tizimatt.info

Well, while the flight went well beyond mom’s expectations, the first week was surprisingly quite difficult. The changes were just too much for Keegan: a new environment, new language, lots of new people changed our super social guy into a quiet shy (but still super active) boy, who could not stay away from mom for more than a few minutes. The first day, Tizi could not even go to the bathroom without Keegan starting the waterworks. He was still laughing and smiling, but only with mom in sight. It was quite surprising for everyone, but obviously it is pretty normal for a baby this small. Mom and dad, and the grandparents were just a little too naive.

The worse part was night time. As you all know, Keegan never liked sleeping and with all those changes, his schedule was totally out of whack, meaning mom and baby DID NOT sleep. The first couple of days he woke up basically every hour, and would not go back to sleep without nursing. Sometimes, he would only sleep in Tizi’s bed. This was particularly hard because all this waking up didn’t allow Tizi to adjust to the new time zone especially since she basically stuck at home with Keegan and couldn’t even enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Furthermore, Keegan had perfected the standing up maneuver, and he would stand when he was waking up, and so there was also the fear he would fall out of the bed. It got so stressful, that Tizi was not even able to sleep when Keegan was falling back asleep, so she spent the first few days like a ZOMBIE.

All the wonderful plans of spending the first week visiting old friends and catching up, and enjoying time with her parents pretty much vanished, as she was too tired to do anything. Fortunately, the gradual adjustment came quickly. By Wednesday, two days after landing, Keegan would go out with grandma alone in his stroller. Just like in San Diego, Keegan LOVES going outside and checking everything out; Milano may not be as pretty as San Diego, but there is definitively lots more going on and lots more moving around, so for a curious guy like him it is paradise. As an added bonus, we realized he really like the stroller that Tizi’s good friend gave us, and he was falling asleep fine in it. So the new routine was, after a sleepless night, grandma would take Keegan out for a walk, so mom could sleep a little to regain some strength.

Our new best friend, the stroller

All this new things got me really tired…

Also, after a couple of days, he was eating more normally and getting into the new schedule. By Friday night, he was ready to re-learn to sleep all night by himself. We had to try, AGAIN, the crying out method, but by Saturday night he was sleeping all night again, in his crib. Just in time for daddy’s arrival.

We arrived at the SD airport bright and early and everything went smoothly. It was hard to leave daddy, but it is only a week, after all.

So here I am going through security: a car seat and stroller combo to be disassembled and passed through the x-ray machine, a huge diaper bag and carry-on to be passed through, shoes, belt, necklace to be removed, all to be done while holding a squirming 9 month old babies while trying to show boarding pass and passports. Of course, the “friendly” TSA personnel decided to help me , as in unceremoniously moving some of my things out of the way, only after I went through the x-ray machine, while all my stuff was piling on the machine and creating delays. Anyway, we made it to our gate while the plane was already boarding. I guess this is the advantage of taking an early flight: they usually leave on time. Fortunately the flight was not completely full (just a couple of seats left), so I was allowed to bring the car seat on board. This was great, because it gave us a little more space to put our bags. The genius flight attendant, though, had the brilliant idea of seating us in the row in front of the emergency exit, so we had to be moved, due to federal regulations, after departing and just after Keegan fell asleep. Amazingly enough, the guy sitting next to us was sad we were leaving, as he was worried he would need to sit next some big guy. We moved next to a nice lady who really helped us and the little one did not wake up during the process. Keegan slept for more than an hour, so I could watch some of the movie. We were in one of those cool planes with videos in the headrest and lots of movies to choose from. A little of a waste for a three and a half hours flight. Still, I was able to watch almost a whole movie (the brainless Sex in The City). Once he woke up, he played a little bit and then started flirting with everyone, and laughing and smiling. He had his breakfast on the plane and had a good time playing.

Everyone was impressed for his behavior. We arrived in Atlanta just in time. Not much time between flights, so we called daddy and ate some lunch. This is when the only real crisis happened. 10 minutes before boarding, we went to restroom to freshen up and as I looked down at the stroller…

WARNING: TMI following

….I saw suspicious yellow spots on his blankie. As in the best mommie horror movies I lift the blankie, and here it is, my smiling little guy completely covered in vomit. Vomit on his sweater, onesie, blankie, toys and pooling in his car seat. So here I am, trying to wash him, change him, clean and disinfect the car seat, disinfect and wash his toys, and again, while I am holding the squirming guy. Of course, no one offered any help, (even after I changed him) even if a few women in the restroom stopped to smile at us: were they commiserating? Teasing? Making fun of us or simply enjoying the misery? We will never know. Fortunately I did packed some extra onesies. To top it off, as I am frantically trying not to miss the flight, the cereals that I had in a small tupperware completely poured inside my bag, covering everything from my wallet to the camera to the moist bottles, creating a nice paste. Finally I placed the stroller blankie I brought on the car seat to keep him warm, and we run to the boarding area. We are basically the last one, which actually works out OK, since I have already asked to block the seat next to me for his car seat, and we got to spend less time on the plane.He ended up looking very stylish, as the last onesie and oants I had clean was actually matching the bib I had for him.

The flight to Italy was 8 and half hours…a lifetime. They grouped all the kids at the back of the plane…which is fine because most kids like each other so they calm each other as well. Of course, the three young ones, Keegan and two more babies, were fine. On the other hand, we had the devil’s spawn sitting next to us, in the same row. He must have been around 2 and he SCREAMED most of the time. The genius parents brought for his entertainment….a stuffed dolphin! That’s it, a freaking stuffed animal for a 8.5.hours flight. They didn’t forget the noise canceling headsets and magazines for themselves, though, and that is what they did when he started screaming. Only after about 6 hours, the father decided that MAYBE he could walk him up and down the aisle. He was only quiet when he was playing with the baby behind him.

eating his night night mik on his flight to Italy

I really don’t get it. How can you be such a jerk? As soon as Keegan was cranky I got up and TRIED to calm him. For the worse case scenario I bought air plugs for the fellow passengers. Fortunately there was no need. While Keegan didn’t really sleep much, he didn’t fuss much either. He flirted with the flight attendants who we visited quite a bit and the other babies. In a way, actually, the flight went by almost faster than usual with him. Lots of passengers helped me to carry bags in and out of the plane and made my life easier. We landed almost 45 minutes early, and we got the bags quite quickly.

We are finally here

Keegan he is Italian, after all, so we are using the European Community Exit

So, all and all a pretty easy trip, despite the little vomit incident. Grandma and grandpa were of course at the airport waiting anxiously for us. They were so happy to see him: he has grown so much. It was great to be finally here, and we are looking forward to many days of relax, good food and family time.

Keegan is 9 months old: he spent as much time outside of the womb as he did inside…I wonder where did he have more fun??? Jokes aside, he has obviously grown quite a bit since December. We have finally started (the keyword here is <started>) transferring the videos to computer and eventually DVD and so we have been revisiting those first days: it is amazing to notice how much he has changed in those few months, and how different he looks now.

yes, I am the cutest dude around

We had our standard 9 months check up. It was supposed to be shots-free, but since they had run out of one of the vaccines last time, he did get one shot. Other than that, the doctor found him extremely well. He is now 17.11 lb (8kg) and 28 3/4 inch (73cm) . It looks like he moved up a couple of percent points on his growth curve, still remaining a “tall”, skinny guy. We had our chance to ask questions, and Tizi’s first one was:” Do all babies his age move as much as he does?” The doctor reassured us that he would be worried otherwise, but then he must have repeated the same comment, “How active and how curious this little guy is (and how smiley).” a good 6 times in a 2o minutes period. This made us think that, obviously not ALL babies move as much, if he feels the need to say it so many times. besides, EVERYONE comments on how curious, active and smiley he is, from the daycare people, to total strangers on the street. And we did narrowed down the cause: yes, it is Tizi’s fault. Tizi’s mom reminded her that she also could not stay still a second (still can’t). Oh well…this will make for an interesting flight.

Other than that, he is well, and very strong (also another repeated comment). All his vitals are what they should be and he has hit every major developmental milestones. He seems happy, well fed and alert. He has been cleared to eat pretty much everything, even finger food ( he is not showing much interest in that yet) so… grandma’s cooking here we come! It will be soon pasta time! He doesn’t seem to show any stranger anxiety, at least not yet, so hopefully he will continue to be a very social baby.

We marked any big achievement in previous posts, but to recap Keegan now:

– sleeps through the night
– has a slightly more regular schedule of three naps a day
– rolls over both sides with no problem
– crawls properly
– goes from sitting to crawling and viceversa
– laughs when he sees something funny (we are still not really getting his sens of humor, though)
– grabs objects and pass them from one hand to another
– start understanding the meaning of words: his name, NO (not that he respond to it), milk, nanna, food, mom and dad
– start pulling himself up to a standing position, grabbing onto something (the crib rails, our legs, etc.)
– tries to pull himself up from his back to sitting
– notice when a toy is taken away from him, and looks for it
– makes DA DA DA and LA LA noises and screeches
– lights up when he sees mom or dad
– fold his legs in turn (making little steps) when we are holding him up
– holds himself up momentarily
– moves his legs up and down when he is happy or very angry
– still puts everything in his mouth
– still has no teeth
– is still amazingly cute (OK, OK, we are biased..but he has a cute smile) Una faccia simpatica, (a likable face) as they would say in Italy

Another funny little thing he has been doing lately: he usually gets a snack of milk in the mid afternoon. Now that he can crawl, he is trying new breastfeeding positions: I usually sit him on the couch as I position the breastfeeding pillow and get ready. He is so impatient when he sees the pillow, that he starts giggling, and he crawls towards me, get on his knees and latch on right then and there, while on his knees…We should try to capture it on camera. Of course, this would be for our eyes only.

So, our next post will be from Italy: I am sure we will have many interesting (a posteriori) stories to tell. Keep Tizi in your thoughts as she embark in this great adventure: 18+ hours with Keegan in a small plane (1 connection).

Well, our little hero is now getting better and better at pulling himself up. He has been tentatively doing it for a few weeks, but over Labor Day weekend, he really showed us that he is quite capable.

ready, set…

up! Look at me! I am standing

That means that, even with constant supervision, the bassinettes he used to play, are not a safe option anymore. So we stripped them down to their play yard state: he now enjoys the mesh sides and he constantly crawls, pulls himself up, falls down again, rolls over and start again. And, of course he won’t stay in it for more than a few minutes, but it is a start.

Keegan has also been pulling himself up using us as props. He has not started using furniture, but it is a questions of days, I am sure. He is also practicing walking: when we are holding him by his hands, he is bending one knee at at a time and putting them in front of each other. We know it doesn’t mean he is ready to walk: he is still pretty wobbly. He has been able to support himself while standing holding on mommy’s necklace before… We will see. Grandma and grandpa are betting he will be walking within a month. Of course they are a little biased, as they would really like him to take his first steps while we are visiting. Mom and dad, on the other hand, are in no hurry!

Happy Labor Day everyone. We spent the day cleaning up…how pathetic is that! However, we had fun on the weekend. We went to a BBQ on Saturday, and we ate some awesome, fresh caught tuna, that the host fished in Mexico. Outstanding! Keegan was a big hit: very well behaved, and smiley, and a few of the kids took turns entertaining him. And Sunday we went for a nice pic-nic at Balboa park.

Most of all, beside today, we took it easy: we had a tough week. Keegan got sick over last weekend. We are still not sure what it was exactly, as he had any possible symptom: he started by being irritable on Friday. On Saturday, he was great all day till the late afternoon, when he didn’t want to nap. We have just lowered his crib, so we figured he didn’t like it much. It does feel a little like falling in a bottomless pit,  as it is quite a bit lower, after all. We went out for a date, and when we got back around 10.30 (yes, we are living the life!) he was up, crying. The babysitter who usually has a magic touch couldn’t get him back to sleep, even after feeding him. We took over, but he kept on waking up quite often during the night. The next day, he was obviously quite cranky, but he seemed almost normal…we went to an outdoor concert in Coronado, and he was happy, playing and crawling till dinner time, when he threw up his whole dinner. Another difficult night: he kept on waking up, and he felt warm, so we gave him some Tylenol.

The next morning it was clear he was really sick: he was hot, and not very active. We had to keep him home. Matt stayed with him in the morning. When Tizi got back from work he was not doing any better: he was just limp and whiny in daddy’s arm. Poor little guy: we felt so bad for him, and there was nothing really we could do. We have never seen him like this, so calm and mellow. We called the doctor and scheduled an appointment. Tylenol was not really helping, and we measured a 102 + fever (we had to do the anal probe, just to be sure). Of course he was not eating, and started having some diarrhea, so we simply tried to keep him hydrated with milk, water and Pedialite.

The doctor visit was  an ordeal: afternoons are busy, and the doctor was late so Tizi really had her hands full, literally, trying to keep him entertained, or at least to soothe him through it. It took two hours, and a few back and forth between the nurse and the doctor: first they didn’t weight him, then the nurse tried to weight him on a non-digital scale and she obviously was not able to use it: she tried to say he was 5 kg, when we weighted him two weeks ago and he was more than 7 kg. Finally she got to the digital scale and he was about 7.8 kg. Now, this is important, because the weight determine how much Tylenol we should give him.

Anyway, after all that what genius advice did we get? “Keep him hydrated, and give him Tylenol every 4 hours”.  That was two hours well spent! At least we ruled out any serious infection. The doctor seems to think he had some kind of GI infections (for the ones like me that don’t know, GI stands for gastro-Intestinal). he seems to be quite susceptible to those, since it is the second one on three months. I know it is the seasons for it, still…Plus someone HAS to put everything in his mouth. We should probably start baby yogurt.

Fortunately the next day he was a lot better. We still kept him at home, and it was mommie’s turn to stay with him… and of course she got somewhat sick too. By the end of the day, she was exhausted, and achy all over. He was active again, but also wanting more attention than usual and not eating much…which meant he was waking up again in the middle of the night and had to eat. Grueling.

We finally got him back on track towards the end of the week, not without having to let him cry (while giving him water) for his night wakings. It is amazing how fast babies revert to bad habits (i.e. night feedings and cuddling). More than a month of sleeping through the night undone in a couple of days!!! Fortunately now he is back to normal. He is the same smiling, laughing, hyperactive self, and we are the same exhausted, sleepy and whiny selves. He sleeps once again through the night: yeah!!! We are keeping our fingers crossed he will stay that way for the long trip ahead.

It was a little bit of a scare: he really seemed in pain, and the high fever got him good, but as they say, he is building up his immune system. Researches do say that babies that go at daycare and get colds and various illnesses early, will do better later in life and will be stronger…let’s hope it is true. That would be a nice silver lining.

We have been enjoying the end of summer here, in beautiful San Diego. We had been taking our little guy on walks and pic-nics and he LOVES it. He is a real San Diegan, outdoorsy and social. He is very happy in the fresh air. He started early, when being outside, even in the evening, was is favorite way to fall asleep. Now he is not missing any time sleeping: he is active, very curious (he has been called “curious george” at daycare) and taking it all in. Being a boy, he is particularly drawn to the dirtiest, most disgusting things he can crawl to and trying to stop him from eating them is quite a challenge.

We had the chance to take him at a live afternoon concert in a Coronado park, and he enjoyed the infant swing. Daddy was being very cautious, and not pushing him too hard, but I am sure Keegan wished he could go faster. He is also very intrigued by grass and leaves, and now that he is crawling efficiently, there is no stopping him. It took us quite a while to get him to stop, and pose for the camera.

faster, daddy, faster

why sitting on a blanket, when you can sit on the grass and eat leaves?

 Sometimes it is hard to remember, at least for Tizi, but Keegan has already double nationality:lucky him! In preparation for our trip to Italy, we requested both passports, to make things easier at both customs. Of course, even if we requested them both at the same time, the Italian one took a couple of extra months…and they printed a wrong birth date. So we had to send it back, and hope. Amazingly enough, depite the fact it was the middle of summer, a notorious non-productive time in Italy, we got it back in a few days. So, now we are all set to go.What is really amazing is that, for both passports,we had to provide a photo and specific info such as heigth…and the passport is good for 5 to 10 years!! Like he is going to be looking anything like it in a few months…abd we sure hope he will be taller.

Let’s me see if this is authentic…

Yup, it is the real deal

It has been quite warm here in San Diego, even in usually breezy Clairemont, Upper West Side, so we are trying to find ways to stay cool, and especially to keep the little guy cool. He seems to be dealing with the heat a lot better, but he still get hot. So we have been trying a little inflatable pool in the front yard. He seemed perplexed at first, but he got quickly more comfortable. He enjoyed playing in the water, but he still seemed more interested in the surrounding grass, leaning over the edges and making dad’s job of keeping him safe quie difficult.

Well, well well: it looks like Tizi was right. Mr “antsy pants” is moving forward. Saturday (8 months 7 days) was the first time we noticed. Of course, it is not an unorthodox crawling, but he is moving forward, and getting faster and faster every day. Instead of a traditional hands and knees crawl, he is using his belly quite a bit, rocking on it, in an old school, breakdancing kind of way. He is pretty funny to look at! I guess now would be a good time to baby proof the house. (-:

He is stretching to reach quite a bit as well, and he also figured out that if he is on a blanket and there is a toy he wants on it, but it is out of his reach, there is no point trying to crawl towards it: he can simply pull the blanket and the toy will come to him. Smart or lazy????????

He has also mastered the rotation move and he can do a 360 turn, still on his stomach, in less than a minute. You just need to put in front of him some enticing object and he will rotate; lately that would be:

1) newpapers and/or magazine, preferably if mom or dad are trying to read them
2)  ANYTHING colorful that is out of reach. As soon as the object is reached, it is NOT interesting anymore
3) ANYTHING  dangerous, such as cables, wires, etc
4) electronic devices, such as phones, remote controls, etc.

ready, set…

GO!!!!!!

Almost there

It is within my reach

Got it! I can crumple it as much as I like

What a miracle: last night, Tizi had an unprecedented 8 hours sleep! Keegan went to sleep at 7.30 pm, without a peep, and slept all the way till 6.40 am (mom went to bed around 10pm). It couldn’t have come at a better time, since Matt was out of town, for business…or so he said 🙂

We are still holding our breath, knocking on wood, crossing our fingers and doing all sort of Italian good-luck things, such as Toccare ferro (touching something made of iron), fare le corna (making a fist with the index and pinky finger sticking out), or, and I let Matt do that, touching male genitals, to make sure we are not jinxing it, but let me tell you: it feels GREAT!

So, we made it to another month: Keegan is now 8 months old. It was another beautiful, sunny day in San Diego, and since it happened to be a Sunday, we went for a pic-nic and a short walk at lake Miramar: not really a lake, but an artificial damn. It is quite nice, though, and quite pleasant to walk.

Keegan has grown a lot in the past month: he gained 1.5 lb, topping off at 16lb 9 0z. Still holding on his spot at 5% of the curve, but he does not seem quite as small anymore, and he has plenty of fat rolls, especially on his legs. According to our imprecise measurements, he is now about 70cm long or 27.5 inches.

He looked smashing in his Armani baby shirt that grandma sent from Italy.

It is getting harder and harder to get him to pose for his monthly pictures: he moves and squirms and flip himself on his belly.

check out my acrobatics!

We have more milestones to report. He is getting closer and closer to crawl: he is moving backwards quite a bit, and he usually positions himself in the “backward dog” position: will be be a young Yoga master? He has, however, learned to bend his knees and he now stays on his hands and knees a little more every day: Tizi’s betting he will be doing a full forward crawling within two weeks. He did move somewhat forward once, but not in a coordinated manner: he used his head !

He is also learning to get up from sitting, by holding onto something. He is usually doing in his portable crib that we have positioned in the sun room as a sort of play area. We obviously can’t leave him there by himself anymore. He is also pulling himself up somewhat by holding on mom’s and dad’s clothing.

More than ever is on the move: he can’t stay still a second…and Tizi is usually blamed for passing this characteristic on. It is quite exahusting. So, even if we are now sleeping more ( knocking on wood) we are as tired as before, because he really wears us down…and he takes shorter and less frequent naps. Tizi  is constantly trying to come up with new ways to keep him entertained. The latest trick: a small tent we can put up in the gated front yard, so he can enjoy some fresh air. He seems to enjoy it.

Finally, he is really attracted to tags and paper in general: another thing he has learned from mom. Lucky for Keegan, paper is definitively something that is NOT lacking in this house.

Keegan has also tried a larger variety of foods: apples, pears, bananas, peaches, avocado (NOT his favorite so far), peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, white potatoes and zucchini. We even started preparing some homemade food: nothing extravagant, but just to add some variety. Keegan has been a good sport about it. He tries everything, but he is also very clear and determined when he DOES not want to eat something: he makes a funny face, and refuses to open his mouth. He even forcefully pushes the spoon away: fortunately, he doesn’t spit anything out, so far. Tizi’s hoping he has inherited dad’s sense of adventure and love of new and different foods. We already have one picky eater in the family.

We have more progress to report. We don’t want to jinx it, but we are definitively doing better. Keegan slept through the night pretty much most of the week. Can you believe it???? What is even more unbelievable, is that we are still feeling VERY tired.

We started our “sleep training” last weekend. On Friday night, he woke up at 1.30am. We tried to let him cry but after 30 minutes we gave in, and fed him. He then slept the rest of the night. On Saturday, he woke up at 10.30pm: this time we were undeterred. We knew that he didn’t need to eat, as he ate at 7pm. We did let him cry (while periodically checking on him). He cried for 45 minutes. It was excruciating…but then he fell asleep and slept till 7 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We, of course, woke up earlier, and went in to check on him to see if he was still breathing. Tizi was actually in major pain: the breast was really full and the back ached: she was not used to sleep this long anymore.But man, ,was it worth the pain!

The next night, he woke up at 11.30, cried 15 minutes, and slept past 6am. And the third night, he didn’t wake up till 5.30am. The next days, he has been sleeping through. Occasionally he wakes up around 3am or 4am and goes back to sleep by himself in a few minutes.

Again, we are not saying we are out of the woods yet, but we are VERY grateful for the extra sleep. Finally!!!!

As an added bonus, he seems to sleep a little easier in the daytime even if his naps are shorter. So he compensate for the extra sleep at nighttime by totally wearing us down during the day. He has not calmed down at all.

Now we only have to buy some kind of crib bumper, as he moves quite a bit. He usually sleep on his belly, and we have found him with his legs sticking out of the crib on more than one occasion. Ouch!

We are still working on it! We have some progress to report: at night time, usually, Keegan now falls asleep on his own, without extensive rocking or swaddling, and usually with minimal or no crying. It took about two/three nights. The new nighttime routine seems to help as well. Now that is free to move about the crib, he often rolls over, so he can sleep on his tummy or side.

Afternoon naps and middle of the night are another story. We have mix success with afternoon naps: sometime he falls asleep easily, other times he just cries and cries (we set our limit to one hour: after that we pick him up…and yes we are continually checking on him, and comforting him at different intervals, so he is not totally abandoned). Part of the problem is that we don’t have a very consistent nap time. It is hard because he doesn’t have one at daycare, so he is tired at different times. Afternoon naps is when we see most of his acrobatics: in his crying, he flips himself over, rolls, rotate himself. One day I found him sleeping horizontally (parallel to the short side of the crib), with his head nudged in the corner, in the exact opposite side from where I left him. This cannot be comfortable! I caught a picture of him that day, when he just woke up.

where am I???

And we have absolutely NO success in stopping his night wakings/feeding, YET. In all honesty, we haven’t been consistent with that, as we are usually too tired at 3 am, but we are determined to try next weekend (and sleep during the day). Wish us luck.

On the other hand, he is developing more and more every day. He is playing with new toys, such as the uber-cool, soft blocks from Dwell Baby, (gift from Steve and Barbara). He is usually destroying the neat stack mom and dad create, but it is a start.

D is for Darling…or Dude

He is spending more time on his tummy, doing push ups, even lifting his butt and legs. He is moving more and more, mainly backwards, but he also rotates himself, and get around. He may have rolled over from his belly to his back, but we haven’t seen it happening, so we are not sure. It seems to be a matter of weeks before he will figure out how to crawl, or move more efficiently. Mom is not thrilled about chasing him around: he is already constantly in motion now, imagine when he can propel himself!

We also had our first video phone calls with Grandma and Grandpa in Italy: they had some technical difficulties on their camera, but they were able to see the little guy: it was wonderful being able to share all his exploits. It really made us feel more connected. And it is all free…miracle of the new technologies. Thank you Skype!

Well, Keegan is all set to go. He received his first passport, the American one, and is ready to fly to Italy in September. Of course, we are still waiting on the Italian one, which we ordered at the same time. But you know how this work…huge backlog and now it is vacation time. Tizi really hopes to have it by September, as it would make the custom process easier, but she is not optimistic. We are talking about Italia bureaucracy, after all.

I am ready to go

 check this out: my picture looks pretty good

2007 was an extraordinary year as far as number of pregnancies in Matt’s and Tizi’s immediate circle. This is good news for Keegan that will have a lot of friends to play with. On July 12, he met one of those future buddies. We met with Allison and Jack and their little guy Case, who is only a month older than Keegan, in a park in Coronado. Steve, Barbara and Ian were also there. Matt, Jak, Steve and Carter all worked together in Virginia, and slowly migrated west (shame on Carter that moved back east).

It was a beautiful day, and we had a fun BBQ at the park, wtih lots of yummy food. It was great just hang out and spend time together. We don’t do this enough. The kids got along well, or mostly ignored each other, and of course Keegan immediately started trying to grab Case. It MUST be the Italian blood. The afternoon came to a close when all the kids started fussying, almost at the same time. But they did last longer that we anticipated!