Baby Library Time

I took Taelyn to her first baby library time yesterday, and she had such a great time! As soon as we entered in to the room, we sat in a circle with the other moms and babies and started singing and motioning a song. Instantly Taelyn was alert and all smiles as she moved to the song. Her face just came alive when she saw all of the other babies there too. She then wanted to talk to everyone there and started making "ma" and "ah" sounds as well as louder squawks. Taelyn was by far the most vocal baby there; it brought quite a few smiles to the other moms.

At the end of library time, the babies are placed in the center of the circle on a blanket and given toys to play with. It was amazing to watch Taelyn interact with the other babies during this time. She would play with her own toys and then find another baby more fascinating, so she would reach out to that baby to touch him/her. There were of course some struggles as well where babies wanted to play with the same toy at the same time, and Taelyn was no exception. She got in to a little tug of war with another girl and wasn't quite sure what to do!

When it was time to leave, Taelyn was exhausted from all of the fun, but it was obvious that she had so much fun.

Big Girl Moments

Taelyn has recently taken on a couple of big achievements. A few months ago, she rolled over from front to back and then never revisited it again. Now she has not only rolled from back to front, but she is doing so over and over again on a daily basis. The best part is watching her interact with toys and objects around her while she is rolling. She will move half way and stay on her side to play with a hanging toy on her play mat and then roll completely over when she is done.

Taelyn's next big step has been in starting solid food. She is taking in some rice cereal during one feeding a day right now. The first time she tried it, she made a pretty funny face like she didn't like the cereal, but then she kept on eating it. It was pretty cute.

New State, New Home

We have now made it to our new home in Colorado Springs, and we absolutely love it. We live in the southwest part of town overlooking the mountains; the view from our balcony is amazing! There are also an unlimited amount of trails here. Within one week, we can run on a different trail each day.

View from our apartment





Our apartment is slowly coming together with furniture, paintings, and simply finding a place for everything to go. The next step is finding out more about the community. Taelyn and I will attend baby library time soon and look in to other baby activities such as swimming lessons. So far, our favorite outing as a family has been at the Jack Quinn's Irish Pub 5K run on Tuesday evenings. Every week, the pub hosts a 5K run followed by pasta and salad. We bring Taelyn in the baby jogger for the run and have a great time hanging out afterward with other runners, good food, and great Irish music.

Summer Time

After a busy and eventful summer, I am finally updating our blog again. Our family went through quite a lot this summer between seeing lots of friends and family and introducing our little Taelyn to everyone, a baby shower, baptism, and Kate and Brad's wedding. Taelyn went through some major changes as well. She went from sleeping through the night in China for about 5-7 hours straight to waking up every 1-2 hours during her entire 4th month! One reason for this change was that she was getting adjusted to a 12-hour time difference and was always stimulated with new faces every day. But the biggest reason for the night waking was probably due to her teething. At the end of the 4th month, Taelyn got her first two teeth within a couple of days from one another! Once those teeth broke through, Taelyn found a new fascination - she couldn't stop playing with them with her fingers and tongue.

Life got quite a bit easier at the start of Taelyn's 5th month, after the worst of the teething was over. She weighed 17.4 lbs. at 5 months and was 26.8 inches long.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Taelyn - 4 Months

Taelyn had her 4 month check-up a week early, just a few days before leaving China to go back to the US. She measured 14.9 lbs, 24.4 inches long, and a head circumference of 16.3 inches. Her length and head circumference were still in the average range, while her weight was at the 75th percentile. Taelyn was full of lots of smiles this past month, and she even had her first giggle on the plane ride over to the US - sparked by her daddy, of course. Here is a little recap of some of her best moments from the month.

Make a Smilebox photobook