Camping, Expoing, and Boating...Oh my

Is expoing a word? Probably not. Anyway I am not sure what you call it when you go to an expo.

As Lyle mentioned camping was an experience this weekend. It was cold and windy and rainy, but Keegan didn't seem to mind. He wasn't too big on playing in the camper. There just wasn't much space for him to run around with me, Lyle, my parents, and 4 greyhounds occupying floor space. It gets crowded with us all squeezed in there. I am hoping later this summer we can use our tent again. It would be nice to get some use out of the tent!

On Sunday we went to the Living Green Expo which was, as always, interesting. I have been wanting to get granite countertops put in; while we were there I saw something more interesting than granite. They can do recycled glass countertops. Check it out here: http://www.vetrazzo.com/products_palette.html Very pretty countertops and very unique looking. So, while Lyle is interested in geothermal heating for the house, I am more interested in new countertops :-)

The other thing I spent some time looking at there are cloth diapers. Most of the cloth diapers now have inserts that you wash instead of the whole diaper. After talking to the lady and reading about "How to wash all of these diapers", I decided I would probably spend as much energy washing diapers as I was saving by not using disposables. So I started looking into an alternative. G diapers have a flushable, biodegradable lining that goes into a cloth outer diaper. I ordered a starter pack; so we will see how that goes... See here for how they work: http://www.gdiapers.com/

As always there were coupons for $$ off organic foods. That is always awesome because it is so hard to get money off all of the organic food we buy. Also interesting information on biking, neat displays of locally made kids toys, oh and of course bamboo clothing. I bought some bamboo towels to give them a try. I'll let ya'll know how that goes :-)

While we are talking green here's an update on the stuff I started using a couple months ago. So far I've really liked the Korres line of face/body care stuff. The Giovanni organic hair care has also been really nice. The Seventh Generation stuff has been kind of hit and miss. Their surface and glass cleaners work really well and don't make my eyes sting. Their fabric softener and toilet cleaner are also awesome. The dishwasher detergent is horrible and leaves awful residue on the dishes. The toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues feel like the cheap stuff you get in a public bathroom. The diapers work really well but, they smell like...welll...pee after Keegan pees in them (not perfumed). We also got a bad case of diapers where none of the tabs were glued to the diapers so I had to send that case back to Amazon. Which really pissed me off.

We've been trying to bring reusable grocery bags to Target when we go. But I have this problem with remembering to put them back into the car. Either that or I get in the store and leave them in the car; hopefully I'll get better at this as I do it more. And the latest green step we are trying to take is to replace the plastic bottles in the house with aluminum or other bisphenol free bottles. We have a Foogo sippy cup for Keegan and I ordered a Sigg cup for him and myself. We'll see how these work. They are a bit pricey but maybe since they are metal I won't accidentally melt them on the heating element of the dishwasher. A number of our plastic cups have lost their lives in this way :-(

Okay onto the boat outing. I am not sure that it was the life jacket that had Keegan all bent out of sorts. That was part of it, but he also didn't like the boat moving back and forth under his feet. Between the boat movement and that huge back flap on the infant life jacket, he was having a lot of trouble falling over and then not being able to get back up. That boy signed "all done" over and over as fast as I have ever seen him do it. I felt kind of bad for him; trying to explain that when you take the boat out on the lake you can't just be all done that fast.

Last night I finally broke down all of the cardboard in the garage for recycling. I am getting antsy to get some more landscaping done this year. Most of the bushes are bought we are just waiting for our "Architectural Change Form" to be approved by the association. It's ridiculous; we want to plant some trees and add some bushes so we need to fill out all these forms. What a joke. Although, we do it because we didn't do it last time and it was quite a hassle to fix. Hopefully the nice weather will continue and we can get out there to enjoy it! Oh, and Keegan's bike trailer is supposed to be getting here any day now! I am excited to try that out.

The bitter cold, geothermal, and a monkey on his back

So we went camping this past weekend at Myre state park. We left later than we wanted on Friday due to Keegan taking a nap. We got there around 5 or so on Friday, and the ride down was ok until about a half-hour out, then it started raining so hard that we couldn't see. So we finally get to the campsite, and it is cold and wet and raining. Karissa's parents have an RV, and that is what we were staying in, so we pulled everything out of the car and loaded up in the RV. We hung out for a while, and had dinner. Usually we would cook over the campfire, but that was not happening with all the rain we were getting. Finally it stopped raining, and Keegan, Karissa and I went out to strech our legs. Keegan had a fabulous time in the mud and playing in the puddles! Boy does he love playing in the puddles.....

At one point we found some worms that we tried to get Keegan to play with, but he was not really interested in the worms because there were puddles around that would probably go up to his waist. Anyway we let him play in some of them, and after a little while he was wet up to his knees, and having a grand time just smiling and laughing while splashing around. At this point we decided that he should probably use his rain boots, so we switch his socks and put on his rain boots, which are still way to large for him. Well lets just say it didn't really do much good since Keegan still can't walk really well in those boots. So he kept falling over here and there and getting more of himself wet. At this point a fire was started, and we tried to get him to stay around that. All in all he was having a great time out in the mud, puddles, and cold.

Keegan has learned that he can climb on almost anything as well. He was having a great time climbing from our bed over the back of the table bench and playing there. He was actually being really good in the RV, and we were able to get him to sit down and play at the table with us. Grandma, Karissa and I were rolling a ball over to him, and he was just throwing it back for us to roll back over to him. We were showing him how to roll the ball, and though he did it a couple times, he didn't seem to see why he should roll a ball when he can throw it much better. Either way it was nice to see that he could sit down and play for more than a minute at a time.

Other than that we came back on Saturday night because Friday night didn't work out great for us when it came to sleeping since it rained all night, and it was very windy. Saturday it was really windy all day, and it wasn't fun to hike in really windy conditions with half of the trails either so muddy you would slip or so filled with water there was no way to get across without getting your feet wet. Such is the way of things. Keegan didn't seem to mind being in his backpack carrier, and he did a walk later in the day where we let him walk the whole way and he did quite well.

So Sunday we met some friends and went to the living green expo at the state fair grounds. We walked around and looked at a bunch of stuff. I am not saying we will ever be totally green as a family since we own a big SUV for hauling the dog and kid around at the same time, hauling our pontoon, and doing work around the house. After finishing two basements, I don't think I could have done that with a second small car. Anyway I have been talking about setting up geothermal heating/cooling in our house, and will probably have someone out to do an estimate soon. I would like it if we could reduce our depenance on fossil fuels some, and this is one way we could start. I am hoping that we could start with this and in a few years (or more) put in solar panels. I know a wind turbine would probably work better, but I don't think the Association would agree with us putting up a 50-100 foot tower and hooking up a turbine.

Keegan had a good time going to the expo, we hooked him up to his monkey backpack/harness, and he walked really well to the expo with that on. We also brought the stroller because we knew he wouldn't last the whole time. He ran around a bunch, and was really tired by the time we left an hour later or so. One funny point was that someone asked if they could take his picture with the monkey harness on because they thought it was really cute. After that we did lunch and took Keegan home for a nap, then it was up and doing a walk, and taking the boat out for a spin. Keegan didn't like having his life jacket on, so we had a short spin in the boat because he kept crying and trying to get the vest off. We then went and played with his water and sand table. He kept throwing the sand out, but he had some fun with it I think. After that we did dinner and let him run around like a crazy boy the rest of the night before a bath. When he finally went down, he was so tired he didn't really make a peep.

It was a really busy weekend! I have a feeling that next weekend will probably be very busy as well. Karissa and I were talking about going to the zoo with the friends we met on Sunday. Then of course it is mothers day on Sunday next weekend, so it will be busy! We will have to get the pictures up from the camping trip, we got a few good ones I think.

Goofy grins and outside obessesions.

Lately Keegan has been making the silliest face. He "grins" really big and squints his eyes. It shows off his teeth pretty good, but it looks more like he's in pain than actually grinning. I am not sure where he learned this at; must've been daycare. It makes me wonder where his sweet sincere smile went. Suddenly it's been replaced with this monstrous looking, squinty eyed expression, that I am sure he thinks is absolutely winning. It should work well for him on sunny days though since he's got that squinty thing going on.

Of course we have been spending more time outside. The park is a block away from our house so we have been walking there a lot. Unfortunately this last Friday (and all weekend) it was snowing again and very cold (okay only mid-30's but that's too cold for the end of April). So, much to Keegan's dismay we haven't been playing outside. Let me tell you that kid loves being outside. Keegan spent Friday whining because he wanted outside. He can reach the door knobs now, just barely, so all I have to say is thank goodness for deadbolts.

When we left to go meet Erin and her brand new baby Aurora for lunch; the first thing Keegan did when I opened the garage door was to run past the car and out into the driveway. He wanted to walk to the park, not drive somewhere to eat lunch. Needless to say Keegan made our lunch meeting a bit of a misery. He wouldn't eat and was throwing stuff and in general driving me crazy. We survived but I felt bad for Erin having to put up with his antics.

I mean, in general, Keegan is a good boy; when you tell him to sit down he does (thanks to hard work by my mom), when you tell him to quiet down he sometimes does, he sometimes comes when you call his name, he lets go of something when you ask, and is getting better at putting his food down when you tell him not to throw it. This is a tough age because I don't think he understands discipline real well but he is starting to throw and hit. I think we have nabbed the hitting for the most part but the throwing food thing is still a favorite of his; especially when he is tired.

Then there have been some injuries. Keegan now likes to full-out run but sometimes his feet don't keep up with him. Thursday night he tripped and landed right on his nose on the hard wood floor. He got a bloody nose and was screaming an bleeding everywhere. I swear his nose looks crooked now; although Lyle says I am seeing things. Then yesterday we were walking out to the mailbox when he tripped on the asphalt. He didn't get his hands out to catch himself in time and I head this thud, scrap as his head hit the asphalt and then dragged across it. More screaming ensued and he has a big scrap on his forehead now. Sometimes I am amazed that kids make it past being toddlers...

Anyway it's something new every day with him. A couple days ago he learned how to flush the toilet, and turning the TV off and on is a new favorite. He also knows how to turn up the speakers (but not turn down). Lyle and I were blaming each other for the music being so loud until we saw Mr. Sneaky Pants over there adjusting the volume. Can't wait until he learns to drag that stool around to other places and gets onto the counter.

Hopefully it will stop with this super cold weather/snowing/raining business and be nice some time again. We go camping this weekend so that should be fun!

Spring has Sprung!

I think we can all finally agree that spring is finally here in Minnesota. I don't know about everyone else but I am hoping we don't get any more snow until October/November.

While we were out walking yesterday night I was thinking about how special and exciting spring is for those who live in colder climates. I don't think I would be nearly as happy with spring arriving if I hadn't struggled through 6 months of winter before hand. I mean, wow, the first time it goes above 50 degrees I think that the whole state of MN is in a great mood!

While we were walking last night, enjoying the spring breeze, the sun, and the fact that the lake is almost ice-free I was watching Keegan. Keegan finds every bird, piece of grass, tree, leaf and bush fascinating. Thinking about it I realized that Keegan probably doesn't remember last spring or even last summer. So all of this is new to him. It was a lot of fun to watch him enjoy walking on the springy grass and touching the bushes and pine trees. He thinks the lake is really cool but a little intimidating. Oh, and he really loves collecting rocks and sharing them with Lyle and me. It made me look forward to this summer even more. It will be like everything is brand new to him, and this time, he can really appreciate it! Last summer he couldn't do much.

Speaking of which we have our first camping trip of the year planned for the first weekend in May. I have a feeling taking Keegan camping is going to be lots of fun this year. He absolutely loves being outside and there will be *so* much for him to see!

A bunch of brunch

We have been trying to meet with a couple of our friends at least once a month for brunch. With Dungeons and Dragons two Saturdays a month and all of the other stuff we have going on, we realized that our Sunday mornings are the only things consistently open. So this time frame lent itself to Brunch.

So far we have had brunch at Chianti Grill in Falcon Heights, Lake Elmo Inn in Lake Elmo, and, most recently, Granite City in Roseville.

Lake Elmo Inn was a bust. The service was mediocre, the food okay, the cost really expensive, and everyone got sick afterwards. Chianti Grill is pretty good for service and has a huge variety of food for a reasonable price. Granite City has good food but a more limited menu, with good service, and a fairly reasonable price. But, all this is not why I am writing this entry. Since this blog is about Keegan; I am writing to tell about Keegan's Granite City brunch experience.

Keegan refused to take a nap Sunday morning. He always refuses to take a nap when we are meeting for brunch. Somehow he knows. So, like usual he fell asleep in the car on the way to brunch. We got there a little before 10am so we had to wait in the outside lobby with some other folks.

Now one plus to Granite City is the really cool stone walls in the outer lobby. Keegan thought these were awesome and spent a lot of time feeling them. Then there were the tinted glass doors into the restaurant; Keegan thought these were good for sucking on (can't imagine what that looked like from the inside).

Upon entering the restaurant, there were...BALLOONS! So Keegan got a balloon; which he always refuses to let me tie onto his wrist. It was a big balloon almost as tall as he was. The we got seated right next to the brunch line. This was awesome for Keegan, who loves watching all the people and waving at them to say "Hi".

The next best thing for Keegan were the fresh strawberries. He ate a ton of fresh strawberries. He *loves* strawberries. About 45 minutes into brunch he started getting antsy. As I mentioned he skipped his nap and was tired. So all of the sudden he let out a wail and threw his head down onto the table in despair. This was a hint that we needed a change of pace.

Since the restaurant was spacious I took him out of his highchair, and after trying to hold him, gave up and let him romp. I followed around after him. Apparently Keegan really dug the music they were playing. He ran into a clearing in the center of the restaurant and started shaking his booty and bopping his arms up and down. He was dancing like there was no tomorrow. It always strikes me as odd how Keegan has no concept of embarrassment. Anyway, his little dance was kind of cute. He got a little applause and a mom near me asked if I would mind if her little girl joined Keegan on the "dance floor". So for a couple seconds Keegan almost had a dance partner, but the little girl was scared to get down so that was the end of that.

Then it was time to walk down the aisle next to the booths and (in a bopping dance-like walk)wave and say "hi" to everyone. Thank goodness Keegan is super cute and people are super tolerant. Many of them waved back, making Keegan's day. A number of people asked how old he was and expressed surprise that he was only 14 months old. We are getting used to this; apparently he walks and talks too well for his age :-)

Then we had to go stand in the hallway by the bathroom and continue our dance-a-thon. Occasionally Keegan would try and make a break for the kitchen. Then we returned to the table and Keegan wanted his balloon. He wouldn't let me tie it on his arm so I tied it to the back of his pants. Keegan then ran up and down the hall by the bathroom trying to keep the balloon from getting him. At least it made him highly visible (for me) and it was funny to watch a giant red balloon bopping behind Keegan.

After that it was back up to the lobby. Where he pointed and tried to "talk" the hostess into giving him another balloon. I told him he had enough balloon for one day and we started back towards our table.

At this point I suppose I should mention that there were at least 11 babies in the dining room; all between the ages of 0 - 2 years. As such, the employees were very patient when I had to usher Keegan out of the way or when Keegan was "walking" up the stairs in his usual slow way. Keegan also liked to stop and watch the babies and try to get them to dance with him.

Lyle and I switched off walking around with Keegan for about 15 minutes before our check finally came. Keegan had a grand ol' time; but by the time we left he was super super tired.

Cate and Chris tolerated the constant ebb and flow of conversation well :-) I always feel bad when either Lyle or I have to leave to go watch Keegan. On the way out Keegan held Chris's and Lyle's hands and convinced them to swing him along on the way to the car. Cate teased that she was getting tired just watching the whole experience ;-)

Keegan always manages to turn something basic like brunch into the active social event of the season. I have met more "strangers" than ever before since I have had Keegan. Keegan does not get embarrassed or judge people. If a person says Hi to him they are awesome, if they don't they are boring. He thinks everyone is a great opportunity for excitement! Maybe we could all learn something from his care-free attitude toward humanity.

Dancing in the Shower

Keegan has another funny thing that he has been doing. He likes to go into the shower and stomp around. It makes a soft thump noise because, well, he's in the shower. Yesterday when I brought him home from daycare he ran right into the bathroom and went into the shower and starting stomping in circles in the shower and said "da, da, da, da" and laughing at himself. It's a good thing babies are naturally a bit strange because if I came home and found Lyle doing that I would be pretty worried about his sanity.

Oh and when I picked Keegan up from daycare his teacher had a story for me. Apparently it was only him and one other kid early in the morning. She was changing the diaper of the other kid and, when she looked up, Keegan was standing on top of the shelves with the toys on them. Granted the shelf is only a couple feet high, but she said it scared her and she wanted to let me know that he could do that. I laughed and told her about him climbing on top of the coffee table.

As for our first Friday at home together, we had a lot of fun. It was absolutely beautiful outside, 60 degrees and sunny. We got up and had breakfast, went grocery shopping, and did the wash. Keegan was very helpful; he helped me sort out the cloths and helped go grocery shopping by putting the kiwis and apples into the bag I held out for him. Then we went on the deck and brushed the kitties. Keegan helped brush them for a bit and then him and Seras (three-legs) ran around the deck chasing wisps of cat hair. Then we had to go out in the backyard and play with Ruby. I threw Ruby's toy for her and Keegan laughed and laughed as Ruby jumped around chasing it. Since Keegan's slide is outside now, we had to do a couple slides down that before going in too.

Then it was time for lunch and then a walk. We walked to the park and Keegan loved playing on the toddler climbing structure. He had a run in with a two year old there who tried to kick him off of the play structure. The little kid would run up and say "No baby here!" and block Keegan's way. Keegan could have cared less but the kid's mother was embarrassed and she took him to a different area of the playground. After that Keegan signed "all done" and then ran over to the swing set and signed "more". So I put him up in the swing and we did that for a while. Poor Ruby got dragged around behind me the whole time. She didn't mind too much though because she was the star of the playground and everyone wanted to pet her. Then we were "all done" with the swing and I put him back in the stroller.

We didn't get to walk very far though because both Keegan and Ruby were really tired. So we went home. I asked Keegan if he wanted to make some brownies; he went and laid down on the living room floor and laid his head on Jubei. I guess he was tired. So he went down for a nap and I made brownies, finished the wash, and played some video games. I guess I wore the little guy out! Good to know I can at least keep up with him all day.

It was a busy day but it was lots of fun! I hope that we have fun this Friday too!

Well there's your update. Back to work.

Birdie birdie in the sky, why did you drop that in my eye

Keegan has learned another word. Yesterday when he came home from daycare he started saying "bird"... well it doesn't exactly sound like bird, but pretty close. They mentioned at daycare that he had started to say bird, and we were really excited that he learned another word. You can tell that he actually understands bird as well. When we would say bird, he would look out the window and point to the bird if one was in sight and then say bird. Sooooo that is kind of a cool development for him.

Keegan can also now say "mooo" and does a pretty good job with that. He is learning that cow's say moo, and hopefully he will understand that he probably won't see a cow anytime soon :). I was mentioning last night that we might as well have brought Keegan up on a farm considering that he really only says animals names for the most part. I mean he says the hi, bye etc, but has learned squirell, bird, duck, and what cows say. So maybe that means he will be a farmer.... wait by the time he grows up farming might be fully automated... makes you wonder doesn't it :).

Other than that Keegan has been happy at daycare lately, and hasn't even complained when I have been leaving, which is a nice change. We also have made a few trips to the park this spring, and he has been enjoying the slides, and running around on the play equipment. Luckily we are really close to a park, so we have been stopping by on our way out on a walk. I guess that is really all for now!

Happy days are here again!

You might think I am talking about springtime, and it's true that that's just around the corner, but I am really talking about having my happy-to-be-at-daycare baby back. Last week we were still going through Keegan throwing fits when we left him at daycare. Then when we picked him up there would be comments about how he was grouchy and "just not himself." Well finally this week that has stopped.

When I dropped Keegan off at daycare yesterday he immediately busied himself with digging through the toy basket. He pulled out a ball and brought it too me. We played with the ball for a couple minutes. Then his teacher came in and asked Keegan if he wanted to come help with the laundry. Keegan smiled and let teacher pick him up and off they went. I was like "Umm...okay, bye then." When I went to pick him up from daycare I was greeted by numerous people stopping me on the way to Keegan's classroom to tell me what a happy boy he was all day. I went in to get him and he was studiously organizing the toys in the toy basket. When I said "Hi Keegan" he looked up and smiled and then went right back to "work". Ends up his work was to find his favorite ball and then run over and give it to me. He was so proud of himself. No tears, no screaming. As we left he smiled and waved bye to everyone. It was very refreshing.

This morning when Lyle dropped Keegan off; Keegan's teacher came over and tickled him and he was giggling up a storm when Lyle left. It is such a relief to have the "wonderful and happy" child at daycare. I didn't really like my stint as "that mom with the crabby kid". It wasn't fun to come in and have the lady at the front desk sigh and say "Oh, it's Keegan. I hope he's happier today."

On another note; Keegan and I have our first day off together this Friday. It is supposed to be in the upper 50's and sunny. We will have to find something really fun to do outside. I am determined to spend the day doing more than just grocery shopping and the wash!

Speaking of fun....Keegan has a new activity that he just loves. He accidentally dropped a ball from his ball pit over the railing to the basement. Well...the cats all got up and chased the ball down the stairs. So now this is a new game for Keegan. He throws a ball downstairs and the cats chase it. It is something that occupies him for 30 minutes or so. I guess it is good exercise for him and for the cats. Unfortunately though someone needs to go down and pick up the balls afterwards. I convinced Keegan to spend some time putting the balls into a bag I had so that we could put them back into the ball pit. Unfortunately, that didn't last very long and I ended up crawling around the basement collecting balls.

The other thing Keegan has figured out is how to drag his step stool around places. The other night I turned around and he was standing on the coffee table. It was so funny, he was so proud of himself. Thank goodness he has learned how to get down from places. He no longer walks off of the edge but bends down and swings his feet over. It's fun to see him learn new things; even if they aren't always good things!

Jumping and Diving

It was a very, very busy weekend this weekend. We had a lot of fun and Keegan got to try some new things. On Saturday we had a birthday party for my ex-coworker's son at Club Just Jump. It's a place where there are a whole bunch of inflatable play things. There is a classic giant inflatable jumping area. There were two inflatable mazes with climbing walls and slides. There was also a giant inflatable slide. It was awesome. I had a great time. Keegan had a really good time too, and so did Lyle. It was a great place for Keegan to play because if he fell down he just bounced around a bit. He loved the slides (so did I) and he loved the big jumping area. The whole time we were there Keegan was a man on a mission; he had so many things he had to get done :-) There were a lot of comments about how cute he was and how determined and observant he was for his age. It's always nice for people to tell you your kid is cute! We met a lot of people there and I got to see a lot of my coworkers who have moved to 3M. It was super fun. Sunday morning Lyle and I were both kind of sore. Too much throwing our aging bodies around on those toys!

On Sunday morning we got up and cleaned the house and got ready for people to come over to play games. Keegan was really good all morning and amused himself in his new pop-up ball pit that I put up in the living room. Keegan also spent a lot of time "reading" books. We played games until noon and then as everyone left we hurried up to eat lunch and headed to Keegan's first swimming lesson.

Lyle took Keegan in the pool and I took pictures. Keegan was a little concerned about the whole thing but didn't get upset. He had his "Blue Steel" face on most of the time. Anyone who has seen the movie Zoolander knows what I am talking about; yep, he looks just like that. Keegan's Blue Steel look means he is concentrating and taking in information but that he's not entirely sure he likes what's going on. Me, my mom, and my dad all watched from the sidelines and clapped for Keegan and the other babies when they got dunked or blew bubbles or whatever. I have to say that you can always tell where the "Tots 1" class is being held. There are lots of parents with cameras and lots of clapping for the babies. Babies love clapping and all that clapping made them pretty happy; Keegan even cracked some smiles. Keegan was by far the youngest one there. Most of the kids were over two. It was a little difficult for him because they were doing the hokey pokey and he doesn't really know left/right foot etc. yet.

It went well though. After that we went home and took a long walk around the lakes (3-4 miles) while Keegan chilled in the stroller. Then it was back home and time to make dinner. We sat down for a quick dinner and then I took Keegan down for a bath while Lyle got ready for hockey. Lyle had an early hockey game and Keegan and I were going to watch him play. We drove separately because Keegan was super tired and I was worried we might have a melt down. Keegan did really good. We sat right by the glass and watched up close for a bit. Keegan sat really nice on my lap and took everything in for about 10-15 minutes. Then he wanted to boogie.

We walked the bleachers and Keegan found some cheerios on the ground; he tried to eat them so I relocated us to a new area. Then Keegan found some popcorn. I relocated us again to a big area of concrete that overlooks the rink. He ran around there for a while. Then my parents showed up and Keegan wanted gpa to hold him. Then Keegan wanted down and spent a lot of timing standing up on the bar of the railing holding onto the rails and watching the game. It was such a Keegan thing to do. Anyway, in an hour the game was over (Lyle's team won 6-3). Of course a big fight had to break out at the end (which Lyle was not involved in); so we left and went home. At home we did the normal routine of bottle, jammies, and bedtime. I've been reading chapters of the Edgar and Ellen series to Keegan while he drinks his bottle. The chapters are short and funny and there are some pictures.

Keegan went to sleep and I went downstairs to work on the castle/dragon mural in Keegan's soon to be bedroom. That was pretty much it for the day. It was busy but lots of fun.

Now it is snowing outside and that is really a bummer. It looks like it's supposed to go into (and stay in!) the 50's later this week. We are really looking forward to that! We also moved Keegan's slide/fort thing outside yesterday. Hoping that it will soon be warm enough to go sliding outside!

It's a killer bunny!!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a good time during the Easter weekend. We actually had a pretty easy one compared to some that we have done in the past. We made the rounds to both our parents houses, and were the only people to be visiting at both places. So needless to say there wasn't much going on since Keegan is still too small to go easter egg hunting. We just kind of hung out and enjoyed the company. Sadly Keegan and Karissa were both sick, so neither of them were their chipper selves. Keegan was really tired, and has been sleeping a lot over the last couple of days. Actually Keegan puked in the middle of Saturday night (1:30 or so) but that was the only really bad episode that he had. Anyway we all three got candy and other fun stuff for Easter, and look forward to rotting our teeth when we all feel better :).

Keegan has more teeth coming in as well. He has had three teeth for quite a while, the bottom front teeth and the left top front tooth. Now Keegan has the last front tooth coming in, and 2 more on either side of the front teeth on both the top and bottom. So basically 5 teeth all coming in at the same time. He was having some problems sleeping a week or so ago because of it, but has since been fine with the extra teeth now that they are almost all through the gums and sprouting out from there.

Daycare has still been a struggle, but not as much of one as it was when we first came back from Florida. Yesterday when I dropped him off he wasn't happy about it, but didn't through a complete fit before I left the building, which is much better than what had been happening.

Other than that, not much is going on. I am switching contracts on 4/1 to ECMC in downtown St. Paul, which should be fun. I don't really have much left to do at work, which is kind of nice sometimes. It should mean that I write a couple of more blog posts, but sadly that hasn't been happening.

Fears of a 13 month old.

We discovered a couple months ago that Keegan really likes whipped cream. We are talking the real stuff here, not canned Ready Whip. We were at a Sunday brunch where I was eating a waffle with strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream. Keegan wanted to try some of it, so I let him. He loved it!

Fast forward to our trip to Florida. Everyone is sitting around the table at my grandparents' house eating fresh strawberries and Ready Whip for dessert. Keegan saw the whipped cream and wanted some. I squirted some on his highchair tray. He reached for it and (of course being Ready Whip) the little pile of Ready Whip collapsed. Keegan starting crying and was really upset. We figured it was because he had a long day and was tired. We had to clean the Ready Whip off of his tray before he would calm down. Same thing happened the next day when we tried to give him some Ready Whip.

Okay now it's a couple weeks from that event and it's my dad's bday. We had chocolate cake with cherries and Ready Whip. Keegan got some cherries and a little chocolate cake. Not thinking, I squirted some Ready Whip onto his tray. He reached for it, it collapsed, and he started crying and leaning away from his tray. Once again, the crying didn't stop until my mom cleaned the Ready Whip off of his tray.

We really don't get it. I mean is our kid such a snob that he only eats "the real stuff"? Is he upset that the Ready Whip collapses? Does Ready Whip offend him somehow? We can't figure it out. For a while though I think we will have to accede to Keegan's wishes and *not* squirt Ready Whip onto his tray. Poor kid somehow we are creating trauma here...I just wish I knew how and why!

Strange Red Asian Statue on the Doorstep

The last couple days we have noticed something red by the steps leading to our front door. Last night we went to see what it was; thinking it was trash or something of the neighbors that had blown over.

Well it was neither. It was a little bright red Asian statue of a little girl in a kimono. We looked at each other puzzled wondering where it had come from. The next part reveals maybe a little too much of my and Lyle's personalities. I said "Wow, that's creepy. I wonder where it came from. Maybe someone is trying to hex us." Lyle said, "Cool, someone probably put it there to bring us good luck." Hence why we work well as a couple. Lyle assumes the best and I assume the worst.

I went online when we got in the house and looked to see if little red statues symbolize anything; I didn't really find anything. So, I decided to send a note out to our friends and see if anyone had left a little statue on our doorstep. I know, I know, it was a weird question but I figured people would get a kick out of it. I know I got a kick out of some of the replies; it was interesting to see people's response to such a odd random question. No names have been included; but some of the replies I got are quoted below:

"I have no Asians currently working for me, neither real or ceramic."

"Sorry, We did not leave a doll on your patio. Does it seem to be Japanese? A red kimono doesn't symbolize anything bad from what I am aware of. Red is the traditional color of bridal dresses, and is frequently represented in the media as a symbolic color for married women. The color is associated with sexuality in marriage relationships through its connection to heat and fertility. It is also the color of wealth, beauty, and the goddess Lakshmi."

"I'd take it as a sign of good luck! *laughing historically* When did said statue appear on your patio?"

"Why is it that whenever something weird and unusual happens, I'm one of
the first to be accused of knowing something? First the numerous
people at work (admittedly they had reason to be suspicious), now you?!"

"I didn't do it, but I wish I would have :-)"

"I demand pictures"

"Wasn't us, but it sounds pretty funny! Red is a lucky color to Asians so I think you're being blessed! If you start getting white Asian statues then you should worry. ;-)"

"How big was it?"

"Karissa,
I know a lot more about blessing people than cursing them so not sure about this one.
The only advice I have for you is : Do you feel at peace when you think about it or when you are near it? If not, than get rid of it."

"Very interesting."

So these are most of the replies that we got about this crazy mystery. Of course, we found out one of our friends did put it on our doorstep thinking that it was cute and we would like. Which it is cute and I do like it; now that I know one of the neighbors isn't trying to curse our house :-) Mystery solved. Maybe I should send out random questions ever week and see what weird responses I get back from people. I'll try to get a picture of it posted tonight.

Okay now it's time to go back to work.

Uhh Huston we have a problem

So Keegan gets back from vacation, and goes to daycare last Friday. Of course he was unhappy to change from being with us and having a good time in Florida all week to suddenly going back to daycare where there is such a limited environment. That makes some sense. When we got his daily report, it said he was "not himself" that day. When I asked what that meant, basically the teacher said he was crabby all day. Of course this was a new teacher again because the other teacher that was in the Infant B classroom went on maternity leave. So that is cool and all, but I wondered if she really knew what she was talking about. Anyway we chalked that one up to him being tired and cranky from the trip, and no longer having his freedoms. We figured it would be fine by Monday....

Well we were wrong, Monday came and I dropped him off like normal. Well when I set him down he just started crying, and wanted to be picked up and carried around. So I picked him up for a minute, and tried to get him to calm down, which he did in fairly quick order. But the moment I set him down, he started bawling again. So I decided I should just leave, and he would stop in a few moments. So I left, but I checked in through the window really quick on my way out. Well he was still crying up a storm. I left, and when we picked him up that night, he was happy to see us, and we got a "not himself" that day as well, with the teachers saying he was still very crabby, and wouldn't nap.

Tuesday, he spend at Grandma's house, and had a good day. Grandma said he was happy, and napped pretty well, though only took one nap instead of his normal two.

Now today, I dropped him off at daycare again. He did the same as Monday, crying and wanting to be held. I tired to get him to settle down again, but he really didn't seem to want to be there. Anyway I left him there, and went to my interview. I then get a call from Karissa saying that daycare called and wanted to know what was wrong with Keegan. I guess they said he was still really crabby, and wasn't taking naps again today. Of course we don't know what to tell them, because as far as we know nothing has changed.... but in Keegan's little mind, something must have changed. We are not sure what it is, but we have a couple of theories.

We are thinking that, since one of his buddies moved up a level (into the toddler classroom), he is bummed since he and that kid were always together when we went to pick him up. Another idea is that since he is having a development leap, he has been crabby, like he has been every time that he starts doing something new. Lately it is talking, and understanding that when we say stuff it actually means something, and is not just babble :). There are a couple of other ideas, but at this point, we are not sure what else it could be attributed to. We can only hope that he gets out of this funk soon, and becomes happier when he goes to daycare Friday, and next week.

Oh the weather outside is frightful....

...but not in Florida! Down there it was really nice. In fact there was only one day where it rained for a little bit.

Lyle summed up a lot of the events pretty darn well. What we did in chronological order was...
Day One: Celebrated my gmas bday and went to the pool. We just kind of hung out.
Day Two: Drove in my parents' camper to the Gulf of Mexico and spent the day on the beach.
Day Three: Went to Sea World for the day.
Day Four: It rained so we went swimming in the morning and then went to the mall for the afternoon.
Day Five: Went to Busch Gardens
Day Six: Went home!

Okay so Lyle went through all the good things about the vacation. A couple of bad things happened too. First of all we found out that Keegan doesn't like to sleep on the plane. He would sleep for about 30 minutes and then he was ready to rumble. All I have to say is I have a new respect for people in general. I respect people who travel with babies this age and retain their sanity. I respect all the people on the plane who; gave Keegan hi-fives, waved back at him, humored him by taking an offered toy and then handing it back to him, smiled at Keegan when he (while walking down the aisle in the plane) grabbed their knees or shoes. Also thanks to the guy who had a sense of humor when Keegan grabbed his boarding pass at the gate and took off with it and thanks to the lady who let Keegan stand by her seat at the gate and hold on to her shoulder while he looked out the window at the plane.

So I guess all in all I meet more "strangers" on this trip than ever before. This was all due to Keegan's lack of shyness and new found ability to run off at a moment's notice and go over to people and yell "HI" with a big smile on his face. You really get to see the "good" in everyone when you have a cute little friendly kid :-)

Other "bad" thing that happened was that I lost my wallet during the Shamu show at Sea World. Between juggling Keegan, ice cream, and a diaper bag I lost it somehow. We quickly found out that the cleaning guy found it under the seat at the stadium. Within a couple of hours he had returned it to customer service and it was intact. All the cash was in there, everything! Still I was stressing for a while there; hoping I wouldn't have to call and cancel all of my cards!

Then when we got back to the twin cities I went down to baggage claim and Lyle took Keegan to get the car. As soon as I got to baggage claim there was an announcement that Karissa Eckert needed to report back to the Gate G2 to get her driver's license. Well I couldn't really do anything about it. So I got the luggage. Then Lyle drove me to ticketing. At ticketing they gave me a gate pass to get back through security. In the line in security they wanted my ID. I explained to them that I was going through security to get my ID. The security guy actually chortled at me (like this was the funniest thing to happen to him all day) and told me I was "red flagged" and needed to undergo a stricter security check. The good thing about this was I didn't have to wait in line anymore. Bad thing was they did a full pat down and rubbed everything I had with me with chemical sensitive paper to make sure I wasn't carrying any explosives. The guy doing the check was really nice but he had to call female security down to do the pat. I tried really hard to not get irritated but it was tough.

Then I finally got down to the gate and, of course, they were just starting to board the plane. So I had to wait line to get to the front desk to request my license. I met Lyle on his 7th lap around the airport. It had taken me exactly 17 minutes to re-acquire my license. Oh well. At least I got it back. Hopefully I never do that again.

Keegan was, excepting the plane ride, an awesome baby. He was interested in everything and actually watched the shows we went to see. We all liked Sea World a lot better than Busch Gardens. Sea World had nicer exhibits and wasn't as crowed as Busch Gardens was. My mom was nice enough to hang with Keegan while me, Lyle, and dad went on some of the roller coasters. The Kraken at Sea World was by far the most awesome roller coaster we went on. We also road that Mamba (I think that's what it's called) and Shreikra at Busch Gardens.

All in all it was a fun trip. I kind of underestimated how much work it would be to travel with Keegan though. I felt like I was constantly making lists of what we needed to pack in my head. It was like okay, let's pack for the beach. Then the next day we packed for Sea World. It was a constant estimating of how much milk we had, how many diapers, did we need swim diapers, and did we have enough wipes. I imagine that traveling with your child gets easier as they get older.

Keegan really didn't want me to leave him at daycare today. Keegan was really excited to get home but I think he liked all the time with mommy, daddy, gma, gpa, greatgma, and greatgpa. I had to pry him off of me and then distract him and sneak out of daycare. I felt bad about it but well, it's back to the old everyday routine. Anyway, that being said I have some more work to do. So hope everyone enjoyed the updates!

Feelin' fine in the sunshine

Hey all, we are back from Florida! Hope you all had a nice week! We are back in Minnesota where it was cold, while we spent a fair amount of time in shorts in the 70 degree weather. Overall we had a great time, it was good to see Karissa's grandparents since we don't get to see them too often. Also we made a couple of day trips out to see Sea World, Bush Gardens, and The gulf of Mexico. All three were fun days, but we also had some relaxing time by the pool! You can see all of the pictures we uploaded on our picture site (link is still on the right hand side!).

Keegan overall I think had fun, but it is kind of hard to tell sometimes :). Since he seems to have fun doing almost anything, I think that we could give him a rock and he would have a good time.... oh yeah, we have done that..... Well either way, Sea World was way more fun than I thought it would be. I think Keegan was overwhelmed by the shows because he just sat their and stared with his mouth gaping. Karissa's parents came along and it was really great to have them there to help with Keegan duty.

The beach was probably Keegan's favorite time, he kept trying to eat the sand and then spit it out when it tasted just awful. Then he would scrape his tongue to try and get the sand off only to put more on from his hands. Finally he would be happy again, and then try to eat more. I guess what they say about leading a horse to water is correct when it comes to a 1 year old. Keegan smiled a lot when we were at the beach, and had a really great time overall. The water was cold, so we didn't go "swimming", but we did walk out a little way into the water, and he had fun picking up rocks that were in the water. The picking up rocks was a theme through the whole vacation!

The swimming that we did do at the pool, went over ok the first time, and much better the second time. Keegan starts swimming lessons later this month, so we were happy to get him in a pool earlier than that to gauge how he would react. Well being that he doesn't like it when he is not in control..... must get that from his mommy.... he didn't seem to like not being able to touch the bottom. Well of course there is only one spot that he can really touch the bottom, and that is on the stairs at the beginning of the pool. So we spent a lot of time on the stairs. The flotation device that we brought along was not a huge hit, but he did ride in it for a while on both occasions. The pictures on the site are from the first day we went swimming, we didn't bring the camera the second time, thinking that 74 pictures of him in a pool would be enough. Well it would have been nice to have a few more from the second day because we had a lot of fun with him sticking his face in the water and trying to blow bubbles. I was showing him how to do it, and he just kept trying it over and over again. Most of the time he would push me out of the way to get to the same spot I had done it like that was the magical spot to blow bubbles.

So that was a quick summary of what we did. Keegan also learned a few new things while we were out of town. On the first day we got there, we were driving to the aforementioned grandparents house, and we drove by a Target. I pointed it out to Karissa and said that we could go to Target if we needed anything and then we hear "Target" coming from the back seat. I guess they pick their allegiance to Target or Wal Mart early these days. I mean really! Keegan has also been trying to copy other things we say, but hasn't gotten a lot more down yet. He said duck a lot, basically for every bird that he saw (at the prompting of Karissa). Keegan was saying dog for everything that is close, like a lion, or hyena. His pointing and saying "dat" went on a lot on this trip as well, and we told him what everything was to the best of our ability to figure out what he was pointing to.

The nicest part was returning home from the trip. It was nice to be home again. Keegan also seemed really happy to be home, and was basically a wild man last night from the time we got home till he went to bed. He was babbling a lot, and was having a good time chasing the cats and dog around. We also played with his ball, which he seemed to miss while we were gone.

Duck Duck Goose?

So I picked up Keegan from daycare yesterday, and the teacher said he had a good day, and praised how smart he was, because he has started talking up a storm. The teacher mentioned that Keegan was saying "done" (which he does a lot at home when done eating!!) and "duck", something he has not done at home. So I was wondering what else he has been saying when we turn our backs..... Anyway Keegan has been saying hi for quite a while, and sometimes does "kitty". To that list he has started saying "bye", and as Karissa mentioned dog is coming along too. Man it is amazing to think just a couple weeks ago we were lucky if he would say hi. Now the the vocabulary is growing much faster than I expected. I mean I know most kids start talking right around a year or a little earlier, but I have never really thought about it until it was my own son that was starting to talk. Of course that means soon he probably won't ever be quiet... hopefully that doesn't happen on the plane........

To finish up the story, I dropped Keegan off at daycare this morning, and talked to a different teacher who mentioned that he and two other kids were walking around all day yesterday saying "duck". I knew one of the other kids and Keegan were talking to each other before as Karissa walked in when the two of them just kept saying "hi" to one another and then smiling. If only the video camera had been there for that.

Speaking of the video camera, I feel bad because I haven't been getting the video camera out much lately. Actually I still have to convert the video from Christmas, and Keegans 1 year birthday. I feel like I am so far behind, but I guess that is the way it goes when you have a little one in the house.

Ok now kind of a sad story... not sad as in boo hoo, but sad as in we are sad people. Keegan got a belated present from some friends who came over for D&D on Sunday. It is a worm that has all the letters of the alphabet on it. If you turn a switch in the front, it will switch from saying the letter to sounding it out phonetically or telling you what color the foot is etc. We had seen this toy over at some other friends house and had played with it for a while because it was kind of funny. Of course the first thing that I do is try to sound something out phonetically that would make a naughty word. Don't ask me why, I just had to do it. There is some part of my inner kid that said I just had to do it. Of course I justified it by saying I want to make sure there is a safety on the toy, but in reality I am sure I am just a sick kid. Well to make a long story short, there are some words that when you sound them out it will not let you it will giggle and say that tickles. At least that is the way that our friends worm works... Well ours on the other hand, does it kind of the same way, it will let you get half way through and then giggle and say that tickles, but then it still pronounces the letter.

So what was the point of putting the safety in there if you are still going to pronounce it? I just don't really get it. Of course they also did not get all the words ;). It made me wonder if kids will start to try combinations to find out what words are restricted so they actually know which words are prohibited? I know when I was a kid I would spend hours doing something I wasn't suppose to do just because I wasn't suppose to do it. All kids spend time like that. I don't think they do it to be mean, they just want to know why they are not suppose to do a thing. Well I guess I will just have to watch Keegan with this toy to make sure that he doesn't spend hours and hours doing what I would have done as a kid :). Not that I will be able to stop him anyway, so in reality it probably won't matter in the long run.

Getting ready...

So as Lyle mentioned, I've been getting us ready for this week trip to Florida for what seems like a long time now. Maybe it's silly to be stressed about it. But this is the first time Keegan is flying and I want to make sure it's a good experience for him, for us, and for everyone on the plane with us!

Little does Lyle know; I have packed many times in my head already. Trying to figure out what we need, what we can buy when we get there and where things will go. I've got it all planned out. Keegan will have a diaper bag. I will have a backpack with toys for him and a couple books for me. Lyle will have the bag with all the electronics stuff. We'll also have Keegan's carseat; that's just the carry-on items!

We'll need two big suitcases and probably one small one. Keegan's clothing is already packed, my clothing is already packed. I am going to pack his toys and dishes, snacks, water toys, portable bed, and portable booster seat tonight.

These trips always encompass so much more than just the packing. For instance Ruby is going to be kenneled. So I need to pack up food for her, treats for her, toys for her, her dog bed, and anything else I can think of to make her more comfortable while we are gone.

Next we have to get the cats set up. So we need to make sure all the nails are cut, water put out, that we have enough food. Etc, etc.

Then I have to stop the mail. So that it doesn't sit in the box forever.

I am normally a nervous traveler anyway. Even a routine trip out to the manufacturing plant in Oregon gets me in a bit of tizzy. Of course when I was going out every other month I just never unpacked my travel stuff. But traveling with Keegan just makes me nervous.

The thing I am most concerned about is something that I can't do anything about. Keegan is just getting over an ear infection. Unless he re-developes a fever I won't know if he has an ear infection, if he's gotten over it, or if he is getting another one. I know it really hurts to fly with an ear infection. So, I am crossing my fingers and hoping that he will be okay. I really just don't want him to be hurting while we are flying.

I guess the next thing that worries me is getting delayed. We'll have enough stuff in the diaper bag to probably survive with Keegan 12 hours. Since it's a direct flight I am sure we won't have trouble. But you never know! When you travel there are just *so* many unknowns.

I also really don't want to bother the people around us. Traveling, especially for business, can be harrowing. I know. I've been the person next to the lady with the 15 month old who crawls all over me for 3 hours. I've been the person next to the 2 year that throws pop into my lap. I've been the person sitting in front of a baby the cries the whole flight. To be completely honest, I have probably audibly groaned in misery to find out I am sitting next to someone with a toddler. It's not that I don't feel for the parent. It's more that when you are taking a 5am flight out after a week of working 20 hr days and you feel like crap and have a headache the last thing you want is to be pestered and cried at. A little harsh I suppose, but I understand, and I don't want to cause anyone abject misery on their flight to where-ever. That's part of the reason we got Keegan his own seat on the plane.

Oh, and I am also nervous about getting the carseat, carry-ons, and Keegan through security. I don't know why but security always makes me nervous. I always let out a huge sigh of relief once I am checked in, through security, and to the gate.

I do realize that I get crazy about this stuff. I am trying to calm down about it. What works to calm me down is to think of the worst case scenario. So, we miss our flight. Well, then we catch the next one or we go back home. So, Keegan screams for 3 hours on the flight (my absolute worst fear). Lyle and I will sweat it out, try to comfort him, and hope no one goes postal on us. So, his carseat doesn't fit in the airplane, then we gatecheck it. So, Keegan has blowout diarrhea. Then we'll change his cloths and stink out the place for a bit. Seriously I think the plane crashing is probably not in my top 10 for travel worries.

Ah, well, have I made you all tense yet?! And to think last year I was seriously considering taking Keegan to Japan. Good lord, we are just going to Florida, I can't imagine how I would be if we were traveling to a country where I couldn't speak the language.

Anyway, one a more interesting note. Keegan has learned how to curdle yogurt. On Saturday night at Chile's I was feeding Keegan some yogurt. When the waitress brought the drinks (mine was a water with lemon) Keegan saw the lemon and wanted it. For some reason Keegan loves lemons. He loves to suck on them and then make horrible yucky faces about how awful they taste. I think part of why he does it is because it makes us all laugh. When he threw the lemon on the floor and looked at me he had curdled all the yogurt over his chin. Ewww...

Keegan is also trying very hard to say "doggy". He points at Ruby and says "dawga". He'll get it soon enough.

This Thursday at daycare they are having a 50's dance. So Keegan is supposed to wear a white t-shirt and jeans. Would you believe that Keegan does not own a white t-shirt? Guess we are just not white t-shirt types. So, as if I am not stressed enough, I had to run out and get Keegan a white t-shirt lest he be an outcast at daycare. Ah, well life is interesting.

I am really looking forward to the warm weather though. Anything about 40oF is going to feel like Nirvana.

Hey look I have a nose... and my finger fits pretty well!!

I assume that must have been what was going through Keegans mind over the past few days, as he now finds it interesting to stick his finger up his nose and see what is up there. I don't think that he has gotten his finger up far enough to pick at his brain, but you never know :). Really we have been leaving him to it for the most part, there isn't a whole lot we can do since telling him "no" seems to make him want to do that thing more.... like the water bowl that he constantly wants to play with in the worst way. I put his arm down if I am holding him and he decides to do it, but I don't say anything. So hopefully no permanent brain damage will come out of it, and we can get him to stop that when he gets a little older and finds out that picking your nose in public is frowned upon.

Other than that, things are going pretty well, other than Karissa being a bit stressed out over taking Keegan on a plane, and traveling with him in general. You would have thought we were leaving last week based on Karissa's nerves :). On the other hand, she started packing stuff up last night, and thinking back on it, I think that she is late compared to other trips we have packed for. Usually she is packed and ready to go two weeks before we are even thinking about leaving. Of course over the rest of the week she will be packing and repacking, and double checking that everything is there. Overall I am glad that she does it since it would be a pain to do myself :)...... actually I just would pack once, and hope that I got everything I needed. I guess that is the biggest difference between the two of us when it comes to packing.

Either way Florida better start getting ready, cause we are coming soon to raise heck! It really is our way everywhere we go now that Keegan is in tow. I hope that the restaurants there have good vacuums and mops! Needless to say we will be taking lots of pictures... you can tell by visiting our pictures site, which probably has a thousand or so pictures by now. Sadly that isn't even all of the pictures in our collection, those are just most of the pictures we have taken in the last two years.

Speaking of lots of pictures, I was musing the fact that Keegan will have sooooooo many more pictures than I have of myself as a baby. I have a sum total of 1 picture from before I started elementary school. So I can only imagine that it will be very different for Keegan who will have hundreds if not thousands of pictures by the time he reaches school age. As a matter of fact they were talking on the radio about the first child getting a lot more pictures, and scrap books etc, and the children that come later basically get nothing by comparison. I know that parents just get busy, and probably don't have the time to work on that kind of thing as well as they did with the first child. But you have to assume it also becomes a been there done that kind of attitude that also starts to degrade the picture taking and time spent scrapping for the later kids. I guess it make sense, but I would think it makes the later children feel less appreciated. Gee there must be some other advantages to being a later kid...... ;)

What a sick baby...

So Keegan was diagnosed with an ear infection a couple weeks ago. He was put on antibiotics and he seemed to be getting better.

Then Monday night he had a fever of 102.5oF. We gave him some Motrin and put him to bed. On Tuesday morning he seemed okay. He was at my mom's on Tuesday and had a slight fever (99oF) but was very needy. Keegan needed my mom to hold him constantly.

As has been the case constantly things were crazy yesterday. Lyle and I had to stop by the accountant's office after work to get our Eckert Consulting and individual taxes done. My mom called in the middle of the meeting to let us know that we could stay for dinner when we came to pick Keegan up. So thankfully, we didn't have to make dinner. Keegan was needy the whole night. By the whole night I mean from 5pm to 5am.

The whole night he would sleep for about half an hour and then wake up screaming. The only thing that stopped him screaming was for one of us to hold him and rock him. After about half an hour of rocking, he would sleep for maybe an hour and then we would start the screaming, rocking, sleeping cycle all over again.

I was really worried his ear infection was back; so I told Lyle we needed to get him into the doctor Wednesday morning so that we could get him diagnosed ASAP. If he has an ear infection it has *got* to be cleared up by next Friday. We leave for Florida next Friday and I don't want Keegan's first flight to be with an ear infection.

Unfortunately I started an experiment Tuesday afternoon and I absolutely had to come into work Wednesday morning to complete it. I couldn't delay it because they are taking my coater down for calibration on Thursday and Friday; so I just had to get this stuff done today. So I asked Lyle if he could take Keegan into the doctor. Lyle complained about how he had a lot to do in the last month of his contract and how he wouldn't get paid for the time. I was like, come on here, I have taken this kid in for every doctor's appt he's ever had and I have stayed home with him every time he has been sick (excepting one occasion when he got sick while I was out in Oregon). No one knows better than I that you will not be getting paid for being at home.

So we came up with a compromise. I would go into work early (6am) and get my experiment done; aiming to be home by 10:30am so that Lyle could leave for work. I called daycare to let them know Keegan wouldn't be in at 6:30am and at 7:30am Lyle called the doctor's office. The earliest they could get Keegan in was 10am. So Lyle had to sit around waiting to go to Keegan's appointment until 10am. We had kind of been hoping he could get in for an appointment at like 8am, and that Keegan would be okay and Lyle could drop him off at daycare and go to work.

Well that would not be the case. Lyle called around 10:45am to say that the doctor said Keegan's ears are fine. His throat is red though so they did a swab for strep throat. The doctor concluded that Keegan had....a virus! Wow, what a surprise there. Apparently the doctor said Keegan was sick, but that he had probably picked this up at daycare so there wasn't any reason we should keep him home from daycare. So Lyle dropped Keegan off at daycare and went to work. I ended up being able to stay at work; which is nice.

Keegan doesn't have an ear infection which is even nicer. Hopefully he will sleep some tonight.

To top off the day we just had an emergency meeting; in which I learned that our plant run has been canceled. So all of the work we busted our butts to get done last week was for not. In fact we don't have any budget to coat at the plant until the second quarter. This makes me nervous because every program I have been on that has gotten canceled started with management saying "Oh, well, we need to cancel this plant run to save money." Then within a month or two the program was completely shut down.

Oh, well hopefully at least our trip to Florida will work out well. I pray to the gods of health and illness to keep us healthy and drive away all evil ear infections and other illnesses, at least until we get back from our vacation! I try to be grateful that we haven't ended up in the hospital for any really severe illnesses as of yet.

And he winds up his arm for a fantastic pitch...

So I am being out-blogged by Lyle here. Although I guess blogging isn't traditionally a contest. I am sure I could make it one; just ask Lyle, I make everything a contest :-)

Keegan has been doing a couple fun new things. He recently figured out how to throw. He throws with pretty darn good accuracy. It started with throwing food; which was not popular with me or Lyle. It has now progressed to throwing other objects. Mostly throwing little plastic balls at...the cats. He loves throwing things at the cats because then they will chase the balls around and Keegan thinks this is hilarious. Unfortunately Keegan has developed deadly accuracy and more than one of the kitties was thunked on the head by a plastic ball last night. Jubei could care less, and Seras thinks it is all in good fun, but Loki was not amused. Loki keeps his distance from Keegan and was not thrilled to find out that Keegan now has a six foot reach.

My mom told me Keegan spent today bouncing plastic balls off of the dogs at her house. I guess it is good he's developing new skills, but oh the poor animals. The only good part about this is Keegan thinks that every small object should be thrown into a box. This comes in really useful for picking up toys. He put most of his toys away (kind of) by himself last night.

There were a couple other things that Keegan did yesterday that were funny. The first one was of questionable intelligence. Keegan toddled over to Ruby's (empty) dog bowl, got on his hands and knees, stuck his head in the dog bowl, and proceeded to lick the bottom of Ruby's bowl. It took me a couple seconds to figure out what he was going to do. I had a little trouble getting over to him fast enough because I was laughing so hard. Keegan looked up from the dog bowl with a "yucky" look on his face. Apparently he didn't find Ruby's dog bowl residue as yummy as Ruby finds it. All I can think to say is Eeeewwww!!!!

After the dog bowl licking. Keegan grabbed Ruby's bone and very nicely brought it over to Ruby and tried to stick it in her mouth. Ruby gave me a withering look that said "I don't really want my bone right now," but she took it from him and that made Keegan very happy.

Next it was over to mom's purse where he dug out my cell phone. He accidentally hit send and called Lyle. My phone was really low on battery so I saw it die before the call went through. I thought well, since it's dead it probably won't hurt to let him have it. Keegan put the phone up to his ear and proceeded to walk around the house, going "dat, dat, blah, ma" etc. into the phone. Guess he learned something from us about cell phones already. He got to keep the phone until he went over to the dog bowl of water and held the phone over it. Then the phone went "bye bye" and out of Keegan's reach.

All this happened in the first 30 minutes we were home; so you can imagine what the rest of the night was like.

As for Keegan's birthday; everything went well. The big birthday party we had for him went great considering how sick I was for it. I had the flu and was really sick all Saturday morning. But my parents came over to help Lyle get stuff set up. I sat in a chair and tried not to puke, and all was well. Keegan got some cheetos and ate his birthday cupcake with great gusto. It was wonderful to have everyone over and I was really bummed that I was so sick!

We are all still fighting colds right now but hopefully we will be better by the time we go on our trip to Florida.

Lyle and I got Keegan a car that he can ride in while we push. He loves it. I really didn't think he would be that excited about it. We got it so he could ride in there when we go on walks come this spring. We got that car out and he climbed in it in no time. He thinks getting pushed around the house in that car is just awesome. He also likes the hood it has; in the front there is a little spot where he can lift the hood up and stick things in there. I shudder to think what we might find under the hood as he gets older and the car goes outside. Keegan's been having a great time with all the other presents people got him too!

Anyway, that's probably enough of an update for now! Hope that everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's day

Hope that you all are having a good romantic Valentine's Day. Not much really going on along the home front for Valentine's day, just going to hang out and have a good time. Keegan did his Valentine's stuff for daycare yesterday, and gave his teachers a home made card, that he worked on with a little help. So there is a little crayon on there, and some finger paints that basically did stain him even if they said they wouldn't . Though after a couple of days of blue hands and a blue mark on his forehead, the paint did come off! Anyway the teachers thought their card from him was "age appropriate" as I was told. So I guess he is acting his age ;).

Anyway have fun other there tonight!

Thank you one and all

Thanks to everyone who came to Keegan's party over the weekend. That is right Keegan turned 1 last Wednesday (Happy B-Day buddy if you ever read this). Anyway we had his party on Saturday, and he seemed to have a pretty good time. Keegan got some nice gifts, and played with them a fair amount yesterday since we were not going anywhere because of the cold. He did get a couple of presents on his birthday too, and has been having fun with those as well. The toy that we bought for him is a large car looking thing that has a handle coming up the back to push him around in. We actually bought that for when the weather gets warmer and we can take him outside on walks in that instead of his stroller. I think he will like that better. Keegan has been playing in it since he opened the box, and loves it. The only problem is that Karissa and I have to expend a lot more energy pushing him around in that then he does ;).

Other than that the weekend was kind of a downer. Karissa and I are both sick, and Keegan has an ear infection, so it wasn't an especially happy weekend around our house. Actually being at work today I still feel quite ill, and Karissa stayed home.

Ok, so the other thing of note is that Keegan had his one year appointment on Thursday. Keegan got a couple of shots. The doctor said he was doing good for height and weight (23lbs & 29"). Dr. Kuku said she was happy to see he still has a little pot belly going on, cause that means he is still eating well. I can really attest to that most of the time, though some days he doesn't eat much. I have read that a child will self-regulate their eating, and I think for the most part we have been adhering to what Keegan wants to do for eating. Though Karissa goes overboard sometimes when he hasn't eaten very well for a day or two in a row.

So there you have it, Keegan's 1 year update! Hope you all are doing good out there! Next on our list is our trip to Florida! We are looking forward to that.

Thou shall not use baby shampoo....

Don't know if anyone else actually went to read the articles that Karissa posted on her Monday blog, but the second one had an interesting one liner.

In addition, parents shall seek products labeled “phthalate-free” to be sure their babies are safe.

I thought that was pretty funny since I guess we don't have a choice as parents to make our own decisions as to what we want to do with our own children ;). Anyway, there is your funny for the day!

As for other things, well Karissa pointed out most of the interesting stuff in her post about how Keegan is doing. Though we got him on film last night laughing so much when Karissa and him were playing with the tunnel we picked up at Ikea. He was giggling for a good 10 minutes or so, which is always so funny it makes you giggle. Anyway tomorrow is Keegan's first birthday, so I am sure he is looking forward to that.... though I suppose he might not actually notice. We did wrap his present last night though, and that was kind of funny since we didn't actually have enough of the same paper to wrap his whole present. So he has two different wrapping papers on there. It also has a very big bow. I would tell you all what the present is, but I wouldn't want you to spoil the surprise for him.

Lastly, the pictures have been updated. January pictures were finished uploading last night, so you can see his new haircut, and Kim and Roberto while they were here. Sorry we didn't get that many pictures, for some reason the camera seemed to be hiding every time I was thinking of taking pictures.

Strange how things work out...

This morning while reading through the morning headlines there were two that caught my eye:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22979800/

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Chemicals_in_Baby_Products_Linked_to_Possible_Hormonal_Problems_13562.html

Weird how these things pop up just when you are thinking about them.

Anyway, all that aside. Keegan had his 12 month pictures on Sunday. They went really well. We took him to Proex this time. It was the best place we have gone to have pictures so far. They didn't make us wait when we got there, they offered to do multiple backgrounds, the photographer was energetic and did a good job making Keegan smile, and they had nice props. We still had to pick the pictures out right away but the really nice thing is that all of his pictures will be ready by Wednesday (not in 2 weeks). We paid less for the pictures there than we did at Sears and we got a DVD of pictures, a photobook of the proofs, and the big picture comes framed. All in all it was much nicer than Sears or JC Penny and cheaper!

Keegan, of course, was wonderful about the whole thing. Even though he was kind of tired he smiled like a champ for the camera.

Keegan has a few new tricks now. He likes to run up to you, smile, and say "hi". He also likes to point at things. He points at things and says, "dat" and I tell him what it is. It is kind of funny because he will point back and forth between a couple things and watch me. It seems like he is trying to figure out if I call it the object the same thing every time he points at it. Sometimes I think he is way smarter than we give him credit for.

He's been trying to jump too. Can't quite get both feet off the ground, but he tries. He also made a big breakthrough with crayons on Saturday night. We went over to Chianti Grill on Saturday night to eat dinner with my parents. The waiter brought out a big piece of paper to cover the table cloth so that Keegan could color. Keegan didn't know what to do with the crayons. So mom and I showed him. He looked at us and then picked up the crayon (upside down) and screwing his face up in concentration carefully drew a couple lines on the paper. Of course, all of us clapped for him, which startled him (and the rest of the restaurant) but he looked up with a big smile and proceeded to color some more. For some reason I was really proud of him for working so hard to color with the crayons. It was fun to watch him.

Anyway, there's your Keegan update. Hope everyone has a good week.

Toxic free household....just too much to think about

I recently got into a bit of a row with a co-worker over something really stupid - cosmetics. She was having an Arbonne party at work and wanted all of the women to come for free lunch and to listen to her prattle on about how great Arbonne is. I was actually looking for a new cleanser and moisturizer so I thought well, why not.

So I went. Arbonne is very big on how natural and good all of their cosmetics are. I am not even going to touch on Arbonne as a way to make a living. I was talked into signing up to be a consultant (much to my shame); mainly for the 45% discount and so that I could easily return the products if I didn't like them without my co-worker knowing (which I ended up doing..and Arbonne was great about it). I began to wonder how "natural" their products really were. So I did some research on-line and then on the way home that day there was an interview on FM107 with a lady who wrote a book advocating cosmetic consumer safety. It was ironic. She mentioned a database called www.cosmeticsdatabase.org that independently tests cosmetic products and lists all the ingredients in a cosmetic along with a toxicity rating and a data gap percentage (how sure are they that the ingredient is really that toxic).

Well Arbonne was just as "toxic" as anything else. In fact Cover Girl was in general less "toxic". This just stumped me. How can a company get away with this type of advertising? Well I went through my Arbonne consultant materials and Arbonne is being honest. They say they use natural fragrances; and they do. Fragrances are in general not tested all that well and tend to have a lot of negative neurological and toxic effects (when was the last time someone's perfume gave you a headache); Arbonne does not use synthetic fragrances. They do however use synthetic preservatives; chemical surfactants; etc. etc. Arbonne leaves it up to their consultants to misunderstand and misconstrue the meaning of their natural message. That being said why can't we use more natural products?

I mean soap has been around forever. Why can't soap be "natural"? Why can't more things use essential oils as fragrance? We all know the answer; because it is cheaper to make chemicals in bulk than it is to get natural oils. It's all about profit. Also most of the evidence that some of these things (parabens, dioxanes, etc) are toxic to you is scanty. People use very small amounts of these things, they haven't been around for that long (less than 50 years in many cases), so there aren't many long term studies have been done. Still it's disturbing to look up the ingredients of the Johnson and Johnson baby wash and see that there are parabens in there, mysterious fragrance, and other ingredients that give it a moderately toxic rating on cosmetic database.com. Sure the studies supporting these results are a little bit contradictory but why take a chance?

I work at a chemical company. I know that getting products to the public is about doing it as fast and as cost effective as you can. Is the FDA going to require a 30 year study on the effects of a new fragrance and chemical in a new baby wash...ummm no, they are not. The FDA doesn't have the staff or funds to do something like that; they are way backed up on prescription drugs and medical devices. Most long term studies are ongoing and commence as the product is being sold.
So all of the above has led me to start looking into some new things. Especially in the area of bath products. What's out there? How "natural" can you get? What happens to shelf-life when you use a natural product? How crazy should you get about the whole natural and organic thing? I mean you can clothe your child in organic cotton for goodness sake and use unbleached toliet paper on your behind...where do you draw the line? Do you need to draw a line? I mean when you get right down to it everything, and I mean absolutely everything, is a chemical. Does it matter if it occurs in nature or synthetically? History tells us it does. So far I believe only synthetic chemicals have been found to be bio-accumulating. But still, poison ivy gives you a rash and it's "natural".

Science always outpaces safety. It has always been this way. Chemists used to have the shortest lifespan of any professional; that there should tell you something about chemical safety. Everyone is always eager to have the latest and greatest; and inventions are normally done in good will. All of us chemists are trying to make people's lives easier; no scientist I know is intentionally trying to poison people. It still begs the question, how do you make your home safe? How many unsafe things are we ignoring because it is too much and too scary to think of them otherwise? I mean you could drive yourself crazy with this. We already eat organic when we can but what to do next.

So I took the first step. Bath products are notorious for their lack of regulation by the government; the US has some of the worst standards for cosmetics. So now we are using California Baby for Keegan. It smells great and works really well and I like the fact that the company supports the advocate group for safer cosmetics. I've switched to Giovanni organic hair products. They are not at all expensive and work well. I found some great skin care in Korres skin care, you can eat most of this stuff, it works well, but is a bit expensive. Still I am getting older so I am willing to put some money into my face.

Then what's next. Well now I am looking at cleaning and paper products. I started thinking about how the Windex makes me cough and makes my eyes run (ammonia content); and how the toilet cleaner burns my skin. I decided to look into Seventh generation products. Ironically the same day I made this decision, Cate called me up and started talking about how she was intrigued by these products. Then I got my Cookie magazine for the month and there was a big article in there on having a toxin-free household which mentioned Seventh Generation products. Still it is a lot to grasp and the products are more expensive, and in the end you are left wondering if it actually makes a difference to your health and the health of those around you.

While reading reviews about Seventh generation products online I stumbled upon more disturbing info. As I chemist I know all plastics leech over time. This means any water bottle you drink out does have some pthtalates and other monomers in it. It may be a minuscule amount, does this matter? We don't know. Can you believe they sell non-leeching aluminum sippy cups for babies? I guess since bottles and sippy cups are the main form of beverage transport for our babies it makes sense. It set my head reeling; I mean all Keegan drinks out of are plastic cups. Plastic is a relatively new technology; and there are some dutch companies working on non-leeching plasticware for babies. But, oh my, it makes my head hurt, really it does! Ever notice how these problems come out in the news and then go away? Why is that? Is it because the huge corporations spend a lot of money lobbying to have the government ignore these issues; a big part of me wants to believe that's not the case. What are the alternatives though? Did everyone decide that it is just too scary to deal with so we all choose to ignore it?

I kind of agree with the Cookie article when the writer mentions that a large amount of these issues are ignored because they are scary, immense, and people are willing to take the risk for the immediate convenience of things. I can't help but wondering if some people are thinking about it too much (like myself) or if we aren't thinking about it enough and it will bit us in the rear in 30 years.

All of these issues still leave me a bit confused and concerned, but I guess my decision is to support companies that either 1) donate part of their profits to create biodegradable and renewable resources or 2) support additional testing and consumer safety. Sure these products are more expensive, but we can afford it right now and I guess if it gives a sense of safety (even if it's a false sense) it might be worth it. At least some part of my stressed out chemist-self feels a bit better when I can pronounce and understand all of the ingredients on my bubble bath. It's a lot to grasp and it's something I think you address more avidly if you have been chronically ill or have a little person in the house. Still, I really love my Windex; it's going to be very hard to let go of the beautiful blue, eye stinging formulation that is my Windex.

Antics at the MOA

This weekend Keegan, Lyle and I went to the Mall of America (MOA) with my mom, dad, sister, and, her husband, Roberto.

Initially Keegan was strapped into his stroller, but as has lately been the case, that did not last long. The boy wanted to boogie. Lyle, my dad, and sometimes my mom took turns watching him while Kim, Roberto, and I went in and out of stores there.

There were a couple highlights to this trip, regarding Keegan. While Lyle, me, Kim, and Roberto were in Express my dad was standing outside with Keegan. My dad was on his cell phone, when a lady looked at him and said "Looks like someone is trying to escape!" My dad looked down and Keegan had gotten his seat belt off and was shimmying down towards the ground. He had gotten his head down below the tray on the stroller and his toes were almost to the ground when he was found out.

After that my mom took him and let him run around The Limited some. The store wasn't that crowded and Keegan had a ball running around between display tables and shaking his butt to the music there. Of course, everyone in the store thought he was "sooooo, cute".

Outside of a different store Lyle and dad were waiting with Keegan. When my mom saw them she laughed at the manly pose Keegan has assumed. He was leaning on the railings looking down to the 1st level just like Lyle and dad. She thought this was super cute until she realized that Keegan was trying to scrape his shoes off of his feet and drop them down onto the people below. What a stinker!

Keegan also loved the window displays. In front of Victoria's Secret there was a stuffed Pink dog with wings and a halo pinned on it for Valentine's day. Keegan toddled over to it and proceeded to "pet nice" on the doggy's head. It was really cute until Keegan decided that he had had enough of "petting nice" and he pulled the wings off of the stuffed dog. We had to chase Keegan down and Lyle was stuck standing in front of Victoria's Secret pinning stuffed wings back on a stuffed dog while I took Keegan to a safer, less destructive play area.

In general Keegan loved looking over the rails, running between columns, and looking at people and shopping items with equal vigor.

Everything went swimmingly until we got to Famous Dave's to eat dinner. Keegan had enough of everything by then. This is going on probably 5 hours at the mall, so who can blame him. The only thing that would appease the boy is eating corn muffins. So everyone donated corn muffins to the "keeping Keegan happy" fund. Keegan liked to rip the tops off of the muffins and then stuff them in his mouth.

Even that wasn't enough to keep him placated toward the end. So I took him out of the restaurant and we examined the giant bear (which he also nicely patted on the nose) and then we started doing heroic jumps up onto and off of the columns outside of the restaurant. This got the little man giggling pretty hard. A lady in the restaurant and her mother were watching us closely. The mom finally said "my daughter will have one of those any day now!" Ends up the woman's daughter was 39.5 weeks pregnant. I sympathized with the daughter and told her that she was doing the toughest part right now and that it does get better (although given the activities I was partaking in, she may not have believed me)!

Probably the most amazing thing is how many people want to stop and talk to Keegan and talk to us about Keegan. It's great how many nice people you meet. Of course Keegan is very inviting; he always walks around with a huge grin on his face, he waves at people who wave at him, and gives high-fives aplenty. I hope that he can keep his positive attitude of the world for a long time to come!

Asserting his will...

So as I mentioned briefly in the last post, Keegan is definitely making progress on becoming his own person. This started a couple weeks ago and seems directly linked with his mastery of walking.

When Keegan initially started walking he loved to hold onto your hand. Part of the was necessity to help him keep his balance, and part of it was insecurity on his part. Well that has pretty much gone out the window. Keegan is *very* adept at walking now and he seems to feel secure and confident of who he is.

Lyle and I really like Keegan to explore his boundaries and to stretch his limits of comfort. We may regret this mentality later, but I have found personally that people grow the most, mentally and personality-wise, when they can test their limits of comfort and expand them. For Keegan this new limit was walking on his own. Keegan loves crowds of people and loves exploring new places. Lyle and I didn't have a lot to do and weren't in a hurry, so we went to the mall.

We found out that Keegan does not believe that he needs to ride in a stroller anymore. That was okay, as I said we weren't in a hurry, so we let him walk. Usually he holds your hand and walks nicely beside you. Alas, it 'twas not meant to be! As soon as I grabbed Keegan's hand he jerked his hand out of mine and, with a defiant look, took off. This behavior was slightly bratty and kind of amusing. We had purchased a harness for Keegan, so this little fit got Keegan the privilege of wearing a harness. Kind of a compromise; Keegan could walk and not hold our hand as long as he wore the harness.

We meandered through Macy's; sometimes letting Keegan lead the way, sometimes not. By the time we got the entrance of the mall from Macy's Keegan was getting tired. He kept tripping over his feet. So we put him in the stroller. This was not popular with Keegan but after a couple minutes of protesting he calmed down and enjoyed the ride. That is one thing I am learning about babies. Although I like Keegan to test his limits, he doesn't have the common sense to know when he has reached his limits.

So a quick side note: the mission of this whole shopping trip was to get me a new swimsuit. I hate shopping for swimsuits. Interestingly enough I did find some swimsuits in Macy's. Lyle and Keegan came into the colossal fitting room with me so I could try them. I like Lyle to give his opinion on the suits but I refuse to walk out of the fitting room in them. Somehow the lighting in the department store is made to make you look as horrible as possible. Somehow Lyle also seems to have a much better opinion of my body than I do. These two things balance each other out. Lyle knows just what to say to make me feel like the swimsuit looks good on me and I stand and stare at myself in the mirror trying to see what he sees :-)

Something we learned about fitting rooms: fitting rooms and babies don't really mix. Keegan liked peeking under the fitting room wall into the stall next to me. This was fine until a lady went in there. Then the lady got a surprise. There is something wrong about my 11 month old son peeking at ladies changing cloths under a fitting room wall. Luckily he is cute enough that people still have a sense of humor about it.

Okay, back to Keegan walking. We went the Herbergers and Keegan was starting to get restless in his stroller. So we let him out and put his harness on. He immediately ran underneath a display table with purses on it. I gently corralled him out of there. He did it again. Keegan thought it was *so* funny to run under there because we couldn't. Finally Keegan went under the table and wouldn't move. So I crawled under and got him out. Keegan was not pleased. As I mentioned in the last post, he screamed and kicked and hit, then screamed some more. At that point I got kind of pissed off. This was no longer fun; this was about Keegan being stubborn and persistent and deliberately doing what we asked him not to. Screw Keegan testing his limits, he was just being a brat. So with screaming child under arm and Lyle trailing with an empty stroller we left the store. We then put Keegan into the stroller (more screaming ensued) and left the mall.

There were two things that really surprised me about this experience. The first was that my sweet little boy, who loved holding hands and walking and always let me lead him places, had disappeared to be replaced by a assertive, opinionated little brat. The little angel that has never thrown a fit in public; threw one. The second thing was that it didn't really bother me as much as I thought it would. I thought I would be embarrassed when Keegan threw a fit, I thought my face would get red with embarrassment and I would get stressed out and break into a cold sweat. I didn't. It seemed as natural as anything to force this boundary on Keegan and take him screaming out of the store.

This incident wasn't about the people around us; it was about me, Keegan, and Lyle. I am not sure what the second part says about me; maybe I have relaxed some in my old age. Or maybe I just know Keegan. His is outgoing, adventurous, and fearless...I have known since he was born that he was going to be a boundary pusher. It seems completely natural that we are going to have some power struggles; boundaries and discipline will be needed. It will be difficult to find the right balance between giving him the freedom he needs to grow, and setting boundaries so that he becomes a responsible, well-mannered child and adult.

Ah well, someday I will read this entry and laugh about the naiveness in letting Keegan have maximum free will. Whatever the future; raising Keegan promises to be an adventure.

Keegan speaks his first words...

At least I think you could call them words. Keegan has been doing "da da da" for a while. Just this weekend he's started saying "ma, ma, ma".

He has also started repeating syllables but not the noises. So he tries to say "bye, bye", although it comes out more like "baa, baa".

This morning he saw Jubei and pointed at him saying "ki, ki" which I think was a reasonable attempt at kitty. He then turned around and pointed at Ruby saying "dag, da" which could have been an attempt at doggie. It's always hard to tell but I think the little guy is really trying to give this talking thing a go.

We have still been trying to do sign language with him. Keegan has the sign for milk down really well. He seems to use the sign for milk when he wants something...not necessarily milk. He is pretty good with "all done" too. If you tell Keegan "No" for something (for example when he is trying to stick his foot in the dog's water bowl) he will look at you and smile and shake his head "no".

Although I can tell Keegan gets frustrated sometimes when he wants to do something and we just don't get it. Sometimes it takes quite a few tries before we can figure out what he wants. Keegan has definitely been exerting his will. He knows what he wants to do and throws a fit sometimes if he doesn't get to do it. It is interesting to watch him develop this strong, confident, sense of self. At the same time it gets frustrating when I am carrying him through a department store screaming (Keegan not me) because Keegan wanted to stand under the display table with purses on it all day and I wouldn't let him.

Quick note on Christmas...Christmas was fun and very busy. Keegan got a ton of presents and he also had a great time meeting all the "new" people. We'd like to thank everyone for the great presents and the wonderful company we had over Christmas!

Finally a main goal has been reached!

Okay I should be blogging about Christmas, and I will at a later time.

Last night Lyle and I finally reached a great milestone since Keegan has been born....are you ready for it??

Last night at around 7:30pm Lyle and I finished the first video game since Keegan has been born. Yes, we have only completed one video game since the little man joined our lives.

In case you are wondering the game was Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PS3. It was a super tough game and the end boss battle was anticlimactic to say the least.