Happy Independence Day! (ha ha)

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

NYC

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!

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

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!