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Matt’s second father’s day was nice and mellow. Keegan and I tried to let him know how much we love him. Matt got a nice card with his handprints and a cute picture of keegan sticking out his tongue. Unfortunately, Keegan did not give him the same gift he gave mom on her day, and woke up bright and early around 5.30 both days. Well, by now we pretty much resigned ourselves that he is an early riser, and there is nothing we can do. Well, we still hold on some glimmer of hope that one day he will start to sleep till 6.30, but at this point is not looking likely.

We have developed somewhat of a ritual, so we get a little more rest. We pick him up and bring him to bed with us: he is drinking his milk, and we  rest a few more minutes. Then we read books in bed, or he plays with some of his toys. One of his favorite is the floating boat with the building blocks that the grandparents bought him. He especially like building really tall towers, and then smashed them down them down.

look how tall this is!

After about an hour of stalling he is usually ready to have breakfast and play with all his toys, so one of us get up, while the other sleep, and then we switch. Yes, the whole morning is gone this way, but at least we catch up a little with our sleep.

Father’s day weekend was not different. On Saturday, Matt actually got some ME time while Tizi entertained the little guy. We went to Costco, which he really likes, and we went for a nice long walk, and of course we played in the yard. At night, since Tizi can’t really cook, Matt had sushi night, with a nice glass of wine. On Sunday, the sun came out, so we had lots of fun in the pool. Keegan enjoys the water, but he like even better sitting on the pool lounger.

I am styling!

And he is such a great helper, that he gave daddy a hand cleaning up the pool afterwards…check out his towel/cape!

Of course we did some story time, one of Keegan’s favorite activities: he now loves to go through the First Words book  and point out all the things he knows, while looking around the house for the corresponding object. If he does not the word, he simply associates the object to one of us: for example, a convertible and the telephone are “mamma”, and the pick up truck and the broom are “papa”. It is pretty funny, and it is great to see how much he learns.

All and all, it was a quiet, but fun weekend, with my two favorite men. Matt is a wonderful father, and he is the person that can make Keegan laugh the loudest:he always comes up with some kind of game for him. and it makes me happy to see the bond the two of them share. They will soon do guys only stuff and leave mama behind (wishful thinking?) We started them off by taking him to Home Depot, the manliest place of all…well Tizi likes it too, but still. Check him out looking at brushes like a pro.

It is wonderful to see them together. I am fortunate to have such a great partner to share the joys of parenthood with.

We just wanted to write a post just to give all of you that haven’t seen Keegan in a while a little glimpse of his life right now. Maybe it is just an excuse for posting some cute pictures.

As we mentioned in previous posts, he has started developing quite a personality. He is still very smiley, and most of all is SO excited about life. He seems to have inherited “the loudness factor” from mom: he will let you…and the whole neighborhood know if he is excited (or upset). There is nothing better than watching him screech in delight, while doing his goofy happy dance (unfortunately it is impossible to describe…we will try to get it on video). His whole face light up, and his huge grin almost shows all of his 10 teeth.

He is also very “determined”: he thinks he knows what he wants, and there is no way to convince him otherwise. This is why we have given up, for now, to make him nap at home on the weekends. Mr Keegan has NO problems napping at daycare. In fact he requires no help whatsoever, except a small back rub. At home, however, it is a totally different story: we tried everything, from rocking him, to laying down with him in a big bed, to letting him cry: and our “determined” little one proceeded to cry for 2.5 hours, with no sleep. So now, with our doctor blessing, we are either let him nap in the car or in the stroller. Both of those methods, usually, got him to sleep withing minutes and for a nice solid couple hours. So, yeah, we are “bad parents”, but hey, he needs sleep and we are exhausted: remember, he wakes up most day between 5 and 5.30 am…

Mr social butterfly, the little baby that would smile at everyone and let anyone hold him, also managed to turn into a shy little boy. he is still very interested in everything that is going on, but he usually rather watch from the sidelines for a while before joining in. And we are talking about ANY situation, including daycare. Every single morning, he plays the shy guy when we drop him off, even if he knows the place very well. In fact he is really excited about being there. He is running happily in the building till he gets to his room, and shy guy appears. When other kids or adults are around, he needs some mommie’s, mainly, contact to feel OK. Again, this is pretty normal for toddlers, even if not everyone goes thought separation anxiety quite as much.

Of course we are trying to arrange as much social occasion as possible…so mom can also have a better social  life. We like to go play to the Mission bay playground, and sometimes a little friend from daycare, MacKenzie, joins us there. Keegan is usually very excited about it:he is showing off and prancing around to impress her. They like to slide together.

Last week, we went also to a fun 1 year birthday party. Our friends Krista and Eric’s little guy. It was a lot of fun. We even managed to have a little adult party first, because most kids were napping: Torin in his crib, and Keegan in the car down the street with dad. Keegan pulled the shy/mommie cards but after about an hour was OK: I bet it was the delicious, homemade chocolate/nutella ice cream sandwiches.

Torin enjoying his birthday cake

When he felt comfortable, he was all over, playing with the birthday boy- he was the only other boy after all– and all his toys and climbing on the slide.

 Dude, show some respect: kiss the hand if you want to play with my slide

The highlight of this playtime? The jacuzzi dance. Guess who initiated it? Little detail: their jacuzzi is not in ground like ours, but it didn’t matter. We had both kids dancing, and jumping on the cover like mad men. It was fun though, and no accidents were reported.

Even after all this excitment, keegan still had energy to spare, and he decided to runup and down the driveway a few time. Who needs toys, when you have an uphill driveway?

Some of his favorite games/toys right now (beside dancing and sweeping on the jacuzzi cover):

• chasing and being chased
• songs and music
• sand
• pushing and dragging noisy toys
• his busy ball popper
• books!
• blocks and shape sorters
• throwing ANYTHING
• balls, small and big

• loud noises
• ringing the doorbell (and pushing any button)
• splashing water

He has started enjoying stuffed animals too, the softer the better: he likes to rub their soft fur on his face.

the teddy bear that grandma brought him when he was born

So, while on some days we feel like the “terrible twos” have started already, overall we are very excited about this chapter in our little guy’s life and we are enjoying watching him change and develop in front of our eyes.

We made it to the year and half mark. It is hard to believe…especially because we are still dealing with sleeping and eating issues. Shouldn’t we be over that by now…at least the sleeping part? (-: We must have upset the sleep gods (big friends of the water gods that are already NOT on our side).

Anyway, the big day, actually the whole “birthday” week, did not start in the best day. Keegan was very cranky, waking up super early, before 5am, and just not happy. On Tuesday he was particularly fussy: so much so we actually circled the FUSSY option in his daily daycare sheet. And sure enough, just after 8 we got a call to come and get him, as he had a fever. Matt is sure they called usall because we wrote fussy…I did see how they measure the temperature and it definitely not precise. In either case, he was miserable. We think it was teething since he was drooling quite a bit, but no new tooth emerged. Matt got him, and then Tizi came home at around 10.30. Keegan got a quick nap on daddy’s lap and he felt better. Fortunately we had a check up that afternoon, so with a signed doctor note, we were able to get him back to daycare the next day. And honestly, he was fine, even if he kept on waking up early, so he was more tired than usual. He did even got a small present: the Busy Ball activity center, now one of his favorite toys. We actually bought it a few months ago, but forgot to get batteries for it…ooops.

check out the drool spots

The check up went well. We didn’t wait quite as much, even if Keegan was more cranky as I had to wake him up from his car nap. The doctor found him well. He did not gain much in weight, so he is down to the 15% but he is still 50% for height and 25% for his head circumference. The magic numbers are:

23.3 lb (10.5 kg) in weight and 32in (81cm) in height. He is right on schedule with anything he is supposed to be doing right now, so we are happy.

Some of his milestones:

• he stacks tall towers of cubes, even if he still enjoys more knocking them down
• he feeds himself with spoon and forks (sometimes)
• he drinks from a straw, but he does not like it much. He prefers to drink from a real grown-up glass, and he is really good at it: almost no spills. He likes orange juice quite a bit.

• he points to most body parts: he is learning knees, neck, tight and ankles right now
• he imitates us, even noises. He tries to feed us.
• he is more vocal: he added “tate”(potatoes or patate in Italian) , “cocco”(coccodrillo or crocodile for his wooden dancing croc), “cacra” (coccole or cuddles), “tai(d)” (outside), “my” for mine (a words he uses more and more),”papup” (help up) accompanied by the help sign, and the sound for heart, “gackle” (coccole or cuddles),”pap pap”, while hitting his chest. He also uses a variety of sounds to make himself understood.
• he is trying to communicate more: besides the help sign, in the past couple of days he has been doing the I Love You sign, especially after one of us makes it first. He may not fully understands its meaning, but he definitely do it with intent. Sometimes he even blow a kiss afterwards

I love you mommie

I love you too daddy (check out the Cheerios’s explosion!)

• he lets us know clearly when he is bored with a place by saying Bye Bye and waving repeatedly
• he blew his first bubbles: the wind helped but he still blew them all by himself
• he takes toys apart and puts them back together, and puts lids on and off containers
• he “brushes” his teeth. He still will not let us brush them, but he likes to try to do it when mom is doing it. He must look at himself on the mirror, though
• he “dances” to music or when asked
• he likes to help. He enjoys helping mom to put on sunscreen, and sweeping outside…from the jacuzzi cover

should I do the floor too?

• surprising enough, he says Yeah much more often than no. In fact he never really said no, he just shakes his head. Unfortunately, he does not always mean it when he says yes, but he ALWAYS mean it when he says no. He looks like Tizi when she first learned English: there was a lot of smiling and saying yes even if she did not have the foggiest idea of what other people were saying
• he kicks balls around more
• he points to objects when we name them and makes connections between a photo in a book and the corresponding object in the house: such as the picture of a monkey and his stuffed monkey
• he dumps objects in containers, including throwing things in the garbage
• he follows two-steps requests…and he is usually putting his toys away when asked (or pick the food he is still throwing on the floor)
• he opens more doors

less fun milestones:

• he has temper tantrums when frustrated, which unfortunately happens quite often.

an expression we have become quite acquainted with lately

• he is still going through a big separation/stranger anxiety phase…
• he is very shy in social situations, even if if they are not totally unfamiliar to him. Other kids or other people in general intimidate him. He seems to be better with older girls (4+) but otherwise, he likes to stand and watch from a distance…for quite a while before approaching the situation
• he is definitely a toddler when it comes to food: picky and finicky…which explains his little weight gain. He enjoys playing more than eating

We also finally took him to see a dentist: I know some of you may think: what? he has 10 teeth! ( and we thought that too: in fact we did not add him to our dental insurance). However, after being reprimanded twice by our doctor because we had not taken him to see a dentist yet, we caved in. I have to say that the experience was less painful, for mom of course, than expected. The office is small, stocked with cool toys, and we DID NOT WAIT at all. The doctor was nice and quite gentle, and even if Keegan cried, he was pretty still and opening his mouth, contrary to some of his best exorcist interpretations that he reserved to his regular check up: screaming, thrashing from side to side, requiring 3 adults to get to see inside his mouth… It seems that everything is OK, no cavities, and nothing to worry about for now.He has a little bit of an overbite right now, but with so few teeth is hard to tell. I guess we are due in 6 months again…

So, overall Keegan is a normal toddler: it is amazing to see how strong his personality is already…We enjoy watching him become more and more his own person every day.

here he is: our super cute (if we can say so ourselves) toddler

It is supposed to be almost summer, according to the calendar, but of course, being San Diego, we have been living with grey skies since May. May gray and June Gloom are definitely not just an expression. Anyway, we still had the chance to go outside and play around with our little guy, enjoying the sun, when it breaks through in the afternoon.

Lots of water fun. Keegan is fascinated by all sort of water. However, being the cautious little guy he is, he is also timid and somewhat reserving his judgment, most of the times. We have been exposing him to all sort of water activity in the past month of so. Of course there was the swim lessons: he did not learn much, but definitely enjoyed himself, and gain a new admiration for the Hokie Pokie Song, that we sang at the end of each class. See, he is already a real Hokie! Go Virginia Tech.

He had is first visit to SeaWorld as well. It was a quick stop, but we bought a Fun Card, so we can come back anytime for free.

The now have a great toddler area we did not have the chance to check out. We did spend most time in the tide pools: he loved dipping his hands in the water, and touch the cool starfish. Can you tell someone was having fun? We took him also to see the sharks, the turtles and the penguins, but nothing could beat the star fish.

We went back to the  beach as well, and this time we tried to re-introduce him to the ocean, after his traumatic first encounter last year: well, he did not go that much better this time. Not huge waves, but the water was freezing cold, and he (and mommie alike) did not like that a bit. He had a lot of fun playing on the shore and jumping on the pools of water there, but the waves did not fascinated him at all.

He still loves loves loves the sand, though. He makes castles, with some help, and knock them down and he enjoys getting his feet buried under the sand. Once home, one more water experience: the shower. He has watched daddies many times and he was curious about it, so we gave it a try. He was enthralled: I would not say excited but curios. He liked placing his hand under the shower head and getting wet. Not too thrilled about water in his ears, but he thought it was fun to be in there. We should also mention that he has been quite fascinated by how mommie and daddie look different from each other when naked. He finds that hilarious.

Last weekend it was finally mostly a sunny day, so our brand new solar system could actually warm up the pool to a nice 88 degrees. So it was pool time for all of us. Again Keegan was more excited about dipping his hands in it that actually playing in the pool, but it is his first try: we have learned already he needs some time to “absorb” new experiences, and we have the whole summer. We bought new water toys and we will be practicing some of the lessons learned at the swim classes…assuming the weather cooperates.

What do you mean I have to wait? I am all dressed and ready to go.

let me in, let me in, let me in

this floater is kind of fun…

but you can’t beat being in mommie’s arms

We have one more water surprise in store: we got Keegan a small water table to splash around. Judging from how much he loved splashing in the fountains in Balboa Park we think he will like it. And talking about Balboa park, he loved watching the Koi fish in the pond with daddy.

So we have not posted in a while. There are lots of cute pictures to upload and interesting stuff to talk about (of course, this is always relative: I am pretty sure the general population is bored to tears by our blog), but the truth is we have been really busy (and sleep deprived to boot) so we have not found the time to write. Hopefully there will be a few posts coming soon. We had a fun birthday party, more fun developments, and well-baby check up, and lots of goofie fun.

So stay tuned!