Darryl Pearson, RN

College is rough. Darryl's experience was no exception. It's been a long and difficult road, but he made it! I am so proud of what he has accomplished. Darryl has worked tirelessly toward this goal and he will make a great nurse.

When Darryl's last semester of nursing school began I was talking to my dad about how excited I was that he was nearing the end. I told him I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. He said to me something that really stood out. "You know what the light at the end of the tunnel means, right? It's either the end of the tunnel or an oncoming train!" Of coarse he was just kidding around, but as finals approached and the stress level in our home was intensified, it sure felt like we were about to be hit by a train.

It may seem selfish of me, but I feel like I worked hard toward this too. My big ambition in life is to be a stay-at-home-mom. I felt a little like I sacrificed a part of that to support my family during Darryl's schooling. I worked full time during the hardest and most stressful times in our lives so far. After being gone from my son all day, I would come home from work and just lay next to him while he was sleeping. People always say to enjoy the precious youth of your children since it's a mere fleeting moment in time. Never has the thought of that hurt me more than during the times I was away from my son. It still pains me to know I missed most of his second year of life.

Enough about me. Darryl is the real hero here. He worked the very hardest and sacrificed the most. We calculated the number of hours he spent away from home and it was nearly double the 40 hours a week I put in. Between clinicals, study groups, class time and a part time job, he still managed to get his homework done and get decent grades. I am so proud of all the hard work he put in toward a career.

3 years old!

My little baby is so grown up! Teagan had his 3rd birthday. He is such a fun, loving and adventurous child. He is really into animals, and pirates. He will go around singing pirate songs all day long. He knows a handful of pirate songs. He also loves Diego the cartoon about animals. He is always talking about the animals he learns about on the show. He especially loves ocean animals. He knows the different kinds of Sea turtles and can tell the difference between them. It's really cute. We have a annual pass to the local aquarium and while it's quite small, Teagan NEVER gets sick of it. He is completely fascinated every time.

He has such a large vocabulary and is always saying such funny things! I seriously laugh about things he says every single day. He is just bursting with personality and I love it. He loves to play pretend. He pretends he is a bird and will expect me to play along. He informs me we are now pretending by saying, "Mama bird, let's build a nest." and then he won't answer until I call him baby bird. He pretends all sorts of things and just calls me whatever it is he wants me to pretend to be. It's captain when we play pirates and mama penguin, or Jesse from Toy Story, or Wallace from Wallace and Gromit, and many other things. It's fun to see his active imagination.

Teagan is an extremely active kid. He doesn't care for anything that involves sitting down. He can't even watch one episode of Diego without jumping on his trampoline or walking around. The episodes are only 20 minutes long since we watch it commercial free on Netflix. I am starting to get him interested in quiet activites and he is coming around slowly. We like to do kitchen science experiments. I loved that kind of thing when I was a kid and so I figure he probably would too. His favorite is making a "vol-ba-cano" which is volcano. Thankfully baking soda and vinegar are cheap. Someday I will actually explain to him the nature of the reaction, but for now, he just thinks it's "really amazing!"

He has a little preschool that he goes to once a week. (Really just a toddler socialization class.) He really loves school. It helps his social skills since my poor kid is an only child and due to my work schedule has limited opportunities for play dates and other social activities. We do have awesome neighbors that he plays with, but since I work crazy hours and my mom watches him, we don't get to play as often as we'd like. He loves going to school and especially loves the playground. He has actually come home with some impressive "modern art" type pictures. He loves hanging them on the fridge.

He is starting to learn to peddle his tricycle and enjoys spending as much time as possible outside. He loves his mama and daddy and is such a sweet, affectionate boy. He wakes up in the morning and wants to snuggle for five minutes before getting up. It's the best part of my day.

Teagan is very close to his family. He really loves his extended family and talks about them all the time. He loves spending time with Diya and Buzz (my parents) and also Grandma Reita and Grandpa Curt (Darryl's parents) when they are in town. He went through a phone phase where he wanted to call people in his family all the time. He would ask to call just about every person in the family. He mostly asked to call Grandma Reita and Glade (his cousin).

Teague is a little gadget guy. He LOVES playing with electronics and his current favorite is Grandpa's iPad. He can navigate that thing like he has done it all his life. He picks it up and in about 3 seconds he has his favorite movie streaming on netflix. He also loves his gameboy and is surprisingly good at a couple of the games on it.

I can't believe 3 years have gone by. I am amazed at how much each member of our family has changed since Teagan's birth. Darryl and I have both grown together and learned so much since becoming parents. It's the best and the most difficult thing to happen to our relationship. It melts my heart to see what a great father he is to our precious boy.

Children are truly a gift from God. I can't express adequately what my precious little gift means to me. I feel so blessed to be Teagan's mommy! Happy Birthday Lovie-Lou!

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful holiday this year. Darryl's brother Curtis stayed with us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning. Christmas Eve we had a pajama party with our neighbors and watched the classic Rudolph cartoons. The kids loved it.

We woke up Christmas morning and "Santa" had come and set up Teagan's presents and left him a full stocking. He ran out, saw his stash and said "Thank you Mom and Daddy!" He's not even 3 and he already doesn't believe in Santa?! We quickly informed him that the presents were from Santa and he said, "No. They're not." Anyway, "Santa" brought him an exercise trampoline to give him something do burn off his energy indoors during the winter. He LOVES it!


We had a wonderful breakfast of waffles with berries and whipped cream and then hurried off to my parents house. We were able to talk to my brother, Garrett who is on a mission in Louisville, Kentucky right now. It was great getting to hear his voice and it made us all miss him that much more. We had a nice time at my parent's house.

Later that evening, we spent more time with Curtis. Teagan just cannot get enough of his Uncle! I felt a little bad for Curtis. Teagan wanted him to chase him, wrestle, throw him in the air, etc. Teagan was having the time of his life and Curtis was laughing nonstop at Teagan's persistance. He was a good sport and made Teagan's Christmas as fun as it possibly could be.

So Grown Up!

My friend Whitney did a photo session of just Teagan back in September. He is getting to the age where those Pearson gene's kick in full force and he HATES getting his pictures taken. Well, his picture-happy mother forced him to cooperate, and though he was displeased he eventually realized resistance was futile. I did bribe him with a ring pop once we were finished so I he did have some motivation to cooperate. Whitney does an excellent job, so it actually wasn't as bad as I am making it sound. But she did have to go to some crazy measures to get him to smile. But thankfully, she is good at being silly :) Here are some of my favorites.

This (above) is his thinking face. He taps his finger on his chin and says "Hmm. Now let's see."

This one was after we were finished and he got his ring pop. Check out how satisfied he looks to have his Mickey, some candy, and to be finished!

This is his "I'm forcing myself to humor my mother, and it's NOT easy" face.

Right it down or you will forget

The parenting tip I hear the most often is that I should write down all the funny things Teagan says before I forget them. At the time I think I won't forget them and I do. So before I forget these, here are some things that my child said recently that amused me.

My visiting teachers came over and Teagan was ready for them to leave. He stood up on a chair and announced: "Ladies and Gentlemen: This show is OVER!" Thankfully, my visiting teachers thought that was pretty funny.

Teagan was shopping with my mom and he asked if he could pick out a doughnut for Buzz. (My dad.) She told him he could and he chose a doughnut for his Grandpa. Then once it was in the paper sack, he asked if he could pick out a doughnut for himself. She agreed and he said, "OK. But I don't want a damaged one."

He got something in his eye once and it really bothered him. I am sure it was just a piece of lint or something. He starts screaming "There's a bug in my eye!" I looked in his eye, and didn't see anything, but I did seem rather concerned as anyone would at the thought of a bug being in your child's eye. Apparently I gave him too much attention over the matter. He now tells me there is a bug in his eye anytime I tell him to do something he doesn't want to do. (Like bedtime, potty time, clean-up time, etc.)

He has been on such a pirate kick lately. He is a bad pirate almost everyday. He calls me captain (so fitting) and sings pirate songs. His favorite is a really annoying song he learned from Backyardagains. It's to the tune of "What do you do with a drunken sailor" only they sing, "What do you do with a scurvy pirate?" Well, I heard him mumbling words together to the tune of the drunken sailor song so i figured he must know the song and I started singing it with him. Little did I know, I just taught my son the song "What do you do with a drunken sailor." He instantly caught on and sings it almost every day. The best part is, Darryl had to sing that song in choir in 7th grade and he knows the second verse and sang it to Teagan. Now my precious little toddler goes around singing: (I'm going to Teaganize it for you so you get the idea of how he pronounces the words)

What do ya do with a runtin sailor?
What do ya do with a runtin sailor?
What do ya do with a runtin sailor early-lie in the morning?

Put 'em in the longboat til he's sober
Put 'em in the longboat til he's sober
Put 'em in the longboat til he's sober early-lie in the morning.
(He pronounces early then lie. It's pretty funny.)

Today he was singing "Twinkle twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a spider in his hat and called it macaroni."

Teagan looked at our wedding album and said, "Mama, are you a princess?" I told him yes and not to forget it.

Teagan asked to go to tranyafornia. When I asked him what was in tranyafornia, he said "My Reita." Darryl's parents (Curt and Reita) live in California. Despite us encouraging him to call her Grandma, he mostly calls her "my Reita." And Lance can attest to the fact that he is not too keen on sharing "his" Reita.

While riding in the car with my parents and Darryl and me, Teagan said, "If you want to come to my pirate party say ARGH!"

We put up our Christmas tree and Teagan was so thrilled. He was jumping up and down saying, "It's my Merry Christmas Tree! I'm so happy! I love you so much!" Then he would hug Darryl and me. It was adorable seeing him act so grateful to us for putting up the tree. It was also fun to see his enthusiasm for Christmas.

He asked a surprisingly intelligent question about a bodily function (really no point in grossing anyone out here) and after answering the question I commented to Darryl "He's quite a thinker." And Teagan said, "Hey, I'm not a stinker. Only my poop is stinky."

I will be adding to this post periodically so if you are interested in what he's saying, check back.