tizimatt.info

…and Easter is around the corner. While the calendar says it is indeed spring, the first few days has been quite unpredictable: some sun, some rain, some warm days, some cold ones, lots of wind…I guess this is what spring is supposed to be. We still took the chance to take Keegan out as much as possible, even if it is our yard or a quick stroll around the block. And when you do walk around the block, you may meet some interesting fellows. Like a friendly gentleman walking a lamb!

Let me give you some background: for the past few years, we have noticed that, around Easter time, one of our neighbors up the block had a cage with one or two lambs in his garage. We could not believe it: we are living in the very definition of suburbs, at least the 60’s idea of it, so keeping wild animals as pets is not really standard.However, we saw it enough time to know we were not hallucinating. The lamb/s always disappeared after Easter. Well, so what is a rational person supposed to think?????

I guess we can add this to the “never judge a book by his cover” series. On Wednesday, we had the chance to talk to the guy and his lamb, Daisy. it turns out that he is a photographer and every year he gets a lamb from a farm around Easter time and bring it to different schools to take pictures of the children. After Easter he returns it to the farm….and we don’t want to know what happens after that, nor we want to ask.

So, on Wednesday, our friendly neighbor, was kind enough to bring Daisy the lamb around as he saw Keegan playing in the front yard: what a treat it was for him (and for Tizi as well).

Keegan, meet Daisy

The little lamb is only two weeks old and she was very friendly as well. Keegan was somewhat perplexed at first, and Daisy did not know what to make of him either.

Grandma, are you sure about this petting thing?

well, I feel safer with mom

But after a short while they slowly warmed up to each other…maybe a little much. After 20 minutes, the lamb was running away begging for mercy, as Keegan was chasing her and patting her on her butt.

Hi there!

let’s play catch

Of course we had to film the whole thing, it was too funny. Tizi even learned something new: lambs jump, and it means they are in a playful mode. Also, by three weeks they are basically teenagers, and never listen. We tried to convince our neighbor to let us hire Daisy, as a weed eater, but we got shot down: I guess that weeds don’t sit well in their stomach, literally, and even if lambs love them, weeds make them sick…oh well it was worth a try.

Are you sure we can’t hire her to eat our weeds??

By the way, yes, we will eventually take care of the front yard. We want to actually eliminate the grass and replace it with some local, drought resistant plants, but we have other projects that take priority. So, for now, we will have to rely on random lambs and Matt’s lawnmower to keep weeds under control.

Once again, while the grandparents are around, Keegan is going through some big change. Nothing stratospheric, mind you, but after almost 5 months of quiet he is finally sprouting new teeth. Not one, not two, but three: two top front ones, and a top molar! We honestly didn’t noticed the first two, as his sleep has been erratic plenty times before without reason. I just put my finger accidentally into his mouth and felt them. While at first I was not too thrilled about losing symmetry, with the new top tooth, she was relieved to see that the other top tooth is about to poke out. Relieved till this morning that is, when Keegan woke at 5.30 crying and could not be soothed. Oh well, hopefully it will be over soon.

The weather has been good, and we have very warm forecasts for the next few days, so Keegan has been enjoying lots and lots of outdoor play and walks with grandma and grandpa. This a great thing because he absolutely LOVES being outside, and he will clamor to go outside as soon as we get back home from daycare.Tizi on the other hand has been enjoying a few hours of free time each day, and just at the right time too, as she has been somewhat buys at work.

goofing around in Mission Bay

how did this got on my head?

slides are still Keegan’s favorite

Keegan has also increased his vocal repertoire, as far as animal noises goes at least. He now grunts for piggie, makes “mmmm” for cow, “oh,oh,oh,oh” for monkey, “awooo” for cat, “ssssss” for snake, “ah, ah, ah” for crows (or any other bird), “awoooooo” for dog (we must have hounds in the neighborhood). No much more progress in talking, even though he can now say “mama, dada, nana (for banana)” quite well. His signing has improved as well, both in quality and consistency. Milk, more (referring to anything, not just food), food, and all the others we mentioned already, and now even “shhhh” (hand on his mouth). Of course he also has lots of other ways to let us know what he wants.

Finally he has kept on eating more and more food, and more and more on his own. He is now quite good at eating with a spoon, even dipping it himself. And tomatoes have made a triumphal return. He finally likes pasta!!! Tizi is excited about that.

We have another week and a half with the grandparents and we are all planning to enjoy every minute of it. You don’t need to tell Keegan twice. He is having a ball with them, his favorite playmates. He plays all afternoon, and laughs out loud, and squeal in delight at all the games grandma and grandpa are inventing for him. It does not hurt that they are bringing lots of gifts, big and small. We will definitely had to hide some when they leave, and rotate them. For now though, is great to see him light up and play with them.

having a laugh with grandma’s musical book

Tizi and Matt are also enjoying the extra free time. Saturday we had our first night outside the house. Grandma offered kindly to sleep over so we went to a funny comedy show at 4th and B and then stayed the night at the Sheraton Hotel at Symphony hall, in a nice king suite, with awesome view of the city. We were even upgraded and got a wonderful free breakfast buffet. By the way, the Sheraton restaurant is the place where we first talked about/decided to get married in 2002.

The best part of it, though, was the chance to actually spend time together, as a couple, without worries, and really only focus on each other, without being interrupted. And let not forget the chance to get a nice night of sleep. Even if we were not able to sleep in till 9/10am straight as we used to (we still got up earlier) it was wonderful not to have to get up right away, and just lie down and talk and cuddle with no rush. Plus, we got back home early enough not to miss the little guy too much. Seeing how happy he was when he saw us really was touching: it almost compensate us for the perennial lack of sleep… almost.

So thank you grandparents for such a great gift!

our little angel

Another Well Baby Check Up (another grueling 3 hours experience…as soon as he gets 2 we are changing doctors). Keegan is healthy and well developed, and he actually showed more patience than mom and dad during the eternal wait to see the doctors.

These are his measurements:
• Weight is exactly 23 lb (10.2kg) >> 25–50 percentile
• Height  is 30.1/2 inches (77 cm) >> 50–75 percentile
• Head circumference of 14.5in. >> 25 percentile

So he remained on his growth curve, after the big jump last time. he seems to hit all the developmental milestones, except for talking and we never tried scribbling, so we are not sure about that.

These are milestones he was checked for :

• he walks fast and almost run
• he stacks objects on top of each other. His record was 5 before collapse.
• he responds to simple commands (when he wants to)
• he self feeds, and use utensils (he can, but only when he wants to)
• he picks up objects while walking without falling down
• he waves bye
• he holds out arm or lifts a leg to help us dress him
• he points at body parts when asked (again if he wants to)
• he matches lids with containers
• he imitates us somewhat
• he points
• he walks backward

Other things he does:

• he finally started signing back in a clear way! it only took 9 months!!! He now clearly signs for milk. He also knows how to sign for More, and Finished, but he does not use them consistently. He makes up his own signs as well: lifting his arm to indicate trees, and one arm to indicate he wants up on the couch; shakes his head to say no; bangs on the fridge or his high chair when he is hungry; rubs his hands together when we tell him to go wash his hands; clap his hands or feet when asked.
• he enjoys washing his hand. He gets up his little steps, and helps out.
• while he is not really talking, he says “nanana” for banana, dadad for dad, and mummmmm for mom. He also started grunting for pig: of course of all animal sound we have been doing he has to pick the pig. He also makes a distinctive sound and put his hand on his hear for telephone.
• his understanding increases every day: he now sits down when asked, and also when we mention it is time to put our shoes on.
• he is throwing balls…or anything else in his hands
• he getting a lot better at shape sorting. His favorite toy right now is the Shape Sorter Hyppo: not only he gets to sort the shapes, he gets to press down a button that eject them out from the mouth. Of course he enjoys the pressing the button more than shape sorting, but still…

• he has learned to open doors. Fortunately, some of our handles are higher than others, so out of his reach. We also got some handles lock, just in case
• he is slowly eating more foods. We are cautious in saying it, but he has started getting more chunky foods and self feeding himself more.
• he has started walking backwards and sitting in between our legs when he wants to be read a book: I guess they do this in his new daycare, and he may like that a lot
• he still quite the daredevil. He enjoys standing on the coffee table, and crowd diving: this keep us on our toes, because he dives regardless if there is anyone there to catch him or not. He loves to climb and go up and down stairs.
• he still loves books and keeps on turning pages on his own. He has been doing this for a long time now, and it makes it difficult to read to him.
• he is starting to throw tantrums when frustrated, usually when we stop him from doing something dangerous or take a way a toy (or not take him outside)”
• of course he more and more interested in his penis, now every time we change him
• he “dances” when he hears music, especially the banjo sounds from his leap frog table. Well, he bend his legs and goes up and down, but hey, he is a white boy, and white boy can’t dance, right?

In other news, he is getting adjusted to his new daycare. He has not been crying the past couple of mornings when we left him, and he seems more involved. I saw him interact with the other kids more when I pick him up, and they told us that he loves to eat. He has been eating a lot more there and different foods: he probably likes to eat with all the other kids: they are so cute, sitting together at their little tables, with their little chairs. He must enjoy the social eating: we really need to make an effort to share some meals together.

The new schedule is more structured, and maybe he likes the predictability of it. They do art, and music and outdoor play, and so far he has been sleeping a couple of hours each afternoon. In the weekends we have some trouble keeping him up till 11.30/12. On Saturday he feel asleep at 9.30 on his high chair (and of course, bad parents as we are, there he staid till he woke up  an hour later). His night sleeping is still a little off, but it seems like the daylight savings change helped, and he has been sleeping a little longer in the morning (maybe because it is darker).

So, all and all he is a healthy, happy toddler, and we are deeply grateful for that. Plus, isn’t he adorably cute?

We made to the 15th month already…and what a beginning to the new month that was: grandma and grandpa arrived from Italy, and Keegan moved to the bigger kids room and changed his daily nap schedule.

Bye Bye Infant room…I’m off to the big kids room

He is actually is taking all in stride. The first day we took him to the new room it was harder for us (or should I say Matt since he has the unpleasant task if dropping him off) that Keegan. Of course he cried, and of course he was super clingy, but the teachers said he did OK, considering. He played and ate all his food…in fact he wanted some pieces of the pizza the other kids were having…we were not aware of Pizza Monday, I guess. When I picked him up, he was sleeping!!! He took a 2.40 hours nap. All the other kids were very nice and friendly, Matt said, and came over to greet him, despite his tears.

Once I took him home, another surprise was waiting for him: grandma and grandpa were home! He was of course not sure what to make of them, and very shy and he kept running to mom, but it took him less than one hour to warm up to them, and start playing. Mom had to be in the room, at short distance, but he let them grandparents hold him and play with him. They have the magic touch: they know just how to handle him. Before we knew it he was running around and giggling and laughing and playing all sort of games.

playing with grandpa

I hate posing for pictures, but check out my super cute Superga shoes

Each new day he got friendlier and friendlier and learn top spend more and more time with them alone, without mom present. After a week we are up to more than an hour, without complaints: well, who wants to complain when you have two playmates that spend every minute just trying to make him laugh, play with him non-stop and indulge every whim? It will be a rude awakening when they leave as mom and dad definitely do not give him this much attention. It is great to see them together, though. And mom is finally starting to have some time for doing her own stuff (or just relax).

And let not forget the awesome home made Italian food we are getting every night. Or the cool toys and gifts they are buying  for all of us. Or the babysitting so we can go out on date nights. We don’t know how is getting more spoiled, us or Keegan..