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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?