Teo at 9-months and Other Stuff

Greetings Teo fans, followers, devotees, aficionados, adherents and admirers all. It's been a few weeks since our last post and MUCH has happened.
Teo turned 9-months this past January 3rd, and in a twist of tradition, Teo presented US with a gift - his first tooth! It took it's sweet time coming, and now it seems that maybe the floodgates (to go with his endless drool-gates) are open. A second has followed close behind. They're two bottom teeth, so he still has that same adorable toothless smile, but that may not be the case by the time he turns 10-months. Those front teeth are ready to appear, I'm sure.
The boy sure loves to eat (unlike his brother!), and has taken to the solid stuff quite happily. He still nurses, but generally in the middle of the night or early morning, more or less for comfort food. During the day, he can't POSSIBLY be bothered with taking that kind of time, or else he might miss out on something. The kid needs to see and be involved with EVERYTHING. He can barely sit still to eat. He might last 5-minutes in the high chair while eating, but then he HAS to stand up or climb all over the place while being fed. So Candice has acquiesced to his desires and now feeds him standing, crawling, or whatever he wants to be doing. At least he's eating. (Some faves: pasta with marinara sauce; PB&J sandwich squares; peas; baked sweet potato.) Are there any high chairs with straight-jacket attachments? E-bay!!
Grandma Connie came for a visit. They are getting along famously now. Aside from when she rocks him to sleep, every moment she is with Teo, she is constantly talking to him, as well as assisting him with his walking - which, thanks to her, he now prefers over crawling. He'll walk - with either our assistance or with the aid of whatever he can get his hands on - as much as possible, all around the living and dining rooms. Of course, he still crawls to get around, but he loves to be on his two feet. I give it another 4-weeks and then he'll be up on his own!
He is way more interactive and playful now. He likes to be chased, and will sometimes do the chasing. To hear his squeals of delight is one of the greatest sounds ever. He plays "throw" with Dad. I say "throw" because he can't play "catch" yet, but he is happy to throw things back at you (well, in ALL general directions, really) when you toss something his way. But he does make the throw. Makes a poppa proud! (Still uses both hands; no clear-cut use of right or left yet.)
He is DEFINITELY saying "mama" now, and he knows it's Candice. And he sometimes gets out a "num-num" for food, which Candice taught him to say, along with a few sign-language gestures.
His first Birthday approaches, and we will be having party here at the house, for those of you who may be interested in attending. Saturday, April 3. Save the date!
More to come. Enjoy the pics and short vid.

Teo's First Christmas

Happy Holidays to all!
Teo experienced his first Xmas this year, and seemed happy as a clam with all his new gifts. Thank you to all who sent him his wonderful gifts.
Teo (as are we all) is loving his new home. Tons more room to get around, and I think as a result, he's gained some crawling speed, as can be evidenced in the video below, of Teo chasing - and ROARING - after Tanner.
I do have video from Xmas morning of Teo and Tanner opening their gifts, but it is a lengthy vid and I'll need to edit some before posting. But it might be fun to see, if for no other reason than to see Teo on his first Xmas morn and reacting to and playing with his new toys, plus a couple of pieces of art that dad created about 22-odd years ago, back in school, for a job for the Tucson Zoo. They were languishing in my art portfolio lo these many years. After getting it out of storage during the move, I looked through the portfolio once again to see how things were holding up, and saw the pics and thought that I'd like to give to my son as a gift for his first Christmas, trying to perhaps make it more memorable and special. I hope he likes them.
Candice bought him a new doorway jumper, since his previous one was so incredibly lame. This actually bounces up and down! He took to it right away, as he loves to jump anyways, while we're holding him. Now he can do it completely under his own momentum. As long as he doesn't hit his head on the top of the doorframe.
Teo's appetite keeps growing, and mom is trying hard to keep him satisfied and happy with new tastes and textures, though I don't think he'll put up much longer with the imitation gruel mom is feeding him (see picture). I guess he had some cheese quesadilla today and loved it. Guess that's his quarter-Mexican in him coming out.
That's all for now on the Teo and family front. More to come soon. Look for the Xmas vid in a few days.
A Happy and Prosperous New Year to all!

Made the Big Move!

Sorry for long delay between posts! We are finally moved in to our new house, having spent the last 3-weeks packing, moving, being sick, more moving, and then unpacking. And inbetween that, entertaining guests (Teo's Unkie Norm from Tucson and Candice's dad Bart and sister what's-her-name-I-forget). Crazy, tumultuous, aggravating (moving out of storage), exciting, and in the end contentment. We are moved in, but far from completely unpacked and organized.
But we are are VERY happy to be in a bigger place in which Teo and the rest of us can move, grow, run around and have fun - in the privacy of our own home. The apartment was good to us, and there are a couple of amenities we will miss (hot tub, underground parking), but we'll enjoy the advantages of home living far more.
Since last post, Teo enjoyed his first Thanksgiving (thank you Cole family for hosting us and special thanks to Julie for a great dinner), and has moved on to semi-solid foods, turned 8-months old(!) and is just cuter in general. And he is a hungry little critter. No teeth yet, but we suspect very soon. You would think that with the amount that he has drooled over the last 4-months, he'd already have a full set of adult teeth.
Xmas is coming upon us rapidly, so Candice is in full decoration mode and we will have new pics to show with Teo in Holiday regalia and more.
Please stay tuned for more soon.

Teo Plays Peek-a-Boo

Greetings all.
Our little man Teo has recently learned to play peek-a-boo, first starting in the car with Tanner and mom, on their way home from school, then in the tub, standing up and down on the side of the tub, and then, in the video below, on the floor just after his bath, except this time, he instigates the game and I was able to catch the last few peeks-and-boos.
The boy is now a speed demon crawler, getting around the entire house in no time flat. Good thing we're moving into a bigger place - LOTS more room for Teo to explore and motor about. And for those of you who do not yet know - we're moving into a bigger place. Our new digs are a 3-bedroom house, with a nice big yard for Teo and all of us to romp around, big adjoining patio with built-in (brick) gas BBQ area, veranda and a few fountains. Perfect for entertaining, which we WILL be doing. Super Bowl parties, holidays, upcoming anniversaries, 1-yr-old birthdays, weekdays ending in "y" - all good reasons for a party! We're scheduled to be in by the 1st of December, though our first actual night in the house will likely be this coming Saturday, the 28th. We are all looking forward to having extra room to move, live and play. And Teo gets his own room! For now. Til Lola arrives :) The she gets the queen treatment.
On other Teo fronts, not much new, other than he has developed a little appetite and his cheeks - top and bottom - are filling out. He's still chatters away now and then, and seems close to uttering his first word, though we feel like we've already heard lots of words come from his mouth, intended or not; they just happened to sound like real words. "Hi dada" comes to mind :)
LOVE that boy! Enjoy the pics and especially the video.

SORRY!!!!! / And Teo turns 7-months old

I know - it's been WAY too long since last post, and "what else can I say? All apologies!" (A nod to Curt Cobain for those sorry words.)
So... what's been happening? Hmmm, not much, except that Teo is now TALKING!!
Well, sort of. It's more like a yammering of incoherent word-like sounds, but it is markedly different from his previous ooohs and aaahs, and very apparent that it is his attempt at talking. I'm trying hard to get a video of it to post to the blog, since I know none of you will believe my own yammering on about our Golden Child.
His first time "talking" happened all of a sudden at dinner on Saturday. We decided to try out a new Argentinian restaurant near our place, and we were in the back room where it was a bit crowded and loud. After Teo woke up from his nap, he was all eyes, all around the room, checking everyone and everything out. After Candice ate her dinner (we take turns watching Teo while the other eats), she decided to feed Teo. Once he had his fill from a jar of sweet potatoes (one of his faves), she thought he could use some liquid to wash it down, and so let him have a sip from her nice - and very adult - crsytal glass of water. He sipped like a champ and the moment she took it away from his, lips, then it started: "mum-mum-mum-mum-mah-ma-mah-mah..." On and on every time. It was one of those moments where we just looked at each other in amazement and just laughed, as it was something so different.
Now, he'll do it for complaining purposes (as it began), or if he's very content and just babying about in his usual way, as if carrying on a conversation with himself.
Other news: We spent Halloween up in Utah, at Nana and Bumpa's (Candice's parents) house. They had not had the pleasure of Teo's company for a few months, and in Teo's world, that would be half his lifetime. As with Gil's mom, it took Teo a couple of days to warm up to the grandparents, but once he starts smiling, he has them right where he wants them. Tanner had a great time trick-or-treating and playing with his cousins (other purpose for trip), but on the downside, we didn't spend as much time over at the Hansen household as we normally would, as the place was a veritable petri dish of flu germs, with children and adults in various stages of sickness, and we did not want to risk Teo catching the bug. How Tanner spent three days holed up in germ central and walk away unscathed (so far) is baffling.
That's all for now. Enjoy the pics. As before, I will TRY to post more often! And do check back for that elusive video of Teo talking. I'll stalk him like a rare nocturnal animal, 24 hours a day, if I have to.

Our Budding Buddy

Welcome once again to the Terrifyingly Terrific Tales of Teo.
Updates since last post:
So you all already know Teo's been crawling for about three weeks now (terrific), and being the GOLDEN CHILD that he is (I warned all of you), he has it down pat and now has the entire apartment to discover and roam. And you all already know he's been pulling himself up to a standing position (since BEFORE he was crawling), and so now it seems as that has become his one goal in his little life - to stand at every opportunity he gets (terrifying).
Candice has now introduced baby food into the mix for our growing little buddy, so now he gets half a jar of pureed sweet potatoes or carrots (Candice tried peas, but that was not well received) after his visit to the milk bar. Today, though he ate almost a WHOLE jar of sweet potatoes and then had a milk chaser, so was truly stuffed. Part of it is to now supplement his milk feedings with other foods on his way towards solid food, and also to add some meat to his little bones and also - and the real hope here for Candice - to help him sleep for longer than two-hour stretches at a time. Last night he had a five-hour stretch of sleep, which is glory for Mom. So we're hoping the extra food makes digestion longer and makes him sleepy. I told Candice to get some pureed turkey - the tryptophan will knock him out for hours! But then the story (tale) goes that Leonardo Da Vinci slept two hours at a time, spersed throughout a 24-hour period, so who knows.
Golden, I tells ya' - GOLDEN!!

There's cute, and then there's....

Candice and Grandma Connie took Teo over to a mall photo studio in Arcadia to get some shots of Teo in his Halloween outfits.
Here are the results. (Please click on the thumbnail images; you HAVE to see the full-size pics. That face! Those eyes! That button nose! That mouth!)
Since there are no words that can do them justice, I will let the pics - and your comments - speak for themselves.
New post to come in a few days with lots new photos.
Only news of note to date: Teo is 100% crawling; he makes his way all through the house already. Please send padding. Lots of it. (For the furniture, I mean. Although I guess it would probably be easier just to pad Teo.)