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Goodbye San Diego! As mom is feverishly trying to get everything done, and as she is growing more anxious about the trip, we are still enjoying our wonderful San Diego, and yet anther heat wave. Just to make it harder to leave, San Diego is showing off his wonderful blue skies and warm weather (and warm water).

We had an intense week. Keegan got to see all his girlfriends in separate playdates. We started on Monday with Jada, our neighbor. we stopped by for a couple of hours, and the two played together, and made each other laugh. Keegan was both in awe and fear of the two beautiful, and very playful dogs at the house.

On Wednesday, we headed to Mission Bay Park, to the usual playground, with his favorite daycare buddy: Mackenzie. he was so excited. The two played wonderfully together, sliding side by side, running around and playing house.

Of course the sand is always a big draw and they did plenty of that too. There were no fight and very little “mine” happening.

She is a little dynamo: climbing everywhere, and roughing around.Everyone at daycare mention how well the two of them get along. Allegedly, they spent 40 minutes, one morning, playing Play-Doh together, sharing and not fighting…Keegan definitely turns on his charm with her, and never hesitated sharing his snacks with her. In fact, the two of them were feeding each other.

When it was time to leave, the two of them run towards each other to hug…and of course bumped heads. So we ended a wonderful day with two crying babies. It was hilarious, though. It looked like a scene out of a Saturday Night Live Skit.

On Friday, it was time to say goodbye to all his friends. We took a nice group shot with Ms Isella and Ms Yadira, his two favorite teachers, and all the other kids, and then it was time for hugs.

We then headed out to La Jolla Shore for yet another playdate. This time with Hannah. Jennifer’s little girl. It was another glorious day in San Diego so the beach was just the ticket.We met Jennifer, Hannah and another friend, Kelly with her little Liam on the sand.  and  Keegan has not shown too much interest in the beach or the ocean, so far, so we have not been as much as we could have, since we are so close. Today, however, it was a different story. I don’t know if it was Hannah’s presence, or what, but he had a ball.

Almost immediately, Keegan wanted to go to put his feet in the water. He NEVER wanted to do this at the beach. He was pretending to dip his feet when we were reading books with pictures of the ocean, but he never actually got too close. Maybe his experience at Bay helped:I let him dip his feet, and splash around before realizing there was a huge  sewage pipe (with caution sign) right there.Insert mommie’s guilt here, ad a long, strenuous scrubbing in the tub back at home.

In any case, he dragged me by the water, and jumped right in. He played, splashed, fell down face first in the sand, got up, and did it all again. The water was very warm, so he did not mind getting wet.

He did not want to get out, even if Hannah refused to go in. No matter, he was finding stranger boys to play with. At which point I really started asking: who is this kid and what did he do with my son???? The alien abduction theory seemed confirmed when he decided to go and play with Hannah in the sand, by himself. They played together, a good 40 feet away, without fighting, and sharing the toys for a good 15/20 minutes. And Keegan, not only was not calling out for me, he had his back turned on me!

she is cute: I will pretend I did not notice her…

This is a miracle. And they kept on getting along, and playing the whole afternoon.

goofing around under the umbrella

Wow, so this is what it feels like to have a mellow child! As the afternoon came to a close, Keegan was ready to go: he now usually says something like”car mama” or does the driving sign when he is ready to go. If I am chatting for too long, or he is getting bored, he simply says “goodbye” to get me to leave. How funny! So, we hugged and Hannah gave him another big kiss and bid everyone bye bye.

What a send off. Goodbye San Diego: we will see you in a few weeks! In the meantime, everyone please send us some positive thoughts for the trip on Sunday. We need all the help we can get!

Keegan is quickly approaching the 2 year mark, and while we have been “enjoying” more than a glimpse of the terrible twos, we can also enjoy watching him becoming his own person. What can we tell so far? He is a little clown, and he is very “spirited”: his emotions run high on both end of the spectrum. Last time we took him at Seaworld, he made the whole room crack up as he exploded in a series of really loud WOW! as the beluga whales were slowly floating by the glass.

He loves to laugh and to make you laugh. He like to do little games and tease you and he is 100% boy: he is roughing and tumbling around at any occasion; at this point we are walking around full of bruises, from his affectionate outbursts, his playing or his “cuddling”. We can’t wait till we can enroll him in some wrestling or martial arts class so he can use some of that energy productively.

Here is a rare moment in which we were able to get him to stay still long enough for a picture. Ignore the tired, strained expression of  parents, and focus on the cute little guy. They needed a photo of the family at daycare for the All About Me week, and of course we waited till the last minute, so here we are, trying to look normal at the end of a LONG day…

He is also, as all of you know, an early bird: after a couple of 6am wakings, we are back to our 4.30/5.30 wake up time. One of our neighbors has a rooster, and I can tell you our kid is up before the roster. And this is why, we present…one more picture of Keegan sleeping. it is such a rare sight, we need to document it. Also notice that, yet again, he is not sleeping in the crib. Noooo, he fell asleep on the high chair, and the closest, safest place to put him in was the sun room. By the way, that circular seat is amazingly comfortable for naps: I can attest to that.

Doesn’t he look like a little angel when he sleeps? And then he wakes up, and the illusion is gone. (-:

He is a lot more social: his shyness is now usually limited to a few minutes, and he is interacting with other kids more and more. he is still very much “mama’s boy” and going through his “mama’s separation anxiety”, when Tizi is around. He is usually fine when he is at daycare or with a sitter. Talking of which, this week we had a miracle: we went out for our friend Eric’s birthday, and Keegan, not only said goodbye to us when we left, but he did NOT cry, not even for a minute. This is a first!

He is also going through a language development phase: while a lot of his words are not completely intelligible, he is adding new words almost every day. The new additions, from the last couple of weeks:

car
toe
knee
foot
piede  (foot in italian)
tow (towel)
shoes
ragu (pasta meat sauce)
bibi (baby)
su (up)
Yadira (his other Daycare teacher, name that he repeats over and over and over again)
so (sock)
no (nose)
cucu (peek-abo, the Italian way)
poppy (yes the flower: it is in one of his favorite songs)
puppy (dog)
hot
cold (also used for wet)
tao tao (ciao ciao)
cookie
kick
atte (milk, from latte)
tree
poon (spoon)
apple
appy (happy)
anna (Hannah)
Emma
Titti  (Kensie, his best buddy at daycare)
tada (is now only Keegan)
whale
bear
tide (now it means: outside, inside, open, close)
acqua (water)
fruit (as it applies to our pineapple guava fruit tree)

He also added the donkey noise (ehh-oh), the chicken (ga ga ga) accompanied by arm movements, crows, elephant and sea lions. He is also making the driving sign. And in the past week he has been using more and more 2 and 3 words sentences: “my Towel”, “coocle mamma”, “no more atte”, “car mamma”. He now opens and close his hands also for a flashing light and for saying Ciao.

Not much Italian as of yet, but he is definitely understand it fully. And honestly, if you were a baby learning the language, what word would you find easier: towel or asciugamano??? Hopefully a three weeks full immersion will boost his Italian vocabulary.

Goodbye summer! We can’t believe it is already over but with Labor Day we mark the official end of the season. And we ended with a bang. We had a wonderful weekend: since Matt took half day on Friday, it felt even longer. One of Matt’s sisters, Beth, came visit us with her husband Wayne on Friday. We had a nice BBQ  outdoors, and Keegan got reacquainted with his Auntie. We were happily surprised to notice that despite a really short nap he was actually was in a social mood. Of course he did not eat any of the delicious food we cooked, but he got its feel of chips and salsa (mainly salsa).

Saturday was a relaxing day: we did not do much, just played around the house, did chores, and of course caught up on our sleep. Keegan also had some marathon naps most of the weekend, 2.5 hours each day. Sunday we had Jennifer, Dave and Hannah’s over. Oh boy, was Keegan excited. Hannah is, at this time, probably one of his favorite buddies…and who can blame him? So despite a few territorial issues, and many MINE from both sides, they overall played well together. They shared books, and ran outside and really enjoyed getting wet at the water table.

this is so much fun!

As the kids were somewhat playing by themselves, we were also able to have a nice relaxing afternoon, and enjoyed some adult time. It was great.

In the late afternoon, we all had a great outdoor BBQ. Keegan and Hannah had their own conversation going and were able to sit at the table for the whole dinner, enjoying Mac and Cheese, veggies and chicken. They were rewarded with ice cream. It was just so fun to watch them communicate: despite Hannah’s excellent vocabulary— and Keegan’s very poor one—, they were still able to talk to each other in their own language.

Keegan busy eating, Hannah busy posing for the camera

As an extra treat, Keegan got to stay up later that night…all the excitement must have exhausted him, because he slept past 6am the next day. Or it may have been Hannah’s goodnight kiss! (hopefully he will learn to be a little less stiff when a girl kisses him).

What a great way to end the summer!

It has been a long time coming. Keegan’s hair has been really long for quite a while, but Tizi hesitated. First of all, she really likes the surfer look: long blond hair blowing in the wind; then there has been the practicality of it: we had pretty hectic weeks and weekends and it seems the only kids salons are in East County …well they have one in La Jolla too, but do we really want to spend even more just for the location? However, his bangs were already getting in his eyes, and he complained about it. I did a quick cut, but I guess it was not enough. One afternoon this week, when I picked him up, he was wearing a barrette. I actually had to do a double take, and did not recognized him at first.

snack time with Beckett and Miss Veronica

it is spaghetti time!

I thought it was really funny, but I guess Matt was not that amused, and basically drew the line in the sand. The next day I made an appointment for Saturday. In the morning, Keegan was incredibly cranky, for some reason (did he know what was coming?), but we packed some food, toys and books and headed towards the salon. No parking was available, so Matt dropped us off and went to look for a space. Keegan was inconsolable, so I entered the salon with a inconsolable toddler in my arms. Fortunately the hairdresser helped me distract him with toys while we waited for dad to come back. To my great relief, both of the other two “first haircut babies”: were whaling, so I felt a little better. There were no more little chairs available, so I ended up sitting in the big chair, holding him. I think that actually worked out better: he was calm, distracted by the novelty, and simply a little perplexed.It was also super fast, only a few minutes.

I am not sure why I am here, wearing this funny thing

 Hey, watch it with those scissors

Uhhmm, not bad at all.

He did not cry or fussed. Neither did I as I saw his blond locks falling down. He got a real ‘boy” haircut. Not quite as long as mom would have wanted  (they grow back anyway) but definitely not a buzz cut. He looks older, and still adorable. They gave us a nice certificate, and taped some of his hair there: a nice memory.

We are not planning on taking him regularly: we can definitely trim his bans at home, but we wanted to have at least the “First Official Haircut experience”. Afterwards, we went to Lake Murray for some play time: Keegan enjoyed looking at the birds, ducks, and the hairy caterpillar that was crawling all over his arm. And he practiced throwing rocks in the water. We had a quick lunch and drove home. Keegan fell asleep promptly in the car…and of course, there he staid. However, learning from our past experiences, besides leaving the garage door open, and the windows rolled back, we also set up a small fan blowing some cool air to be a little more comfortable. Yesterday he woke up early, all sweaty, and very upset and cranky, since it was too hot.

It must have been working: he ended up sleeping for 2.5 hours! Not only that, but he woke up in a wonderful mood, and was happy all afternoon. So here it is: we know that when he sleep more he is happier…so how do we get him to sleep more? Anyone?

We have been “enjoying” almost three weeks of an unseasonal heat wave. Yes, nothing compared to Phoenix, but temperatures are hovering around 100 degrees in the East county, and they are well in the 90s in our neck of the wood. And since we have no A/C in the house, an internal temperature of 85/90 is normal, even with all fans moving and all windows open.  It is a little uncomfortable, but we are well aware that dry heat is better than than high humidity, so we are trying to enjoy the end of the summer as much as we can.

We had a few visitors that shook up our daily grind. In the middle of August, Matt’s friend Jack and his son Case (only 1.5 month older than Keegan) stopped by. Jack’s wife Allison was flying in San Diego that night, so they spent some time at our place while they were waiting for her. It was interesting to see the two boys play “together”. Keegan was a little more territorial than usual: he did not remember Case at all— he last saw him in October—and we think he was also trying to “mark his territory”. He is definitely doing better when we have little girls over: then he is much more of a charmer, even sharing his snacks with them. They eventually warmed up, and played nice: there were no wild cries, just a lot of “mine, mine, mine”.

the toy explosion

Keegan took the time to take a snack,getting all comfy in his chair: substitute his milk bottle with a beer, and his goldfish bowl with chip, and you will have a flash forward to Keegan, 30 years old, watching some sporting event (soccer WorldCup?). All he is missing is the remote control.

That evening, we braved the crowds and met for an early dinner at Filippi’s in Little Italy: it was crowded and loud, just the perfect place for two active toddlers. Matt’s and jack’s friend Steve joined us, even if he was temporarily childless (his boy is on vacation with mom). Both kids did great, with minimal whining. Keegan did not eat much, as usual, but he had fun playing and hanging out with the grown-ups.

 don’t bother me (for a picture)…I am eating

Jack, Matt and Keegan

Keegan taking our picture with his Chicco’s camera

The next morning, we met everyone again at the playground in Balboa Park and the kids burned some energy on the slides and animal statues. It was fun to see them tumbling around. It is amazing how hard it is to get together: they only live a couple of hours away and we still can’t manage to get together more than once or twice a year. Well, we will soon have another chance, since jack and Allison are expecting a little one in December.

The following week, Tizi’s college friend, Meggie, drove down from San Francisco. She was last down here in December, just as Keegan was starting his separation anxiety phase: he was definitely doing A LOT better now. He warmed up to her very quickly, and we all had a great time, playing in the house, at the park or in the pool. In fact, he has never done better in the pool. It must have recognized the swim instructor in Meggie: he was swimming, jumping in, walking around the edge, and even trying to blow bubbles. Tizi also had the chance to enjoy some girl time. We had wonderful lunches every day, with laughter and chatting and we really had the chance to catch up. And at night, after Keegan was in bed, more relaxing time and good dinners and conversation. We even got one of our other college buddies to join us for a BBQ. It was wonderful to see her. She is the absolute perfect guest (and she cooked us some great food too). We miss her already.

The only sour note was Keegan’s sleeping: between his sickness a few days early, and sleeping in our room while Meggie was here, his sleep was completely out of sort. Multiple attempts before he would fall asleep, multiple night wakings and super early wake ups. It took many days, and much crying to bring him back to some sort of normal. One day we will find out what is the deal with his sleep (or lack whereof). Again, one more thing to fear about our upcoming trip…

Last weekend, we had a great cook-out party at Matt’s boss house. He usually go out for a week long fishing trip and bring back his fresh catch. We enjoyed seared Ahi Tune and all sort of other jummy food. Keegan was even matching the hawaian theme of the party with his cute outfit.

Puppy! 

Tizi looks like a dork in this pic, but check out Keegan’s smile!

Keegan enjoyed the change of scenery and the new toys he got to play with, including a giant play structure and a cute little house. His favorite, though, was the expandable ball.

oh?! what happen to the huge ball?

He snacked on veggie fries and chips and cheese. We all a good time. Sunday we remained at home, and escaped the heat in the pool: ooooh, what a relief. Keegan was also suffering the heat, and drank lots and lots of Orange Juice. He also discovered he REALLY likes salsa (the mild kind) and ate tons of it, double, triple, and quadruple dipping. He actually used chips as a spoon. All this acidic food, of course, came with a price: his boy parts got really red and inflamed, but he did not seem to mind too much. We were a little worried, but mom was very proud she did not rushed and called the doctor. A small internet search, and we cut him off for a few days and gave him plenty of warm baths: sure enough he was back to normal in a couple of days.

This week also started with more social events. Our neighbor Sharon and her daughter Jada stopped by to play. Keegan was definitely more in the sharing mood, and more mellow with her around. They were even to play together a little. They look adorable together. Hopefully we will have more playdates together, since they are finally getting at the right age. They also enjoyed running up and down the driveway and hitting the garage door, and then down again. Very cute.

hey, check out the hottie I got here!

Huum, I am not sure about this guy. I think will stay aloof for a while

So, let me show you how this ball toy works

So, here it is, our last days of summer…but wait, we live in San Diego, so summer may go on for a little longer. In fact, starting next week, with labor day over with, we may have all our favorite places all for ourselves, with the tourists gone. We know it is supposed to be an El Nino year and since we are planning some major remodel, it will probably be a wet one, but still, we hopefully can count on a nice September.