It has been so long since I have posted a family update! So much as happened since last October...we welcomed Brandon Rasheed Rask into our family on January 22. 7lb 3 oz and 20 inches long. He came into this world the exact same day and hour in the pregnancy cycle as his big brother Tyler...2 1/2 weeks early and approximately 15 minutes earlier. We love our sweet new little one who is now already 4 months old. Talk about time flying by!! Brandon is such a sweet baby...loves to smile and giggle, and is in complete awe of his older brother. He's very ticklish, and loves, loves, loves his mommy's kisses (lucky me!)! We feel so blessed to have two healthy and happy boys. Teddy is just finishing up his 3rd year of dental school...1 more year to go. Can't wait for him to be done. He is mostly working in patient care these days. I am so very proud of all he is accomplishing and how he is able to stay the best dad in the world! I ended up taking 3 months off for maternity leave. Two months short of what we had planned, but we have been blessed with supportive family to make this possible. I'll be working on getting the blog caught up over the next week or so. Brandon has already changed so much! Hope you enjoy all the pictures!
October
It's been a long time since I have posted an update on our family's development :). Tyler is now 18 months old and we are expecting our second little bundle of joy in February. Tyler will be getting a new little brother!! Things are always exciting in the Rask household...Tyler is a talking machine. He amazes us every day with what he is able to do. By 15 months he could count to 10 and say most of his ABCs. 16 months he knows all his capitol letters by sight, can sing songs like happy birthday. By 17 months he can count to 20, sing the full ABC song (including now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me), and he can sing a variety of songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the chorus of Down by the Bay. He is now talking in 5 word sentences such as: "What are you doing daddy?", "Tyler's playing the guitar", ", "Baby in mommy's tummy" and many others. The language development is just amazing and we are so proud of him. He still LOVES his books and is able to say many of the lines in most of them (think it's time to get some new ones LOL). He is such an amazing little boy and we love him so very much. We recently had his 18 month appointment and his measurements came in at 97 percentile for height and 80th for weight. Hopefully this means he will grow into his size 7 feet :). Teddy is doing well in school. He is in the middle of his 3rd year of dental school and is spending most of his time treating patients. Only 1.5 more years to go!! I'm still working 3 days a week as a physical therapist. Work is getting a little more challenging the bigger I get with this baby but I feel blessed to have a job and have such wonderful family to watch Tyler so that this is possible. We are very much looking forward to meeting our new son early next year. We keep joking about how tiny he is going to seem next to our little tank :). We'll keep you all updated! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!!
April
A whole year has gone by since our precious little boy came into this world. We are so proud of how he has grown and how much he has learned over this past year. He celebrated his one year birthday with all his close family. We lucked out and had a beautiful day for a BBQ. Tyler is now walking all over the place! It's hard to believe just a few months back he was stuck and frustrated in the superman position trying to figure out how to crawl! We didn't quite make it to a year for his first haircut. He must take after his daddy ;). He is very verbal and is trying to repeat many of the words we say. The two songs he is working on stringing together are "now I know my (a b c's)" and "no more monk (no more monkeys jumping on the bed). His new favorite thing is to feed himself with a spoon...putting the spoon into food and then putting it into his mouth. Makes him sound quite civilized...and then he proceeds to throw most of his food onto the floor so he can eat it after he gets down...can't win them all I guess :). We are looking forward to many new adventures this summer...camping, gardening, hiking, swimming and more. We're so excited to watch Tyler experience new things!
March
Tyler has just turned 11 months and his first birthday is right around the corner. Who could believe that our little baby has turned into a little boy! Today was a very exciting day in the Rask household...Tyler took 4 steps on his own! We were so excited for him. In addition to this he has recently added some words to his vocabulary-no, don't, and down. We hear these quite often. Sometimes when he is trying to fall asleep I can hear him in his room saying NO with many different types of voices. I find myself wondering if that is what I sound like :). We have less than a week until Ted has his much deserved spring break week off. He is in the middle of his 11 test finals week (I know nightmare right?). He seems to be handling it well but we are all looking forward to a nice week of family time. Of course what would spring break be without a project...plan is to put some raised beds in and to plant a garden. Hope we get some good weather!!
February
Well it seems like our little baby has turned into a little boy right before our eyes. He has grown so much and he has a mop of hair that we are not quite sure what to do with :). We'll see if we can make it to his first birthday before getting it cut. Tyler is all over the place, exploring everything! Crawling and cruising around furniture. He hasn't taken that first independent step yet but he can push his little car around and move from one piece of furniture to another. Teething has been an adventure...Ty now has 4 front teeth which he flashes with his charming grin every chance he gets. Tyler is quite the little chatterbox. He is able to say cat (often in the tone of us yelling at our cats when they are getting into mischief), car, book, good, go, quack, cheese, mama, dada, and a few others. Tyler still LOVES his books. He is really into door stoppers, drawers, cabinets, and stairs...we really have to keep an eye on this little stinker. It's hard to believe that his first birthday is just around the corner and that our little baby is turning into a toddler! We love him so much and are enjoying how much he is learning every day! We're so blessed to have such a happy baby!
December
What a remarkable couple of months!! We've hit some amazing developmental milestones. Tyler is now crawling and getting into everything he possibly can. Now that his pincer grip is starting to develop he is eating puffs (kinda like cheerios but easier) and he loves them. He can clap his hands, wave bye bye, and he has been exploring his sounds. He can't say mama yet but he has experimented with saying book, quack, and dada. His new favorite not so much of a word is "gook" which he says for everything. After Thanksgiving Tyler came down with his first real illness. We spent a good chunk of time in the ER with him strapped to an IV with pneumonia. Thank God he has recovered fully...and now if we could just kick this ear infection of his! The Christmas holiday was wonderful for our family. Ty enjoyed opening his presents and now days he can't decided what to play with because he is surrounded by so many options. Thank you to all of our family that made his first Christmas so special! As we enter the new year we look forward to more milestones. It seems like he does something new and amazing every day. We pray that our little one stays healthy through the rest of this winter season! Happy holidays!!
October
Oh how time is flying by!! We can't believe how fast our little man is growing! Tyler is now 6 months old. Every day he amazes us with new developments as he explores his environment...usually with his mouth :). At 5 months Ty was sitting up well and learned how to roll over from back to front. He also started on some solid foods. He loves his rice cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots and fruit. You'll consistently see a shudder and gag as we try to get him to eat his peas :). Over the past couple of weeks he has started pulling himself up onto all fours and is rocking back and forth. He gets so frustrated that he can't get from point A to B. Time to start baby proofing the house! Tyler also LOVES his books. He will sit and listen to book after book and squeals, chats, or flashes a big grin as he looks up at us when his favorite part comes up. Of course, just like his daddy, Ty loves music. He'll sing with the music in the car or with his musical toys...he loves anything with a tune. He especially loves his crocodile xylophone at Grammy's house. He has the sweetest laugh and often makes us feel funnier that we actually are by laughing at everything we do. Every day has been an adventure! We feel so blessed as we watch him grow and develop his own little personality. We are looking forward to the holiday season for more wonderful firsts!!
August 2009
Tyler is now four months old and is such a precious little boy. He is growing so fast, pushing 18lbs. At 2 months he was able to roll over from front to back and he is currently working on sitting up. Over the past month he has discovered his hands and now is able to grab all kinds of things. He is quite the chatter box and laughs regularly at mom and dad. He doesn't like nap time but we are working on that :). Ted is off of school for 6 weeks which is fantastic!!We have planned a couple of short trips to the coast and Seattle, but mostly we are just looking forward to spending some quality time together as a family. We will also be celebrating Ty's baptism at the end of this month. I return to work 3 days a week in early September. We are very blessed to have such wonderful family support to make this possible!