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Wow, Christmas time is already here…time seems to speed up this time of year. You would think that with stores setting up Christmas displays in September, I would be ready by now. But no…despite my annual resolution, I am way behind schedule once again: the gifts for Italy will not ship till after Christmas, our New Year cards have not been sent out yet for the most part and none of the gifts have been wrapped yet. Oh well.

One thing is different this year, though. Keegan is getting more and more aware of Christmas, and it is very fun to see. He started noticing Christmas trees, which he calls interchangeably: “Kismas tree” or “bero Ntale”. He loves looking at the lights and usually the first thing he ask for when he gets up in the morning is to turn on the lights on the tree.

Our little reindeer

He also loves to go and see the decorated houses: of course ours is not one of them. I am resisting peer pressure so far. So I have been taking him to see different houses and cool light displays. Just tonight we went to see a massive display: basically all the houses in Lana Drive/Jamar Drive in Clairemont are decorated with over the top displays. After dark, the residents set up tables and fire-pits on their driveways, and offer or sell hot chocolate, cider and cookies. And most houses also play Christmas music: it is a real spectacle. According to one passer by, it is part of the homeowner agreement if you live there: you must decorate for Christmas. Not sure if it is true, but the peer pressure alone would do it for me.

check out the cool car display (real car, by the way)

 Keegan loved the moving polar bear and the penguins

Keegan’s favorite…and it not even the full display

He has also been introduced to Santa Klaus (Babbo Natale) at daycare: they have a tall, dancing and singing Santa: if you ask me it is a little freaky, but the kids love it. So, he is now well aware that Santa comes at night, when the kids sleep, and bring presents to good kids. Keegan even said he wants Santa to bring him a bike; not sure how sincere it was, and how influenced it was from the store display of bikes, but no matter: he is getting a tricycle for Christmas. It arrived today, just in time. So, guess how Matt is spending Christmas Eve.

Dancing Santa

Keegan is not too attached to the old guy, though. We happened to see one at a mall while he was playing, and on a whim, I decided to take him to see him…well, he did not cry, but he really did not want to be there or sit on his lap, as he repeated multiple times: “no Santa Lap”.

No Santa’s lap

All considered, it went a lot better than his visit with Santa at his school Christmas party: he refused to sit on his knees, or to get close. I can’t blame him: he looked like a total fake.  (-: The party was not that exciting, but we got some great cookies.

Grandma, Keegan’s godmother, also sent a cool, cut-outs book about the story of Jesus: we did read it a few times, even if he is not sure why the little boy is in a stable. And, of course, so far he finds the story about Santa much more interesting.

Keegan has also been “singing” a lot lately, and we learned to recognize what song he is trying to sing. One of his favorite is Jingle Bells, that he accompanies with hand gestures and some words. We will try to shoot a video soon: we have anew video camera that seems a little easier to upload.

So, here we are: just a couple of days away, and we can’t wait to see Keegan’s excited face (or so we hope) on Christmas morning. In the meantime we want to wish to all of you a very Happy Christmas: even if we are not together, we are thinking about all of you, and we are sending you all of our warmest (75+ degrees) wishes and love.

Buon Natale a tutti!

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Keegan’s second birthday also means we went to the doctor for his bi-annual check up. While the earlier appointment time meant I had to wake Keegan up from his nap, he also meant a LOT less waiting at the doctor’s office, AND  we did get to see the doctor right away, and none of the medical students. The visit went well: Keegan’s development is right on track, and his weight crept back up to the 25%. He is now about 26.6lb(11.8kg), he is    in tall and his nogging is 19in, or at the 25% percentile.

He got two shots plus the swine flue nasal vaccine, and he was pretty OK, just a little crying. He was great, though, during the visit: he let the doctor look into his ears and mouth without complaints. We did not had any health issues, and honestly the doctor did not have any more advice for his sleeping or “mom attachment”. She found it healthy for him to be attached to me, and was not worried about his picky eating.  We did get a lead test though, to establish a baseline: it looks like we will be begin construction of our second story soon (more in a future blog) and because our house has been built in the 60’s there is a big chance that lead paint chips and other toxic stuff will be in the air. We will make sure to test Keegan’s lead in 6 months or so to make sure it is still within normal range.

To get a baseline, they had to do a blood test. I was a little concerned, but Keegan was a real trooper. He sat in my lap, without moving and wiggling around. He got his arm out, and did not complained at all. He in fact watched intently as the blood was flowing, and only said a small “Ouch”. What a champ! He even got a cute panda sticker to commemorate the event.

As a reward, at home, he got to eat some cake and to open the gifts that arrived from Grandma and grandpa. He was excited about the little baby lion, and the clothes and the books, but most of all he was excited about the Barbapapa’ Book (and so was mom). This was one of mom’s favorite characters when she was a kid:  Barbapapa’ is a pear-shaped, pink shape-shifting blob-like creature who stumbles upon the human world and tries to fit in. The shapeshifting is usually accompanied by the saying “Clickety Click—Barba Trick” (“Resta di stucco, e’ un barbatrucco” in the Italian version). After various amusing adventures, he comes across a female of his species (more shapely, and black-coloured), named Barbamamma They produce seven children, known as the Barbababies, each a different color. I guess you can find videos on YouTube and they even have an official site and fans site. It is awesome: who would not like to morph in whatever shape you like?

So, what can we say about our 2 years old, beside that he is adorably cute? You have to forgive the maternal pride. (-: He is already a real Hookie: check out the Virginia Tech hat (and he got a matching sweatshirt too) his Aunt Mary set him.

A real business man: phone in his hand and a shirt that says: the world’s revolves around me.

While he started a little slow, he began talking when we got to Italy and did not stop since. He is learning lots of new words every day, both in Italian and English: in fact, for most of the words, he knows the Italian and English version. Most importantly, he is getting better at repeating the sounds he hears (which is good and bad, especially since he is lately on a F-word kick. And he is getting some Spanish words too. He is learning how to count, or at least to repeat the whole series, 1-10: in Italian he counts: 2-3-4-6-8-9-10.

He getting really into cars: he got a few for his birthday, and at this points he really enjoys putting them inside the garage and running them around. He LOVES to jump, and he is pretty brave. His favorite thing to do at home is jumping from the top of the couch; and everything must be just so: the blanket needs to be spread out on the couch, and mom and dad must be in a specific place. He can climb on the top of the couch by himself and loves to jump down. He also loves to run and kick the ball. And since he already has his fake crying and fake injury drama down, we know he will be a good soccer player.

He is also getting more and more social: while he still pretty shy at first in unknown situation, you can tell he loved to join in, and likes to hang out with other people. Matt’s friends Carter and Tony visited last week, and he was really excited to have two more playmates. He warmed up to them pretty quick, easily learned their name and played with them non-stop. Lucky him, they were game and did humor him: thank you guys! I am sure he will miss them.

jumping and running on the couch

with Carter

With Tony 

He also likes to build tall towers with his various blocks and building sets. However, he likes it even more to direct mom and dad to build him something. So, he will probably be an architect more than an engineer.

He still quite the ladies’ man: most of his friends are girls. He particularly likes the older ones. Here is with Gaia, who just turned 5, playing Horsie with her dad Daniele…

All and all he is happy,  always smiling and laughing, and he is a real sweet boy. We had his first real empathy moment the other day. We were at the park with MacKenzie and her dad, and the two kids were “fighting” about a sand shovel. Kenzie had it and Keegan wanted so he was falling her whining and crying saying “Mine, mine, mine”. We decided to put a time limit: Kenzie could play with it for a few minutes and then it was Keegan’s turn (Keegan responds very well to time limits). When it was time to give it up, Kenzie started crying and moved away really upset. Keegan got the shovel, looked at it, looked at Kenzie’s crying, and within a minute he walked over to her and gave it to her, SPONTANEOUSLY. Of course she was mad, and threw it on the floor, and he picked it up and gave it back to her. I was amazed, as he seem to really want it. He has always showed concern when other kids were crying, but I have never seen him doing something like that before. Now , it is probably just a miraculous event, but I was happy to see it.Now the question is: is he empathic and sweet or is he already whipped?

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We made it to the big 2, the official entrance to the “terrible twos”, which of course unofficially started long ago, probably when he turned one! Looking back at last year’s post is incredible to see how much he has grown. It is even more incredible to think that he could barely walk and did not talk at all at his last birthday party.

Keegan’s actual birthday was on Thursday, but his party was on Saturday, and with the grandparents’ presents arriving Monday evening, he had a long celebration.

The beginning of the week was a flurry of activities for us, as we were trying to get everything ready for the big day.The celebration started early. Toys’R’Us sent us a card with a coupon, and when we went to the store, they had a nice crown and balloon waiting for the birthday boy. Keegan was excited: he loves balloons and he definitely did not mind the crown at all. He kept on wearing it at home for days.

We took advantage of the coupon to buy a cool bike helmet. Forget the monsters, cars, princesses or other cutesy design: we got him the Harley Davidson Little Rider, a cool  black helmet with orange details. It will go well with mom’s favorite tricycle (which may or may not arrive for Christmas), that is black and orange. Of course there is no guarantee he will wear it, but at least, mom’s design sense is satisfied.

On Thursday, Keegan was well aware it was a special day. We have been talking about it for a while, and he was looking forward to “bday cake” and blowing out the candles. He expected us to sing  happy birthday multiple times as soon as he woke up, and he happily went to school.

Bright and early on Thursday

We brought some blueberry muffins, juice and grapes to share, and, from what I have heard, they had a nice celebration. While he was playing shy as they sang happy Birthday, he then asked them to repeat it over and over. He even got a nice sticker.

When I picked him up at 3 he was glowing. He was also excited because we headed to Mission bay Park to play with MacKenzie: he was literally squealing with happiness. Plus he got a beautiful Elmo birthday book as a present. They jumped and run, and jumped some more. They run so much we found looking at the  play structure from the opposite side of the bay! They had a blast.

We got home by 5.30 and there were 3 messages waiting for him on the answering machine: Aunt Cinzia and his cousins; mom’s friend Lori and her daughter; and Grandma. He was so excited to hear them. And he listened to them over and over for the next few days…until the first real storm of the season knocked out our power on Monday, and erased them…Fortunately we saved them on video…but I am not sure I want to start another obsession.

Shortly after we got home, Matt arrived. Keegan was looking forward to that as he knew that when daddy was home he could eat some more birthday cake. We did the obligatory picture and video, and Keegan scarfed down one more muffin.

I know, we look exhausted…because we are.

It was time for gifts: Keegan really liked the annoyingly loud car with remote control (yes, it is my fault) and a little less the quiet, wood building blocks train. Both gifts have been sitting in my closet for a long time…

The presents’ aftermath

By the end of the day, Keegan was so excited he was singing happy Birthday to himslef:”ha bday you, keegan”…and he kept on singing for days…in fact he has not stopped yet: we are not sure he understands that birthdays happen only once a day.

After all the excitement it was time for sleep: you would thing that after all that, and the running and jumping he would be tired and have a nice night of sleep…well, we are talking about Keegan here, so he is up and running before 5am. On  Friday we had the mad rush to get everything done, or at least most if it. We bought a small bouncie for the party so we had to inflate it and test it out, and there was lots of cleaning to do…so we lowered our expectations and we got everything done. (-:

On Saturday morning, under ominous dark clouds, we did the last errands and got Keegan sleeping for his nap and by 2.30 we were ready to roll: the house was clean, the food ready, Keegan was awake and ready to play.

Keegan’s favorite friends- or should I say his girlfriends?- were all there: Mila, Hannah, MacKenzie, Stella. Only Jada was missing because she was in Pittsburgh at the time, but her dad stopped by. We did have some boys too: Torin and Roberto (Stella’s brother) were there.

Amazingly enough, all the kids got along wonderfully, and there was basically no crying or fighting. I guess we have to credit the bouncie that turned out to be the star of the party. Despite explicit warnings from the manufacturer all the kids were jumping and bumping around together and having a great time.

we are bouncing…

and bouncing… (with Torin and Hannah)

and bouncing around (with Torin and MacKenzie)

We got out some other toys, but again no fighting over the them. The yard did look like a tornado came through, but the important thing is that the kids had fun.

Even more amazingly it did not rain: it was gloomy, and chilly, but no rain, so we could all have  a fun time in the yard.  The adults enjoyed some  beverages and food and the kids run around and played.

Then it was time for cake: our lofty dreams of baking a cake or cupcakes got crushed by the reality of too much to do in a short time…well there is always next year. (-: We blew the candles and sang happy Birthday, and then it was time to get messy.

 tanti auguri a te…

I was impressed to see that Keegan was much cleaner than last year, even if we did have plenty of cleaning up to do: he chose the chocolate one. Just like last year, though, he mainly ate the frosting, leaving the rest of it for dinner time…if you can call chips and bread and cupcake dinner.

it’s your birthday…

eat the cupcake

I think I missed a spot

And he was not the only one enjoying the cake:

MacKenzie

Hannah

When it got dark, the survivors” moved inside for more playing, munching or drinking. Shortly after 6pm we were alone with our little, overexcited guy, with a sugar high…Just kidding: he was actually pretty good, and VERY tired: we could not even get him to open all the gifts.

cupcakes and chips for dinner: what else could you ask for?

Keegan is so tired he is not even smiling at all his gifts

We saved the gifts for later, because we were really trying to avoid the fights over the new toys. By 8pm he was in bed, exhausted…and so was dad. Mom lasted till 9pm before crashing.

The next day, it was birthday all over again: Skype with the grandparents and more happy birthday wishes, more presents to open, the bouncie moved inside in the sun room to play with…It was a mellow day: still chilly and gloomy, so no much playing outside. He did get to see Daddy’s office and its exciting “sesore”(elevators): he does not get to see many here in San Diego, so it is always a treat for him. Mom stayed home and worked some.

So, all and all we had a wonderful birthday celebration. Thank you to everyone that contributed to make it so special. We loved to see our little guy so happy, and we marveled at all the progresses he made in a year. We are looking forward to the next year and all the fun and excitement Keegan will bring us…while we are bracing for the challenges of his twos.

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Another Thanksgiving came and went and, for us, being pretty far away from family, Thanksgiving has always been a nice way to spend some quality time with each other and to unwind together. This year was no exception. After a couple of very stressful weeks, especially for Matt, we had 4 full days off… Yeah!

The holiday did not start the best way. On Tuesday, Keegan woke up at 6am (not me…who of course woke up at 4.30 anyway), so we knew there was something wrong. Sure enough, at noon, we get the dreaded call from daycare: apparently Keegan had 99.7 temperature and I had to pick him up. Saying this did not make me happy is an understatement. I am not a bad mother, but, since when is 99.7 a fever? And considering that he usually naps around 12.15 it seemed really stupid to call me instead of letting him take his nap: they have their own beds after all, and if he does fall asleep before I can get him, then I have to wake him, and if he is sick shouldn’t he get his rest? I tried to mention it to them, but they told me they would keep him up. Plus, why didn’t they call Matt, since he is a lot closer than me? As a final touch, I had to cancel a lunch with a friend we had been trying to set up for the previous two weeks…and let’s not forget the double whammy: since he was sent home with a fever, the following day, fever or not, he stays home; and he misses his Thanksgiving party at school, and he does not get to say goodbye to his friends and teachers, and I had lots of stuff to get done…I know, I know  I am whining!

Well, I show up there, and guess what? Keegan is sleeping. I think I wanted to shoot someone at this point. I can’t leave him there so I have to wake him up, get him in the car, and of course he did not fall back asleep. Not in the car, not in his bed, not in the stroller…and at home, his temperature was 98.5! So I get to entertain him all day. Fortunately he is not too whiny or demanding, even without his nap. He was fine all day, but I guess he seemed to have a sore throat, since it was red and he was not really eating. At night time he did have a low grade fever, but nothing to worry about.

The next day, Matt stayed home with him till 10.30, so I could be at work for two hours, and then I got home. He got his nap this time, which was a good thing, since we went to Seaworld in the afternoon and he needed all his strength. We got to see the dolphins doing tricks, and the seals and of course Shamu, in its nighttime show. Keegan, who talks about Shamu ALL THE TIME, who sleeps with Shamu — well the stuffed version — and who couldn’t stop talking about Shamu the whole time we were at Seaworld, got sick and bored of the show after 10 minutes. Go figure. By the way, Keegan now REALLY likes stuffed animals: he reads to them, feed them, hit them, throw them, jump on them, hug them, read with them…he is starting to amass quite an impressive collection. Check out some of his favorites.

Thanksgiving day was beautiful and unseasonably warm: highs were in the mid to high 70s, so we headed out to the beach. Keegan has been asking to go for a while and it seemed like the perfect day. He had a blast. Despite the frigid water temperature he immediately jumped in the ocean, while mommie tried to keep her distance…BRRRR. He was splashing and falling and running back for some more. We did some sand castles and climbed the sand barriers.

Later in the day, Matt cooked an excellent meal: turkey with yummy sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes and his famous cream cheese appetizers. Yummy. We ate all together, at least until Keegan decided he had enough and wanted to get down and play.We topped it all off with huge ice cream bowls.

gimme some food, NOW!

After dinner, keegan had a  visitor: Jada, with her mom Sharon stopped by to play. Keegan was very happy and the two of them played together quite nicely, without crying or fighting. This is something we are all thankful for.

The next day, Black Friday, we ventured Grossmont mall to get Keegan an haircut. Mom did tried to do it herself and to trim his bangs, but the results were pretty bad. Matt, very delicately, suggested we would take him to a professional to fix the damage. He was starting in his new class on Monday, and he had his bug party next weekend, so he should look good. The traffic was not bad at all, and we easily found parking. Keegan was great: he sat in his little char by himself and let the nice lady do her job…and sure enough, less than 10 minutes and $15 later, he looks like a million bucks!

check out the 50’s styling!

Matt had a close call, work wise. We were worried he would have been doing lots of work, but fortunately he “got away” with only a couple of hours while Keegan was sleeping. I took advantage of his 2.5 hours nap to do some “window shopping” on the computer, looking both for Christmas presents and birthday presents/ ideas. We sent the invitations out for next weekend, so I have to prepare something.

Saturday brought San Diego first “big” storm of the season: “lots” of rain and chilly weather. He rained on and off all day, but we still had enough breaks to play outside. Keegan liked the rain, probably the novelty of it. He had a blast when we ran though the REI parking lot under the rain (mom liked it a lot less): we got a bike seat for him, so hopefully we will be able to go bike riding again soon. We bought a  front mounted one and hopefully it will work OK. During our brief test ride, Keegan seemed to enjoy it. We will see how he will react when he needs to put his helmet on.

It was chilly and dreary, so it seemed a prefect night to light up the fire: it has been a while but fortunately we still had some wood left. Keegan was fascinated by the fire, but at this point he is well aware that fire is dangerous and hot and it will hurt him if he touches it….we know this well from reading “Goodnight Moon”. Every time he sees the fireplace, he says:”fire/fuoco, hot”, then he pretend to touch it and says” houch, male, hurts”. Cute, right? Well, not as much after the millionth time. Do you have any ideas of how many pages show a picture of the fireplace? And do you have ideas of how many times we read that book??? By the way, why kids find it so appealing is beyond me: the colors combination alone really bugs me, (everybody knows that green and red vibrates) and don’t get me started on the creepy bunnies… Don’t shoot me, I know it is a classic…but what do you expect from someone who also finds the Sesame Street characters creepy???

Sunday morning we had a playdate at Hannah’s house. Keegan was excited and it went pretty well overall: minimal fighting, and lots of playing together. They even ate together at a little table. I think Keegan liked this part the best.

We finished our holiday weekend with a quite afternoon at home. We did more Internet shopping, tested out the bike seat and got ready for the next step in Keegan’s life: coming Monday Keegan will be in the ‘big kids” room, the Yellow Duckies.

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