Fun at the Children's Museum

A couple weekends ago we went to the Children's Museum. For those who haven't been there it is a lot of fun; especially for children :-)

The special exhibit this time was Clifford: the big red dog! Keegan has the most fun feeding bones up the conveyor belt into Clifford's bowl. Then Keegan fell into the bowl (see below).


After that it was time to have a puppet show.


Then up to learn about how gears work.


Then Keegan and I built a bridge together. Keegan had a lot of fun walking on it :-)




After that we played in the sand in the art exhibit on the roof. Also a lot of fun!


We helped build a giant lego tower too.


Oh and then we had to stick our heads in a turtle. Well, I skipped that part, but Lyle didn't.



So there was a ton to do and we had a really good time. Keegan and I even crawled in the ant tunnels, where I quickly learned that the tunnels are made for kids not adults. I didn't quite get stuck by I sure had a heck of time getting out of there! So if you have kids and want to have fun, the MN Children's Museum is huge and lots of fun...especially on a super hot day!

Lots of fun this summer...feeding giraffes

We have done a lot of fun things this summer. Especially in August; it's like we are trying to make up for lot time here. So in this little article I will feature feeding the giraffes at the MN Zoo. If you haven't done it you should. For $5 you get 2 crackers to feed the giraffe along with a few minutes of one on one time. It was really cool...trust me, I am over 30 and I thought it was sweet. Keegan was delighted too! The only thing I can say is wow, do those guys have long tongues. Check the pics out below.

Look at that looonngg tongue!



Here is Keegan feeding the cracker!


The giraffe must have really liked the cracker!


After feeding giraffes we went to the farm and fed the goats. There was definitely a feeding theme going on here. The highlight of the farm for Keegan wasn't the goats though; it was the HUGE tractor he got to sit on. Keegan is a big fan of all "Things that go!" I can't even count the number of different truck, car, tractor, and airplane books that we have gone through at the library. The library even caters to this fetish by having a large "Things That Go" display set up.

Driving the Tractor


Feeding the Goats


Feeding the Goats Made Keegan a Little Nervous!


Then of course we had to ride the big pull tractor back to the main part of the zoo. This got some clapping from Keegan.


Keegan was getting tired so he took a ride on mommy's shoulders. Daddy actually carried him most of the time though.



We got to see the tigers up close. This one was playing with a large stick.


Then, of course, no trip to the MN zoo is complete without a ride on the giant mosquito! Which, in a way, stays with the feeding theme.


Then we had to stay with the feeding theme and share a chocolate covered caramel apple before we left the zoo!


All in all a great trip! I will cover are other great outings in another post. I hope this finds you all well!

Long Time No Blog....

Okay so we haven't been all that great at keeping this blog up. To be honest I have been too busy with my book blog; along with general household junk. Including the whole house going through some sort of flu last week.

So I suppose I could update on a few things. Keegan is still working on potty training. We really aren't pushing him too hard; other than to continue to try and give incentives for him to make an effort. Unfortunately the thing he likes as a reward best are suckers. A bit hard on the teeth. We've instituted a potty chart that he has to fill up with stickers before he gets a sucker but still. He is regularly using the potty at daycare. The last couple days there he used it three times; which is wonderful.

Last night he got up at 9pm and started getting upset. Lyle went down to find that Keegan had his jammies and diaper off and had peed on himself trying to get out of his bed. Apparently he was trying to go use the potty but didn't quite make it. Made me feel bad that we didn't get down there sooner. It was kind of unexpected; but makes me happy that he is showing a preference for using the potty.

Also we got a new camera last month. A Canon Rebel T1-Xi; much nicer than our previous camera. All the pics posted from my birthday on, us this camera. It is a very nice camera and does exactly what I wanted an SLR to do (take video and us the viewfinder).

I'll try to blog more, but for the most part nothing too exciting going on. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well!

Urgent Announcement ;-)

At least for Keegan...

He peed on the potty at daycare....TWICE yesterday!

He has been using the potty at home for the last month or so. In fact it's been weeks since I've had to change a poopie diaper; he always poops on the potty. He thinks it is yucky to have poopie in his diaper and I totally agree. We have a potty chart and he gets a sticker when he uses the potty; once he gets 7 stickers he gets a sucker. We told him if he used the potty at daycare he would get stickers when he got home.

Well no go there; so we instituted a new policy. If he used the potty at daycare he'd get a sucker. For weeks we reminded him and for weeks he responded "I only potty at home". I was getting concerned because he would actually wait to poop until he got home.

Then yesterday his teacher Miss Jen told him "Keegan remember if you use the potty you get a sucker." Well something clicked and he used the potty not once, but TWICE.

Of course first thing he does is run up and tell us that he used the potty and where is his sucker. Luckily we had a sucker in the car; so he got somewhat immediate gratification.

He was soooo proud of himself. He had to stop in each classroom on the way out and announce to all of the kids that he "Peed in the potty at daycare". He had to tell the director on his way out too. When we got in the car he wanted to tell Memaw, so we called my parents and he told them. Then when we got to swimming lessons he had to tell teacher Becky. She took it all in stride and exclaimed what a big boy thing he had done. His response: "I know. I'm getting bigger."

It is exciting that he will pee on the toilet somewhere other than home. Hopefully we can keep it up over the weekend while we are camping. I won't hold my breath because he is still young for potty training. I am hoping though this is the precursor to great things to come...like no diapers. He is actually interested in his "big boy" underpants now so we will see.

Holy cow let's rock n' roll...this isn't rubbish

Keegan has been picking up expressions lately. Even scarier he uses them correctly. So here are some examples.

Whenever we ask Keegan if he's ready to leave the house he now yells; "Yes, let's rock and roll!"

On Friday Keegan asked me for some dried mango. I asked him how much he wanted and he said "lots!" so I poured some into a bowl for him. I guess I poured too much because he exclaimed "Holy cow mom, that's a lot!"

Then the other day he said he was done with dinner and I told him he had to stay sitting until I brought over a rag to wash his face. His response, "That's rubbish!" This one should make my sister proud. Her goal while she was here was to get Keegan to use the expression "that's rubbish" successfully...and she has succeeded.

Keegan has also been continuing the singing, but he has started improvising. So on Friday when I had raspberries and Keegan had eaten all of his. Keegan started creeping his hand over to my plate and singing, "The itsy bitsy spider crawls over and steal mommy's raspberries...." This itsy bitsy spider has really bad manners now; he is constantly stealing my food, crawling in my hair, and taking my books.

Keegan is deathly afraid of lawnmowers. So we have been trying to get him not scared. It wouldn't be a big deal but when they mow the lawn at daycare he makes life difficult for the teachers and doesn't want to go the next day. He solved the problem for us today by making up a funny song to the verse of "The farmer takes a wife" where "the cheese stands alone". On the way to dinner he started belting out "The cheese mows the lawn, the cheese mows the lawn, hi do the derio, the cheese mows the lawn."

How does cheese mow a lawn...I don't know and have never wanted to know. All Lyle and I could say was "holy cow how does Keegan come up with this rubbish?"

Amazon ranking and sonatas

Okay so I need to be excited about this because I am odd like this...my Amazon Review Ranking went under 2000 last week! My new rank is 1825. I am very excited and I know that is lame. Still if you want to check it out (and maybe even say some of my reviews are helpful to you) here is the link to my profile: Reviewer Rank
My goal is to be a top 1000 reviewer by the end of the year :-) Hey we all need goals, right?

In other news, my parents and Lyle and I spend a good portion of Sunday night being serenaded by a toddler. Yes, through a long father's day dinner Keegan sung, "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, yay!" pause "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, yay!" pause, etc. This deluge of serenading was "sparked" by the candle on the table which Keegan thought meant it was someone's birthday. Does this mean we don't take him out to nice places enough? I kid you not the kid sung the same two lines from the Happy Birthday song over and over again non-stop over a period of about 40 minutes. At least he was happy.

Keegan has been doing this more and more. He often breaks out into sporadic bursts of song not uncommon to any classic musical. Today on the way to swimming lessons a drive by a sprinkler incited a rousing rendition of "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring, yay!" These audio renditions are always fragmented and concluded with a celebratory cry of "yay!" followed by clapping. I wish I could be such a good critic to myself.

Camping at Lac Qui Parle

Last weekend we went camping at Lac Qui Parle. Where is that you ask? Well go through Shakopee, MN and drive 3.5 hours west and you're there. The closest town is Watson, which has a gas station. The next closest town, which you might even call a small city, is Montevideo. Montevideo actually sports a Walmart (but to our dismay no Super Target or even a Target).

To Keegan's great delight on the ride out there we saw many cows and many barns and many pieces of large farm equipment. Never mind that there were a billion of said items that we passed, Keegan's excitement at seeing cows, horses, barns, trains, and tractors never dimmed. Each viewing was, to him, as breathtaking as the if it was the first one he had ever seen.

Lac Qui Parle is on Lac Qui Parle Lake (surprisingly). When we got there we found out that the check-in building is up by the Upper Campgrounds (where we were camping) and the hiking is down by the Lower Campgrounds (many miles to our south). The check-inn building was also their interpretation center and has a very interesting display of stuffed birds (not the cuddly kind). A Bald eagle and some loons were among the highlights; along with some bear and fox pelts. Also there was a little store in there; which to Keegan's delight sold rock candy on a stick.

After checking in we went to the Upper Campgrounds to set up the camper. Keegan loved his new shades and was determined to get a fire started. As you can see below.


We made a small fire and set up the camper. The campgrounds are completely in prairie and have no shade so to speak. They are very nice large pads that are placed a good distance apart from each other; with ample space to kick balls, play bean bag games, etc...of course we partook in all of these activities and more. The other nice aspect of the camping spaces is that the whole Upper Campground overlooked Lac Qui Parle Lake and it was a beautiful view (see below). The bad part was that my grass allergies got progressively worse as the trip went on. On Sunday I was a quivering mass of watering eyes and snotty nose.


After the fire burned down we decided to take the only hiking trail near the Upper Campgrounds. This trail goes to the largest Cottonwood tree in MN. Okay, maybe not something on the top of my "things I want to see in my life" list but kind of cool considering we were in the middle of exactly nowhere. So we took the hike (mostly through prairie).


Some of it did go through a forest with plants that had leaves almost as big as Keegan.


Finally after 2 miles we got to the Cottonwood tree. It was huge and there was almost an inch of fluff all over the ground.




After that we began the difficult walk back. Two miles is a long way with a toddler who thinks he can walk it all. Keegan ended up riding on our shoulders almost the whole way back. It got even longer when I found a wood tick on my sleeve and then Lyle found another one on my back and then I found two more on my stomach. All in all I pulled 5 wood ticks off of me. Making me twitch the whole walk back. Although you wouldn't know it from the picture below.



Anyway, after getting back and removing my cloths and finding numerous wood ticks (but no deer ticks). My dad further searched my discarded clothing and found three more crawling in my pants. Such did my weekend of phantom itching and heavily applied bug spray begin. I think everyone found a tick on themselves but I was the one with the mother load.

The next day (no ticks for me!) we drove down to the Lower Campgrounds (yes you had to drive down there it was so far away). The Lower Campgounds are where the rest of the hiking trails are and the swimming beach. So we spent the morning at the beach. It was a good time had by all.







After that we drove into the town of Montevideo to visit a huge children's playground they had there. Very cool and artistic play structure. As well as a neat little town for the toddlers. See picture below. We didn't play that long because it was in the nineties and Keegan actually came up to me and said "Mama it's too hot to play anymore." So as you can imagine it was hot. We went and got some ice cream, stopped by Walmart, then went back for naptime. Then finished up the trip by making dinner over a fire and doing other camping things.





The next day we did the 4 hour drive back. Which Keegan was remarkably good for. He didn't sleep but instead read his books, sang along to songs, and tried to spot...you guessed it...cows, barns, trains, and trucks.

All in all it was a nice camping trip. No rain, nice park. I wasn't too impressed with the hiking (probably because of my more than close encounters with the tick-kind); but the Cottonwood tree was cool and the swimming beach very nice. It would be a great place to go canoeing and it was really quiet. Overall a success!

The Curse of "blue blankie"

So I had some other work/non-work related thing down in Bloomington the other day (which is on the opposite side of the cities from our house) at 5:30 or so. So the normal start for the day was interrupted by the fact that Karissa and I would have to drive separate so I could go from work strait to the meeting. I got Keegan ready to go for the day, but he was a little crabby and wanted to take his favorite blanket with him. We have been letting him take the blanket to daycare sometimes, but most of the time he is fine with leaving it at home. Anyway I dropped him off and all went well.

That night while I was at my meeting I get a IM from Karissa asking where "blue blankie" is because Keegan is upset that it isn't around in his bed. I thought he had taken it to daycare, so I told her so. I then thought that it actually might be in the car... well it was, so I IM'ed her back saying so and found out that Keegan had gotten a replacement blanket from Karissa. Karissa told Keegan that this blue blanket was blue blankie's mother. Keegan went on for the next 15 minutes telling the new blue blanket that he has a mom too, then told the blanket that he liked blue blankie better. Keegan degraded after that and I ended up having to leave early from my meeting so that he could have his blankie. Well I get home and got about the dirtiest look I have ever gotten from Keegan, and then he laid down and went to sleep... probably exhausted from being upset for an hour when he should have been sleeping.

Keegan also started swimming classes again on Monday, which he seemed to have a really good time at. Overall he listens pretty well, and knows how to do basically everything in class right now. There is one other kid in his class, but that kid is 5 or 6 months younger than Keegan is.

Why?

Lyle and I have been waiting for the start of the inevitable "Why?" phase of Keegan's life. Well this weekend it started.

Me: Keegan let's water the flowers.
Kee: Why?
Me: Because they need water or else they will die.
Kee: Why?
Me: Because water is for flowers what food is for you. Would you like it if you never had food?
Kee: No
Me: Okay, let's go get the watering can.
Kee: Why?

I begin to understand why some parents say "Because I say so." Keegan absorbs a lot though so usually we try to answer his "why" questions with an explanation. When these why questions start to get silly I will say "well, why not?" That usually byes me a couple "why free" minutes while he tries to decide why I shouldn't be doing something.

It is slightly annoying at times, but for now it is mostly funny. The only not funny thing he has been doing is interrupting conversations. Last night every time I tried to talk to Lyle Keegan would start yelling "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy I talking". Lyle and I stopped talking and listened to what Keegan had to say, then I told him Mommy needed to talk to Daddy for a little bit. Keegan was perfectly reasonable about it and let us talk. Of course, we had to explain "why" we needed to talk :-) So for now as long as I tell Keegan that Mommy and Daddy need to talk without him interrupting he is good with it; I wonder how long that will last...

Makes me wonder what's next...

More imagination than we can handle

So Karissa mentioned that Keegan's conferences were a couple days back, it was nice to hear that things seem to be going well at day care. They also mentioned that Keegan likes to make imaginary food and eat it, and playing like that. That is pretty cool, can go right along with Hank the imaginary owl from early April!

Something funny about that though, making food is pretty tame for Keegan's imagination now. A couple of weeks back, Keegan and I were playing, and he said that he wanted a ball but there wasn't one around, so I acted like I picked up a ball and asked him if he was ready to catch one. He put out his arms and I threw him an imaginary ball. Well Keegan thought this was great fun, so we threw the imaginary ball back and forth for a while, then started throwing it to Karissa too. We had a good time with it.

Sadly I think we started something more complicated. Keegan now thinks that he can throw his imaginary ball at anyone, and they will know what is going on, so when we went camping a couple of days later Keegan threw a "ball" to bampa, and bampa was like huh? So we explained it, and then the next half hour or so was imaginary throw and catch. For the rest of the trip, Keegan would just decide it was time to play with the imaginary ball again, and would get someone to play with him.

Anyway the imaginary ball is quite the hit, and we have even played imaginary baseball when we met my parents for dinner for my birthday. My step mom even said "An imaginary ball is way better, it never goes out into the road!" That is very true, and I never thought of it that way, but it is good to know.

Also Keegan has decided that taking people's noses is also a fun game. Sometimes he takes your nose and then gives it back, but other times he eats it, and even other times he will throw it away. The funnyist one that I remember was when Keegan took Karissa's nose while camping and threw it in a flowerbed and said "Now you can smell the flowers mom".

All funny stuff!

Conferences....

Keegan had conferences today...yes he is only 27 months old but he still has conferences. Of course, we totally forgot until I walked into daycare and remembered it was the 27th and thought that somehow something should be happening. So, at 7pm I went back for his conference. Lyle offered to stay home and put Keegan to bed while I went to conferences. Because basically I need to be the one to ask questions or I loose my mind. If Lyle went I am pretty sure that he would tell me that the conference "went good." Of course when I got home I gave Lyle a 20 minute explanation of the 15 minute conference.

In summary...Keegan is a good boy, who is very advanced in his learning. He is funny, helpful, and plays well with others. He loves music class and loves reading books and coloring and playing outside.

His teacher said that Keegan is one of the younger kids in his class (out of the 10 or so kids, there are three younger than him). Then she said that he would be advanced if he was up in the next class (with the three year olds). So I guess he is super advanced for his age and his vocab blows them away. He talks in complete sentences now, can do his ABCs, and can count to twenty. He has more patience than the other kids which allows him to sit through stories, picks up after himself, can follow multiple step instructions, and participates well in all the activities.

I also found out he still isn't very interested in potty training. Which we've been seeing at home too; he'll get that eventually. His teacher said not to push the potty training, he's smart and he'll get in his own time.

I found out he *loves* music class and loves his music teacher. He runs up and hugs her and is very excited to play all the musical instruments.

He is still a bit intimidated by the older kids. I know he does play with the older kids better than he used to when he is at the park. So we will have to think of a way to get him more comfortable in that area.

They also said he has a great sense of humor and is fun to have in class. As if we didn't know that...Keegan the funny man.

Of course we always keep in mind that we pay for daycare, so it would be against their interest to tell us he is horrible. Still, it is nice to know that we have a boy that is genuinely loved there. It shouldn't matter that they like him, but it does, and it shows. Everyone there knows Keegan and he know all the teachers by name and like them a lot. It is also good to know he is one smart cookie but almost as important is the fact that he has a great sense of humor :-) You can't get through life without one of those!

I always get a bit nervous before conferences, not sure why. I feel like we are being judged a bit too. So it is good to get positive feedback. We try to be good parents, so it is nice to know we are not screwing him up too bad ;-)

A couple parting thoughts...

- Keegan now does knock knock jokes. Although they start with "ding dong" and really aren't funny except to him. He thinks they are hilarious which makes us laugh.

- Keegan saw horses running down the drain in the bath tub today. He really wants to go watch the horses race again.

Lastly...

Q: How do you know when you have a toddler in the house?

A: When the word "Blankie" becomes a proper noun. I realized today that we keep saying so you have Blankie? Get Blankie. Weird.

I sit on my own butt

Last night it was reading time; we always read a couple books before bed. Usually Keegan sits on either my lap or Lyle's lap. So I picked up Goodnight Moon and sat Keegan on my lap. Keegan got all upset and yelled "Mommy, I sit on my own butt!" He wanted to sit on the couch and not on our laps; but what a way to phrase it, we thought it was pretty funny :-)

Last week we were at the park. For quite some time Keegan would always count "1,2,3...go" when he was at the top of the slide. Well for the last couple months he has been counting "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10...go!" at the top of the slide. As you can imagine this sometimes creates a line at the top of the slide. But, he counts pretty fast so usually it's no big deal. The situation took a turn for the worse last week when we found out that Keegan could count to twenty. He ran up to the top of the biiiiggg slide and sat down and counted "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20....go!" Okay now this did result in me, Lyle, and a couple of kids standing there, waiting for Keegan to finish his countdown. We are proud of him being able to count to 20; we are hoping we don't have to count to 20 every time we go down the slide though. What will he come up with next?

Silly Toddlers

Keegan comes up with some pretty silly stuff sometimes. The most recent thing had me laughing pretty darn hard.

We were going into Super Target to do our grocery shopping. As we were walking through the parking lot Keegan saw the handicap parking sign on the ground. He raced over to it and said "Mommy why is this person on the potty?" I said "What?" He said "Is this a potty place?" I wasn't sure what to say; so I tried to explain about wheelchairs and needing to park closer to the store. Keegan said, "Yeah, so they ride in potty chairs?" I said "Yep, you got it."

He does so many funny things I wish I could write them all down. I will try to be more vigilant because some of the things he does are just silly.

This Saturday I made muffins for breakfast. Keegan wanted to eat the dough and I explained that we had to bake them first. SO I put them in the oven and went to do something else; I heard Lyle talking about how the muffins need to be golden brown before we pull them out. Then I came back out and Keegan was sitting in front of the oven (Lyle had turned the over light on for him). I asked Keegan what he was doing and he said "Mommy, the muffins need to be golden brown....Mommy, are they golden brown yet?" I told him they weren't and he said he'd keep watching. I guess it kept him out of trouble for a while.

Keegan is also enamored with motorcycles right now. A few days ago he was riding his trike around the house and I asked him if he was having fun riding his trike. His response: "Momma it's not a trike, it's a motorcycle." He got kind of angry that I thought he was riding a trike when he was clearly making vroom, vroom noises, so obviously that means he is on a motorcycle.

Speaking of bikes, Keegan has something new he likes to do with his "bigboy" bike outside. He likes to take it to the top of the driveway, get it going as fast as he can down the driveway, and then (at the last minute) wrench the handlebars sideways so that the bike doesn't go into the road. Luckily I was chasing the bike down the driveway and caught him as he flew off the bike and the bike skidded into the road. Let's just say he woke me up a bit. Then he proceeded to go up the driveway and do it again...and again. I caught him both times and then told him if he was going to keep doing that he couldn't ride his bike any more. He said, "Mommy's angry? Mommy shouldn't be angry it's fun!" To which I responded he wouldn't have so much fun if I let him skid out into the road with his bike.

Lastly this weekend we took Keegan to Canterbury Downs. What a time we had. Cate and Chris made the journey with us and none of us have been there for a long, long time. So, we weren't quite sure what to expect.

Apparently there was some rap concert out there so traffic was bad. When we finally got there it seemed like the whole Twin Cities area thought going to watch horses race would be a good idea today....

We thought we would stay for a couple races and then leave. Well we stayed a lot longer than that. Keegan loved it! I would take him down to watch the horses prance out to the track while Lyle went to place bets ($2 bet to show on a horse of Keegan's choosing and a horse of mommy and daddy's choosing). Then we would watch the horses go out to the start line. Then there was such excitement when the horses ran; Keegan really got into to it and yelled "GO, GO, GO" with the rest of us; arm pumping motions and all. We had a great time and stayed for all but the last race.

On the way home Keegan fell asleep. When we stopped at Panera for dinner I had to wake him up and take him into the restroom to change his diaper. As I was changing his diaper he said, "Momma I dream of horses and they went really fast and I yelled go, go, go! (silence) Momma I want to watch more horsies." I said we had to eat and so did the horses otherwise they get too tired to run. He started to cry and as we left the bathroom we met Lyle outside to eat; Keegan was beside himself...he wanted more horses.

It took use a while to calm him down and this morning when he woke up he asked if we could see the horses run again. I placated him by telling him we would go bowling instead. He cocked his head to one side, considering my proposition and said "Yay, ball place! I bowl with grandma and grandpa?" I said yep we would invite my mom and dad. He said "I get my own ball?" I said that yes he could bowl with his own ball. He said "Okay, I like bowling" So there you go; apparently Keegan likes watching horse racing. Apparently he also thinks bowling is okay.

Toddler Tantrums

Keegan is an odd duck sometimes; or maybe an odd monkey is more appropriate. He created quite the scene at daycare today when Lyle and I went to pick him up. He ran away from me screaming; "I don't wanna leave, I don't wanna leave. Don't take me home." Okay so I mean what do you do about that?

I tried talking to him but he was in hysterics and as if this isn't bad enough the daycare teacher is watching me chase him and I imagine she is thinking "Why doesn't he want to go home? Do they beat him, neglect him?"

So I ended up carrying him out of daycare, while he refused his normal snack of crackers, and screamed "I don't want to go home!!!!" Now despite the fact that this is embarrassing and annoying, I also found that my feelings were kind of hurt. I mean we try our best to make home a fun place but there are rules and bedtimes and stuff. You do need to eat your dinner before you get an allotment of Easter candy. You only get 3-4 books read to you before bed. But geez...I mean it's not that awful.

Finally in the car Keegan calmed down and said he wanted to be outside. After a whole weekend of camping he was suffering and didn't want to be inside. He asked to eat dinner outside but it was a bit too cold. We finally placated him by agreeing to a walk to the park after dinner.

The whole incident wasn't a huge deal and I am definitely not the first parent to leave daycare with a toddler in meltdown; it's pretty much a daily occurrence. Add to this the fact that he bit some kid twice today, again, and it was frustrating.

He in fact is biting the same kid that he bit before; we will call him Fred to protect the innocent. Keegan does not like Fred; Fred is a bit slow and doesn't talk all that much and it frustrates Keegan. So Keegan bits him to get him to move or give up a toy, it is just this one boy that Keegan has trouble with. We know it is the same boy because Keegan flat out tells us, "Today I bit Fred and that was naughty of me."

We finally checked with the teacher (they are not supposed to tell you who is the biter or bitee, but she agreed to tell us if Keegan was telling the truth). We tried to explain to an overwrought Keegan again that biting is bad. That when Fred makes him angry he can stomp his feet, he can yell, he can stick his tongue out at him, but he should under no circumstances bite him. Keegan knows it is bad and it has been two weeks between biting incidents. Hopefully he will figure it out for good.

The other thing Keegan has been doing that is not bad but just interesting, is honing in on adult conversations. I mean usually Keegan either talks directly to us or we talk directly to him and that is how we have conversations with him. Lately it has been different. Lyle and I were talking about Keegan's bike and how the box was in the garage. Keegan sidled up and said "Daddy you put my bike together, Thank you." We were both a little surprised that he had followed what we had been talking about and had his own comments on it. Lyle and I were also talking about what to do about Kee biting Fred, Kee was in the other room playing and wandered in stating, "I know biting Fred is bad but he makes me angry."

Kee is turning out to be quite the conservationist and can understand more than I ever think he can. He is also learning to label the way he feels about things and this helps us understand him better. Although I am getting a little irritated with one thing he does with regards to feelings. The other day he ran into the road and I grabbed him and yelled at him trying to explain he needs to stay out of the road or he could get a big owie from the cars driving. He calmly stated, "Mommy is mad. Mommy needs to be happy. Look mommy, daddy is happy. Mommy should be happy." The rest of the night he had to talk about how mommy got angry and he would walk up to me and say "Is mommy happy now?" I was like geez, boy, I'll show you happy :-)

I think he is way smarter than we think he is.

Bikes and Bites

Tis finally the season for biking again. It is hard over the winter to keep up the biking. The cycle trainer is a cruel and poor substitute for riding outside. I tried to bike on the cycle trainer for 30 minutes 2-3 times per week over the winter; alternating with yoga, weightlifting, and walking. It is tough though. Finally this week I have been back on the bike...outside. Monday it was 6 miles, Tuesday 15 miles, and Thursday 5 miles.

I will talk briefly about the wonders of biking outside because I always forget how very much I love it. I love the whirring of the tires on pavement, the wind slapping against my face, the rhythm of pedaling, the sensation of whipping through the world at wonderful speed, I love watching the mileage increase on my odometer, the burning of my legs as I struggle up hills, and even the fishy smell that has started wafting from the lakes. All of this means it is spring and I am riding my bike, and I love it. I was worried that riding again would be tough and it isn't, it just feels wonderful and makes me feel wonderful. After the 15 mile ride on Tuesday though I began to wonder if I did need a new bike. My $90 mountain bike from Sportmart will only take me so far. It has been having a lot of gear issues that no amount of service can fix; I was finally told that it is just a cheap bike and it operates like a cheap bike. So well...then lets switch gears (no pun intended).

Tuesday night was Bike Helmet safety night in Blaine. For $10 you or your child can get a brand-new bike safety helmet and have it fitted. The only thing you need (besides $10) is time. Keegan's bike helmet ($40)from last year broke beyond fixing. So he needed a new one. We got to City Hall 15 minutes early and the line was already to the door. By 4pm (starting time) the line was into the parking lot. Still all things considered the line went fairly quickly and by 4:20 Keegan was being fitted with a bike helmet. Keegan's only request was that the helmet be blue. So he got a super cute helmet that was blue and had dinosaurs on it. I was impressed that all of the helmets there were really nice Bell helmets; maybe next year I will get a new one there.

Keegan was thrilled and told everyone he could about his new helmet. We underestimated the kid's sense of pride in his helmet. We couldn't get him to take it off the rest of the night; a relief after last year's helmet struggles which involved hours of screaming while we tried to get him to wear his helmet. Keegan wore his helmet to the park that night and went swinging in it, he wore it in the car. He wore it everywhere. We made him take it off to go to bed, but he didn't want to.

Where does this new lust for helmet wearing originate from? Well, you can probably guess...HOCKEY! He loves his helmet because it makes him look like he's playing hockey. I guess his hockey obsessions do have some upsides.

After the park that night we went to Dairy Queen with Ruby. We all got ice cream. After finding out the small blizzard I like has 700 calories in it, I opted for a fudgesicle with 50 calories. Not as satisfying but it didn't make me feel ill after I ate it either. Then we decided to go to Pioneer Cycle right behind Dairy Queen to look and see if there were any used bikes for Keegan.

Well this ended up being the most expensive DQ trip ever. There weren't any bikes for Keegan but Lyle talked me in to (okay it didn't take much talking) trying some new bikes for me. Lyle got a new bike last year but I waited because I wanted to make sure I was going to keep riding. Soooo....I tried a hybrid bike and a road bike. And wow...that road bike was awesome. So, I traded in my $90 MGX piece of crap bike and got a $600 Giant FCR3 which is considered a low-end road bike. Didn't have time to take the new bike out for a ride on Tuesday so I had to wait to see if the bike really makes that much difference in the ride.

I really was worried that it wouldn't make a difference. But holy cow was I wrong. My normal average speed is between 13.4 - 14 mph when I am not pushing it but not being lazy either. I hopped on this road bike comfortably has an average speed between 17-18 mph (while talking on the phone with my mom). My 6 mile route that normally takes 25-30 minutes; only took me 15-20 minutes. It was amazing. The gears on this new bike shift like magic, the handlebars are gel and don't make my hands hurt, and the brakes actually work (a huge bonus when commuting)!

So in short, yes the bike makes a difference. I am not a wuss because I couldn't keep up with other road bikes on my mountain bike; it *was* my bike. I mean riding is still a lot of work but I don't feel like I need to wrench my joints out of place to get up a hill.

Riding my bike was the good part of yesterday. The bad part was a phone call from daycare that started, "Well, we have a bit of an emergency, Keegan had an accident." I swear my heart almost stopped when I heard that, I am 40 minutes from daycare and was thinking OMG what did he break. Then I found out that Keegan had slipped off of his chair and smacked his face on the table. He ended up biting straight through his lower lip. The daycare manager calmly explained that this happens to toddlers every once in a while. His teacher was trying to stop the bleeding and put ice on it. She was going to call me back in 10 minutes to let me know if I had to run him to the emergency room for stitches.

That was a long 10 minutes. In that 10 minutes I called Lyle, called my mom so that she could pick him up quickly if it was super bad, and told my manager that I might have to leave suddenly. When daycare called back they said it wasn't horrible and the bleeding had stopped and that Keegan should be fine.

I called back in the afternoon and they said that the swelling was much better, no bleeding, no damage to teeth, and Keegan could eat fine. They also let me know that doctors won't usually stitch lips on toddlers because it is just too hard and too traumatic. The whole thing made me happy I have a great daycare.

They took great care of Keegan, they communicated with me well, and they were knowledgeable enough that I didn't have to leave work and take Keegan for a needless and traumatic visit to the emergency room. Also thank goodness for my mom, who got ready to leave to pick Keegan up on a moment's notice. It makes me feel so much better to know that she is close to him.

It was a bit of scare that ended up being no big deal. When we picked him up Keegan bragged to me about his owie and then proceeded to re-enact (without actual collision) what had happened. Then he said it was a "Bad table that gave him an owie" And of course he got lots of kisses and hugs. Apparently he didn't even cry when he broke it open and was really good about letting them take care of it. It didn't bother him all night, although it bothered me because he kept chewing on it. Watching him chew on it made me a bit nauseous and my knees a bit weak but I just stopped watching since it wasn't bleeding and it didn't bother him.

That is all on bikes and bites. One more thing, Keegan's trike is too small for him. His knees hit the handle bars; so this weekend it will be off to get a bike for him one way or another.

Next week will be bike commuting time, hopefully (as long as it isn't too cold in the mornings).

Enter the Imaginary Owl

Keegan has quite the imagination. Yesterday we were at the park and he decided he wanted to go hiking. So we "hiked" to the picnic gazebo by the park. Keegan climbed up onto the picnic table bench and sat down. He started dipping his hand toward the table and pretending to eat. He said "Mama, I am eating chicken nuggets with ketchup."

Then Lyle sat down at the table across from us and pretending that he was eating chicken nuggets too. Keegan looked at me and said, "Mama, my ketchup is all gone...I'll go get some from daddy." So he got down, ran over, and stole Lyle's imaginary ketchup. Then he came back down and proceeded to eat more chicken nuggets with ketchup. Suddenly he stopped eating and looked at me "Mama, Ruby wants chicken nuggets too." How he knew this I will never know, since Ruby was at home sleeping on her dog bed. "Here Ruby!" Keegan said as he leaned over to hand imaginary Ruby, imaginary chicken nuggets. Then he sat up and giggled, clasping his hands to his chest, "Mama, Ruby like them!"

Such scenes play out quite frequently in our house and when we are out and about. We never discourage his fertile imagination and try to play along as best we can. Normally I am glad that he is so creative and has so much fun. There is one thing that is becoming kind of concerning.

Enter the Owl. The Owl appeared during dinner the first time a couple weeks ago. Keegan said "Mama, Dada, look there's an owl!" We looked and of course there was no Owl in the living room. I said "Where is the Owl?" Keegan pointed to the living room, "Mama it's right there and it says Whoo, whoo, whoo" Okay not a big deal, we talked about his owl and what color it was etc.

Then the owl kept appearing in the living room during dinner; it is an owl only Keegan can see. Okkkaayyy...so we have an imaginary owl in the living room. Well then it started following Keegan around.

The Owl now sleeps by the end of his bed and it follows us to the park and sits in the tree and watches Keegan while we play. The Owl is everywhere. Last night we asked him if the Owl had a name...we think he said it is "Hank" but we couldn't really understand him all that well.

So apparently Keegan has an imaginary owl named Hank. As if the three cats and dog aren't enough; we need an owl. I am not sure if I should be amused or dismayed but all-in-all I think it's pretty darn funny :-)

Bilingual Counting

We really like Keegan's daycare. They do a number of neat activities for the kids that Keegan really enjoys. They aren't afraid to let the kids get dirty and they let them make artwork with everything from shaving cream to pudding to dirt. They have a great indoor town where the kids get to dress up and play mailman or cook or doctor or whatever they can think up. They also have a music teacher that comes by once a week to give music lesson; Keegan really looks forward to these.

Recently they have started optional classes that you can pay for your child to attend. When we heard they were offering a sign language/spanish immersion class we were excited; of course at $30 a week it's a bit steep for price. We decided to enroll him anyway; we talked with the lady running the class and she is pretty cool and gets along with the kids really well. Keegan was sold after she signed "10 little monkeys jumping on the bed" for him.

So on Mondays Keegan goes to Spanish/Sign Language class. They learn the sign language for words in English and then repeat the signs with the Spanish words. Having the same sign language for both languages makes it easy to learn. As parents we get a packet that shows all the words they learned, the signs for them, and how they are pronounced in Spanish. Pretty cool.

Is it worth is though? I wasn't sure. He's been doing this for 5 weeks so far and it's kind of expensive. Then last weekend he was reading a book and told me "Mama the duck is yellow." He was doing something with his hand and I realized he was signing yellow. Kind of neat that he was picking up signs.

Then yesterday he absolutely blew me away. He wanted to read the book "10 Little Lady Bugs" so we sat down to read it. He knows all of the numbers really well and can count to 20 when he sets his mind to it. At the end of the book all of the ladybugs get home. We always count them to makes sure all ten made it home.

So, Keegan counted the ladybugs and sure enough (again) there were 10. I started to shut the book and Keegan "Mama stop, now we need to count them in Spanish" I was amused and opened the book for him. Sure enough he started counting in Spanish, "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quarto, Cinco" he got stuck at seven. I felt bad because I couldn't remember eight in Spanish so I couldn't help him (I took German as my language). Still though I was pretty darn impressed. I mean after basically 5 days of these classes he can count...in Spanish...I mean wow!

The downside to this all is that now I need to brush up on my Spanish. Lyle does good with him though because he took Spanish as his language in high school. I better get going on those Spanish lessons otherwise who knows what those two will be talking about behind my back :-)

Bogged down with books

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 :-)

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...

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!