tizimatt.info

We are still working on it! We have some progress to report: at night time, usually, Keegan now falls asleep on his own, without extensive rocking or swaddling, and usually with minimal or no crying. It took about two/three nights. The new nighttime routine seems to help as well. Now that is free to move about the crib, he often rolls over, so he can sleep on his tummy or side.

Afternoon naps and middle of the night are another story. We have mix success with afternoon naps: sometime he falls asleep easily, other times he just cries and cries (we set our limit to one hour: after that we pick him up…and yes we are continually checking on him, and comforting him at different intervals, so he is not totally abandoned). Part of the problem is that we don’t have a very consistent nap time. It is hard because he doesn’t have one at daycare, so he is tired at different times. Afternoon naps is when we see most of his acrobatics: in his crying, he flips himself over, rolls, rotate himself. One day I found him sleeping horizontally (parallel to the short side of the crib), with his head nudged in the corner, in the exact opposite side from where I left him. This cannot be comfortable! I caught a picture of him that day, when he just woke up.

where am I???

And we have absolutely NO success in stopping his night wakings/feeding, YET. In all honesty, we haven’t been consistent with that, as we are usually too tired at 3 am, but we are determined to try next weekend (and sleep during the day). Wish us luck.

On the other hand, he is developing more and more every day. He is playing with new toys, such as the uber-cool, soft blocks from Dwell Baby, (gift from Steve and Barbara). He is usually destroying the neat stack mom and dad create, but it is a start.

D is for Darling…or Dude

He is spending more time on his tummy, doing push ups, even lifting his butt and legs. He is moving more and more, mainly backwards, but he also rotates himself, and get around. He may have rolled over from his belly to his back, but we haven’t seen it happening, so we are not sure. It seems to be a matter of weeks before he will figure out how to crawl, or move more efficiently. Mom is not thrilled about chasing him around: he is already constantly in motion now, imagine when he can propel himself!

We also had our first video phone calls with Grandma and Grandpa in Italy: they had some technical difficulties on their camera, but they were able to see the little guy: it was wonderful being able to share all his exploits. It really made us feel more connected. And it is all free…miracle of the new technologies. Thank you Skype!

Well, Keegan is all set to go. He received his first passport, the American one, and is ready to fly to Italy in September. Of course, we are still waiting on the Italian one, which we ordered at the same time. But you know how this work…huge backlog and now it is vacation time. Tizi really hopes to have it by September, as it would make the custom process easier, but she is not optimistic. We are talking about Italia bureaucracy, after all.

I am ready to go

 check this out: my picture looks pretty good

2007 was an extraordinary year as far as number of pregnancies in Matt’s and Tizi’s immediate circle. This is good news for Keegan that will have a lot of friends to play with. On July 12, he met one of those future buddies. We met with Allison and Jack and their little guy Case, who is only a month older than Keegan, in a park in Coronado. Steve, Barbara and Ian were also there. Matt, Jak, Steve and Carter all worked together in Virginia, and slowly migrated west (shame on Carter that moved back east).

It was a beautiful day, and we had a fun BBQ at the park, wtih lots of yummy food. It was great just hang out and spend time together. We don’t do this enough. The kids got along well, or mostly ignored each other, and of course Keegan immediately started trying to grab Case. It MUST be the Italian blood. The afternoon came to a close when all the kids started fussying, almost at the same time. But they did last longer that we anticipated!

So here it is: Keegan finally decided to roll over, from his back to his belly. We noticed on Saturday he could roll over with a little help, and on Sunday morning, July 6, he did it on his own. of course Tizi missed it, because she was trying to get some ZZZZZ in the morning, but Mattie came and got her up, and we some coaxing he did it again, for mommie (and the camera) to see. it was exciting, at least for us: he didn’t seem that excited about it…until we clapped and told him how good he was.

He also seems to recognize his name. We called his name out loud when he was on his exersaucer with his back to us, and he turned every time we called him. Yes, we tried ther words, and using the same intonation…it really seems he knows who he is.

In other news, we are trying to get Keegan to sleep on his own with some crying out…we will see if this helps. It is very HARD, especially for Tizi: seeing Keegan smiling the morning after our first crying out night, reassured her a little, though. In the past couple of months, it has been harder and harder to get him to sleep, and we felt it was getting worse instead of better, so we are hoping this will solve the problem. We will give it a week, and see the results. We are at day two right now. Once he can sleep on his 0wn, we will eliminate at least a night feeding.

This was an unusual 4th of July: no hanging out at the beach, no fireworks, no beer drinking or BBQ. Keegan had a tough night and so we were all tired. However, we still wanted to enjoy a beautiful day in San Diego, so we had a pic-nic on a nearby park, and just took it easy. It was a nice end to our two week vacation.

tizi’s favorite t-shirt. yes, she is this arrogant. (-:

One more month: Keegan is now closer to being 1 year than to being born…scary thought. The day itself was not the best. Maybe it was the jet lag, but Keegan was cranky and couldn’t sleep much of the day. He went to daycare, though, while Matt and Tizi, still on vacation, rested a little at home. In the afternoon, we played and took pictures as always, and we did our usual weight check. Still, a slow, steady growth: 15lb and 1 ounce. It is a good gain from 14lb 4 ounces June 24. He feels a lot heavier than before, but we may just be tired.

He is changing very quickly. In fact, in this week away he seemed to have grown quite a bit. He is now a lot more comfortable on his belly, as he can easily do push ups. He even started creeping, or moving backwards when on his belly. He has his feet in position and starts understanding he can use his hands and arms to move forward. We are “fearing” he will crawl soon. It is probably a good time to baby proof the house.

Still not a total rollover yet, but he is more than half way there. He can even rotate 180 degrees in his crib on his back: we noticed when we left him there for a few minutes, hoping, he would go to sleep; in his crying fit he completely rotated himself. He has been also chewing on his gums quite a bit: he seems an old men, babbling to himself. And talking about babbling, he has been doing quite a bit of that also. The drooling also seem to indicate a tooth is coming.

an expression it has become very common

He is now a lot more comfortable sitting, and spend more time playing with his toys sitting up. We discovered he can also hold his own bottle when we feed him and his own spoon, for that matter. He is even coordinated enough to be able to put most of the food content into his mouth.

One thing hasn’t changed, though: his beautiful smile (except for when we are trying to put him to sleep: ironically, as I am typing this sentence, he started crying from his crib). Everyone always comments on how happy, and how “flirty” he is. He does smile to everyone: he is definitively a people person: where did he take from is a mystery! Not from dad nor mom, maybe grandma? Finally, he is now making even more clear when he wants to be picked up: he extends his arms up, and he is throwing his arms around our neck, as a reward for being held. he is also trying to kiss mommy… he just can’t understand he needs to close his mouth first, so he ends up slobbering and sucking on mommie’s face instead. He is definitively a very sweet ( and cute, if I can say so myself) boy: if he could only sleep….

At the end of our great family reunion we had the chance to visit some old friends that live in Virginia, Abby and Carter. Carter has been a good friend of Matt since his time in Virginia, and he recently moved back there, after many years in California. Abby was our maid of honor and in fact she is the one who introduced us, a cold evening at the end of 2000. Matt had just moved to San Diego, and Abby organized an evening out at the Maloney’s Pub in the Gaslamp district with a few friends. Tizi and Matt hit it off right away, even if we didn’t start dating till a few months later.

Abby has a daughter, Nina, born only 10 days after Keegan, so it was good to let the babies meet. It was interesting: Keegan, probably showing his Italian blood, immediately smiled at her and tried to touch her. Nina, on the other hand, showing her Norwegian blood, was a lot more reserved. They did get along well, and Nina even shared her toys with Keegan.

how YOU doing?

she can’t resist my latin lover charm

It was great to see them: we missed them. Keegan didn’t behave as good as he could have, and gave us a completely sleepless night, but we still had a good time. Hopefully they will come visit us soon. At the very least, we will see them again in October, at Carter’s wedding.

with Abby

with Carter

We just got back from a wonderful week in North Carolina, to visit with Matt’s family. They have been getting together for a week on the beaches of North Carolina for the past few years, and it has always been a lot of fun. Tizi had missed the past couple of trips because of her work schedule, but this year, we were all able to make, Keegan included. We were very excited about introducing our new addition to the rest of the family. Despite our fears, Keegan was very good on the plane. We were lucky: neither flight was sold out, so we were able to bring our car seat on board, and Keegan slept in it quite a bit. For the rest of the time he was smiling and flirting with every woman around him. We received quite a few compliments on his behavior.

I forgot my laptop…oh well, I can play with my toy giraffe instead

this flying thing is kind of fun

It was great to see everyone: Keegan met Uncle Mike and Aunt Karol, and cousin Ella; Uncle Rob and cousins Cailynn, Bryan, Sean and Erin; Aunt Mary and cousins Josh and Bridget; Aunt Beth and Uncle Wayne and cousins Colin and Shawn; and he was happy to see again Aunt Sue and Uncle Dan and cousins Rachel and Hannah. Everyone loved to play with him, especially cousins Ella and Erin.

sitting with cousin Ella

Keegan also got his first taste — literally — of the ocean. I know we live in California, but, believe it or not, we never took him to the shore. We went walking on the beach and boardwalk, but he never felt the ocean. The first day we tried to get his feet wet, a large wave caught us all by surprise, and we all got drenched. Keegan got scared, more from the surprise screams that Tizi and the girls let out than from the water getting in his face. The next day it went better, and he got to put his feet in the frigid water: who said the Atlantic ocean is warmer than the Pacific?

one, two, three…COLD

He seemed more perplexed than anything else, but he was fascinated by the crashing waves: a future surfer boy? He was wearing some very stylish board shorts, a gift from Grandma in Italy.

The house Matt’s family rented, just a few blocks from the beach, also had a nice pool, and we spent some time there as well, playing with Keegan’s inflatable crab. He seemed to enjoy the pool a little more, and loved his hooded robe, again a gift from Italy, arrived only a couple of days before we left.

Sadly the week went by too fast: the weather was great, most of the time not too hot, and even if we didn’t have the chance to spend too much time outdoors, we had a wonderful time hanging out with family. It was the first time that Tizi and Matt could actually see anyone in the morning: on all other trips, we used to sleep in late and get to the beach when everyone else was going back home for lunch. Oh, how life changes with a baby: this time around we were always the first up! It was sad to leave: hopefully we will get to see everyone real soon.

Aunt Sue

Aunt Karol

Aunt Mary