit entitled "Mythic Creatures". (toss up between this and the Brooklyn Aquarium, not enough time for both). The exhibit was informative and well-done. We had lunch at the museum cafe and then took a little walk through part of Central Park which was surprisingly full of trees and rock formations and cool bridges and bodies of water. Very cool.

Matt at Central Park (above)
Heather at Central Park (below, note new haircut)

Central Park
(If you know me, you know I love taking pictures of paths)

Wished we'd had more time and less sore feet. :) Took the transit back to Newark and got on the road heading for home around 3:30pm and with stops (including dinner and a walk around Somerset Outlet Mall) got home around 11:30pm. The weather was great. 70's and sunny each day. I think NYC is a great place to visit, wouldn't want to live there and boy, is it expensive! King Lear was definitely worth it! Next time, more comfortable shoes are in order! AND, I'll make reservations ahead of time so we have time to do what we want where we want. For example, the rest of the crew met with Philip on Sunday before and after the show. Mom even met Ian McKellan as he came in and shook everyone's hand who was waiting in line for last-minute tickets. Telling them each he hoped they'd get in to see the show.

Today has been particularly hard to work, I don't know how the rest of them are doing it as they got in around 5am! Yikes!

Destination: Paradise!

2007-09-08T21:44:00.000-04:00

For ease of posting, not in any particular order...

A random (and very limited) selection of photos from Fiji

Looking down the beach, first day Sheraton, Fiji

The infinity pool at Sheraton Fiji, Denarau Island

Fire dance, Westin Denarau Island

Sea kayaking, first day Tui Tai Cruise
Brian and Jenn

Lower Waterfalls

Cobi Island, volcanic crater
looking at swarm of fruit bats and unknown depths below

Driftwood on Cobi Island

Amazing kids Rabi Island, grade 1-7 performance
dance and dramatization

Cool tree at Tanoa Hotel, Nadi

Natural waterslide

Water break off the beaten path
Mountain bike rest

Rabi High School, top of the hill

The bay at Savusavu from house on hill

Top of a hill, Brian, Jenn, me, Dad

Sunset, Sheraton Fiji

Sunset on the night of the lunar eclipse

Loved Fiji !
Visit Fiji !
(and don't forget your sunscreen!)

Teagan & Friends

2007-09-08T20:36:00.001-04:00

Bula!

Well, we are back from our vacation to Fiji. It was amazing. I don't know if I have the time or energy to go into all the details here, but I have decided to do two posts. One of Teagan and her friends (Fijian or otherwise) and one of fantastic sights. So here are Teagan's friends from the trip...or at least a few of them I caught on "film". :)

Old friends revisited....

Grammy at Tui Tai office in Savusavu after we returned from the cruise.

Self-portrait of Mama & Teagan lying on the floor of Grammy's cabin :)

Aunt Jenn, poolside at Sheraton Fiji (Teagan in her new sulu ). It didn't take long for Teagan to get reacquainted with Auntie Jenn, giving lots of cuddles, spending time reading their new "Little Wombat" books, swimming and just hanging out....
Uncle Brian, I think Teagan was tired in this picture. She LOVED spending time with Uncle Brian, building sandcastles and knocking them down, trying to escape the tickles, reading books....

This is Mere, the spa specialist and steward on the Tui Tai. She took to Teagan right away, pampering her with her own foot massage, hours of hide-n-seek, trips to the captain's room where Teagan got to steer the boat...
This is Gaetano. He was Teagan's buddy on the ship. At 11-years old, he is extensively travelled, speaks 4 languages and has a terrific attitude about balancing studies and play and trying anything! He and his mother "Princess Barbara" are originally from Italy, but reside in London, England at this time.
Meli, bar steward and assistant to chef.....Meli was such a sweet guy. He was the go-to for the juice (which we managed to drink him out of by the last day!) Meli was a great help for making sure Teagan was fed dinner early, looking after her while we did morning stretching and also helping with getting Teagan to remote locations with mom when I was biking there.

Like this one, Teagan at the waterfalls, Dad and Leah in background. I have a better picture of Leah holding Teagan's hand on the walk back to our room at the Tanoa, but this one's more scenic.

One of Teagan's best buddies....Sunia. Sunia has twin 6-year old girls and an 8-year old son at home. He was invaluable in his care for Teagan, helping during snorkeling adventures, letting her play his ukulele, engaging in all sorts of antics and bring her loads of ice cream!

Teagan made friends wherever she went...

Not the greatest picture, but this is in the house that Teagan made friends at the first village we visited. The kids took to her immediately and she to them. She ran into their house and started playing "chase"....all the kids were giggling and running around. When we left to join the rest of the group, they all came along and continued to play all along the path and into the schoolyard.
In this picture they are looking at the cat. Teagan asked what it's name was but it didn't have one. :) Just "kitty cat".

This is the little girl she was chasing. Not sure of her name, but what a cutie!

Here she is playing catch with some girls on Rabi Island.

At the end of the week, we got to spend some time with Morika and Tige Young, the owners of Tui Tai. Morika met us at a local hotel in Savusavu with her two kids, aged 4 and 2, and their cousin. Here they are listening to a "Little Wombat" story as a hiatus to the running around, playing hide-n-seek, jumping on the stage and being chased by the "dinosaur" aka...Morika's "adopted daughter" from a local Fijian village. Taken into the Young family so she could get an education as she wants to be a doctor and comes from a family of 9 children.

The "dinosaur"....

Thanks to Uncle Brian and Auntie Jenn for making this possible!!

Vinaka!

New favorite pics

2007-08-09T23:45:00.000-04:00

Teagan rode the camel at the zoo! And Daddy went too! :) She had a great time!
And of course, more Gavin photos: (I think my brother's responsible for the pic size)

I asked Teagan today, "Who's so cute?" She replied "Well....baby Gavin!"

and he is!

On an almost completely unrelated note...

2007-08-09T23:36:00.000-04:00

I'm loving this!

Welcome Home, Baby Gavin!

2007-08-09T01:08:00.000-04:00

He's arrived! 2 days early, carving out the only day between Aug 3 and Aug 8, not already marked for another family member and completing a series. My dad born Aug 4, brother Keith Aug 5 and now his son Gavin Aug 6! So here's the info and the pics:

Gavin Earl McMilin
born Aug 6, 2007 12:48am
7 lb, 10 oz 20 1/4 inches

Gavin is 2 hours old in these pics! :) He's such a great baby already...what a Love!

GOBA photos, part 2

2007-07-19T10:32:00.001-04:00

The first pictures I took in the morning were too dark to post. But this give you an idea of waking at GOBA. Up between 4-5:30am every morning. Best to be on the road by 6-6:30am so that the bulk of the riding is before noon. Hit the bathrooms early. By 5:45am, there is a line. Pack up what's left out from the night before, pack the tent, make sure we have sunscreen on, water filled, stretch and eat a granola bar. Then we're off.

It doesn't take long for the sun to come up for a little Sun Salutation. :) I found yoga to be invaluable to me each morning. What a great way to start the day!

(Dad's bike is in the back, mine is leaning on mom's in the front right of the photo above)

Mostly the week looked like this...

On GOBA, we ride rain or shine .... it did both!

In fact, it was so hot the first two days, my body had quite a reaction:

That's not sunburn. I had 50-70 SPF sunblock on. That is a reaction to the direct sunlight and 100-degree heat we had the first two days. It actually cleared by mid-week as I bought capris to cover my legs better and it cooled down to 80-degrees.

Once we made it into camp. We had find our luggage and set up camp. Then we usually headed into town to find some dinner and entertainment.

This was the last night of GOBA in Versailles. The annual song contest was a riot! I was laughing so hard I cried most of the night. :)

GOBA-GOBA BANANA (to the tune of Copacabana)
(You may not be able to see the bananas dangling off the end of a pole from their helmets)

A few other key taglines: 'legs on fire' (J.Cash) and 'I ride my bicycle. bicycle. everywhere I go'

More to come.

I'm not stupid....I'm just forgetful

2007-07-04T23:19:00.000-04:00

This was a mantra over the week of GOBA. Usually in regards to "lost" items. "Now WHERE did I put my sunglasses? my keys? etc." And in this case, my memory card for my camera. Took me til this morning to locate it. I "smartly" put it in a pocket in my wallet so it wouldn't get lost. ;)

I'd also like to make a disclaimer that this may take multiple posts as I sort through photos from GOBA. There are many and I'm trying to decide how best to do this. Chronologically or highlights?

Here are a few highlights. Gonna have to wait for the full-blown update til I get back from Origins.

Above: "The Gang" Left to right: Chad, John Gwinn, Me, my Mom and my Dad
John is a friend of my parents and Chad is his 14-year old grandson. What a great duo! This was on our first stop on the first day. They gave us "I (heart) Rockford" pins. :)

Above: This was actually taken on the first day at the parade from the Celina fairgrounds to the park where Opening Ceremonies were held. This was my favorite bike costume and family. The theme this year was "Bike Me to the Moon". What you may not be able to see is that Dad has a Moon Pie jersey and his son has a Curious George in a spacesuit jersey. Their triple tandem is decked out like a rocket and they made the cool star antennae for the helmets! Loved it!
(they did win a prize)

On to the heart of the ride.....cycling. Lots and LOTS of cycling.
Here are Dad and Mom pedalling along.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the ride were all the great people we got to meet. The man taking the picture is Dr. Mark. He helped my dad when he got a flat on the second to last day. This is his daughter Hope. Not only are they super cool for going on GOBA but check out their ride! There were a couple recumbent tandems (even three that were trikes) but this is the only one I saw with the kid upfront. (still stoker, there is a long steering axis to allow Mark underseat steering from the back). AND the red area behind his seat (Labeled "Student Driver") is storage! Now that's a touring bike!

We had scorching weather at the beginning of the week (photos coming soon of sunburn and temp gauge) and rain on the second to last day. But with rain and sun comes......

....yep, a rainbow. Awww.

Well, that's all you get for this entry. Check back after Origins. More photos of GOBA and Teagan's 2nd tree climbing adventure. :)

Return to Chaos

2007-06-24T23:37:00.000-04:00

I've survived GOBA! With only some soreness, much less than expected. In all other aspects GOBA exceeded my expectations! :)

I'll write more and post pictures as soon as time allows.

We did complete about 265 miles this week. The weather was *mostly* nice. Hot and very sunny the first two days and cold and rainy the second to last morning, but overall pleasant.
Also walked the 17th Annual (my 4th) A Most Excellent Race 5K Family Fun Walk for Achievement Centers for Children this morning. :)

So lots to catch up on, but first more catching up on sleep. :)

Precipice

2007-06-15T22:00:00.001-04:00

Well, Ladies and Gents. It's the eve of GOBA. I leave in the morning for the week-long bike adventure. You can check out www.goba.com to find out more or our whereabouts on any given day. :)
This is the word that comes to mind: precipice

prec·i·pice [pres-uh-pis] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun

1.	a cliff with a vertical, nearly vertical, or overhanging face.

2.	a situation of great peril: on the precipice of war.

50 miles a day. 5 of the 7 days of the week. What was I thinking?! Well, I'm committed now. (or should be, only time will tell) The parents are going which is my only saving grace. I'm really looking forward to the post-ride activities each day and really experiencing the adventure that IS GOBA. It's my rite of passage into this side of my family. :) I'm the last of the immediate family to go with only 2 of 3 spouses to go. (Matt and Liz) I really hope we'll do this again when Teagan is older. I get the sense from the stories and photos that it is a great bunch of people and worth the suffering of so many miles. ;) I've trained, but not enough. (which should surprise no one) and it all comes down to this. Finish packing tonight, leave in the morning to pick up parents, drive to Celina and start the ride early Sunday morning. Whee!

So instead, let's look at some random pictures as of late.

June 2nd was Keith & Liz's baby shower. My little nephew is due to arrive circa August 8th. Right in the middle of the family birthdays. Can't wait to see how this turns out and what his name will be!!!

Teagan's schtick that day was: "Mama! This is my *best* smile." For a while it was this one and occasionally it was a very wide, toothy grin.

Teagan picked out this balloon for her baby cousin. She knows it's a boy and that it's in Liz's belly. She thought it was cool to look through the balloon....or maybe she's trying to eat it?!
She did also take a picture of the balloon, turned the camera screen to the balloon (which was up on the ceiling) and said, "Look, bayoon, that's you!" What a crack-up!

Missed the photo-op of Teagan hugging and kissing the belly. Here she is giving it a little love pat. Two months from due date and Liz is still wearing her old jeans!

And then there was Teagan and Daddy checking out the new Strongbad cartoons. (www.homestarrunner.com). Teagan finds these highly amusing, if a bit baffling. :) I believe this day they were making a song with the sounds from the toon. Actually, it's quite funny. Teagan has been often seen sitting down at her keyboard and mouse (extras we had lying around) saying things like "I'm doing my homework" or "I'm checking my e-mail". No joke!
The kid's observant!

Well, with that I leave you to return to my packing and bedtime.

XOXO

Daddy or Doddies?

2007-06-02T08:09:00.000-04:00

I swear when Teagan says "doggies" it sounds like "doddies" and I seem to ask her a lot "Daddy or Doggy". When I ask I hear the good ol' Cleveland "a" in daddy, if that's what she meant or the absence of it if she meant doggy.

Anyway, here are some photos of Teagan, Sephi and Leo romping in the yard.

Leo, Sephi and the Stick

Teamwork or Rivalry?
(actually Leo trying to get into Sephi's game)

Did I mention it's hot and Teagan is starting to refuse pants more and more?

Who's taking the stick from whom?

Hugs for Leo!
Teagan loves her doggies!

Just one of the pack!

Highlights from MarCon

2007-06-02T07:55:00.000-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend we made our 8th annual trip to MarCon in Columbus, Ohio. Teagan has been going since she was in utero. :) Here are some highlights from our weekend at the Hyatt.

This is mostly what we did. Teagan and I hung out a lot in the gaming room near Matt's table and read books, played stop & go and played with our new friend Ariadne ("Ari") who is the 21- month old daughter of Thaddeus & Julia, long-time attendees of MarCon/Origins and friends.

Here we are reading books with Julia and Ari.

Daddy took a break to take a picture with Teagan.

When we weren't hanging out in the gaming room, we were mostly on the hunt for yummy food, fun things to look at (never a shortage at gaming conventions), climbing stairs, taking elevator rides or playing in the room. We also had the trike in the trunk of the car so we decided to bring it up to the room. She's not quite proficient enough to take it down to the gaming area (as I'd be carrying it, I'm sure) but the room was just the right size for her current level of skill. Here's Teagan after we went swimming. She insisted on being a nekkid baby in the room as much as possible.

Nekkid baby in room + love of trying to pedal trike = nekkid baby on the trike.

I tried to get video of her on pedalling, but that was when she wanted me to push her the most. C'est la vie. Maybe next time.

TreeHugger

2007-05-21T14:32:00.000-04:00

Today after errands Teagan decided she wanted to climb one of the trees in our yard (with some help). Here's my little treehugger and monkey.

Or is that koala? She then decided she wanted to eat the leaves. (having recently discovered she likes spinach leaves- which we simply call "leaves")

Turns out the leaves of the apple tree don't taste very good. :)

We tried the bigger climbing tree next to the house, but Teagan wasn't thrilled.
I imagine when she's older, we may have trouble keeping her out of the trees. :)

Rainbows

2007-05-20T22:17:00.001-04:00

My friend Danny posted pictures of a 180-degree rainbow just outside his abode. Made me think of this picture from our trip to Australia. :) [above]

And then I found this picture. [below] Always makes me smile!

Hope your day is filled with rainbows!

For Uncle Brian

2007-05-10T11:51:00.000-04:00

This post is dedicated to Uncle Brian.

Teagan got her first flip-flops last night. She loves them. Here are the pics :)

And one of Teagan on the swing. Also a new favorite. :)

Fish or Cowgirl?

2007-05-09T12:54:00.000-04:00

Last night I was able to attend one of Teagan's swim lessons. Matt's been taking her Tuesday nights at the Middleburg Heights Community Center. I'm usually still at work. The class is for pre-schoolers (3-5) but they snuck her in and she's doing fairly well. She's learning to kick and float and put her face in the water (which she isn't keen on yet). She does love swimming though. Here are a couple of photos from last night.

Then today Teagan saw her cowgirl clothes in her room and decided she wanted to wear her "yee-haw boots and dress and hat". She also thought that I should wear my yee-haw hat and dress and so should Matt. :) Actually, I think she's wearing my hat from Halloween, but it suffices. Anyway, here's Teagan having snack in the backyard. Yee-haw!

The start of a new era

2007-05-08T11:29:00.000-04:00

I'm jumping on the bandwagon of blogspot. I've been inspired by Jenn and Kristy! This seems like a good format for posting updates on the McFarland Clan. (mostly Teagan, but you know...) :)

So here goes nothing. :)
We'll start with a photo of Miss T and Mama. I don't think you've seen this one. It's from early March. Teagan's made a lot of progress on her "Cheese!" face since then. ;)