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This is hardly breaking news, but since we were talking about his progress as we approach his 20th month, we would be remiss if we did not mention that, no, not even at 20 months, we are getting a decent night sleep. 8 hours is still a mirage…and we are going to bed at 9.30mp!

After two miraculous weeks of 6/6.30 am, our ephemeral hope was destroyed when his wake up call crept up to 5.30 am. At least he was not waking up crying and he seemed quite awake and ready to go. It took us a few weeks to get adjusted (or better yet, resigned), and just as we accepted the fate we could not change, he stepped up the ante. New wake up time: 5 am. He also threw in a few 4.40am calls, but we drew the line. He is going back to bed, or at the very least, he is staying  in his room, like it or not, till 5.30 am or so. I would have never thought, in a million years, that 5.30 am would be a wake up time to hope for.

How is that for irony? Matt and I are both very late sleepers, and definitely NOT morning people. For years we have marveled at the fact that we were so well matched in our sleep patterns we did not mind “wasting” weekend mornings sleeping in. And, sure enough, we get a baby that NEVER liked to sleep, and always needed to sleep relatively few hours.

By the way, isn’t sleep deprivation considered a torture method, cruel and unusual punishment for prisoners???  (-: I guess at this point, we need to post a picture or two of the little guy in his cute moments, to remind us why we are doing all this and why it is all worth it. So there, isn’t he adorable?

Keegan in his big boy chair

Oh, my, those are big shoes to fill

So, here we are: tired, and in semi zombie state till the weekend, when we can at least catch a couple of extra hours of shut eyes, in turns. Nobody has an explanation. We do have a small theory: since after we get him from his crib, we take him in our room for milk, and books and cuddles (so we can at least stay in horizontal position for a little longer), he may like this so much he wakes himself up to start the fun earlier. Well, we will not give up. After we come back from our trip to Phoenix (yes, desert in August: we are crazy this way), we will try some other plan…suggestions are always welcomed! And yes, we have tried to move his bedtime to later, with no results. Wish us luck!

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As we are approaching Keegan’s 20th month, we have noticed a real increase on his ability, and desire, to communicate. While he will not win any record for number of words or clarity, he has really increased his verbal, vocal and sign vocabulary.

He is also imitating sounds and words a lot better now…so we are really in trouble now. I am expecting cuss words to pop up from his mouth any day.

Before listing all his words, noises and sounds, we thought to give you some eye candy, and post some pics. We also need to issue a warning. Probably this long post will bore most if you to tears, so after the pictures, feel free to skip it. Seriously, no guilt: we imagine that maybe Tizi’s parents will be interested in details about his talking ability, but is hard to phantom that anybody else will.

Keegan has been a lot more social, (YEAH) so it is more fun to take him to visit friends. Here is at Barbara’s house, playing with Stella (about 6 months older) and Roberto (about a year younger). He was excited about the pool and the swing that hung from a tree, and he had his first taste of the Savoiardi cookies: you know, the ones that go inside a Tiramisu. he was dressed in italian clothes for the occasion.

check me out, in my Armani clothes (grandma’s gift)


with mama…but I really want to get in the pool

Barbara with Stella and Roberto (and Maunel, studying in the background)

Keegan’s fake smile, playing with his blocks

So here is the list. The words with an asterisk are pronounced basically correctly. The other ones, with pronunciation in parenthesis, can be understood only by mom and dad, without a Keegan-English Dictionary. Also, much to Tizi’s dismay, most of the words are in English. However, he still understands both languages well, so we have hope.

Words

* Mamma (repeated at least a couple of hundred times a day…we will count it one of this day. One weekend we counted 65 times between 5.30am and 9am)
baba/papa (papa’)
* pappa (food)
* bye
* hi
* mine (it actually uses this also for saying By Myself)
* no (with and without the wagging finger)
* yeah
* cacca (poop)
* cracker
* bubbles
* nanna (sleepie time)
* go
* eye
* hat
* uova (eggs)
* giu'(down)
* nonno (grandpa)
* nonna (grandma)
* cheese
juice (juuus)
pool (pooo)
broom (broo)
banana (nana)
book (bo)
coccodrillo (coco) Crocodile
coccole (cocrle or something like that) Cuddles
baby/Keegan (tada)
ball (ba/pa)
outside/inside (tide)
help (helpup) with accompanying sign
potatoe (tata, from patata)
Hannah (nna)
Ms. Isela, his daycare teacher (ella)

and as of today…please (peas)

It is funny to notice that he pronounce nonno and nonna differently, even if they are the same word, with different ending vowel. Nonno is pronounced with a close O, almost like gnonno, while nonna is pronounced correctly. It is also funny to notice that when he learns a new word, he repeats it continuosly, regardless if he means it or not. So, nowadays is a constant: “cacca” (regardless if he has a dirty diaper),”nonno, nonna, giu’, uova”.

Whatever he can’t name, he use the pointing and the “eh” grunt, which is frustrating for all involved, especially because his pointing skills needs to be refined. However, he also makes quite a few noises, in imitation (and I am not taking about body noises).

Noises:
cow
pig
monkey
snake
bee
cat
dog
lion
walrus
fish
train
cold
dirty (basically a raspberry with his hand on his mouth)
uh-oh
wow
gnam (for something jummy)
heartbeat (pa-pam, while hitting his chest)

And he also uses signs, some from the ASL (or at least his interpretation of it), some he or we made up;

Signs:
milk (closing and opening his hand as if milking a cow)
more (one hand against the other. Always used with words)
finished (shaking hands in the air)
bye (waving)
airplane (hand in the air)
tarzan (banging his chest)
driving (pretends to steer a steering wheel)
tree/tall (hands up)
cold (bringing his fists on his chest with bend arms and shaking them saying BRRR)
help (moving up his fist on a flat palm. Always used with words)
please (rubbing his chest with almost a rotation)
thank you (moving his hand from his mouth outwards)
i don’t know (like an adult would do it: hands on his side, perplexed face)

So, here you have it, give or take a few: our talkative little guy. Of course we didn’t include his own language, which we don’t understand ourselves. What would words like “beechiebah” or “mamore” mean?? We wonder if the other babies understand it.

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Independence day! 3 day weekend! This year  the holiday fell on a Saturday, so we all had Friday off. It is so much nicer to have Friday off instead of Monday: you enjoy it so much more as it comes at the end of the work week. In Tizi’s case, it was also the end of her class and the beginning of her summer break (1 week). So, party on! Well, at least party as parents of a 19 months old can.

The weather has been beautiful and warm, and on Saturday, after our traditional “sleep catch up ritual”, we went to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve: it is a beautiful collection of mostly short hikes overlooking the ocean in La Jolla. We explored the visitor center first, where we could see many stuffed animals. Keegan was particularly fascinated by a giant crab. Then we headed down a pretty easy trail, and Keegan wanted to walk almost the whole way down. A born hiker! Matt was very proud.

Of course on the way back uphill, he did not mind to get a ride on the backpack, but who can blame him?

Lost in meaningful thoughts while staring at the Ocean

Keegan even got to see a real train in the distance, the Coaster, and it has been repeating “choo-choo” since then. It is amazing how he hears trains even far in the distance now.

In the evening, once Keegan  went to bed, Tizi and Matt had a nice romantic evening and dusted off the projector to see Benjamin Button. We forgot how nice it is to see movies on a “big scream”…which of course reminded us that maybe we should hang the real screen we bought months ago…but this is another story.

On Saturday, 4th of July, we decided to avoid the crowds and we kicked back at home. Plenty to do here. Keegan discovered the flashlight, and had a blast projecting light everywhere, on the ouch, himself, the ceiling, and trying to chase it around.

He is now getting more and more excited about the computer. He is dragging the chair over from the kitchen, so he can reach it, and loves to play with the mouse. He has actually already mastered the click and drag, and the double clicking. This can actually be dangerous: on Saturday, as he was playing around and practicing his mouse skills, he managed to dial ALL my Skype contacts. Fortunately, since most of them are in Italy, only one of them was actually connected at the time, so I have found myself in an unexpected Skype conversation.We have all heard of Drunk Calling: I guess we could call this Kid Calling. Accident or not, it was nice to chat and catch up.

yes, he is right handed and yes he is using a MAC

In the afternoon, we filled the baby pool and the water table and splashed around. Then we set up the grill for some yummy dinner. The stores are obviously open to my surprise, so we were able to get some fresh meat…but we forgot the propane. So we ended p using the camping grill…oh well, everything still tasted delicious.

4th of July’s spread!

Of course Keegan did not even want to try the burger or salad, and was quite happy with his rice and pasta. He was definitely more enthralled with the holiday spinner than the food. And he did enjoy the dining “al fresco”. He can now say “pap-pa” together with the food sign when he is hungry. And he can definitely distinguish between papa’ and pappa, and he pronounces them correctly.

We put him to bed at 8pm: we have tried to see if moving his bedtime of half an hour would give us half an hour more sleep in the morning. After trying for a full week, I can say the experiment failed. He still wakes up at 5.30, regardless. Even when he wakes up super early, around 4.30, and we got him to go back to sleep, 5.30 is still his wake up call. We even thought we may have forgotten an alarm set in his room…no,this is just our little cricket. So, we will move his bedtime back to 7.30, so he can get more sleep, and we have a little more time for ourselves.

No fireworks this year: the trees are blocking the Seaworld’s show, but we could hear it. This was not too big of a deal: we will go see them next year. Besides, Tizi started feeling pretty sick, so she went to bed early anyway.

Sunday was another fun day: we went to Balboa Park to check out the Koi fish, the Green house and play in the grass.And more fun and games back home.

It turns out Tizi had a bad flu coming: fever arrived on Sunday and she did not really feel any better till Thursday. We are talking about sore throat, fever, achiness, headache…the whole deal. Nice way to spend a week off! Of course, she was not able to tackle half of the items in her to do list, but at least now she had something to blame. And, no it was just a nasty, regular flue, and not swine flue: after spending all morning at the UCSD urgent care center, and getting two huge swabs shoved up my nostril till i cough and my eyes teared up, (I am for the brain the nurse said, jokingly?) she know that for a fact. So, what was the doctor’s advice? Ride it out, and take three prescription-strength ibuprofen a day for the pain. Well, now that it is time to go back to work, I feel good again. I guess it was better I did not have to drag myself  to work, but still…

Anyway, we still managed to have a great holiday weekend and we were grateful for the extra day we got to spend together.

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…or at least this is what the calendar says. As you may know, early Summer in San Diego is not the best season. The weather is very unpredictable, and we endure May Gray and June Gloom, or endless gray skies. This year, it has been particular relentless, with the sun peeking out late afternoon, if ever, and we even had a thunderstorm! But hey, we are still living in Paradise, and we are not sweltering. Plus the weather did not stopped us and we had a lot of outdoor fun anyway.  We took advantage of every sunny day and more.

We took Keegan back to SeaWorld: while it was not the right day for playing in the water, we had a blast in the toddler play area, climbing and crawling and running around. We went with our friend Jennifer, her husband Dave and Hannah: poor Matt was stuck at work.

I am the king of the world

peek- a-boo!!!

We checked out the tide pools again, and we even dared to take him to the Shamu show. Tizi was a little nervous, but it went great. of course, while Hannah watched the show intently, sitting quietly on her daddy’s lap, Keegan would not stay still a second. He was on my lap, then he wanted down, then the wanted to sit next to me, then back on my lap, then down, then he started banging on the metal backrest in front, and then back on my lap. He did love the show: he was clapping with everyone else and doing the Shamu sign the trainer was encouraging us to do, and of course dancing to the music and squealing in delight. He was a show all in itself.

Jennifer, Dave and Hannah

SHAMU!!!

And he quickly learned the name Shamu: he has a little rubber killer whale he plays with in his water table, and he recognizes it as Shamu. The water table has been a success…not only with Keegan, but also with the neighborhood bees: they would not leave it alone, landing on it, drinking the water, and being the pest they are. Of course Tizi must muster all her courage (she does not like bees at all) and try to shoo them away…in vane. However, when the coast is clear Keegan manages to get completely wet, head to toe. Well, the fact he is trying to climb IN IT, is not helping.

I am having so much fun, I don’t mind having a hat on

Sometimes we simply strip him down to his diaper, while we were getting warm, dry clothes. Now  you can understand why we try to put him in onesies all the time: as soon as that barrier is removed, here go his hands: pulling up[ his shirt, and then first stop: the belly bottom, an endless fascination. Then the hands  move south, to an even more enduring fascination…in fact, he likes his private parts so much, then when we put his diaper on, he says goodbye to them.

He actually has been much more social in the past couple of weeks. He still takes his time observing what is going on before jumping in, but  he has been a lot better. he even started playing right away, no matter how many kids were around, when I took him to a friend’s daycare party. Amazing. On Friday, we went to visit Jennifer and Hannah, and Lena and Mila were there for a fun backyard party. We had the baby pool, and the cool slides, and of course building block, that he is really really liking as of late. He had fun in the water, and even tried some chips and salsa. He liked it, even if he was a little surprise by the spicy taste.

 learning how to share

check out the hottie in the pool with me. I can’t believe it!

He also enjoyed playing with their cool dog, the most  mellow dog I have ever seen. She was just lying there, waiting to be rubbed. Keegan realized that, and was all over her. He was keep on saying “cracle” (coccole or cuddles) and out his head on her back and pet her. Too cute.

In other news, he has been eating more and more with utensils: he is even managing a fork, most of the of the times, as long it is not one of those toddlers one. whoever invented those, never had to use them with a toddler. They are so dull, they don’t pick anything up. We use plastic forks…and he is loving it. Check out his fake smile. We even dared giving him a ceramic place

In other news, Tiz and Matt celebrated their 7th anniversary (wedding number one). We had just had a night out a few days earlier to see the Offspring concert, so we didn’t want to get a sitter again,so we had a nice romantic evening at home. We got some yummy pick up food (outback steakhouse, we opened the awesome wine that Cinzia brought us for Christmas, and spent some time with each other. It was a nice time…and no trace of the 7 year itch yet. (-:

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