Taegan's Pool Time Take 2

Last summer when Taegan was barely a month old we tried putting him in the girls' pool on our deck. He hated it! He screamed and screamed. I found out that little babies aren't that fond of cool/cold pool water. So, needless to say, we didn't do a lot of swimming with Taegan last summer. So... I thought this year would be different. Well, not really. We got him all ready Sunday afternoon in his cute little board shorts and went outside for an afternoon of family pool time. He was so excited watching his sisters play in the pool on the deck. He just stood at the door and laughed and screamed with delight.

I thought the pool water would be nice and warm, but the sun had already gone behind our house so our deck was covered in shade and it wasn't as warm as I had hoped. We went ahead and put him in and this is what we got...

More screaming!! Then he stood up and tried climbing out of the pool! He wanted nothing to do with swimming or the pool.

So, I guess we'll try again another time. He loves baths, so if I can just find a way to heat a plastic, inflatable pool - we should be set!

Taegan's 1st Birthday!!!

I can't believe my baby boy is a year old! It seems like just yesterday he was born and now he is 1. WOW!!

Here he is a year ago. What a sweet baby boy, so quiet and not in to everything!














For his party we rented the Yacht Club at Lake Shawnee. I found a surf theme cake online and asked Don's mom to recreate it. Here is the finished product. I thought it turned out great and everyone seemed to really love the taste!!

This was not Taegan's first party. The weekend before he had his first birthday party in Carthage, where my parents live. He really loved the cake I made him then and dug right in.

Fast forward to his party here and he really didn't care for it. I spent all this time making him a surfboard shaped cake to match his room and he wasn't interested. He looked at it, I pushed his fingers in and he really just looked annoyed. I think he was overly exhausted by that time. So, we gave him a fork and spoon and let him play in it and called it good.

Then... he got what he wanted... a bath!! He loves bath time!!!

He (and Mommy) had a great time opening all his gifts. He got all kinds of great presents and he has been enjoying them all! His sisters have also been playing with them and they seem to think they are great as well!

After the party was over, we put Taegan in his stroller and started cleaning up. Within minutes I looked over and this was him... OUT!!! I guess he really was tired!

Happy Birthday sweet baby boy!!! Mommy loves you!

What Taegan Does When I'm Not Looking...

This could be quite a long list anymore. In his spare time lately, I have caught him:

• unloading baskets of books
• taking books off of shelves
• taking all our shoes out of a storage cabinet
• going through trash cans
• emptying my magazine tote
• re-organizing all my clothes I thought I had sorted
• tearing apart pom-poms
• pulling out all the Kleenex and then proceeding to eat them

Apparently he has too much free time! Then a few nights ago, I walked into the kitchen and found him staring at the adorable baby on the refrigerator door. Then he tried to kiss himself!! What a crazy boy!!

Taegan's Finally Crawling

Taegan has been doing this weird form of crawling for about a month now. He will be on his belly, push up with his arms, sometimes get on his knees and then flop back down. He didn't ever make it very far with this form of moving, but this was fine with Mommy!

This is how he starts out - He is sitting and then flops forward and catches himself with his arms.

He gets up on his hands and knees...

And then flops forward on the floor - inching along slowly.

And then he starts all over... but he never seems to care.

He really is a happy baby and so handsome even if I do say so myself!!!

Well, as of Friday - Taegan is now really crawling - the correct way - and now can get around a lot quicker. He has already proved to be quite the trouble maker. Ah, the joys of a mobile baby!!

Trisomy 13 Awareness Day

Today is Trisomy 13 Awareness day. March because it is the 3rd month of the year and trisomy stands for 3 copies of a chromosome. And the 13th because that is the chromosome that is affected in Trisomy 13 or Patau Syndrome. March 13th also just happens to be the day that I went into labor with Reese, who was born 2 years ago tomorrow, with Trisomy 13.

I have always wanted to do more to help educate people about this disease. Don and I are still working on some of these ideas. In the mean time, I thought I would use my blog and facebook to help bring some awareness today.

Trisomy 13 is the presence of an additional 13 chromosome. Having a third (extra) number 13 chromosome, occurs about 1 time in every 5,000 live births. Trisomy 13 children have multiple abnormalities. Some include heart defects, brain defects, cleft lip, cleft palate and many more, including even more severe issues. Because of the many abnormalities, all of these children are survivors if they reach their mothers arms. They are true miracles of life. Many only survive outside their mothers womb a few short minutes, hours or days. While others can go home and survive months. Sadly, many of the children with Trisomy13 (Patau Syndrome) do not reach their first birthday. If you would like to learn even more about Trisomy 13, please visit http://www.livingwithtrisomy13.org/index.htm. Don and I leaned on this site nearly every day while we were pregnant with Reese.

Reese's memory page is on this site as well - http://www.livingwithtrisomy13.org/MemoriesOfReese.htm.

Also, here is a link to a news broadcast where Don and I were asked to talk about Reese and Trisomy 13. http://www.ktka.com/news/2007/jul/12/losing_infant_rare_disease_parents_want_help_other/

Recently Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, signed a proclamation stating that March 2009 would be Trisomy Awareness Month. Here is a copy of that proclamation - http://www.gov.state.ak.us/proclamations.php?id=1676.

My goal on this March 13th is to spread awareness of this rare diagnosis. By increasing awareness, I feel I am keeping my baby's memory alive. I know Reese's life had a far greater purpose, and maybe this was part of it.

Mommy loves you Reese.

"Held"

I added a song to my blog today. It is "Held" by Natalie Grant. I am going to leave it on through the weekend. Please take the time to listen to it and the words sometime. Today is Trisomy Awareness day. Tomorrow, March 14th, is the day my third baby girl was born. Reese Lorene Engel was born at 7:29 am and stayed here with her Daddy and Mommy and 2 adoring sisters until 8:38 am. And Tuesday, March 17th, is the day we said goodbye at her funeral. It will be a hard weekend, but I know she is in a better place. And as this song says, we are all held by God through everything - and we aren't promised a life without problems, we are promised that He will never leave us, no matter what.

Our Flooring Project

Whenever we found out that we were going to have our fourth baby, Don and I knew we were going to have to get new flooring in the dining room. It had carpet at the time and our kitchen table was too small for all 5 of us to eat at. So, after we received our tax refund this year we went floor shopping. We found some great wood laminate on sale and bought enough to re-floor our entry way, kitchen and dining room. Here is what those rooms looked like before our week of chaos...

Our kitchen with the lovely linoleum - I hated this floor! It showed everything and never looked clean. One time I sat and scrubbed every inch of it with a magic eraser and it was clean for the first time ever, but I also took the top coat off of it and it never really looked the same again.

Our entry way was fine, it just wasn't our favorite tile.

And our dining room, with the carpet. (Not the best idea if you are going to have 3 kids eating in there!)

The whole process was supposed to take around 3 days max, but they started on Tuesday morning and didn't finish until the following Monday evening. One of the days he was sick and of course, he didn't work over the weekend. As many of you know, I have some OCD issues and the fact that we were practically living in our bedroom and that my house was covered in dirt, debris and dust really took its toll. (They literally jack-hammered the tile out of our entry way!!) Here are some pictures of the mess and what we lived like.

This is where we spent all our time. My bedroom became Lily and Taegan's playroom and living room. Our master bedroom is not big enough for that!!

Before he left on Friday Don asked if he would be doing anything messy on Monday and he said no. He would only be installing the toe-kick and trim and finishing up a few things. So on Sunday morning I spent 4 hours cleaning my kitchen. Everything had to be cleaned - it was bad! Then Monday came and first thing he went to fix the cabinet above our fridge. (After we laid the floors, the fridge was too tall!) That would have been fine except he didn't take the cabinet down like we thought he was going to do, no, he did it right there in the kitchen. Needless to say, my spotless kitchen was now a total disaster again. All of my dishes, plates, cups, everything, were covered in sawdust, and wood shavings - and they were in the cabinets!!! So, on Tuesday I had to re-clean my kitchen, another 4 hours later it was done... again.

When everything was finally complete, we were very happy. I love the look and we are both so thrilled with our purchase! 3 days later, we finally have our house cleaned and put back together. It took a lot of work - that dirt and debris can fly everywhere!! Here are the final pictures!!