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Two and a half years…so when do you stop counting months? Anyway, we thought it would be a good time to give you an updated snapshot of our little guy. Six months after his birthday, we can honestly say that the “terrible twos” have arrived: more whining, tantrums and power struggles, but all and all they are better than I have expected (knocking on wood, touching iron, etc.). I still like this age a lot better than the “ones”.

Keegan is doing great, and it is amazing to see how much he has changed in just 6 months. We took him for a check up visit, so we have the most recent measures. He is still on his curve: 25% for weight (12.7 kg/28 lb) , 50% for height (90.5cm/35.6 in), and 25% for head circumference. The doctor found him well, and well developed. Despite his standard height, finding clothes that fit him is a real challenge. 24 months are usually a little too small, while 2T are usually gigantic, especially lengthwise. Even more surprising, Italian clothes are even bigger and longer, like Italy is a land of giants, right? So non of his clothes really fit him: they are either too big or too small.

Isn’t he stylish, with his made in Italy clothes?

What’s new with him? Well, the biggest news is that he is now starting to potty train: the teachers at school decided to try to let him wear underwear a couple of weeks ago, and he has been doing great so far. Very few accidents, and he usually asks us to go pee.He even used the big toilets in public bathrooms, at the doctor, at Target, at friends’ house, etc…but he draw the line at the porta-potty. His reason: ” they are yucky and smelly. Too much paper and doodoo”…and who can blame him? Now, as far as poop…we are not so lucky; Nothing worked so far: we tried bribes (M&Ms and stickers), we tried peer pressure (“all your friends are potty trained and are moving to next class”), we tried to let him stay in his underwear so he will get dirty and get grossed out (he could not care less, while mom, on the other hand, is the one who is TOTALLY grossed out by the cleaning up) and we even tried to buy him a small potty. Nothing. He refuses categorically. Oh well, it will happen. We are just hoping it will happen accidentally one day…

He still likes to read books, or even better, to listen to us reading him books, and he now repeats some of the words on the page. He was given the language and comprehension test at school, and supposedly he scored really well. He was able to clearly pronounce all the letters (except R) and he can understand a story and “retell it”. He was given a test for 3 years old an up. His vocabulary is increasing rapidly, and while English is definitively his first language, he is pretty fluent in both, and knows pretty much the same words in both languages. He may even start a simple Spanish class soon. He is very interested, since his teachers at school speak some Spanish to the kids.

He is still very active, and never sits still. He loves jumping and kicking the ball. He has been going to swimming lessons. We went to a different school this year, and he seems to be enjoying it more (maybe just because he is older). After about a month of “parent and me” swimming class,  he graduated to his first swim class without me in the water. He did well…a little shy maybe, but he did not cry. (-: While he is not yet able to actually swim, he knows how to hold his breath and blow bubbles under the water which is a great step toward water safety. To encourage his swimming skills, we have been playing in the water a lot. While he is not too fond of the big pool — too cold— he LOVES the small, blow up one we bought. And since the weather has not been that great or warm lately, we ended up filling it up with warm water from the garage: so he spends literally hours in there.

The hat and the glasses lasted exactly 3 minutes before being tossed in the water

Some other milestones:

• He has known most common colors (yellow, green, red, blue, orange, brown, black, white) since he turned two, so now we are working on more sophisticated colors: light blues (azzurro) tan, magenta, etc.
• He walks on tip toes
• He has been “counting” (or better yet, memorizing a string of numbers) till 12  in Italian and English (and some Spanish) for a while: he is working on actually counting objects. He can count till three/five so far
• He recognizes many letters of the alphabet
• He speaks in “long sentences” and uses past tense, plurals and some prepositions. He links multiple sentences together. He can retell an event, somewhat
• He is asking “W” questions: Who and What? He is especially curious to know what things are for, and what we are eating, if he sees us chewing
• He is interested in Spanish and wants to learn/hear new words in any language
• He loves to “dance” and sing. He sings familiar songs, or make up the words for his own creations. He hums too.
• He starts playing pretend games. He especially likes to pretend we are going to Seaworld or at the pool
• He started understanding how to play with simple puzzle with cardboard pieces.
• He can recognize most basic shapes. He can sort by color and shape.
• He can put on (and unfortunately off) his pants, underwear, socks, and some shoes. With help, he can put on a shirt
• He enjoys being naked, immensely
• He has bad dreams: which means he often wakes up in the middle of the night, and needs comforting. Yeah, like we needed his sleeping to get worse!
• He gets up from his crib without problems. And yes, he will get his own bed as soon as construction is over, so we can actually fit a bigger bed in his room. He does nap on a full size bed, though, and he only fell off of it once.
• He expresses affection openly. He shows affection for familiar people spontaneously…and he really likes kisses from girls.
• He can identify boys and girls, most of the times.
• He can push the pedals of his tricycle by himself, but he is not too interested in it
• He wants to do lots of stuff by himself, so we are constantly hearing “I need to do it”
• He can draw circular shapes and lines
• He knows his full name, how old he is and can show it with his hand. He also knows the street where he (and Jada and a couple of other neighbors) lives, as well as his city (San Diego) versus the city and country where his grandparents live (Milano, Italy). In a couple of books he can point out the general area of USA and Italy. He also knows he lives on earth and not on another planet. (-:
• He has a good memory: he recognizes streets and remembers things that happened a few months before (he is better than mom on this one)
• Two other things he does better than mom: kick a ball and using 3-d/spacial skills. Since he was 2 he can recognize from outside the house, even with the blinds drawn, mom’s bedroom or his own bedroom…I still have issues with that
• He can stack cubes in tall towers, as tall as he is.

He is still quite the social boy. This means we still have no breaks, and that he requires constant attention, but it also means that he is enjoying playing with other children. He is generally quite good (for a toddler) at sharing and waiting his turn, which makes for pleasant playdates and quite a lot of adult conversation. He is still better with one-on-one interaction  rather than large gatherings: he becomes a little shy when there are a lot of people and children, and needs a little time to warm up.

One of such fun events was Torin’s birthday party. The whole yard was a kid’s dreamland, with a water table, the bouncie and a huge slide/swing playset.

There were kids of varying ages, but Keegan mainly played with the guest of honor. These two really get along well, despite their 6 months age gap. Of course he loved to play, but the pinata was definitely a big hit (no pun intended). None of the little guys was able to smash it, but they had fun trying. And of course, it was even more fun to grab the candies that fell out of it.

Then, it was time for cake, or cupcakes. Keegan enjoyed his chocolate one, while mom feasted on the jummy Nutella/banana/nut dessert that Krista prepared. Adult food and beverages were also available to make it a really great party.

We dove home with an exhausted but happy toddler that night, and we really marveled at how much he has grown and is becoming more and more his own little person everyday. He already has his own favorite sentences, and typical expression and his own sense of humor. We are grateful to have him in our lives, terrible twos notwithstanding.

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Father’s Day weekend, 2010 edition. It was a lot of fun, and we made sure daddy had a very special weekend…or at least we hope.

The celebration started on Friday: Matt was able to leave a little early from work, so we both joined Keegan at his preschool’s Father’s Day pic-nic. There was some good food and dads participated in fun water games. I am sure glad we did not have to do this at our Mother’s Day celebration!

Keegan played with water, and had a blast splashing his friends. He did not have quite the same fun when they splashed him back!!! We tried to explain to him that getting wet is part of the fun! Not too many good pictures of father and son…so this is the best we could manage.

On Saturday, Tizi and Keegan spent a lot of time together: we played, went to the grocery store and to the large playground in UTC, trying to give daddy a little break. Unfortunately he had to do some work as well, but still he also got to enjoy some relaxing time, alone.

On the actual Father’s Day, Matt took the first nap shift, at 7am, and Keegan and Tizi watched the second World Cup soccer game of an unimpressive Italy. We were all ready: we got our flag out and rehearsed our cheers of “Forza Azzurri”. Keegan got it down. He was so cute, waving his flag around. Even more impressively, he watched the whole game. This is the kid who can’t stay still for a minute, but he sat on my lap for the whole first half, trying to encourage me and reminding me that “they are trying”. The second half was a little more fragmented as we dealt with laundry and preparing daddy some muffins. One big lesson Keegan learned from it, though, is that “we don’t pull shirts” and pull players down when playing soccer (especially in the goal area). The penalty kick impressed him, even if I still can’t convince him that the goal is NOT a fence.

Forza Azzurri!

After the disappointing 1-1 we got everything ready for Dad. And by the way, yes, I am very distraught about Italy being eliminated in the first round…but we will be back in 8 years to win it again. Historical data indicates we only win every 12 years, so here it is. I called my parents, and we commiserated together on Skype.

Keegan “made” Matt a paper tie and a mug full of candy, and mom got a few more things for him. When Matt woke up, we celebrated with a nice brunch and muffins. And of course we gave him our cards: Keegan decorated his with stickers and stamps.

After our brunch, we all took a nap, and spent a “quiet” afternoon at home. Keegan played in the pool and splashed around and we enjoyed our time together. Keegan is really very lucky to have such a wonderful, fun, dedicated dad (and so am I). And we can’t say it enough: thank you for all you do, Matt.

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We just wanted to post an update on our construction. We passed the first two inspections and we are now working on the framing. I think this is probably the more exciting stage, because this is when you really see something growing from nothing. Last week, the stairs were completed, and we can now go upstairs and check out how it will look like: the rooms are now set and we can look outside the “windows” and start imagining how it will be.

It is great to get home and see dramatic changes from one day to the next. It makes you forget about the noise, and dust, and dirt  and all the other inconveniences. The pictures were shot a few days ago, and while lot of work has been done since then, it still gives you a rough idea of how it will look.

we got stairs!

View from one of the canyon-view bedrooms

Of course, Keegan is fascinated by all the construction and loves to go up and down the stairs. He knows we are building HIS room, and he is very excited. Maybe a little too much: it is very difficult to get him going in the morning, because he wants to stick around and see what the workers are doing. Their schedule is great: they start early in the morning and they are usually gone by midafternoon, so generally, we have the house back to ourselves by the time Keegan gets home from preschool.

Inside the future “man cave”

You gotta love those stairs

Of course the curse has not been lifted yet: the pool and everything else, still will have to come down in a few short weeks and, we just found out, our inspector, the one our contractor knew well and that was mellow and easy going, just passed away, poor guy. This means that we are not sure who will inspect us now, but hopefully this will not cause too many delays or too many headheaches.

Anyway, we are trying to stay focused on and “enjoy” the progress…and let’s hope to be done by the end of the year.

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Finally, the beginning of Summer. It has been a little chilly for San Diego, and we have not been able to enjoy warm days, so Memorial Day Weekend was a welcome surprise. Not that it mattered too much to us, since we decided to go for the full heat, and celebrate the unofficial start of Summer — and the first three day weekend— in blazing hot Ranch Mirage (Palm Springs). I guess we figured it would not be as hot as Phoenix in July (see last summer) and we found very good rates.

Since Keegan has never been a great traveler, especially when it comes to sleeping, we had a “dry run” about a month ago, and spent a night at a hotel in North County. The hotel had a pool and he spent lots of time in it, even if the water was chilly. He has been taking lessons and he is really enjoying himself. He is pretty good, learning to blow bubbles underwater, and, while he is fighting it sometime, he is overall enjoying being in the water. The night went well, and thanks to the “magic” clock, he sleep pretty well, and till the yellow light came on. Then he started wandering around till he found us. Of course we chose a suite, so we would have a sleeping area semi separate from Keegan’s couch. The next morning, after the mandatory pool dip, we went to Queen Califa’s Magical Circle, a garden sculpture garden by Nikki De Saint Phalle. It is really cool, and he enjoyed climbing and jumping on the sculptures.

It was a good experience. So we were emboldened to try for a three day trip. Emboldened but not crazy, so we still looked for a hotel with  pool and a suite.

We reserved a “villa” at the Westin villas and Spa, and made sure there was a pool, Keegan’s new obsession. It was basically a condo: a 1 bedroom apartment with 2 fireplaces, 2 TVs, a full kitchen, dining area and living room with a queen size pull out couch. In the bedroom, there was a king size bed and a large jacuzzi tub, plus a full bathroom. A large balcony with BBQ completed the package.

Now, all this goodness almost DID not happen. The night before our trip we called to check in on our reservation, because they did not mention Keegan, and on the course of the call we realized that the reservation has been set for next year. How this happened is a mystery: we tried to replicate the error, but the website did not allow us to reserve a year in advance, so it may have been a computer glitch. No matter…we panicked. of course I complained and asked for a manager, who sounded unflappable. After, of course, telling me they were completely overbooked, they found “miraculously a space: same accommodations as we reserved. Now, I am grateful we did not have to scramble to find something else at the last minute, however, was the “we have been completely booked for three months” necessary?

Anyway, we climbed in our nice rental car and drove away. it took Keegan a little while to settle down and fall asleep, but then we were golden. The trip only took less than three hours, and Keegan woke up in time to enjoy and marvel at the wind turbines. We arrived shortly after, and we were greeted by a balmy 95+ degrees weather for the whole weekend.

The place was amazing, even if all that lush landscaping definitely looks out of place in the middle of the desert. And I’ve never seen so many water features in one place as in Rancho Mirage. Every establishment, big or small, MUST have its own water feature. Pretty crazy.

looking down from our balcony

Keegan loved the “pond” with its duckies and sprouting water

The  the moment Keegan has been waiting for all week: pool time! While we could use all the amenities our resort shared with the hotel, we mainly stayed in the resort’s pool. Keegan loved the toddler wading area (about 1 foot high) because he could play and splash without any help. After a couple of jumps in the big pool, he decided the small one was what he liked.  We sat and played in the warm pool till past 7, then we had dinner and settled in. Keegan fell asleep easily, and Matt did a quick store run to get a stroller and some food. We then watched a nice movie and relaxed and crashed early.

Keegan slept the whole night: he loved the hotel! Bright and early, after a quick breakfast, we went to the Living Desert, a small zoo dedicated to animals that live in desert or African areas. They also had a huge model train, and Keegan was fascinated.

We saw giraffes feeding on branches, and bulls, and petted goats and sheeps…and promptly left around 11, before melting down.

Back at the hotel, after lunch, we all crashed. Well, it took mr. Keegan a while to settle down: the two of us could not keep up with him, manically running from one side to the other of the apartment, opening one door as we closed the opposite one. It felt like a giant game of whack-a-mole.

He finally crashed, and so did we…for three solid hours! Perfect escape from the hottest time of the day (almost in the 100s). We had to wake up Keegan at 4, and it was difficult. The prospect of sending more time in the pool, however, got him motivated. And back to the pool we went. We bought a couple inflatable toys, so he had a great time floating and splashing around, while some dj were organizing the “do you know this tune?- 80s edition” on the pool deck. How relaxing!

Matt BBQ some jummy dinner, and then our little hero went to bed; so finally,  it was adult time! Some adult beverages, a nice jacuzzi, movies…you can’t ask for more.

check out the jacuzzi tub!

This second night was a little more eventful (Keegan woke up a couple of times), but still good. Check out was late, at noon, so we had a full morning of splashing and playing in the water, before heading home.

Reading his favorite books in our dining area

Once again we headed home right around Keegan’s nap time. He was so exhausted he actually asked me to take a nap, instead of going to the restaurant, as we promised. We hit a little bit of traffic on the way back — it was Memorial Day — but it was not too bad. Keegan slept most of the time, and woke up only because the car stopped (i.e. super crabby kid). By the time we got to San Diego, he was in full meltdown, because he NOW wanted to go to the restaurant. So, since we all had skipped lunch as well, we had one of my earliest dinners (or latest lunches) on record: 4pm.

It was a nice way to finish the weekend and this month of May. With construction starting up again and the weather, hopefully getting warmer, may Summer 2010 be a lot better than the Winter 2010.

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We have briefly mentioned in some previous posts that we have been going through some stressful time lately trying to remodel our home. We are adding a second story to our home. Or at least trying to…if the city will ever let us.

We weighted a lot of pros and cons, and at the end we thought that in this economic climate, remodeling was the way to go.We really did not want to go through an exhausting search- it took us almost 6 months to find this house and I looked at over 100 houses – and assuming we could find a bigger house we could afford, we did not want to go through the hassle of moving. Plus we would have probably take a big hit as far as selling price. Moreover, we love the house and its canyon view and at this time, construction company are really looking for work, so materials and labor may be cheaper. The catch 22 of all of this, though, is that no banks are lending money: so it took us months to find one who did and to prep all the necessary paperwork. We started the exploratory process in march of last year, and we signed loan docs in December!

By the beginning of March, we thought we were on our way to start our huge project. Our contractor called at the end of February and said they wanted to start in a couple of days, because all the construction plans has been approved, and we were only waiting on a brush management plan, that should have been a formality!  So we had a hectic few days, trying to get everything boxed and moved, to rent a storage space, and get organized. We also went around talking to our neighbors, letting them know of our plans…and it was a good thing too, because jack hammering started bright and early.

We decided to build two small bedrooms (Keegan’s room and a playroom) and an office for Matt and a bathroom, adding about 600 sf. We are not sure how long it will take but we hope to be done by the end of summer. We will be building over the living room, kitchen and some of the garage, so our bedroom are intact. They also assured ous that they should be able to build above us, without ripping the ceiling, so most of the house should be somewhat usable, dust aside, for most of the time. The only drawback, is that we are not able to go directly from the kitchen to the bedroom, since this is where the new footings and the stairs will be built. Good thing we live in Southern California, so we can easily go around that by using our patio.

A nice plywood wall has been built in our living room, and two zippered plastic walls separate the kitchen from the bedroom. It has not been a big problem so far, and fortunately we are at work for most of the noisy part. Keegan seemed to be enjoying the diversion, and he was taking it as an adventure. Hopefully it will last even when the novelty factor wears off. And I guess I can say the same about us.

So, at first everything seemed to work out. Then, our luck turned. The city took a special interest in our project, and a whole series of rounds of discussions and meetings took place. I will spare you all the pitiful details, but this is what happened:

1) After our plans were basically approved, some wonderful person at the city decided that he needed to have a second look and found some violations. We were not called in to explain, nor he came over to the property to inspect.
2) The city called code compliance to record some alleged violations according to some obscure ordinance that applies to steep hills.
3) Their vacation schedule prevented us from having a specific answer about this violations for more than a month and a half
4) They sent us a complaints letter that made no sense at all
5) They set up a meeting with us — finally— to discuss the issue
6) They required a new plan to be submitted, and the removal of basically everything we have in the back yard, regardless if it has been there for more than 15 years. This includes the deck, the trellis, the spa and the pool.
7) During the whole time they held our permit hostage, and no work could be done till this is resolved

So, we have been living in a construction zone, with no construction going on. How fun! Keep in mind that our project has NOTHING to do with the back yard. They just require a brush management plan regardless of what work you do, as an overreaction to the recent fires. They are going overboard in the interpretation of the laws and regulations, so if you live in a canyon area (about 70% of San Diego is), you can’t do basically NOTHING to your own canyon land. And who said that California is the land of freedom?

As you can imagine this has been extremely stressful and disheartening: we were trying to make our house better, and we will end up taking away lots of his amenities. At this point we have no choice. Construction or not we have to take care of  this or face a fine. We only hope the extra space will make up for it.

So, after almost three months of delays, uncounted phone calls and emails from our contractor, a meeting, and multiple modifications and resubmitting of the plan (and guess who is paying for all this?), we are finally starting again. The final permit finally arrived about 10 days ago, so we immediately got and passed our first inspection, and we are moving along. Of course, we still will have to tear down our beloved “back yard”, pool, spa, deck, retaining walls, trellis and all…and let’s not forget the re-vegetation part!

We are however trying to focus on the positive, and simply wish a carload of bad karma to the nice, hardworking people at the city, that for some reason decided that our project needed to be used an an example.

It is now June, and we are hoping that the “curse” that has been dogging us for the past 3 months — starting with the hit and run damage on my parked car — is finally over. We will keep you updated with more photos as we move along.

Here’s to a happier second half of 2010.

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