Okay I have mentioned to many of you that I am part of the Amazon Vine program. I get to pick four free items a month off of a list targeted at me and review them. I read and review a lot of books; so I get targeted a lot for books. I also get targeted for snacks and baby products (cause I buy cereal bars and diapers on Amazon). Occasionally the cool electronic item is thrown into the mix. I got a wireless router once, a really high tech baby monitor, and most recently a wireless internet radio system. So it's been pretty cool...now what does this have to do with raising a toddler? Well not a ton except that the book situation is getting out of hand.
See I get to chose two Vine items the third Thursday of every month; usually these are not books but sometimes they are books. Then the week after I get to choose two more items that are "leftovers" these are almost always books. It is an awesome way to get a ton of books for free. But I do have to read them and review them or else no more free items. So add this to all of the series I am reading and it gets to be a boat load of reading.
How many series am I in the middle of reading? Okay brace yourselves...I have to keep a spreadsheet of them all to keep it all straight and keep track of which books are coming out for which series. At last count I was actively in the middle of 36 different series. This doesn't count ones I've given up on. This is the first time I've actually counted and that's kind of intimidating; how much of my brain is lent to remembering miscellaneous book facts?
Then there are all the new series I am interested in. And all the stand alone novels that sound cool. Pair this with the paperbackswap.com site and books being constantly at my beck and call for really, really cheap and you have a problem. About 100 problems sitting on the bookshelf staring at me all night begging for me to read them. So now my 8 book a month habit has turned into a 4 book a week habit...or at last count 19 books for March. Is this crazy?
Then I write reviews for all of the books I read. All of this really cuts into my blogging time; at least this blog. So if you wonder where I am and why noone is blogging, well I am involved with my books.
What did I do before I got so book involved? Well I played a lot more video games and watched more TV, oh and I was in school at night so there is that.
My book reading never cuts into my time with Keegan but it is affecting him. The kid knows that any package that arrives in the mail is most likely a book. He is also addicted to his books and drags them everywhere with him (just like mommy). I don't think this is a horrible thing. It's definitely not new to me; I have had leisure reading stuck on my person for many years either tucked in a coat pocket, in a purse, or a backpack. It's no surprise to my family. It's also kind of nice I am getting some additional reward for reading besides the joy it gives me.
I never get sick of reading. I get sick of playing video games and exercising and watching movies...but never reading.
Does book reading cut into my personal life? Probably, I would rather read than meet friends to do stuff sometimes. Sometimes I read and Lyle wonders if I have forgotten he exists. But other than that it works out okay.
So, if you wonder why the blogging on this site is down to a minimum well....here is something to read (although boring and about books). Oh yeah and I don't have blog access at work so that cuts down on things a bit too :-)
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 06, 2009
Home Again...Toddler Speak
Here we are at home again. Going back to work was actually relaxing after chasing Keegan around for a week in San Diego. The trip back was fine. Keegan didn't sleep at all on the plane and I had a bad cold so the flight back was unpleasant for me. I couldn't read to Keegan because I had lost my voice with the cold, so Lyle read to him for about 2 hours. Poor Lyle, Keegan was good though.
Then it was back to work on Monday. It was an interesting week where both of our jobs were concerned. Kind of an up and down week. I found out that oddly enough we are getting a decent bonus this year; our division meet 149% of their goals so we get 6% or something in that realm. Then after that I found out they want me out at the plant the last week in March. So that kind of sucks. It is bad timing because my parents will be out of town and we are taking care of their cats. So now Lyle will be stuck with Keegan and my parents' kitties. He says he's not worried about it but then he is never worried about anything.
Then we got our taxes back from the accountant. Our business took a loss this year (just because of how things worked out over the year). This ended up meaning that we are getting a very large refund. That is super nice because last year (first year with the business) we screwed up and had to pay in $3000 for personal taxes. We were expecting to have to pay in this year but things worked out in such a way that we get a nice refund. I know I shouldn't be excited about a refund because that means the government has had our money all year; but it's still better than paying in.
Then we got bad news...looks like Lyle's work is forcing rate cuts on all of their consultants so that means that Lyle (hence our company, hence us) will be making less. There is even a rumor that the company might not accept the rate cuts and just get rid of all their contractors. So that is worrying. He's had a couple calls from people looking for consultants to become employees so he is looking into that. His current company is not sure of how fast they will act with layoffs or rate cuts. So, well, we will just try to be prepared. Hopefully it will all work out.
All the work junk aside...Keegan has been doing some pretty funny things...so I thought I would talk about that. He comes up with the craziest things.
In the car last night he started saying "yum, yum, yum." I said "Keegan what are you eating?" He replied, "Mama, I eat the car." I replied "Oh, well how does the car taste?" He said "It tastes like lemons!."
As if this wasn't strange enough the conversation continued to get stranger. Keegan said, "Mama, now I eat Memaw (what he calls gma)." I said "Oh, I bet memaw doesn't like that...what does memaw taste like?" His reply, "Like doggies." I wasn't sure how to respond to that so I asked "Have you eaten doggies before?" Keegan replied "Yep, they're yucky." Ummm...good to know...where does he come up with this stuff?
Then while we were at the bookstore yesterday looking for a book on Ireland. Keegan was standing by Lyle, he proceeded to take off running towards me and screamed as loud as he could: "Mama, I made poopie, I made poopie!" It was wonderful, as if the smell wasn't bad enough he had to announce to the whole block that he had made poopie! He was sooooo proud of himself.
Last quick story. Today while I was folding the laundry, Keegan went into his playroom. All of the sudden I heard a blood-curdling scream followed by Keegan whimpering "Owie, owie, owie". I dropped what I was folding and raced into the playroom thinking he had really hurt himself somehow. When I entered the room he looked up and laughed. He had his plastic hack-saw from his Black and Decker workbench and was pretending to saw his leg off. He screamed again and said "Mama, owie, I cut off my leg." Okay...as my heart settled down to a normal pace again, I tried to be thankful he had such a fertile imagination. He quickly got bored with the play saw and then got his battery powered jigsaw. He ran over and held Seras (our three legged kitty) down, for some reason she was very tolerant of him today, and proceeded to run the jigsaw up her back. He looked at me all proud of himself and said "I give Seras a haircut." Suddenly I am thinking he does not have a future as a stylist, not if he uses a jigsaw to do it...
Ah, well enough of the Keegan stories. Hope everyone is doing well. Keep your fingers crossed that Lyle is still employed in a month...
Then it was back to work on Monday. It was an interesting week where both of our jobs were concerned. Kind of an up and down week. I found out that oddly enough we are getting a decent bonus this year; our division meet 149% of their goals so we get 6% or something in that realm. Then after that I found out they want me out at the plant the last week in March. So that kind of sucks. It is bad timing because my parents will be out of town and we are taking care of their cats. So now Lyle will be stuck with Keegan and my parents' kitties. He says he's not worried about it but then he is never worried about anything.
Then we got our taxes back from the accountant. Our business took a loss this year (just because of how things worked out over the year). This ended up meaning that we are getting a very large refund. That is super nice because last year (first year with the business) we screwed up and had to pay in $3000 for personal taxes. We were expecting to have to pay in this year but things worked out in such a way that we get a nice refund. I know I shouldn't be excited about a refund because that means the government has had our money all year; but it's still better than paying in.
Then we got bad news...looks like Lyle's work is forcing rate cuts on all of their consultants so that means that Lyle (hence our company, hence us) will be making less. There is even a rumor that the company might not accept the rate cuts and just get rid of all their contractors. So that is worrying. He's had a couple calls from people looking for consultants to become employees so he is looking into that. His current company is not sure of how fast they will act with layoffs or rate cuts. So, well, we will just try to be prepared. Hopefully it will all work out.
All the work junk aside...Keegan has been doing some pretty funny things...so I thought I would talk about that. He comes up with the craziest things.
In the car last night he started saying "yum, yum, yum." I said "Keegan what are you eating?" He replied, "Mama, I eat the car." I replied "Oh, well how does the car taste?" He said "It tastes like lemons!."
As if this wasn't strange enough the conversation continued to get stranger. Keegan said, "Mama, now I eat Memaw (what he calls gma)." I said "Oh, I bet memaw doesn't like that...what does memaw taste like?" His reply, "Like doggies." I wasn't sure how to respond to that so I asked "Have you eaten doggies before?" Keegan replied "Yep, they're yucky." Ummm...good to know...where does he come up with this stuff?
Then while we were at the bookstore yesterday looking for a book on Ireland. Keegan was standing by Lyle, he proceeded to take off running towards me and screamed as loud as he could: "Mama, I made poopie, I made poopie!" It was wonderful, as if the smell wasn't bad enough he had to announce to the whole block that he had made poopie! He was sooooo proud of himself.
Last quick story. Today while I was folding the laundry, Keegan went into his playroom. All of the sudden I heard a blood-curdling scream followed by Keegan whimpering "Owie, owie, owie". I dropped what I was folding and raced into the playroom thinking he had really hurt himself somehow. When I entered the room he looked up and laughed. He had his plastic hack-saw from his Black and Decker workbench and was pretending to saw his leg off. He screamed again and said "Mama, owie, I cut off my leg." Okay...as my heart settled down to a normal pace again, I tried to be thankful he had such a fertile imagination. He quickly got bored with the play saw and then got his battery powered jigsaw. He ran over and held Seras (our three legged kitty) down, for some reason she was very tolerant of him today, and proceeded to run the jigsaw up her back. He looked at me all proud of himself and said "I give Seras a haircut." Suddenly I am thinking he does not have a future as a stylist, not if he uses a jigsaw to do it...
Ah, well enough of the Keegan stories. Hope everyone is doing well. Keep your fingers crossed that Lyle is still employed in a month...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
San Diego Vacation...Almost Over :-(
Today we got up and ran to Target to get more diapers. See, even halfway across the country we can't stay away :-) We do love our Target.
Then we went playing at the park in Balboa Park. We meet a couple other two year olds (and their parents) and Keegan played with them until the Fleet Science Center opened.
The Reuben Fleet Science Center was a disappointment. Mainly because we have a way cooler science place at the Science Museum of MN. There was a place at the Science Center here called the Kids Zone. Think the Minneapolis Children's Museum but shrunk down to one room; with only a fraction of the toys. That was the Kid Zone. We did the whole museum in about 40 minutes. Then we were struggling with what to do next. We went over and visited the Lily Pond area and then screwed around until the Model Railroad Museum opened. The Model Railroad Museum is the biggest one in the world and is pretty darn cool. We had a really good time here. The model railroad displays are huge (think just one landscaping/train model taking up many rooms of space). It was pretty amazing. Keegan got a real kick out of that. He also got a Thomas the Train car for his train set; which he thought was even cooler.
After that we ate lunch at Prado in Balboa Park. It's very upscale and Keegan was very tired. It all worked out okay though. He ended up whining a little in the beginning but mellowed out as the meal went on. Thank goodness there were no tantrums or throwing of food. After that is was back to the house for naptime.
Well, today Keegan decided that there wasn't going to be a naptime. So after fighting with him for an hour and a half...we gave up. We decided to walk back down to Pacific Beach. There was a clothing store I wanted to hit on the way down there (I swear this is the first clothing shopping I've done). Then we were going to hit the self-serve yogurt place on the way back.
We stopped by the clothing store Pink Zone. It was a fairly big, boutique-like store. Tons of neat clothing and super cheep. I didn't see a single thing for sale in there over $20. I was in heaven. Tons of t-shirts in funky materials and wonderful summer dresses. I had to try stuff on. So while Lyle suffered through amusing Keegan through my one and only clothing stop on this trip....I tried on six or seven things. Ended up with a very cute tiered sweater and two summer dresses for $40. I was pleased and finally felt fulfilled, having bought some items of clothing in San Diego :-)
Then we left to go down to the beach. Oh my god did we have a good time at the beach. We took off our shoes and rolled up our pants (well we just took Keegan's pants off). We built sand castles and made our own little chain of great lakes. Keegan was really scared of the big waves coming in at first. But then he threw caution to the wind and we had to watch him to make sure he didn't go in too far. Pacific beach has a very gradual grade; so it looks like the water is water out there and then all of the sudden it rushes up the beach 20 or 30 feet. So Keegan wanted to fill his bucket up with water and he would run out to get the water...then all of the sudden he was standing in 6 inches of water (a lot when you are only 3 feet tall). Once so much water came in he got knocked over right onto his butt. Then we realized that we didn't have anymore diapers packed...oops. We were at the beach forever. We chased seagulls, and made ponds, and threw sand, and had a great time. Oh...did I mention that it was only 68 degrees outside and the water temp was probably in the 50's...
Finally Keegan was turning blue and so was I; so after over an hour of fun we decided it was time to go get diapers and ice cream. We stopped at a drugstore to pick up some diapers. Yes, Keegan was wearing his jacket as a top and his jeans with no diaper. We told him no pee pee until he had a diaper on. Guess what, he listened. So we got the diaper on him and then went to a frozen yogurt place for afternoon snack. We are loving the frozen yogurt places out here. They charge you by the ounce. There are like 15 different kinds of self-serve frozen yogurt and then you get unlimited toppings. So for 30 cents an ounce you get a two-pint bucket to fill as you like....if you do the math it ended up being like $6 for Lyle and I to get a couple quarts of yummy goodness. It is soooo much cheaper than Cold Stone and so much yummier. I got kiwis, strawberries, blueberries, and sprinkles on my :-)
Then on the way back to the house Keegan feel asleep in his stroller. We left him sleep in the stroller on the patio while I ran in to heat up a pizza for dinner (hey, it's vacation we can eat all the crap we want...right!?) Then Kee woke up in time for dinner. We ate pizza and strawberries out on the patio while cookies baked in the oven. Then we ate warm cranberry oatmeal cookies while playing kickball under the setting sun. It was a wonderful day :-) Really we have been doing a ton of running and walking so I think ice cream, pizza, and cookies are all justified.
Keegan has been having a blast and so have we. I am not looking forward to coming home to all that snow!
Then we went playing at the park in Balboa Park. We meet a couple other two year olds (and their parents) and Keegan played with them until the Fleet Science Center opened.
The Reuben Fleet Science Center was a disappointment. Mainly because we have a way cooler science place at the Science Museum of MN. There was a place at the Science Center here called the Kids Zone. Think the Minneapolis Children's Museum but shrunk down to one room; with only a fraction of the toys. That was the Kid Zone. We did the whole museum in about 40 minutes. Then we were struggling with what to do next. We went over and visited the Lily Pond area and then screwed around until the Model Railroad Museum opened. The Model Railroad Museum is the biggest one in the world and is pretty darn cool. We had a really good time here. The model railroad displays are huge (think just one landscaping/train model taking up many rooms of space). It was pretty amazing. Keegan got a real kick out of that. He also got a Thomas the Train car for his train set; which he thought was even cooler.
After that we ate lunch at Prado in Balboa Park. It's very upscale and Keegan was very tired. It all worked out okay though. He ended up whining a little in the beginning but mellowed out as the meal went on. Thank goodness there were no tantrums or throwing of food. After that is was back to the house for naptime.
Well, today Keegan decided that there wasn't going to be a naptime. So after fighting with him for an hour and a half...we gave up. We decided to walk back down to Pacific Beach. There was a clothing store I wanted to hit on the way down there (I swear this is the first clothing shopping I've done). Then we were going to hit the self-serve yogurt place on the way back.
We stopped by the clothing store Pink Zone. It was a fairly big, boutique-like store. Tons of neat clothing and super cheep. I didn't see a single thing for sale in there over $20. I was in heaven. Tons of t-shirts in funky materials and wonderful summer dresses. I had to try stuff on. So while Lyle suffered through amusing Keegan through my one and only clothing stop on this trip....I tried on six or seven things. Ended up with a very cute tiered sweater and two summer dresses for $40. I was pleased and finally felt fulfilled, having bought some items of clothing in San Diego :-)
Then we left to go down to the beach. Oh my god did we have a good time at the beach. We took off our shoes and rolled up our pants (well we just took Keegan's pants off). We built sand castles and made our own little chain of great lakes. Keegan was really scared of the big waves coming in at first. But then he threw caution to the wind and we had to watch him to make sure he didn't go in too far. Pacific beach has a very gradual grade; so it looks like the water is water out there and then all of the sudden it rushes up the beach 20 or 30 feet. So Keegan wanted to fill his bucket up with water and he would run out to get the water...then all of the sudden he was standing in 6 inches of water (a lot when you are only 3 feet tall). Once so much water came in he got knocked over right onto his butt. Then we realized that we didn't have anymore diapers packed...oops. We were at the beach forever. We chased seagulls, and made ponds, and threw sand, and had a great time. Oh...did I mention that it was only 68 degrees outside and the water temp was probably in the 50's...
Finally Keegan was turning blue and so was I; so after over an hour of fun we decided it was time to go get diapers and ice cream. We stopped at a drugstore to pick up some diapers. Yes, Keegan was wearing his jacket as a top and his jeans with no diaper. We told him no pee pee until he had a diaper on. Guess what, he listened. So we got the diaper on him and then went to a frozen yogurt place for afternoon snack. We are loving the frozen yogurt places out here. They charge you by the ounce. There are like 15 different kinds of self-serve frozen yogurt and then you get unlimited toppings. So for 30 cents an ounce you get a two-pint bucket to fill as you like....if you do the math it ended up being like $6 for Lyle and I to get a couple quarts of yummy goodness. It is soooo much cheaper than Cold Stone and so much yummier. I got kiwis, strawberries, blueberries, and sprinkles on my :-)
Then on the way back to the house Keegan feel asleep in his stroller. We left him sleep in the stroller on the patio while I ran in to heat up a pizza for dinner (hey, it's vacation we can eat all the crap we want...right!?) Then Kee woke up in time for dinner. We ate pizza and strawberries out on the patio while cookies baked in the oven. Then we ate warm cranberry oatmeal cookies while playing kickball under the setting sun. It was a wonderful day :-) Really we have been doing a ton of running and walking so I think ice cream, pizza, and cookies are all justified.
Keegan has been having a blast and so have we. I am not looking forward to coming home to all that snow!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
San Diego Vacation continued.....
So after our Sea World adventures on Sunday, in the afternoon we went over to Seaport Village near Downtown San Diego. This is a cute little touristy place all done up like an old time Seaport Village. We had dinner at a good seafood place and then walked around some. We got to watch a guy juggle, and got some ice cream. Then Keegan and Lyle road the carousel. The carousel was really cool; I will put some pics up later. Then back to the house for bed time.
Monday morning we got up and went on a North Harbor tour. That really didn't go well. Keegan was super excited to get on the boat but then when the boat started to pull out of the bay he freaked out. He kept saying he was scared and he was "All done" and he "wanted off". Unfortunately the tour went for an hour. Half way through we finally bought Keegan off with a bag of Cheetos which kept him quiet for 20 minutes or so. By the time Keegan was done screaming and whining none of us wanted to be on the boat anymore. When we got back to harbor we took off and put Mr. Crabby down for a nap.
After naptime it was down to La Jolla. We had a very yummy lunch on a patio overlooking the ocean. Then we walked down to the sandstone beach by the ocean and hiked around. Then it was down to the cove area where there were some sea lions sunning themselves. The sand by the cove was really nice so we took our shoes off and waded in. The water is still only around 50oF; so it was pretty chilly. There were some good sized waves coming in and Keegan loved those. He would get all tense and jump up and down and then when the wave hit he would scream and laugh. He had a super fun time; we all did. Then on the way back through the park we meet a family from New Hampshire and played football with them for a while. Then we walked through the stores and went into a candy store. Keegan scored some candy fruit slices and a sucker...and a balloon. He was in heaven.
We drove back to our townhouse and made hot dogs on the grill. It was so beautiful outside. We stayed out and blew bubbles and played ball until it got dark.
The next day was Zoo day! We got to the San Diego Zoo at 9am and stayed there until 1:30pm. It's really a great zoo. The park is amazing , it is so fun to walk around. The exhibits are really well done and the animals look happy and in great shape. We road the Skyfari (cable tram over the park) and Keegan thought that was cool. So he doesn't mind flying through the air on a cable but sitting on a big boat is scary go figure. Keegan spent a lot of time telling the animals to "Wake Up!!" if they weren't moving fast enough for him.
The Zoo is just amazing; we only got through about 2/3's of it the first day. They have some really cool averys and also a huge reptile display that Keegan loved. Funny thing was that the statues and benches were just as much fun for Keegan as the animals. There was even an area where we got to pet goats and sheep. Then it was time to go back home and take a nap.
After nap was over we left to scout out a good sushi restaurant for dinner. We found a nice one within walking distance of our house. They even had a highchair; kind of unusual for the restaurants in that area (Since it is kind of a nightclub district). Kwegan chowed down his (my) Philadelphia roll and ate some of Lyle's Katsu-don. It ended up actually not costing us a ton either. I also got a special Maki roll called a Fire Fire roll and it came with part of the plate set on fire. Keegan thought that was super cool :-)
On to today. We went in the morning and finished up the Zoo. The 15 minute ride to the zoo was filled with a lot of commenting from Keegan. From the back of the car he yelled "I see animals!" for 5 minutes...then it was on to "I love monkeys" for 5 minutes. We finished the ride with screams of "I love elephants" echoing through the car. It was again a lot of fun. The elephant trainer was working with one of the elephants and we got to see some elephant tricks. The giraffe and koalas were just being fed so we got to watch them eating which was fun. Then Keegan got to get up close and personal with a Lynx and a cougar. Since most of the animals were awake this time Keegan's new phrase was "Kitty, get in the water!"
After leaving the Zoo we went to Balboa park with intention of going to the science center and eating lunch. The only place that was open was the Japanese Tea House by the Japanese Friendship garden. So we ate lunch there and then decided to tour the Friendship Garden. After that Kee was getting tired. So we decided to do the other museums later. On the way home we stopped by Mission Bay Park. Mission Bay Park has a million play structures and Keegan made friends with a little boy who took Keegan on a tour of every single one. After this Keegan was *really* tired and it was time to come back and take nap.
This afternoon we went out to Coronado Island. We had a good dinner and then walked down Coronado beach to big Hotel Del Coronado. Then we walked up and down Orange Ave and got some frozen yogurt. There are some really beautiful houses out here and the beach was absolutely amazing! Then back home and too bed (for Keegan at least).
Tomorrow the plan is to hit Balboa park first thing and tour the Rueben Fleet Science Museum and the Model Railroad Museum and maybe a couple other places. We'll see how it all works out.
So far vacation has been wonderful :-) Keegan makes so many friends with everyone he meets!
Monday morning we got up and went on a North Harbor tour. That really didn't go well. Keegan was super excited to get on the boat but then when the boat started to pull out of the bay he freaked out. He kept saying he was scared and he was "All done" and he "wanted off". Unfortunately the tour went for an hour. Half way through we finally bought Keegan off with a bag of Cheetos which kept him quiet for 20 minutes or so. By the time Keegan was done screaming and whining none of us wanted to be on the boat anymore. When we got back to harbor we took off and put Mr. Crabby down for a nap.
After naptime it was down to La Jolla. We had a very yummy lunch on a patio overlooking the ocean. Then we walked down to the sandstone beach by the ocean and hiked around. Then it was down to the cove area where there were some sea lions sunning themselves. The sand by the cove was really nice so we took our shoes off and waded in. The water is still only around 50oF; so it was pretty chilly. There were some good sized waves coming in and Keegan loved those. He would get all tense and jump up and down and then when the wave hit he would scream and laugh. He had a super fun time; we all did. Then on the way back through the park we meet a family from New Hampshire and played football with them for a while. Then we walked through the stores and went into a candy store. Keegan scored some candy fruit slices and a sucker...and a balloon. He was in heaven.
We drove back to our townhouse and made hot dogs on the grill. It was so beautiful outside. We stayed out and blew bubbles and played ball until it got dark.
The next day was Zoo day! We got to the San Diego Zoo at 9am and stayed there until 1:30pm. It's really a great zoo. The park is amazing , it is so fun to walk around. The exhibits are really well done and the animals look happy and in great shape. We road the Skyfari (cable tram over the park) and Keegan thought that was cool. So he doesn't mind flying through the air on a cable but sitting on a big boat is scary go figure. Keegan spent a lot of time telling the animals to "Wake Up!!" if they weren't moving fast enough for him.
The Zoo is just amazing; we only got through about 2/3's of it the first day. They have some really cool averys and also a huge reptile display that Keegan loved. Funny thing was that the statues and benches were just as much fun for Keegan as the animals. There was even an area where we got to pet goats and sheep. Then it was time to go back home and take a nap.
After nap was over we left to scout out a good sushi restaurant for dinner. We found a nice one within walking distance of our house. They even had a highchair; kind of unusual for the restaurants in that area (Since it is kind of a nightclub district). Kwegan chowed down his (my) Philadelphia roll and ate some of Lyle's Katsu-don. It ended up actually not costing us a ton either. I also got a special Maki roll called a Fire Fire roll and it came with part of the plate set on fire. Keegan thought that was super cool :-)
On to today. We went in the morning and finished up the Zoo. The 15 minute ride to the zoo was filled with a lot of commenting from Keegan. From the back of the car he yelled "I see animals!" for 5 minutes...then it was on to "I love monkeys" for 5 minutes. We finished the ride with screams of "I love elephants" echoing through the car. It was again a lot of fun. The elephant trainer was working with one of the elephants and we got to see some elephant tricks. The giraffe and koalas were just being fed so we got to watch them eating which was fun. Then Keegan got to get up close and personal with a Lynx and a cougar. Since most of the animals were awake this time Keegan's new phrase was "Kitty, get in the water!"
After leaving the Zoo we went to Balboa park with intention of going to the science center and eating lunch. The only place that was open was the Japanese Tea House by the Japanese Friendship garden. So we ate lunch there and then decided to tour the Friendship Garden. After that Kee was getting tired. So we decided to do the other museums later. On the way home we stopped by Mission Bay Park. Mission Bay Park has a million play structures and Keegan made friends with a little boy who took Keegan on a tour of every single one. After this Keegan was *really* tired and it was time to come back and take nap.
This afternoon we went out to Coronado Island. We had a good dinner and then walked down Coronado beach to big Hotel Del Coronado. Then we walked up and down Orange Ave and got some frozen yogurt. There are some really beautiful houses out here and the beach was absolutely amazing! Then back home and too bed (for Keegan at least).
Tomorrow the plan is to hit Balboa park first thing and tour the Rueben Fleet Science Museum and the Model Railroad Museum and maybe a couple other places. We'll see how it all works out.
So far vacation has been wonderful :-) Keegan makes so many friends with everyone he meets!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
San Diego - getting there
Getting to San Diego went pretty well. Keegan was wonderful at the airport and loved watching the planes. He had a mini melt down when daddy got on the plane before us to put the carseat in. He didn't want daddy to leave him. Then we were shortly on the plane and they asked Keegan if he wanted to go up and visit the pilot in the cockpit. How cool is that? So Kee and I went up there and they let him look at all the neat buttons and even made some lights flash for him; he even got a pair of wings :-) Keegan didn't know what to say. He just sat there with his mouth hanging open.
The plane ride went well too. He slept for about an hour then spent 40 minutes watching the DVD player. Then he played peek-a-boo with a teenage girl sitting in front of us for 20 minutes. She was bored and thought he was cute; so thank God for bored teenage girls. Then we turned the lights on and off for 10 minutes, read the Hungry Caterpillar I think 10 times. By this time we were sweating it cause we hit turbulence and everyone had to sit down. As Keegan got strapped into his carseat, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and his chin quivering and said "Mama, I am all done. I wanna' go home!" Well that made me feel like a real heel...
When we got there we had to collect luggage; Keegan and I went and checked out some of the local sculpture in the airport while daddy waited. Then we had to take a shuttle to the rental car place. The rental car place was horrible. We waited in line for almost an hour. I stood out with the luggage and Keegan ran back and forth between Lyle and me. All was well until a plane came in to land; the planes come right over the car rental place and were really loud. I thought it was kind of cool; but it scared the stuffing out of Keegan. He wouldn't come outside to stand with me after that; thank goodness Lyle was up to the rental counter by then.
We got to our townhouse without much issue. The townhouse is fine. It's a little noisy cause we are near a major road; but it quieted down around 10pm last night. It has a nice outdoor patio area and a computer which I am currently typing on.
This morning we walked down to the beach/playground. Keegan had a great time swimming and then spent 20 minutes trying to get the sand from the beach back into the ocean. After that we chased pigeons. I kid you not, Keegan was determined to catch a pigeon. This ended when Keegan tripped and scrapped his elbow and said "The birdie run away" in a very dejected tone. Then we met two doggies on a walk with their owner and Keegan played with them for a while. Then on the way back we ran into a lady walking her two greyhounds. So we talked to her for awhile. She commented on how great Keegan was with the the dogs and what a happy boy he is :-)
Then back to the house to pack things up. We drove to Target to get some stuff and then it was over to Sea World for some fun. This Sea World wasn't as big or impressive as the one in Orlando; it had a nice play area for kids though. Keegan got scared in the shark encounters exhibit and then when we went to go into the Sesame Street Live theater he lost his mind. He said "no, no, no, it's dark. I don't wanna' do it." As his protest started to escalate to higher and higher volumes we decided to leave. After all Lyle and I didn't really care about watching Elmo anyway. So it was off to the play area. Keegan really wanted to run through the punching bag maze but he was too short; this resulted in another meltdown (making me wonder where the happy boy from the morning went). So we left and came back to the house. Keegan should be sleeping as I type.
So far so good. The weather is wonderful. It's been cloudy but it was 60oF when we woke up and climbed to around 70oF. Way nicer than the weather we left :-)
The plane ride went well too. He slept for about an hour then spent 40 minutes watching the DVD player. Then he played peek-a-boo with a teenage girl sitting in front of us for 20 minutes. She was bored and thought he was cute; so thank God for bored teenage girls. Then we turned the lights on and off for 10 minutes, read the Hungry Caterpillar I think 10 times. By this time we were sweating it cause we hit turbulence and everyone had to sit down. As Keegan got strapped into his carseat, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and his chin quivering and said "Mama, I am all done. I wanna' go home!" Well that made me feel like a real heel...
When we got there we had to collect luggage; Keegan and I went and checked out some of the local sculpture in the airport while daddy waited. Then we had to take a shuttle to the rental car place. The rental car place was horrible. We waited in line for almost an hour. I stood out with the luggage and Keegan ran back and forth between Lyle and me. All was well until a plane came in to land; the planes come right over the car rental place and were really loud. I thought it was kind of cool; but it scared the stuffing out of Keegan. He wouldn't come outside to stand with me after that; thank goodness Lyle was up to the rental counter by then.
We got to our townhouse without much issue. The townhouse is fine. It's a little noisy cause we are near a major road; but it quieted down around 10pm last night. It has a nice outdoor patio area and a computer which I am currently typing on.
This morning we walked down to the beach/playground. Keegan had a great time swimming and then spent 20 minutes trying to get the sand from the beach back into the ocean. After that we chased pigeons. I kid you not, Keegan was determined to catch a pigeon. This ended when Keegan tripped and scrapped his elbow and said "The birdie run away" in a very dejected tone. Then we met two doggies on a walk with their owner and Keegan played with them for a while. Then on the way back we ran into a lady walking her two greyhounds. So we talked to her for awhile. She commented on how great Keegan was with the the dogs and what a happy boy he is :-)
Then back to the house to pack things up. We drove to Target to get some stuff and then it was over to Sea World for some fun. This Sea World wasn't as big or impressive as the one in Orlando; it had a nice play area for kids though. Keegan got scared in the shark encounters exhibit and then when we went to go into the Sesame Street Live theater he lost his mind. He said "no, no, no, it's dark. I don't wanna' do it." As his protest started to escalate to higher and higher volumes we decided to leave. After all Lyle and I didn't really care about watching Elmo anyway. So it was off to the play area. Keegan really wanted to run through the punching bag maze but he was too short; this resulted in another meltdown (making me wonder where the happy boy from the morning went). So we left and came back to the house. Keegan should be sleeping as I type.
So far so good. The weather is wonderful. It's been cloudy but it was 60oF when we woke up and climbed to around 70oF. Way nicer than the weather we left :-)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Almost time...
It's almost time to go on vacation. I am really looking forward to it...kind of.
Okay let's back up for a second. Keegan turned 2 yrs old on Feb. 6th. We had the grandparents over for a little party. We decided not to do a bigger one because; well I have enough on my plate getting ready for our vacation and we really, really don't need anymore toys around the house. Also, Keegan really doesn't care right now and I bet in a couple years he really will care.
So back to the vacation. Anyone notice how stressful it is to get ready for a vacation? First there's the work stuff; I need to make sure everything is wrapped up at work and all my results are updated.
Then there's the planning part. Do we have tickets for everything? What do we want to see while we are there? The mail needs to be stopped. Need to make sure the dog is packed up and ready to stay at my parents' house. Then there is the packing....
Packing is the worst for me. With a toddler we need to pack a lot of stuff. We need a carseat, a stroller, a booster seat (since we are renting a townhouse), and a place for him to sleep. This is in addition to clothing, beach stuff, toiletries, toys, snacks, etc. We need to pack it all so that we can get it from point A to point B. God forbid we forget anything. I mean it's not like we are going to the moon, we can buy stuff there but it is just overwhelming. I mean what if we forget Blue Blankie? Blue Blankie is essential to Keegan's happiness. What if we forget the pacifiers or medication or who knows what else?
Lyle tries to help with packing. In fact he is in charge of electronics (camera, DVD player, PSP, phone chargers etc). So he takes care of that. Unfortunately I take over the rest of it. Inevitably I am awake all night the night before we leave going over what is packed over and over and over in my head. And...inevitably we will get to San Diego and be unpacking and Lyle will say "Where is the ___, did you pack it?" and the answer will be no. I forgot flip-flops or a belt or socks or something else.
Then there is getting through security at the airport. Anyone who has taken a toddler through security is with me on this one. I have to take off my shoes, Keegan's shoes, my jacket, Keegan's jacket, put the infant tylenol into a ziploc baggy, make sure Keegan doesn't run off. While I do this Lyle lugs the carseat onto the xray machine and unpacks the laptop, the camera, and the PSP. We get to the front of the line. The carseat won't fit in this x-ray machine. We need to go to the other one over there. We pick up everything and waddle over to the next x-ray machine. I wonder how my body can carry everything it is carrying; I wonder what I am leaving behind....
Then we get on the airplane. Lyle runs on to install the carseat, while I try to run out Keegan's energy while keeping an ear out for the last call to board the plane. Then there is trying to explain to Keegan what we are doing, trying to distract him, feed him, keep him as happy as we can for 3.5 hours. Praying the whole time that their won't be a major toddler melt down.
All that is the worst of it. Everything *should* be okay once we get there. Then it will just be struggling to fit in regular naps and meals and keeping everyone well rested and happy.
Should a vacation be this stressful? Probably not. I kind of wig out about all of this stuff and I will try to calm down. But until we get there I know I will be packing everything in my mind to make sure I have it all right, I will be trying to second guess Keegan's airplane mood, I will be praying no one gets sick, and hoping that we don't get delayed.
So am I looking forward to vacation? Yes and no...I try to keep in mind that this is just another life adventure and that we should approach it with a sense of fun :-)
Okay let's back up for a second. Keegan turned 2 yrs old on Feb. 6th. We had the grandparents over for a little party. We decided not to do a bigger one because; well I have enough on my plate getting ready for our vacation and we really, really don't need anymore toys around the house. Also, Keegan really doesn't care right now and I bet in a couple years he really will care.
So back to the vacation. Anyone notice how stressful it is to get ready for a vacation? First there's the work stuff; I need to make sure everything is wrapped up at work and all my results are updated.
Then there's the planning part. Do we have tickets for everything? What do we want to see while we are there? The mail needs to be stopped. Need to make sure the dog is packed up and ready to stay at my parents' house. Then there is the packing....
Packing is the worst for me. With a toddler we need to pack a lot of stuff. We need a carseat, a stroller, a booster seat (since we are renting a townhouse), and a place for him to sleep. This is in addition to clothing, beach stuff, toiletries, toys, snacks, etc. We need to pack it all so that we can get it from point A to point B. God forbid we forget anything. I mean it's not like we are going to the moon, we can buy stuff there but it is just overwhelming. I mean what if we forget Blue Blankie? Blue Blankie is essential to Keegan's happiness. What if we forget the pacifiers or medication or who knows what else?
Lyle tries to help with packing. In fact he is in charge of electronics (camera, DVD player, PSP, phone chargers etc). So he takes care of that. Unfortunately I take over the rest of it. Inevitably I am awake all night the night before we leave going over what is packed over and over and over in my head. And...inevitably we will get to San Diego and be unpacking and Lyle will say "Where is the ___, did you pack it?" and the answer will be no. I forgot flip-flops or a belt or socks or something else.
Then there is getting through security at the airport. Anyone who has taken a toddler through security is with me on this one. I have to take off my shoes, Keegan's shoes, my jacket, Keegan's jacket, put the infant tylenol into a ziploc baggy, make sure Keegan doesn't run off. While I do this Lyle lugs the carseat onto the xray machine and unpacks the laptop, the camera, and the PSP. We get to the front of the line. The carseat won't fit in this x-ray machine. We need to go to the other one over there. We pick up everything and waddle over to the next x-ray machine. I wonder how my body can carry everything it is carrying; I wonder what I am leaving behind....
Then we get on the airplane. Lyle runs on to install the carseat, while I try to run out Keegan's energy while keeping an ear out for the last call to board the plane. Then there is trying to explain to Keegan what we are doing, trying to distract him, feed him, keep him as happy as we can for 3.5 hours. Praying the whole time that their won't be a major toddler melt down.
All that is the worst of it. Everything *should* be okay once we get there. Then it will just be struggling to fit in regular naps and meals and keeping everyone well rested and happy.
Should a vacation be this stressful? Probably not. I kind of wig out about all of this stuff and I will try to calm down. But until we get there I know I will be packing everything in my mind to make sure I have it all right, I will be trying to second guess Keegan's airplane mood, I will be praying no one gets sick, and hoping that we don't get delayed.
So am I looking forward to vacation? Yes and no...I try to keep in mind that this is just another life adventure and that we should approach it with a sense of fun :-)
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Hockey Obsessions Continued
So we were thinking that maybe this hockey thing would get old for Keegan. Apparently not, it is still his favorite pastime. We have been trying to take him out ice skating and play hockey indoors and out when we can. Apparently though we have failed him in the most important of hockey essentials...that of equipment.
A couple of weeks ago Keegan walked out of the Mudroom with his version of a hockey helmet.
Yes folks he has a dog muzzle on his head. I did not even know you could do that with a muzzle go figure he's so creative.
We also failed to provide him with hockey gloves. So daddy's gloves worked very well as a substitute.
Then there was another attempt to find the perfect hockey helmet to portray his outgoing and crazy personality. Take this Backstrom your helmet has nothing on our boy's.
Try as I might to fight my future as a hockey mom, with each passing month my fate grows more and more certain. Keegan loves shooting baskets, he loves kicking the soccer ball, he talks about how he loves his swimming lessons, but nothing...absolutely nothing is as cool as hockey. So, for his birthday, this Saturday we are taking him to another Gopher Women's Hockey game. Hey, if you can't win you mine as well have fun being sucked into the time void known as hockey. Keegan has been asking to ice skate all the time; so maybe skating lessons will be in order in another year we will see. Maybe we have the next Gretzky on our hands here...or maybe (I'll keep telling myself this) he will outgrow it :-)
A couple of weeks ago Keegan walked out of the Mudroom with his version of a hockey helmet.
Yes folks he has a dog muzzle on his head. I did not even know you could do that with a muzzle go figure he's so creative.
We also failed to provide him with hockey gloves. So daddy's gloves worked very well as a substitute.
Then there was another attempt to find the perfect hockey helmet to portray his outgoing and crazy personality. Take this Backstrom your helmet has nothing on our boy's.
Try as I might to fight my future as a hockey mom, with each passing month my fate grows more and more certain. Keegan loves shooting baskets, he loves kicking the soccer ball, he talks about how he loves his swimming lessons, but nothing...absolutely nothing is as cool as hockey. So, for his birthday, this Saturday we are taking him to another Gopher Women's Hockey game. Hey, if you can't win you mine as well have fun being sucked into the time void known as hockey. Keegan has been asking to ice skate all the time; so maybe skating lessons will be in order in another year we will see. Maybe we have the next Gretzky on our hands here...or maybe (I'll keep telling myself this) he will outgrow it :-)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Lasting memories.... Future NHLer? or maybe a Swimming gold medalist?
First off the NHL part. I was reading an article about Cal Clutterbuck who plays for the Wild. I thought it was interesting in two parts....
Ok, now for the memories. Karissa and I were hanging around the house on Sunday, and talking about going swimming. Keegan's swimming lessons are in the afternoon, and while asking him if he wanted to go swimming, he asked if Auntie Kimmie would be there. We explained for about the billionth time that Kim is very far away, and that he would see her again much later. But every once in a while he brings up Kim and asks about her. So Kim if you read this, you are not forgotten :). This kind of surprised me since Kim was here for about a week during Christmas and New Years, and though he spent a lot of time with her, I didn't think he would be asking a month later where she is. I am glad that he likes his aunt though.
Also at swimming Keegan was excited the moment that the teacher said that they would be doing "Jack be Nimbles" during class. This is basically a large styrofoam platform that they run from one side to the other and jump in the pool when you reach the jumped over the candle stick part of the rhyme. He remembered this from the last time he was swimming, and that was like a year ago. I am constantly amazed at his memory. Anyway he did really big jumps into the pool, I think his butt was almost touching the platform at the low part of his jump. The teacher was very impressed, and shouted over to me that he does so good in class. Considering he is the only one of the three kids in his class that will actually do a backfloat without us having to hold his ears in the water, it shouldn't be a surprise that he is a teachers favorite.
Either way Hockey and Swimming both seem to be pretty high on his list of things to do. Sadly swimming is not as easy to do at home. He tries to do some swimming in the bath tub, but we really don't fill it full enough for that :).
In fact, Jocelyne, while pregnant with Clutterbuck's now-18-year-old sister, Megan, used to play goal as 2-year-old Cal practiced shooting. "So Megan's blocked the odd shot, too," quipped Tim Clutterbuck.Sounds familiar around our house. Thought that it was kind of funny, of course Keegan isn't quite two yet, he is pretty close, he has gotten quite a bit of time shooting, and being goalie around the house. The article also mentioned that Cal started skating around 2, which Keegan has done once, and I am hoping to get him out again this weekend if it is nice out. Karissa and I were talking about taking him for his first outdoor experience, and I thought I might bring his hockey stick along.... and his helmet ;). I doubt that he would be able to skate and play hockey, but we might get some boot hockey time in if he wants to.
Ok, now for the memories. Karissa and I were hanging around the house on Sunday, and talking about going swimming. Keegan's swimming lessons are in the afternoon, and while asking him if he wanted to go swimming, he asked if Auntie Kimmie would be there. We explained for about the billionth time that Kim is very far away, and that he would see her again much later. But every once in a while he brings up Kim and asks about her. So Kim if you read this, you are not forgotten :). This kind of surprised me since Kim was here for about a week during Christmas and New Years, and though he spent a lot of time with her, I didn't think he would be asking a month later where she is. I am glad that he likes his aunt though.
Also at swimming Keegan was excited the moment that the teacher said that they would be doing "Jack be Nimbles" during class. This is basically a large styrofoam platform that they run from one side to the other and jump in the pool when you reach the jumped over the candle stick part of the rhyme. He remembered this from the last time he was swimming, and that was like a year ago. I am constantly amazed at his memory. Anyway he did really big jumps into the pool, I think his butt was almost touching the platform at the low part of his jump. The teacher was very impressed, and shouted over to me that he does so good in class. Considering he is the only one of the three kids in his class that will actually do a backfloat without us having to hold his ears in the water, it shouldn't be a surprise that he is a teachers favorite.
Either way Hockey and Swimming both seem to be pretty high on his list of things to do. Sadly swimming is not as easy to do at home. He tries to do some swimming in the bath tub, but we really don't fill it full enough for that :).
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Imagination begins...
Keegan is getting really big into imagining things. He likes to imagine things scare him, or imagine he is a doctor, or imagine that he is pretend eating.
This weekend he came walking out with his safety goggles on (from his Black and Decker workbench) and a stethoscope (from his vet hospital kit). I am not sure what the goggles had to do with the stethoscope but I guess if you are a vet things can sure get messy. He walked up to me and "Mama, I listen to kitty's heart." Then he proceeded to chase the cat around yelling at the top of his lungs "Kitty hold still, won't hurt." I don't think he ever did catch the cat.
Then yesterday on the way home from daycare he started making funny munching noises in his carseat. He loudly stated, "Keegan is eating, now mama's turn to eat." So then I made munching noises and he liked that. Then it was daddy's turn to eat. So daddy made munching noises. To which Keegan exclaimed "Silly daddy!"
This morning (at 6:15am) we were getting ready to leave for daycare. Keegan ran and got his hockey stick. "Let's play hockey, dada!" Daddy told him we had to go to daycare. "Bring hockey stick?" Keegan inquired. It's a small hockey stick so I didn't really care one way or another but Lyle said "I think you need to leave that at home." To which Keegan replied, "But I Neeeed it daddy I really neeeeed it." Sometimes it is so hard not to laugh when your kid is disobeying you.
The at dinner tonight I was trying to convince Keegan to eat some black beans. Getting him to eat veggies is nearly impossible so we usually focus on fruits because he loves all fruits. I was trying to cajole him into eating those beans when suddenly he screamed at the top of his lungs and grasped his hands to his heart and exclaimed; "Mama, the beans are scaring me. I can't eat them." I actually lost it this time and snuck into the kitchen so I could laugh...Lyle had to turn away for a few seconds too and giggle. How can you convince your kid to eat his beans when they are so darn scary!!!
So, the Keegan stories continue to get more and more fun and interesting. What a silly boy *he* is.
This weekend he came walking out with his safety goggles on (from his Black and Decker workbench) and a stethoscope (from his vet hospital kit). I am not sure what the goggles had to do with the stethoscope but I guess if you are a vet things can sure get messy. He walked up to me and "Mama, I listen to kitty's heart." Then he proceeded to chase the cat around yelling at the top of his lungs "Kitty hold still, won't hurt." I don't think he ever did catch the cat.
Then yesterday on the way home from daycare he started making funny munching noises in his carseat. He loudly stated, "Keegan is eating, now mama's turn to eat." So then I made munching noises and he liked that. Then it was daddy's turn to eat. So daddy made munching noises. To which Keegan exclaimed "Silly daddy!"
This morning (at 6:15am) we were getting ready to leave for daycare. Keegan ran and got his hockey stick. "Let's play hockey, dada!" Daddy told him we had to go to daycare. "Bring hockey stick?" Keegan inquired. It's a small hockey stick so I didn't really care one way or another but Lyle said "I think you need to leave that at home." To which Keegan replied, "But I Neeeed it daddy I really neeeeed it." Sometimes it is so hard not to laugh when your kid is disobeying you.
The at dinner tonight I was trying to convince Keegan to eat some black beans. Getting him to eat veggies is nearly impossible so we usually focus on fruits because he loves all fruits. I was trying to cajole him into eating those beans when suddenly he screamed at the top of his lungs and grasped his hands to his heart and exclaimed; "Mama, the beans are scaring me. I can't eat them." I actually lost it this time and snuck into the kitchen so I could laugh...Lyle had to turn away for a few seconds too and giggle. How can you convince your kid to eat his beans when they are so darn scary!!!
So, the Keegan stories continue to get more and more fun and interesting. What a silly boy *he* is.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A bird in my ear...
Okay so it's been a long time since I've posted anything, of course that doesn't mean nothing has been going on...quite the opposite actually.
Christmas was crazy and getting ready for Christmas was crazy. Lyle's half-sister Amber visited the weekend before Christmas and we haven't seen her for 8 years or so. Then my sister came in a few days before Christmas and we hung out with her. Of course we had to go to Lyle's parents' house, my grandparents' house and then to my parents house. As much as we love our family we were relieved to spend some time at home with just me, Keegan, and Lyle on New Years Day.
Christmas used to be my favorite holiday, but it just getting to be too much work and not enough fun! I suppose it is kind of a kid's holiday so as long as Keegan is having fun all is good. Keegan got a billion toys. We finally opened the last of the toys this last weekend. I am losing my mind trying to figure out where to put them all. Keegan doesn't know what to play with, he has so much stuff. Of course his birthday is coming up in a month so...we have to figure this toy thing out.
The good thing about Christmas is that no one was sick!!! In fact no one was sick for 6-8 weeks from mid-Nov until now. Yesterday Keegan had a fever of 103oF. On Sunday and Monday he kept telling me owie ear. We had swimming lessons on Sunday so I thought maybe he had water in his ear. Then Monday night his fever started and I thought "uh oh, betcha' he's got an ear infection coming on".
While we were waiting for the doctor last night, I jokingly asked him if he "had a bird in his ear". There was a Dr. Seuss book we'd been reading where the guy can't hear cause there's a bird in his ear.
To my surprise Keegan said "Yes! I have a bird in this ear (his right ear) but not this ear (his left ear)." When the doctor came in Keegan pointed to his right ear and said "I have a bird in my ear." The doctor looked at me quizzically and I explained where he had got that from. Then the doctor said she was going to use her scope to see if he *did* have a bird in his ear. He was pretty agreeable to that. He told her again he had a bird in his right ear.
The doctor looked in his left ear and no infection...then she looked in his right ear and he has a horrible ear infection going on. She told Keegan "Wow buddy you were right you *do* have a bird in your right ear." So we ran to the pharmacy to get some antibiotics for Keegan.
He didn't want to take the medicine, so I told him it would help to get the bird out of his ear. Then he said "Okay, get that bird out." and took his meds.
Really there is a point to this rather funny story. I put him down for nap today and I heard him say "Mama, I scared." over the monitor. He said it a few times so I went downstairs. He was pointing at the window. There is a bush outside the window and the sun was reflecting the shadow of it onto his curtains the wind was making it blow back and forth. I said "Keegan it's just a bush." Keegan "No, mama it's a bird and it'll get in my ear." It kind of did look like a bird. So I opened the curtains and showed him the bush. He was okay with it then. He settled down for his napping crumbling about how, "The bird hurt his ear and he wants it out."
On a positive note we now know that when Keegan has an ear infection he'll have a bird in his ear; so that should help us figure out what is going on. On the other hand Keegan is now convinced that a bird is going to get into his ear and is convinced that anything that looks like a bird is a threat. Well, what can you do. At least he is napping now that the scary bird is gone. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow so that mommy can go to work.
Christmas was crazy and getting ready for Christmas was crazy. Lyle's half-sister Amber visited the weekend before Christmas and we haven't seen her for 8 years or so. Then my sister came in a few days before Christmas and we hung out with her. Of course we had to go to Lyle's parents' house, my grandparents' house and then to my parents house. As much as we love our family we were relieved to spend some time at home with just me, Keegan, and Lyle on New Years Day.
Christmas used to be my favorite holiday, but it just getting to be too much work and not enough fun! I suppose it is kind of a kid's holiday so as long as Keegan is having fun all is good. Keegan got a billion toys. We finally opened the last of the toys this last weekend. I am losing my mind trying to figure out where to put them all. Keegan doesn't know what to play with, he has so much stuff. Of course his birthday is coming up in a month so...we have to figure this toy thing out.
The good thing about Christmas is that no one was sick!!! In fact no one was sick for 6-8 weeks from mid-Nov until now. Yesterday Keegan had a fever of 103oF. On Sunday and Monday he kept telling me owie ear. We had swimming lessons on Sunday so I thought maybe he had water in his ear. Then Monday night his fever started and I thought "uh oh, betcha' he's got an ear infection coming on".
While we were waiting for the doctor last night, I jokingly asked him if he "had a bird in his ear". There was a Dr. Seuss book we'd been reading where the guy can't hear cause there's a bird in his ear.
To my surprise Keegan said "Yes! I have a bird in this ear (his right ear) but not this ear (his left ear)." When the doctor came in Keegan pointed to his right ear and said "I have a bird in my ear." The doctor looked at me quizzically and I explained where he had got that from. Then the doctor said she was going to use her scope to see if he *did* have a bird in his ear. He was pretty agreeable to that. He told her again he had a bird in his right ear.
The doctor looked in his left ear and no infection...then she looked in his right ear and he has a horrible ear infection going on. She told Keegan "Wow buddy you were right you *do* have a bird in your right ear." So we ran to the pharmacy to get some antibiotics for Keegan.
He didn't want to take the medicine, so I told him it would help to get the bird out of his ear. Then he said "Okay, get that bird out." and took his meds.
Really there is a point to this rather funny story. I put him down for nap today and I heard him say "Mama, I scared." over the monitor. He said it a few times so I went downstairs. He was pointing at the window. There is a bush outside the window and the sun was reflecting the shadow of it onto his curtains the wind was making it blow back and forth. I said "Keegan it's just a bush." Keegan "No, mama it's a bird and it'll get in my ear." It kind of did look like a bird. So I opened the curtains and showed him the bush. He was okay with it then. He settled down for his napping crumbling about how, "The bird hurt his ear and he wants it out."
On a positive note we now know that when Keegan has an ear infection he'll have a bird in his ear; so that should help us figure out what is going on. On the other hand Keegan is now convinced that a bird is going to get into his ear and is convinced that anything that looks like a bird is a threat. Well, what can you do. At least he is napping now that the scary bird is gone. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow so that mommy can go to work.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Hockey Obsessions
Keegan likes hockey. He likes to watch it on TV; he yells "goal" and "Go Wild!" and "Yay, Hockey!!!" Then we took him to a Gopher women's hockey game. It was $8 a ticket, general admission. I figured we could probably sit right up against the glass and if Keegan hated it we could leave and not be out $400 in tickets (GO WILD). Below is a pic of Kee at the game.
Yes, he is wearing a Wild jersey, yes they do make hockey jerseys in 2T. Okay I guess that probably isn't that surprising. Keegan loved the game. He talked about it for weeks afterward. So finally we decided it was time to get him skates. We got him a pair of the cheapest skates we could find (the guy at the store tried talking us into $80 hockey skates for a toddler and that didn't fly). Last weekend it was time to go to open skate at the Super Rink and do some skating. See picture below.
Keegan was a little nervous about skating. He did okay. Then he wanted gma and gpa to hold him while he watched mommy and daddy skate. He really enjoyed that, he clapped for us and gave us high fives when we did laps; he liked it.
Despite his nervousness skating as we left the rink he proudly exclaimed "I PLAYED HOCKEY!!!!" He was convinced that he played hockey. He also said that Mommy played hockey, which I never knew I had done so I guess I am cooler than I know.
Okay, so fast-forward to this last week. Keegan proudly proclaims that those are "My hockey skates" every time he sees the box his skates are in. All of the sudden Lyle gets a glint in his eye and leaves, saying he'll be right back. In a few minutes Lyle is back with a broken hockey stick that he has cut down to Keegan size. OMG, Keegan flew through the roof. To our surprise he ran up and took it from Lyle exclaiming "My hockey stick!!!" We didn't know he knew what a hockey stick was.
Then he immediately got a ball and started knocking the "puck" around upstairs with his new hockey stick. He would intermittently yell "I score" and "GO WILD!". It was hilarious. See the video below.
Of course, he kept saying "I play hockey!" Then he wanted to take his hockey stick to bed with him. Now that's dedication. I think we are in trouble. I am trying to resign myself right now with spending many many hours watching hockey. I suppose he might outgrow it. Then again, he steals the remote when I put on Little Einsteins, and tries to find hockey. I am like "Keegan what are you doing?", he responds, "I watch hockey!" Yep, he could grow out of it. Just in case though, I did some research. He can join Mites at 4 years of age and he can start skating lessons in about a year. Until then he will have to live with his mini-hockey stick and open skating.
Although he is good at thinking outside the box. When we came out of Adventure Park today everything was covered in ice and the temperature had dropped considerably. As we slide our way to the car Keegan looked at me and very seriously said "Mama, I need my hockey skates!" I suppose they might have worked, but I don't think the ice was quite thick enough.
Yes, he is wearing a Wild jersey, yes they do make hockey jerseys in 2T. Okay I guess that probably isn't that surprising. Keegan loved the game. He talked about it for weeks afterward. So finally we decided it was time to get him skates. We got him a pair of the cheapest skates we could find (the guy at the store tried talking us into $80 hockey skates for a toddler and that didn't fly). Last weekend it was time to go to open skate at the Super Rink and do some skating. See picture below.
Keegan was a little nervous about skating. He did okay. Then he wanted gma and gpa to hold him while he watched mommy and daddy skate. He really enjoyed that, he clapped for us and gave us high fives when we did laps; he liked it.
Despite his nervousness skating as we left the rink he proudly exclaimed "I PLAYED HOCKEY!!!!" He was convinced that he played hockey. He also said that Mommy played hockey, which I never knew I had done so I guess I am cooler than I know.
Okay, so fast-forward to this last week. Keegan proudly proclaims that those are "My hockey skates" every time he sees the box his skates are in. All of the sudden Lyle gets a glint in his eye and leaves, saying he'll be right back. In a few minutes Lyle is back with a broken hockey stick that he has cut down to Keegan size. OMG, Keegan flew through the roof. To our surprise he ran up and took it from Lyle exclaiming "My hockey stick!!!" We didn't know he knew what a hockey stick was.
Then he immediately got a ball and started knocking the "puck" around upstairs with his new hockey stick. He would intermittently yell "I score" and "GO WILD!". It was hilarious. See the video below.
Of course, he kept saying "I play hockey!" Then he wanted to take his hockey stick to bed with him. Now that's dedication. I think we are in trouble. I am trying to resign myself right now with spending many many hours watching hockey. I suppose he might outgrow it. Then again, he steals the remote when I put on Little Einsteins, and tries to find hockey. I am like "Keegan what are you doing?", he responds, "I watch hockey!" Yep, he could grow out of it. Just in case though, I did some research. He can join Mites at 4 years of age and he can start skating lessons in about a year. Until then he will have to live with his mini-hockey stick and open skating.
Although he is good at thinking outside the box. When we came out of Adventure Park today everything was covered in ice and the temperature had dropped considerably. As we slide our way to the car Keegan looked at me and very seriously said "Mama, I need my hockey skates!" I suppose they might have worked, but I don't think the ice was quite thick enough.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Keeganisms
So Keegan has been coming up with a lot of interesting things:
A couple days ago I asked him how many Reeses Pieces he wanted. Keegan's response..."1, 2" he paused to think really hard..."YELLOW!"
Lyle said, "Can you say please, Keegan?" Keegan enthusiastically replied "Please Keegan!"
We now have letters going down the stairs and when I point to the M and ask Keegan what letter that is he says "Mama", when we point to the Q he says "eewwww".
Keegan and I were playing and waiting for Lyle to come home, my phone rang. When I picked up my phone to answer it, Keegan said "Mama, phone down!"
When Ruby had ripped up a piece of paper in the office Keegan ran in and started yelling at her "Bad, bad Ruby...Ruby no no no." Of course Ruby had no idea what he was talking about.
Tonight Keegan didn't want his broccoli, so he picked it out of his rice and laid it by my plate saying "KeeKee no broccoli, Ruby eat?" Guess Keegan thinks Ruby wants his broccoli.
Lastly Keegan ran through the house after Seras screaming at the top of his lungs "KITTY, KITTY, KITTY!" He finally ran up to me and looked confused and said "Mama, why kitty run away?" Geez, I wonder why the kitty ran away....
Well those are just a few of his funny talking moments, I will try to keep track of them as they present themselves.
A couple days ago I asked him how many Reeses Pieces he wanted. Keegan's response..."1, 2" he paused to think really hard..."YELLOW!"
Lyle said, "Can you say please, Keegan?" Keegan enthusiastically replied "Please Keegan!"
We now have letters going down the stairs and when I point to the M and ask Keegan what letter that is he says "Mama", when we point to the Q he says "eewwww".
Keegan and I were playing and waiting for Lyle to come home, my phone rang. When I picked up my phone to answer it, Keegan said "Mama, phone down!"
When Ruby had ripped up a piece of paper in the office Keegan ran in and started yelling at her "Bad, bad Ruby...Ruby no no no." Of course Ruby had no idea what he was talking about.
Tonight Keegan didn't want his broccoli, so he picked it out of his rice and laid it by my plate saying "KeeKee no broccoli, Ruby eat?" Guess Keegan thinks Ruby wants his broccoli.
Lastly Keegan ran through the house after Seras screaming at the top of his lungs "KITTY, KITTY, KITTY!" He finally ran up to me and looked confused and said "Mama, why kitty run away?" Geez, I wonder why the kitty ran away....
Well those are just a few of his funny talking moments, I will try to keep track of them as they present themselves.
Waiting for the Sky to Fall
Since Lyle and I have been married we have had good times and bad times. Initially we struggled financially to pay for our new house, wedding, etc. Then we went through a couple years where we lost a number of our animals to cancer, kidney failure, etc. These couple years really sucked; losing a pet is like losing a family member and it was a tough time to go through. This was followed by Lyle finishing his college degree at night. Shortly after (during) that I got really sick. I was sick for over a year, continuously losing weight and constantly nauseous, until they found out that my gallbladder was not working properly. So then I had to go through sugery for that. Then we built a new house, moved, and I got a new job. I absolutely hated my new job. I loved the people there but hated the job. Then suddenly after years of just trying to hold ourselves together, things improved...a lot.
Lyle started doing contracting, and with his new degree, he got paid really well. My old work called me and asked me to come back to my old job (which I loved). I started to feel better. The animals stayed healthy. We finished our basement, we tried to spend more time with friends, we took a great trip to the Mediterranean. Then I got pregnant. I had an excellent pregnancy and had a beautiful, healthy baby boy. Lyle and I started our own corporation; and Lyle started working though that. With Lyle making a great salary, I was able to start working part-time so that I could spend one day a week with Keegan.
To put it bluntly, the last couple years have been wonderful. Lyle has constant work, I like my work, Keegan is a smart healthy boy, the animals are healthy, I am getting to see my sister again, and our parents are healthy. It was been wonderful. Given the first few years of our marriage and all we went through (I am not saying it was horrible, people go through much much worse) I am beginning to cringe, just wondering when things will start to go wrong. I mentioned this to Lyle last night, he said not to curse us and not to worry so much.
Seriously though, can people have things go really well for a long time? I am waiting for Lyle's contract to fall through, for me to get laid off, for an animal to get deathly ill, for someone in the family to get deathly ill. For something bad to happen. I think the holiday season makes me a little paranoid, and especially Thanksgiving always makes me consider how much I have, how happy I am, and how much I have to loose. Why is it that the happier you get, the more you have to loose?
It's silly, but I can't shake the feeling that we've had it TOO good the last couple years. Of course, yesterday Lyle finds out his contract has been extended another year. On top of that his work place is moving to the campus that I work on. So now we can meet for lunch and carpool and all that jazz. Things are getting even better. How silly am I to be suspicious of all this goodness? I guess maybe I am more of a pessimist than I ever thought. I just keep my fingers crossed and hope that everything doesn't fall down at once. Our lives are so precarious and so easily destroyed, I will do my best to enjoy all the goodness and happiness while we have it.
Lyle started doing contracting, and with his new degree, he got paid really well. My old work called me and asked me to come back to my old job (which I loved). I started to feel better. The animals stayed healthy. We finished our basement, we tried to spend more time with friends, we took a great trip to the Mediterranean. Then I got pregnant. I had an excellent pregnancy and had a beautiful, healthy baby boy. Lyle and I started our own corporation; and Lyle started working though that. With Lyle making a great salary, I was able to start working part-time so that I could spend one day a week with Keegan.
To put it bluntly, the last couple years have been wonderful. Lyle has constant work, I like my work, Keegan is a smart healthy boy, the animals are healthy, I am getting to see my sister again, and our parents are healthy. It was been wonderful. Given the first few years of our marriage and all we went through (I am not saying it was horrible, people go through much much worse) I am beginning to cringe, just wondering when things will start to go wrong. I mentioned this to Lyle last night, he said not to curse us and not to worry so much.
Seriously though, can people have things go really well for a long time? I am waiting for Lyle's contract to fall through, for me to get laid off, for an animal to get deathly ill, for someone in the family to get deathly ill. For something bad to happen. I think the holiday season makes me a little paranoid, and especially Thanksgiving always makes me consider how much I have, how happy I am, and how much I have to loose. Why is it that the happier you get, the more you have to loose?
It's silly, but I can't shake the feeling that we've had it TOO good the last couple years. Of course, yesterday Lyle finds out his contract has been extended another year. On top of that his work place is moving to the campus that I work on. So now we can meet for lunch and carpool and all that jazz. Things are getting even better. How silly am I to be suspicious of all this goodness? I guess maybe I am more of a pessimist than I ever thought. I just keep my fingers crossed and hope that everything doesn't fall down at once. Our lives are so precarious and so easily destroyed, I will do my best to enjoy all the goodness and happiness while we have it.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Paperbackswap.com
So I ran across this site while looking for a new way to get rid of my paperbacks. I have been selling some on Amazon but with all of there fees I end up making like maybe $1 a book and I have to drive it to the post office. Half.com has a bit better deal because they don't charge fees, but books don't seem to move as fast there. I ran across a really cool site called paperbackswap.com. This is such a cool idea I don't know why I didn't look for something like this a long time ago.
So here's the deal. You sign up. When you post 10 books to the site you get 2 free credits. You can use any credit to order a book. When people request a book from you, you have 5 days to accept their request and promise to mail the book out. When you accept a request you print out a book wrapper that has the address on it, wrap the book up, and take it to the post office and mail it. You pay for media mail to ship it out, but you don't pay shipping for a book that you request from someone else. When the person who requested the book gets it from you, they check that they got it and then you get a book credit. Even cooler for an extra 40 cents a book you can print the postage out online and drop the book in your mailbox for pickup. The 40 cent fee goes towards site maintenance.
So now you are thinking...fine I pay $2.20 to ship out my book and get a credit. I go to use the credit and all of the books suck and I don't want any of them. Well there is so much circulation on this site I was able to find a ton of interesting books, and that's saying something considering how many books I've already read.
But, let's say you don't find any books (out of the 3 million on there) that you want to use your credit for. Well then you look up a book that you do want and put it on your wish list. When that book is posted to the system by someone you will get an e-mail giving you 48 hours to respond that you want it...or even cooler you can set up auto-accept and when the book is available it will automatically tell the person offering it to mail the book out to you. So basically you can get any book you want for $2.20.
What if a billion people want the book you want? I am like 400 something on the wishlist for a couple of the books I want. Amazingly in 2 days I've gone up 6 places. So that means I could have that book in a few months. Most of the books I am in the 30's; some of the more popular books I am in the 100's. I posted onto the forum about this wait time and got a lot of very nice responses saying that I would probably get a lot of my wishlisted books in a month or so.
This leads me to the other thing I wasn't expecting when I signed up...that's the community on this site. These are dedicated people. So far everyone I have shipped books out to (I've shipped around 35 books out) have been super nice about saying they received the book and sent me a nice thank you note. When I have posted on the forums; the people who responded were super helpful and nice. A couple of the ladies saw I was from MN and immediately invited me onto their Buddy lists so that we buddy swap. They also have a local MN chapter that meets every so often to swap in person so that no one has to pay postage.
When you sign up you not only get to use the wish list, but there's a reminder list (for books you are thinking about requesting), a TBR list (to be read list), I books I've read list, and you can convert books between these lists. Which is useful. They have a book recommendation engine, book journaling, and book reviews. If you have an allergy to smoke or cats you can put a condition in your request asking that the book not come from a house with those conditions. The sender then has to accept your conditions to send you the book. I have been super impressed with the nice people and the slickness of the site. I've been on it about a week and have 7 books that are in route to me. I should get the first of them tomorrow.
So right now I have 18 book credits accumulated and more are pouring in as people get the books I shipped out.
The biggest problem so far has been time. It takes a lot of time to wrap up and ship out that many books. I was joking with Lyle that paperbackswap.com was going to ruin our marriage as Lyle walked past rolling his eyes cause I was packing up 10 more books :-) Oh yeah that and spending $70 in postage this last week...but it will pay off in a couple months. Usually I won't be adding 50 books at a time to their system so that is kind of a one time problem. That and right now I am obsessed with how fast my wishlist requests are moving up the list; so I am constantly tracking that.
It's a pretty neat site and if you have some books to get rid of you get a better return on them than taking them to Half Price books. I still check them all to see if they will sell for anything on Amazon, but if they are only worth 10 cents then I put them up here. If you are interested in signing up let them know I told you about it...I'll get a free book credit for it and if you buddy up maybe we can post books to each other :-) All you need to do is give them my nickname (Ophelia99) or my email address: karissae@gmail.com
Once I start getting more books I'll update on how things are going. I have just been super excited about this. It's also really cool to be able to talk with so many people that are as voracious as I am about reading. Being a 4 book a week reader with this group of people is almost boring it's so normal :-)
So here's the deal. You sign up. When you post 10 books to the site you get 2 free credits. You can use any credit to order a book. When people request a book from you, you have 5 days to accept their request and promise to mail the book out. When you accept a request you print out a book wrapper that has the address on it, wrap the book up, and take it to the post office and mail it. You pay for media mail to ship it out, but you don't pay shipping for a book that you request from someone else. When the person who requested the book gets it from you, they check that they got it and then you get a book credit. Even cooler for an extra 40 cents a book you can print the postage out online and drop the book in your mailbox for pickup. The 40 cent fee goes towards site maintenance.
So now you are thinking...fine I pay $2.20 to ship out my book and get a credit. I go to use the credit and all of the books suck and I don't want any of them. Well there is so much circulation on this site I was able to find a ton of interesting books, and that's saying something considering how many books I've already read.
But, let's say you don't find any books (out of the 3 million on there) that you want to use your credit for. Well then you look up a book that you do want and put it on your wish list. When that book is posted to the system by someone you will get an e-mail giving you 48 hours to respond that you want it...or even cooler you can set up auto-accept and when the book is available it will automatically tell the person offering it to mail the book out to you. So basically you can get any book you want for $2.20.
What if a billion people want the book you want? I am like 400 something on the wishlist for a couple of the books I want. Amazingly in 2 days I've gone up 6 places. So that means I could have that book in a few months. Most of the books I am in the 30's; some of the more popular books I am in the 100's. I posted onto the forum about this wait time and got a lot of very nice responses saying that I would probably get a lot of my wishlisted books in a month or so.
This leads me to the other thing I wasn't expecting when I signed up...that's the community on this site. These are dedicated people. So far everyone I have shipped books out to (I've shipped around 35 books out) have been super nice about saying they received the book and sent me a nice thank you note. When I have posted on the forums; the people who responded were super helpful and nice. A couple of the ladies saw I was from MN and immediately invited me onto their Buddy lists so that we buddy swap. They also have a local MN chapter that meets every so often to swap in person so that no one has to pay postage.
When you sign up you not only get to use the wish list, but there's a reminder list (for books you are thinking about requesting), a TBR list (to be read list), I books I've read list, and you can convert books between these lists. Which is useful. They have a book recommendation engine, book journaling, and book reviews. If you have an allergy to smoke or cats you can put a condition in your request asking that the book not come from a house with those conditions. The sender then has to accept your conditions to send you the book. I have been super impressed with the nice people and the slickness of the site. I've been on it about a week and have 7 books that are in route to me. I should get the first of them tomorrow.
So right now I have 18 book credits accumulated and more are pouring in as people get the books I shipped out.
The biggest problem so far has been time. It takes a lot of time to wrap up and ship out that many books. I was joking with Lyle that paperbackswap.com was going to ruin our marriage as Lyle walked past rolling his eyes cause I was packing up 10 more books :-) Oh yeah that and spending $70 in postage this last week...but it will pay off in a couple months. Usually I won't be adding 50 books at a time to their system so that is kind of a one time problem. That and right now I am obsessed with how fast my wishlist requests are moving up the list; so I am constantly tracking that.
It's a pretty neat site and if you have some books to get rid of you get a better return on them than taking them to Half Price books. I still check them all to see if they will sell for anything on Amazon, but if they are only worth 10 cents then I put them up here. If you are interested in signing up let them know I told you about it...I'll get a free book credit for it and if you buddy up maybe we can post books to each other :-) All you need to do is give them my nickname (Ophelia99) or my email address: karissae@gmail.com
Once I start getting more books I'll update on how things are going. I have just been super excited about this. It's also really cool to be able to talk with so many people that are as voracious as I am about reading. Being a 4 book a week reader with this group of people is almost boring it's so normal :-)
Keeping up with the Keegan
As I mentioned Keegan has been learning a lot of new words. He has been saying a lot of sentences. I mean a lot. He learns so many new things everyday; I just can't keep up. So this is my blog entry to brag about all the new things Keegan is saying and doing.
There's a lot of:
"Mama, I climbed up."
"Mama, I did it."
"Mama, I fall down."
"Kitty, get down."
"Mama's boots?"
"Mama's shoes?"
"Mama, lights on?"
"I broke it."
"I fixed it!"
and of course the new favorite...
"I love you!" Usually accompanied by a hug.
I took out my trumpet a couple of days ago for Keegan to see and we played with it some. He pushed the keys while I blew through it. Then the next day he ran out and drug the case across the room to me and said "Mama's trumpet out?" I was so surprised he could remember that they was a trumpet in there, much less the word trumpet.
Keegan has also started saying his alphabet. He can get to about E. He also knows a lot of sounds the letters make. He knows O and that is goes "ooo" and M and that it goes "mmmm". He is starting to count too. Although he has a preference for certain numbers, 5 and 9 seem to be his favorite. So he counts 1, 2, 3, 5, 9. We're working on it...
Keegan and I used to slide down the stairs and say "boom" for each step. Well now Keegan and Lyle have started saying letters for each step, "A,B", "C,D", etc. Lyle thought yesterday that we should write the letters down and tape them by the steps that they are said at. So we did. It looks a bit odd having our steps labeled with letters (2 letters per step mind you). But Keegan loved it, he ran up and down the steps pointing out letters and saying what he thought they were...he was right maybe 50% of the time :-)
Anyway, these are just a few examples of how quickly he is learning. I already thought he was picking things up pretty fast but lately the pace has been incredibly fast. He has his colors down 100%. Although his favorite has switched to green. So when you say "What color is that?" he says "green". Then you say "I know you like green but what color is it really?" And he'll say "Purple!" He's usually right the second time through, if not the first.
He has also been helping to pick out dinner some nights. Although last night he said "yeah" to so many different things that Lyle finally asked him if he wanted to eat crackers with poop on them. When Keegan enthusiastically said "Yeah!" Lyle just shook his head and decided that Keegan just wanted to eat :-)
There's a lot of:
"Mama, I climbed up."
"Mama, I did it."
"Mama, I fall down."
"Kitty, get down."
"Mama's boots?"
"Mama's shoes?"
"Mama, lights on?"
"I broke it."
"I fixed it!"
and of course the new favorite...
"I love you!" Usually accompanied by a hug.
I took out my trumpet a couple of days ago for Keegan to see and we played with it some. He pushed the keys while I blew through it. Then the next day he ran out and drug the case across the room to me and said "Mama's trumpet out?" I was so surprised he could remember that they was a trumpet in there, much less the word trumpet.
Keegan has also started saying his alphabet. He can get to about E. He also knows a lot of sounds the letters make. He knows O and that is goes "ooo" and M and that it goes "mmmm". He is starting to count too. Although he has a preference for certain numbers, 5 and 9 seem to be his favorite. So he counts 1, 2, 3, 5, 9. We're working on it...
Keegan and I used to slide down the stairs and say "boom" for each step. Well now Keegan and Lyle have started saying letters for each step, "A,B", "C,D", etc. Lyle thought yesterday that we should write the letters down and tape them by the steps that they are said at. So we did. It looks a bit odd having our steps labeled with letters (2 letters per step mind you). But Keegan loved it, he ran up and down the steps pointing out letters and saying what he thought they were...he was right maybe 50% of the time :-)
Anyway, these are just a few examples of how quickly he is learning. I already thought he was picking things up pretty fast but lately the pace has been incredibly fast. He has his colors down 100%. Although his favorite has switched to green. So when you say "What color is that?" he says "green". Then you say "I know you like green but what color is it really?" And he'll say "Purple!" He's usually right the second time through, if not the first.
He has also been helping to pick out dinner some nights. Although last night he said "yeah" to so many different things that Lyle finally asked him if he wanted to eat crackers with poop on them. When Keegan enthusiastically said "Yeah!" Lyle just shook his head and decided that Keegan just wanted to eat :-)
Sunday, November 09, 2008
When puddles attack...
Apparently nobody explained to Keegan what happens when you try to jump in a puddle and it is cold outside. Guess we didn't realize it was quite that cold out yet. Let me set the scene here...we are crossing into the parking lot. Keegan screams "Puddle!" and darts to the puddle two feet in front of us. Lyle and I both lurch towards him yelling "NO!" It's too late though, Keegan is in mid jump and jumps straight on the puddle. Too late, Keegan learns what ice is. He lands, his feet fly straight out in front of him, and "BOOM". Luckily he landed on his butt and caught himself with his hands so he didn't hit his head. But it scared the stuffing out of him and he had such a hurt look of betrayal on his face as we picked him up it broke my heart. He started crying saying "Puddle owie fall down " He could not believe that one of his beloved puddles caused him an owie. It was a betrayal of nature itself. It was a betrayal he forgot the moment he saw the DO NOT ENTER sign and yelled "BALL!!!" because the do not enter sign has symbols on it that look somewhat like a ball.
In addition to this we also found out how much fun escalators are today. The only reason we went to Rosedale Mall was to walk around and let Keegan play in the play area there. So he dictated our path through the mall. This entailed riding the escalator up and down and up and down. Then we had to go to Abercrombie and Fitch where he shakes his booty to the music and tries to pick the nose of the giant guy in the picture there. Before this on the way through Macy's we had to touch each of the mannequins' legs to see if they were real. On the way out of Macy's some guy was looking at sweaters next to the mannequins. Imagine both the man's (and Keegan's surprise) when Keegan tried to pinch the "mannequin's" leg and the mannequin jumped a bit and said "oh". Keegan gave me a look like "Hey mom, that mannequin moved" I tried to explain to him that not everyone that stands in the aisle is a mannequin, but what can you do?
What an exciting day it was. BTW, did you know there is a large fountain in the back of Coldwater Creek? Well there is. Keegan knows it, can sense it, and did not ever want to leave it.
In addition to this we also found out how much fun escalators are today. The only reason we went to Rosedale Mall was to walk around and let Keegan play in the play area there. So he dictated our path through the mall. This entailed riding the escalator up and down and up and down. Then we had to go to Abercrombie and Fitch where he shakes his booty to the music and tries to pick the nose of the giant guy in the picture there. Before this on the way through Macy's we had to touch each of the mannequins' legs to see if they were real. On the way out of Macy's some guy was looking at sweaters next to the mannequins. Imagine both the man's (and Keegan's surprise) when Keegan tried to pinch the "mannequin's" leg and the mannequin jumped a bit and said "oh". Keegan gave me a look like "Hey mom, that mannequin moved" I tried to explain to him that not everyone that stands in the aisle is a mannequin, but what can you do?
What an exciting day it was. BTW, did you know there is a large fountain in the back of Coldwater Creek? Well there is. Keegan knows it, can sense it, and did not ever want to leave it.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Halloween has come and gone!
Keegan had a great time trick or treating. He didn't quite get saying "trick or treat" but he was very polite and said "thank you!" after receiving treats. He was super cute in his costume. He wouldn't wear his hood so we painted his hair to look like a dragon; see picture below.
He collected lots of candy and everyone thought he was really cute. At one point when he walked up the guy started to give him a handful of candy and then said "Boy, you are so darn cute you deserve some of the good stuff!" The guy ran and got Keegan a king size box of Reeses pieces; I was thinking "Oh, great like we need that!"
At one point Kee was really scared of these two older girls dressed up as monsters. He wouldn't go up to the door until they left. Then after all that excitement we had to get ready for the party the next day.
The party went well! It started at 4pm but I don't think people realized that we started it earlier this year. The first people to show up were my parents who showed up around 5pm and then Carlos came with his girls. After that point people gradually started to show up. We had lots of fun; Liam and Keegan had a heck of a good time together. Below is a video of them playing together with the laser pointer; and you thought laser pointers were just for cats!
The rest of the pictures from the Halloween Party can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/UtherPup/2008OctoberHalloweenParty#
It ended up being a good time. And despite all of the hard work it takes to get that party set up, we were glad we did it because people seemed to be having a good time.
So now it's on to other things...like Christmas!
He collected lots of candy and everyone thought he was really cute. At one point when he walked up the guy started to give him a handful of candy and then said "Boy, you are so darn cute you deserve some of the good stuff!" The guy ran and got Keegan a king size box of Reeses pieces; I was thinking "Oh, great like we need that!"
At one point Kee was really scared of these two older girls dressed up as monsters. He wouldn't go up to the door until they left. Then after all that excitement we had to get ready for the party the next day.
The party went well! It started at 4pm but I don't think people realized that we started it earlier this year. The first people to show up were my parents who showed up around 5pm and then Carlos came with his girls. After that point people gradually started to show up. We had lots of fun; Liam and Keegan had a heck of a good time together. Below is a video of them playing together with the laser pointer; and you thought laser pointers were just for cats!
The rest of the pictures from the Halloween Party can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/UtherPup/2008OctoberHalloweenParty#
It ended up being a good time. And despite all of the hard work it takes to get that party set up, we were glad we did it because people seemed to be having a good time.
So now it's on to other things...like Christmas!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
A Boy and His Pumpkin
On Sunday we carved Keegan's pumpkin. Lyle cut the top off and I cleaned it out. Keegan helped with the design by letting me know what shape eyes, nose, and mouth he wanted. Then I started carving the pumpkin, Keegan had a safety knife and pretended to help cut it while I carved in the faces. Lyle had to finish carving it because my arm got tired, it was a really thick pumpkin.
Then we put a candle in it and turned off the lights. There was a lot of "oohhing" and "Awwwing" from Keegan. He really enjoyed seeing the pumpkin lite up. We left it sitting on the coffee table.
When Keegan got home from daycare on Monday he ran up and gave his pumpkin a big hug and a kiss. Not sure why, but it was pretty funny. Then he said, "Mama, fire, pumpkin" He wanted me to light the pumpkin. So I lit it for him. It was really cute, he kept trying to blow out the candle. Unfortunately he would line his eyes up to the pumpkins eyes and then when he went to blow out the candle he didn't blow inside the pumpkin but into the side of the pumpkin's outside. A couple times he backed up from the pumpkin and waved at it saying "Hi". He was a bit disappointed when the pumpkin didn't respond.
All in all it was a good time. Although I am a little worried about what will happen when we have to throw out the pumpkin because Kee seems to think the pumpkin is a good buddy of his now. See below video and picture for the interaction and the finished product!
We also got a small pumpkin that Keegan could carry. That pumpkin has been getting rides in Keegan's dump truck, he thinks it is the coolest thing ever. What can we learn from this? Well, the love a toddler has for his jack-o-latern is boundless and knows no bounds, even if the jack-o-latern doesn't wave back :-)
Monday, October 13, 2008
Keegan's First Parent Teacher Conference
Keegan had his first parents teacher conference tonight. So after dinner we packed everyone up and drove back to Tutor Time to meet his teacher Sarah.
Sarah has only been Keegan's teacher for a few weeks; his last teacher left and got a new job. I liked Sarah pretty well right away. She introduced herself to me right off the bat and explained how long she had been with Tutor Time (she transferred from a different site)and that she had done infants and pre-K for the last 6 years and was excited to switch to toddler. Keegan seems to like her too, which is what I really care about. Still it was nice to have a teacher actually introduce themselves to you :-) Some of the girls there don't do that very well; although they are really good with the kids.
While Keegan dismantled the Toddler 1 room (absolutely thrilled to have the whole room by himself), we stood and talked with Sarah. She had a checklist of things that Keegan was doing well. He's somewhat ahead in gross motor skills as he can jump now and climb. He also is doing good in fine motor skills (like drawing) and self help skills (like eating with a spoon). He does great with staking blocks (he can stack up to 8 blocks now). She said Keegan was very good at following simple instructions and also was good at sitting still during story time.
The area that Sarah was really impressed with was his language skills. She said that she was absolutely amazed at how much he talks, how many words he knows, and how he is saying three to four word sentences already. I explained that we read a lot together so maybe that helps. She went on for a few minutes about how great this was and how smart he is and how happy we should be. I really didn't know what to say. So I thanked her and said it was good to know that he is so advanced for talking, I mentioned maybe he got all that talking tendency from me :-)
It is good to know that he is so far ahead in speaking ability. We kind of got a hint of that because of our co-workers and how amazed they are at the things we mention Keegan saying. Right now Keegan is picking up words at an amazing pace, I think I hear him say a couple new words each day. This weekend he walked up and pointed to my eyes and said "Mama, sparkly eyes?" He wanted to know why my eyelids sparkled; I tried explained the concept of eye shadow to him. I think he still thinks I am a bit strange for making my eyelids sparkle.
Sarah also said that he plays fine with kids his age and interacts well with adults. When he gets put with bigger kids though he tends to get overwhelmed and stay out of their way, preferring to play by himself. I asked her about this specifically because I have noticed that he does tend to find older kids overwhelming. They are too erratic and noisy for him; he tends to get a bit clingy or just very quiet and wide-eyed.
Overall Sarah says he is a laid-back, very pleasant kid to have around. She said it really was a joy to have him there. Of course, I am happy to hear it because he's my son and I would like to think that I somehow influenced him to behave well! Oh, and of course it's always nice for people to like your child :-)
Lyle and I were discussing how the teacher probably says this to every parent. Sarah is a very enthusiastic teacher and I bet she finds good things about all the children.
Still I do know we are paying them, so it is in their best interest to say nice things about the children. Part of me, of course, hopes that Keegan really is a joy to her and that he really is an exceptionally smart boy...that is to someone other than me. I will always think he is the most special little guy in the world because I am severely biased.
Anyway, it was interesting and nice to know that people like him. Of course, we already know that Keegan knows everyone at daycare and that they all like him. So hopefully he can keep that up well into his teens....
Sarah has only been Keegan's teacher for a few weeks; his last teacher left and got a new job. I liked Sarah pretty well right away. She introduced herself to me right off the bat and explained how long she had been with Tutor Time (she transferred from a different site)and that she had done infants and pre-K for the last 6 years and was excited to switch to toddler. Keegan seems to like her too, which is what I really care about. Still it was nice to have a teacher actually introduce themselves to you :-) Some of the girls there don't do that very well; although they are really good with the kids.
While Keegan dismantled the Toddler 1 room (absolutely thrilled to have the whole room by himself), we stood and talked with Sarah. She had a checklist of things that Keegan was doing well. He's somewhat ahead in gross motor skills as he can jump now and climb. He also is doing good in fine motor skills (like drawing) and self help skills (like eating with a spoon). He does great with staking blocks (he can stack up to 8 blocks now). She said Keegan was very good at following simple instructions and also was good at sitting still during story time.
The area that Sarah was really impressed with was his language skills. She said that she was absolutely amazed at how much he talks, how many words he knows, and how he is saying three to four word sentences already. I explained that we read a lot together so maybe that helps. She went on for a few minutes about how great this was and how smart he is and how happy we should be. I really didn't know what to say. So I thanked her and said it was good to know that he is so advanced for talking, I mentioned maybe he got all that talking tendency from me :-)
It is good to know that he is so far ahead in speaking ability. We kind of got a hint of that because of our co-workers and how amazed they are at the things we mention Keegan saying. Right now Keegan is picking up words at an amazing pace, I think I hear him say a couple new words each day. This weekend he walked up and pointed to my eyes and said "Mama, sparkly eyes?" He wanted to know why my eyelids sparkled; I tried explained the concept of eye shadow to him. I think he still thinks I am a bit strange for making my eyelids sparkle.
Sarah also said that he plays fine with kids his age and interacts well with adults. When he gets put with bigger kids though he tends to get overwhelmed and stay out of their way, preferring to play by himself. I asked her about this specifically because I have noticed that he does tend to find older kids overwhelming. They are too erratic and noisy for him; he tends to get a bit clingy or just very quiet and wide-eyed.
Overall Sarah says he is a laid-back, very pleasant kid to have around. She said it really was a joy to have him there. Of course, I am happy to hear it because he's my son and I would like to think that I somehow influenced him to behave well! Oh, and of course it's always nice for people to like your child :-)
Lyle and I were discussing how the teacher probably says this to every parent. Sarah is a very enthusiastic teacher and I bet she finds good things about all the children.
Still I do know we are paying them, so it is in their best interest to say nice things about the children. Part of me, of course, hopes that Keegan really is a joy to her and that he really is an exceptionally smart boy...that is to someone other than me. I will always think he is the most special little guy in the world because I am severely biased.
Anyway, it was interesting and nice to know that people like him. Of course, we already know that Keegan knows everyone at daycare and that they all like him. So hopefully he can keep that up well into his teens....
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Chairs and Cars
After dinner today Keegan decided that the house needed rearranging. He has done this a couple times before but tonight he was especially serious about it. He decided that all of the chairs in the kitchen needed to be put in a straight line running from the sunroom through the kitchen to the living room. I mean all the chairs too. So it was the six kitchen chairs and the two bar stool chairs that ended up being put in quite a long line.
He was very intent on it. Probably took him 20 minutes to do. Then he walked up and down the line to make sure they were absolutely perfect. After that he stopped at the end of the row and threw his hands up in the air yelling "Yay!!!" He was so proud of himself. Of course we were obliged to clap for him and congratulate him on his successful lining up of chairs.
Of course he had trapped Ruby in the sunroom with his train of chairs but she didn't seem to mind all that much because Keegan also couldn't get into the sunroom.
Then the chairs were quickly ignored and it was onto the next project. He had a bowl of cheerios sitting on the coffee table for a snack. Then suddenly he got an idea and took off running into the playroom. He came out with one of his Little People cars and started stacking cheerios in it. Apparently a little people car is something like a 7 cheerio vehicle. Then it was time to run the car into the banister to see if the cheerios would stay in the car or fall out. Whenever a cheerio didn't survive the crash Keegan would stop, put his hands on his head, and say "Oh, no!"
Unfortunately the pushing by hand then moved to kicking the car around the kitchen and the cheerio passengers couldn't survive that....
All-in-all it was a pretty typical Sunday night :-)
He was very intent on it. Probably took him 20 minutes to do. Then he walked up and down the line to make sure they were absolutely perfect. After that he stopped at the end of the row and threw his hands up in the air yelling "Yay!!!" He was so proud of himself. Of course we were obliged to clap for him and congratulate him on his successful lining up of chairs.
Of course he had trapped Ruby in the sunroom with his train of chairs but she didn't seem to mind all that much because Keegan also couldn't get into the sunroom.
Then the chairs were quickly ignored and it was onto the next project. He had a bowl of cheerios sitting on the coffee table for a snack. Then suddenly he got an idea and took off running into the playroom. He came out with one of his Little People cars and started stacking cheerios in it. Apparently a little people car is something like a 7 cheerio vehicle. Then it was time to run the car into the banister to see if the cheerios would stay in the car or fall out. Whenever a cheerio didn't survive the crash Keegan would stop, put his hands on his head, and say "Oh, no!"
Unfortunately the pushing by hand then moved to kicking the car around the kitchen and the cheerio passengers couldn't survive that....
All-in-all it was a pretty typical Sunday night :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
