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So we thought this day would never come, but it is here. NO MORE BUSH! (at least till Jeb decides to run…). Jokes aside, it is wonderful to have a new President, especially such an inspirational one, that brings with him the hope of change and a new beginning as well as a good knowledge of the English language. Like most everyone else, we are hopeful and excited to see his days in office. Even as memories are starting to fade, we can’t forget the past 8 years of incompetence, fear and repeated assaults to civil liberties. Yes, Barak Obama has to live up to unrealistically high expectations, and yes he will probably fall somewhat short, but this historic election has already accomplished a great feat: after a long time, this country feels united and is looking forward to a new start.

It is difficult to express the palpable feeling of euphoria; and maybe we feel this way because for the first time the candidate we both supported actually won, and we feel that our beliefs are finally represented. Will he be a great president? We don’t know, but we surely hope so. At the very least, we think we will probably not have to feel embarrassed by his ignorance and gaffes. (Tizi hopes the same could be true for the Iitalian prime minister…what would happen to mini-Bush???).

Thank you to modern technology, Tizi was able to see the inauguration live, streaming over the internet (Matt had to listen to it via radio…no streaming allowed at his work). It was very emotional: the whole school, classroom by classroom was connected (which explains some of the choking up of the stream). We also Ti-voed, to see it later, without rush and we made an exception to our “no TV” rule for this special occasion( of course Keegan’s interest lasted only a few minutes, but still he participated to the historic event). Even Keegan got caught up in the excitement. He was banging at the TV and saluting the 44th president on this historic day…

what is going on here?

Who’s that guy?

hail to the chief

O-BA-MA, O-BA-MA, O-BA-MA!

…or was he just pointing out to an airplane? By the way, just to clear any misconceptions, the one below IS his way to signal an airplane (or any other flying object) and no some sinister political gesture. How do we know? He stops in the middle of anything he is doing when he hears a plane, point to the sky, and generally turns in the direction of the noise. What a weird kid…

nobody moves…an airplane is flying by!

And yes, we are the only people in America that still have not upgraded to at least a flat screen TV, let alone HDTV or Plasma…but honestly we probably watch 10 hours a week if that…and we still have the projector for movies.

Beside signing airplane and “I am done”(both pulling on a real or imaginary bib and waving his hands), there is no much more communication from his part, yet; however his understanding has increased: he now understands also yogurt, bread, monkey (he gets his stuffed monkey), Gongolo (one of the 7  dwarfs spelled in Italian, also a stuffed toy), tent (as it refers to his frog tent), say “ciao”, food, come here, not in your mouth (but he does not obey to this one), push, pull and probably others we don’t notice yet. Most of these are spoken in Italian, but he understands some English as well.

Now the holidays are officially over: Tizi’s birthday was on Saturday. It was great to have a whole weekend to celebrate. It was definitely different form any other birthday, since there is a little guy that take all the attention, but we had a great time. The weather continued his beautiful streak, so once again we had temperatures in the 80’s (26+Celsius). No worries all of you in the rest of the world, struggling with cold and snow. Winter is scheduled to arrive in San Diego as well this week, when rain will bring temperatures back to the 60’s (18 Celsius) where they belong.

We started the day well, with Keegan sleeping in till almost 7am. Tizi spent most of the morning on the phone with well wishers. It is a sign you are getting older when all your calls come in before 10 am. In the old days NOBODY would have dared calling us before 11 am! We spent some time at the beach, that was of course really crowded. We took a walk, and then played in the sand. Keegan loved walking around in the sand, and chasing seagulls around.

 Pacific Beach in January

At night time, we had our babysitter come over: it is really surprising to see how Keegan is now in a different phase. For as much as he likes our babysitter, who is wonderful, and he is familiar with her, this time it took a good 15 minutes, before he let her hold him. So, while his worse separation anxiety symptoms are gone for now, he is still super shy when it comes to other people. He did cry a few minutes when we left, but not much. It was soon time for bed anyway.

Tizi and Matt had a great dinner at Island Prime, a beautiful restaurant on San Diego Bay, overlooking the water. It was nice to have some time for ourselves, and Tizi enjoyed the undivided attention. Back home, it was gifts, cake and presents time. Matt bought a beautiful watch from Teno, one of Tizi’s favorite brand. Good thing there is an amazing jewelry store across from Matt’s workplace. Sunday was another relaxing and hanging out day. And today, Monday, Tizi’s getting another birthday gift: it is Marting Luther’s King Day, so her school is closed, while daycare (and Matt’s office) is open…which means 6 hours of free time!!!!!! While having a little guilt for feeling this, she thoroughly enjoyed her day off. And when she picked the little guy up, Tizi got one more surprise:the coolest birthday card. Looking at his foot and hand prints it is amazing to see how much he has grown…

2009 has started with beautiful weather. It is also unseasonably warm, with highs in the mid 80’s over the weekend. We took advantage of this beautiful sunny days and took Keegan to Mission Bay at the playground. Granted, he is more interested in walking everywhere than playing with the equipment, but while swings don’t really do it for him, slides are a big hit. We let him slide on his own this time, with mom or dad catching him as he went down…most of the times anyway. It was hilarious to watch him turning his scared look into a huge grin once he got down. Matt thinks he is a scare-devil, a thrill junkie like mom. Tizi can’t wait to take him skydiving! Just kidding, but zip lines are a fair game.

yeah, this is not really doing it for me

now we are talking…I hope they will catch me at the end of the ride

Another fun event: Keegan had his first kiss on Saturday. And from an older woman! He was kicking back in the tunnel underneath the slides, playing with the sand and minding his own business, when this cute, 18 months old French Canadian girls walked in, looked at him, and very deliberately bowed down and planted a big, wet one on his lips…for a good couple of seconds. Ah, those French women!!! Sign of things to come???

Tizi and her mom were just bowling over with laughter, while Matt missed the whole thing. Unfortunately we could not record this for posterity and blackmails. Keegan seems more perplexed than anything, but he was grinning a lot afterward. Of course another girl brought him quickly back to reality by throwing sand in his face. I guess she was jealous.  Keegan the heart-breaker (-:

He also got the chance to wear his awesome checkered Vans, (gift of Aunt Mary) which  elicited a few positive comments. Hopefully he is not a future Jeff Spicoli!

who is the coolest dude around?

We started the year with a mellow, warm day. Heavy fog rolled in in the morning and afternoon, but otherwise we had a sunny day. We all woke up early: we had a nice breakfast all together, and then aunt Cinzia, uncle Sandro, and cousins Naraiana and Samuele got ready to leave. They had quite a drive: all the way to Death Valley. They wanted to get an early start, so they leaft before 10 am. It was sad to say goodbye, but we are happy we had these days to spend together.

I am ready to play…wake up mom and dad!

The rest of the day was quiet. We took a nice drive up the coast, which was quite beautiful, with the afternoon  fog rolling in, and the surf crashing on the beach. A nice way to test the new car seat: fortunately, Keegan seems to like it quite a bit. He gets very excited when we put him in it, probably because he can now finally see outside the car rear window. Thanks to its deep recline, he also likes taking naps in it, so it is a win-win situation. did I mention it looks awesome in Tizi’s car?

enjoying some sun on our deck

with mom, overlooking the canyon

climbing on furniture is fun

The house was very quiet, and even Keegan noticed it. And finally after he was in bed, we had a nice, romantic, new year celebration, just the two of us. Happy New Year! “Let’s hope it is a good one, without any tears”.

Matt had to go back to work on Friday, but Keegan was very very good. He woke up at…drum roll…7am, and he was in a good mood all day, despite being cooped up home most of the time. The weather really deteriorated, it was gray and cold, and even drizzling. Dad came home early, so we could enjoy a long weekend of family time. And enjoy we did. Keegan slept till 7am every day, and he was in a great mood overall. We set up our frog tent in the sun room on Saturday, since it was gray and rainy, and we had some fun in it…especially Tizi. She loves that thing. She actually drove to two different stores to find it. It is awesome. Fortunately Keegan likes it too.

the uber-cool frog tent

Saturday was sunny again, even if a little windy, so we celebrate Keegan’s 13th “birthmonthday” by going to the beach for some fun in the sun. Keegan slept while we lazily strolled on the boardwalk, but he was ready to play when we got to the sand. He was walking everywhere, particularly enjoying climbing up sand dunes.

We are grateful we had such a good start for the new year, and we are definitively counting our blessings (with all the necessary knocks on wood, to avoid jinxing it), especially after having a close call on the way to the beach. As we were preparing to turn left with the traffic light green for a couple of minutes inour direction, someone came flying through the intersection from the left, running the red light and almost hitting us and another car. Thank God Matt had such good reflexes and slammed on his breaks, and we didn’t have anyone behind us, so we were all OK. But if the car would have arrived a few seconds later it would have hit the driver side where both Matt and I were…it was a big scare, but again made us grateful for all that we have.

In other Keegan’s news, he has been sleeping till 7 am every day since Friday and he has been a good eater as well: he ate tofu, lots of tomatoes, chicken soup with pasta(homemade by daddy), pineapples, some spinach, mozzarella cheese. He does not like melon, for some weird reason, and he would only eat past in a soup. He even started drinking his morning milk from a sippy cup. He is not too happy about it, but it is a start. He only gets one bottle, before bedtime, but other than that he is using his cup, with or without the sippy top. We are cutting down on formula as well, replacing it with cow milk that he seems to tolerate quite well, so far.

Finally, he seems to understand us a lot more. Besides the meaning of NO, milk, food, he now seems to understand some simple phrases. For example, if we tell him to bring us a book to read together, he would go to the books’ box, pick one up and bring it to us. Or if we tell him it is bath time, he will light up and walk to the bathroom. It is really exciting to see.

During the whole vacation, but especially in the past three days he was a “perfect”, happy baby, even playing on his own for a while.

…we thoroughly enjoyed this stage as temporary as it may be, but of course we missed him a lot as we both got back to work on Monday.

“So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year is over and a new one has just began” (well we have been listening to a lot of John Lennon, lately, so you will excuse the citation). Well, what have we done? Lots and not much at the same time. This past year has gone by so fast, and i can’t believe how much our life has changed in 12 months…looking at the pictures for our greeting, it is amazing how different Keegan looks now from when he was born.

2008 has been a good year, and exciting one and we are looking forward to 2009, with more adventures. New year’s Eve was pretty mellow. We didn’t have our usual get together with friends (next year guys), but Tizi’s sister and family where spending the last day here, so we just had a family day. Matt had to work, but Tizi and family went for a nice walk on the bay. Keegan was again quite good, taking more than an hour nap in the stroller, and playing around (well, walking around is more like it) in the park.

cousin Samuele

cousin Naraiana

We took the time to take last minute pictures, of course, including the mandatory family shot. Amazingly enough it only took one take, and extreme photoshopping was required.

all together

After all kids were in bed, we had a nice, leisurely dinner, with good wine, traditional cakes, and lots of talking. It was nice. I guess life as a parent really transforms you: Aunt Cinzia and uncle Sandro went to bed at 11, while Tizi napped on the couch till midnight: only Matt  lasted awake the whole time. At midnight, Tizi and Matt opened the champagne and toasted at the new year, and then proceed to bed promptly at 12.30. What a party!!! It was good too, though, because Keegan started the new year just like he ended the last one, waking up around 5.45am.

Tizi and Matt started 2009 cuddling the little “monster” in the big bed and playing around: is there any better way to start a day? It is a rhetorical question, of course, but despite the sleep deprivation, it is awesome to get started listening to Keegan giggle. It makes it all worthwhile.

So, happy 2009 everyone: we hope it will be a prosperous year for all!

The long awaited day is finally here: Tizi’s sister and her family traveled on Christmas day and arrived in Los Angeles, making the drive to San Diego the following day. They arrived around 10.30 am in a record 1.5 hour drive from LAX.

Of course we just put Keegan down for his nap, so the kids were a little disappointed they had to wait more to see their little cousin. Matt baked some delicious banana nut muffins, and we all settled in with some hot tea, set up all the gifts and stockings around the tree, and Nara and Samuele could barely wait to open them.

Keegan woke up shortly after, and he was, of course a little perplexed. His separation/stranger anxiety has been improving but it still took him a little bit to get used to the new visitors. He was quite shy, looking for mom and dad, but very interested and curious about the little cousins. He did not know what to make of his uncle, so tall, but in a couple of days all reservations were gone, and he was happily enjoying all the extra attention.

It was finally presents time: watching Naraiana and Samuele opening the gifts and getting all excited gave us a nice preview of Christmas to come. It was fun seeing them so excited. Keegan’s gifts were wrapped up in newspapers, since he didn’t really care either way: it all goes straight to his mouth.

It’s presents time, finally

check out the stockings

Everyone got many cool gifts, and Keegan was really spoiled. I have to say, though, we have a clear winner in the gifts category: the cheap cellphone from Target. He just loves it! Plus, since it can have a recorded message, his little cousins had a bast recording on it, so he can hear their voices even when they are gone. Now, will it stop him from taking the real phone? The jury is still   out.

and the favorite gift is…the cellphone

Tizi also got some comic relief. Aunt Cinzia recommended a wonderful booklet, “Fai La Nanna, Bastardo”, roughly translated as “Go to sleep, you bastard”;while it does not teach anything, it makes sleep deprived parents laugh.

The week flew by. It was great having them here. We did some tourist stuff together, but they did quite a bit on their won as well: Keegan (and quite frankly Tizi as well) could not match their stamina. (-:

Together we went to la Jolla and Pacific Beach, in a beautiful and somewhat warm Saturday and we took a nice ride along the coast. Breakfast at Kono’s was mandatory. We took a nice walk on the beach and played in the sand. While they visited Cabrillo Point, we went home. They graciously offered us to babysit, so Tizi and Matt sneaked away to watch a movie, “Slumdog millionaire”: while not completely uplifting it was nice to have some adult fun.

 crashing waves in la Jolla

The Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach

Cousin Naraiana is practicing her babysitting skills

Sunday was Seaworld for them, and a quiet day for us. We did some errands, finally installed the new car seat and ordered one for Matt’s truck. Matt cooked some excellent lasagna so we had quite a feast. On Monday Matt went to work: Keegan woke up very early, so were were quite exhausted all day. Aunt Cinzia, helped a lot, giving lots of breaks to Tizi and taking Keegan for a stroll. In the afternoon, they all went to Coronado, while Tizi and keegan stayed home. Keegan was a little cranky, and Tizi really was not feeling well, but fortunately, when the cousins came back, Keegan’s mood changed as well. Some rest and an ibuprofen did the trick for Tizi and the next day she was a s good as new.

Tuesday was zoo day. Another beautiful day in paradise: sunny and warm. We got there around 10, and stayed the whole day…well, Keegan and Tizi left around 3 but everyone else stayed till closing. Keegan was amazing: he LOVED being at the zoo. Compared to a few months ago, when he would not care too much about it, this time he was mesmerized by all the animals and people. He was quite in his stroller and fell asleep without fuss when tired, and slept about an hour and a half. Unfortunately he missed the pandas and the Koala, Tizi and Cinzia’s favorite animals. We are sure glad we have a zoo membership, so we can come back soon.

New year’s day was quite mellow. We spent the morning at home, and called the grandparents, and went for a nice walk in Mission Bay in the afternoon. Again, keegan was good: he fell asleep in the car, and slept through half of the walk. Then at the playground he wondered all over: definitely walking is is favorite game at this point. The weather was changing: thick fog was rolling in and wind was blowing. I guess it is a good thing it happened on aunt Cinzia’s last day.

I am ready to go

playing with his own shadow

walking is more fun than any play equipment

 two sisters at Mission Bay

Keegan was excellent all week, except for the sleeping: he didn’t make it past 5, 5.30 in a good day, and it was hard to keep him quiet not to wake everyone up. We started taking him into our bed , after attempting to put him back to sleep, giving him some milk, and cuddle with him till it was time to get up. We all enjoyed this little ritual, and it really helped dealing with the early wake up. He was a lot better than last month when we had visitors, which made us feel better:maybe he passed the acute phase of separation anxiety. Or maybe just having kids to play with made the difference. All and all he was really very good, in a great mood most of the time, and always smiling and happy.

Even eating was a little easier: he ate a slightly larger variety of foods, and more and more finger foods. He now loves cherry tomatoes (in fact he can’t get enough of it) and mozzarella. he still not liking pasta much, but hey, 2 out of three is not bad. Pears and bananas are still his favorite fruits, and of course he would beg for any food the adults are eating, only to spit it out in slow motion if he does not like it. He has quite a sweet tooth, as he loves croissants.

We were all a little sad by the end of the day. The week flew by, and we will miss each other a lot. They will continue their trip to US visiting the Southern California desert and we will slowly get back to our routine. Matt is back at work on January 2, while Tizi and Keegan are back to their own daily schedule on January 5. We are however glad of the good times we spent together and are looking forward to seeing each other soon in a hopefully near future. Thank you for coming and have a good trip back.

While this is not Keegan’s first Christmas, last year he was too small to understand. This year he was a little more aware, so it was a lot more fun for all of us. Of course, we got to the big day in a total frenzy: despite all her good intentions, Tizi’s was struggling to get everything done in time.: between a demanding class to prepare, Keegan’s birthday to organize, and friends visiting it was hard to find time to get everything done. While we bought the tree semi-early, on December 13, Tizi didn’t decorate it till the 20. We still used a white, silver and blue theme, and Keegan’s initial was gracing the tree this year. Fortunately, Tizi’s vacation was excellent this year. Her last day was the 22 of December, and since daycare was open till noon on December 24, she had the chance to enjoy a full vacation day on 12/23. It was great to have a few hours for herself to get stuff done and just relax. it is incredible how much you can accomplish when you know you only have a few hours.

Most of the shopping this year was done on line, with only briefs stops at the mall. it was an unusual Christmas also because Tizi’s sister Cinzia, her husband Sandro and her kids Naraiana and Samuele were coming to visit on December 26.  So the actual Christmas was pretty low key. On Christmas eve we finished up most shopping and cleaning, and after putting Keegan to bed we had an adults-only celebration: some alone time and an amazing dinner with appetizers, filet mignon, side dishes and cheesecakes, accompanied by excellent wine. It was nice to take a breather.

Christmas day we woke up to a cold and rainy day. Tizi breastfed Keegan for the last time: he is now more than a year old, and her milk production has been steadily decreasing, so it is time to move on. It was definitely a bittersweet moment. While she has been preparing for this for a while, and while breastfeeding has never come too easy, it was still a little sad to close this chapter. We spend the day at home, finishing up our chores. We also wrapped the rest of the presents, and let Keegan open a couple of presents, saving the rest for the following day, for our belated celebration with the cousins. He was wearing his cute Xmas bib, “I have been good, mostly” which of course lasted the time of the picture.

what will it be????

a xylophone bird house…

We called Tizi’s parents with Skype. Keegan has grown quite a bit from when we were last in Italy. Of course he now walks and climbs on stuff, but we also noticed a lot more complex babbling. Also, after months of signing to him we got our first signback. What was it???? AIRPLANE! The least important, and the least used sign. Taking from a family tradition, now every time he hears an airplane he stops and points to the sky.This kid continues to defy any rule. As for the other sign, he created his won. To say he is finished, he pulls on his bib (even when he is not wearing one). To show he is hungry, he pulls on mom and dad’s legs. The sleepy one is simple denial…