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Keegan is not yet up and running, but he is getting more and more confident every day. After his first steps, he didn’t really practiced his new skill much for the next few days, but he has started walking more everyday. He is now able to walk across the living room, and he does not need any prodding. He lets go, stand on his own two feet and walk. He still has the Young Frankenstain walk (and the noises to match), of course, but he is going places now. He seems to enjoy it immensely: check out his grin! We were able to capture it on camera: pretty amazing. Who is going to stop him now? By the way, notice the scratch on his nose and the falling off nail: he is also getting more accident prone now. We are getting quite a few “Ouch” reports from daycare (not to mention the ones from home). Is it just a phase, or did he inherit mommie’s clumsiness?

Check me out: I am standing on my own!

come to mama!

Heeeeere’s Keegan

I am coming to get you, Daddy!

Today, November 14, we had one more Santa Ana Winds event. This means that temperatures rose quite drastically again, and we are expecting temperatures in the mid 80’s for the weekend. This of course means that the fire risk is sky high: in fact a huge fire is raging in Montecito, near Santa Barbara right now. Fortunately it is not too close to where Matt’s brother Jim lives. So we are on the watch out but we are also ready to enjoy the balmy weather.I guess the fear factor is the price to pay for living here (this and the “sunshine tax”). Ask us again if we miss the seasons…

Last week, another very warm one, we went to Pacific Beach, Tizi’s old stomping ground and Keegan had a blast frolicking in the sun. We slathered sunscreen on him, especially because he does not tolerate anything on his head, so sun hats are out. And notice how the image in the Armani logo on Keegan’s t-shirt matches the scenery PERFECTLY.

fun in the sun

The long awaited (or feared?) moment has arrived: Keegan took his first steps today. He can only do two or three before collapsing, but still, it is pretty cool. Of course, he had to take his first steps at daycare (just to make us feel guilty), but I was able to have him do it again for mommy…daddy is not home yet, so he will have to wait to see.

We have noticed that he has been spending more time on his own two feet, without holding on to something: usually this was happening when he was not paying attention. As soon as he would realize he was on attached to anything, he would grab on the closest thing. He has also been happily walking with push his toy that we borrowed from Jennifer (check in later for some cool pictures) and we knew it was just a matter of days…of course we couldn’t record the event on video, but we will try soon. I am sure that once he master the walking part, there will really no stopping him. So once again he beat our expectations: we thought he would walk by his first birthday, and he did two weeks early.

Tizi is already worried: we can’t contain him right now!He has already managed to throw a small shelf on his head which brought him a pretty bruise on his forehead with a matching black and blue nail. We were worried that daycare would call CPS on us. He seems happy, and rightly proud of his new skill, and so are we.

loving the push toy

 Election Day 2008 is finally over. These campaign dragged on forever, and it is finally done. More importantly, though, Barack Obama is the next president. For once the candidate we both supported won. We are very excited about the chance and we are hoping it will really bring some good transformation. The excitement is   definitively this has been one of the most involved elections in years. Tizi and Keegan, of course, can’t vote, but we all walked to the polls together. It was set up in a garage a few minutes away from us, so a good excuse for a night stroll, before Keegan’s bedtime. It looks some un-official  and also so Clairemont: a rusty, 1950s pick-up truck on the lawn, a basketball hoop on the side of the house, plain, cardboard polling booths…but it was all legit.

voter in training…

We were not quite as happy about the results of the different propositions, especially Prop 8 (adding an amendment to California constitution to basically ban gay marriages) and Prop D (banning alcohol at the beach) but propositions can be challenged, a president will be with us for the next 4 years. Now, let’s get ready for a big blow out party on January 20!!!!

I can’t believe Keegan is almost a year old…especially looking at the past few nights: he has been waking up really early, around 5am. This aside, though our little guy is doing great. He has now 4 teeth (maybe they are the culprit of his crankiness). We just noticed the left bottom one peeking out last Saturday, when we were coming back from LA. And he has been using them too: not necessarily for eating and chewing, mind you. We are trying REALLY hard to teach him not to bite. For some weird reasons, though, he only bites certain people: mom, and Ms. Georgia at daycare, and rarely dad. We are not quite sure what that means, but Tizi like to think about it as a compliment. Fortunately, he usually doesn’t bite during breastfeeding. Talking of which, yes we are still breastfeeding, at least part of the time. Usually when he wakes up, and sometime in the afternoon, plus Tizi is still pumping twice a day to provide a couple of bottles for daycare. The breastfeeding part is finally good, but Tizi can’t wait to stop pumping! It is getting almost impossible to keep him still enough for the monthly picture, which explain why they are not very good. Fortunately we are almost done.

check out my new teeth

He has been standing on his own more and more, for a few seconds at a time, and he crawls a lot faster…especially when he is trying to go in a place he knows he shouldn’t be.He pulls himself up without effort on anything, and has learn to go up and down steps. It is one of his favorite activity at daycare: going up and down the carpeted steps. He enjoys daycare quite a bit, since he is now crawling around with the other babies and playing together. It is really fun to see him interact with the other babies.

He is also quite strong. He lifted the room’s blinds by himself with one hand and he was able to lift the baby soap bottle over the edge of the tub with one arm. The bottle was 1.7lb! It looks like he is right handed: while he still uses both hands, he often seems to prefer the right one. We will see. The jury is still out on his eyes. They have been constant for a few months now: gray with brown around his pupils and a dark gray ring on the outside. It basically impossible to take a picture, but we will try.

He talks a lot more, and uses quite a few consonants. He even said ma-ma a few times, but we don’t think he really means Mom. He has been eating more different food: he tired eggs and potatoes, and mozzarella cheese, and chunkier foods.His favorites are still bread and cheerios. He has also discovered his private parts can be quite fun to play with. (-:

He still likes to bang stuff, together and on any other surface and he started throwing things. He enjoys the noise, so he often throw objects on the tiles, and he is starting to put things back inside containers after he takes them out. He is now really enjoying books: they are often the first toys he goes for when we make it home. He likes to open and close them, and eat them, of course.

will he like to read when he grows up?

We could not weight him yet: we were all set to go on Sunday, when we realized Matt’s truck was missing. We looked around and sure enough, it is two doors down. Some jackass broke in, took it, and drove it, we think, and then abandon it in front our neighbors. They didn’t take too much: some change, the cell phone charger and my baby Dwell blanket )-: The worse part is that they broke the ignition block. So we spent the day dealing with this, waiting for the cops to show up to take the report, and on Monday we had to rent a car, and deal with insurance. All and all a huge pain…and an expensive one. This has not been a good car week, since Tizi just got a speeding ticket too. We will post the measurement as soon as we get it.

UPDATE: Tizi did get Keegan weighted. She is glad this was the last time too. It was impossible to keep him still on the scale, since he was constantly trying to flip over and reach for stuff, plus he decided to poop just as she was taking the diapers off, and of course, she didn’t have a change this time. So, after the weight in, she had to do with the infant diapers that are provided. It was quite a funny sight, his little tush overflowing: little plumber in training! She was able to close it somehow, and he must not have been too uncomfortable, since he fell asleep in the car, and the diaper didn’t even leaked.

And the measurements are in: 19.13lb. So he didn’t gain quite as much, but I guess it is normal. And he is back to a 7 percentile. Well, we were getting “nervous” about him getting too fat. (-: Just kidding.  We will see what the doctor will have to say next month. We will go for the 1 year check up on December 9, so he has an extra week to gain weight.

One more birthday party to attend. Jack and Allison’s son Case is about to turn 1 and he had a nice beach party in Manhattan Beach. They were quite optimistic, being November 1, but we had amazing, warm days all along…except of course the weekend in question. We did encountered a little bit of rain driving up there, but we also saw a beautiful, 180 degrees rainbow spanning the freeway. Another miraculous event: we made it up there in less than two hours! I guess we never drive north this early in the morning: we left at 9.30am.

Fortunately in Manhattan Beach didn’t rain at all, so we could enjoy a nice morning at the beach. Keegan slept the whole way up there and the whole way back,getting two 1.5 hours naps! Amazingly enough, this is only the second time Keegan is on the sand. I know, we live in San Diego, less than 10 miles from the beach, but life gets in the way. Once we got there, Keegan’s first order of business was of course, eating sand. He seemed to enjoy the new environment and the other kids.

this feels weird but it kind of fun

The kids were of different ages, but he had a good time playing with them, especially the all time favorite: “let’s take each other toy ” game. The big hit of the party was a pink rolling car that everyone loved, especially the birthday boy. Is he going to get one as gift?

the car is pretty cool, but it is more fun pulling Case’s hat

The birthday boy got some cupcakes and a cute hat, and Allison created a personalized label for the soda bottle: very cool idea.

it’s your birthday…eat the cupcakes

It was great to see Allison and Jack and Case: it has been a few months. It would be great if they lived closer, since Case and Keegan are only three weeks apart. Well, it will be a great excuse for travelling more often. Next up is our won little guy birthday party. Of course no plans yet, and definitively nothing extravagant, but we would like to celebrate the day somehow.

Keegan’s first Halloween! Tizi was very excited about it: she never got to do the whole Trick or Treating thing, so she can’t wait to take Keegan around. Matt put a veto on a real trick or threating this year, since Keegan can’t walk or talk, let alone eat candies. It makes sense: he needs to be able to at least ask for candies himself. However, we could not let this year pass without some celebration. So we bought the cutest outfit for him: a turtle. It felt appropriate, since he is still crawling, so he really looks like a turtle. He didn’t enjoy wearing his custom much, especially the head-cover part, but he tolerated long enough for me to take some pictures, while he was engaged in his favorite activity: crawling and climbing up and down the step.

WARNING: major picture overkill here!

down the step…

up the step…

all this exercise got me thirsty…let’s get mom’s water bottle

can I get this costume off, now???

turtle in the grass

In the evening, I stopped by my neighbor Sharon, and white her daughter Jada, we stopped by our neighbours’ houses, just to show those cuties off. Jada was a little skunk, an adorable one at that.  We visited 4 houses, and we were gone for about an hour! Keegan was pretty good, enjoying seeing new people and new houses, and being out at dark time.

 getting ready

what cuties!

It was a very mellow Halloween otherwise: very few kids stopped by: in fact we only had one group of kids: my other neighbors, returning our visit.  Maybe it was because this year Halloween happened on a friday, so most kids were probably out on some school parties. Our daycare organized a Halloween Carnival, but it was in the evening and we didn’t want to disrupt his sleeping schedule, which is already quite distrupted as it is lately. They did the cutest thing though: they created little ghosts by imprinting the kids footprint on a black board. Isn’t it adorable?