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At the end of our great family reunion we had the chance to visit some old friends that live in Virginia, Abby and Carter. Carter has been a good friend of Matt since his time in Virginia, and he recently moved back there, after many years in California. Abby was our maid of honor and in fact she is the one who introduced us, a cold evening at the end of 2000. Matt had just moved to San Diego, and Abby organized an evening out at the Maloney’s Pub in the Gaslamp district with a few friends. Tizi and Matt hit it off right away, even if we didn’t start dating till a few months later.

Abby has a daughter, Nina, born only 10 days after Keegan, so it was good to let the babies meet. It was interesting: Keegan, probably showing his Italian blood, immediately smiled at her and tried to touch her. Nina, on the other hand, showing her Norwegian blood, was a lot more reserved. They did get along well, and Nina even shared her toys with Keegan.

how YOU doing?

she can’t resist my latin lover charm

It was great to see them: we missed them. Keegan didn’t behave as good as he could have, and gave us a completely sleepless night, but we still had a good time. Hopefully they will come visit us soon. At the very least, we will see them again in October, at Carter’s wedding.

with Abby

with Carter

We just got back from a wonderful week in North Carolina, to visit with Matt’s family. They have been getting together for a week on the beaches of North Carolina for the past few years, and it has always been a lot of fun. Tizi had missed the past couple of trips because of her work schedule, but this year, we were all able to make, Keegan included. We were very excited about introducing our new addition to the rest of the family. Despite our fears, Keegan was very good on the plane. We were lucky: neither flight was sold out, so we were able to bring our car seat on board, and Keegan slept in it quite a bit. For the rest of the time he was smiling and flirting with every woman around him. We received quite a few compliments on his behavior.

I forgot my laptop…oh well, I can play with my toy giraffe instead

this flying thing is kind of fun

It was great to see everyone: Keegan met Uncle Mike and Aunt Karol, and cousin Ella; Uncle Rob and cousins Cailynn, Bryan, Sean and Erin; Aunt Mary and cousins Josh and Bridget; Aunt Beth and Uncle Wayne and cousins Colin and Shawn; and he was happy to see again Aunt Sue and Uncle Dan and cousins Rachel and Hannah. Everyone loved to play with him, especially cousins Ella and Erin.

sitting with cousin Ella

Keegan also got his first taste — literally — of the ocean. I know we live in California, but, believe it or not, we never took him to the shore. We went walking on the beach and boardwalk, but he never felt the ocean. The first day we tried to get his feet wet, a large wave caught us all by surprise, and we all got drenched. Keegan got scared, more from the surprise screams that Tizi and the girls let out than from the water getting in his face. The next day it went better, and he got to put his feet in the frigid water: who said the Atlantic ocean is warmer than the Pacific?

one, two, three…COLD

He seemed more perplexed than anything else, but he was fascinated by the crashing waves: a future surfer boy? He was wearing some very stylish board shorts, a gift from Grandma in Italy.

The house Matt’s family rented, just a few blocks from the beach, also had a nice pool, and we spent some time there as well, playing with Keegan’s inflatable crab. He seemed to enjoy the pool a little more, and loved his hooded robe, again a gift from Italy, arrived only a couple of days before we left.

Sadly the week went by too fast: the weather was great, most of the time not too hot, and even if we didn’t have the chance to spend too much time outdoors, we had a wonderful time hanging out with family. It was the first time that Tizi and Matt could actually see anyone in the morning: on all other trips, we used to sleep in late and get to the beach when everyone else was going back home for lunch. Oh, how life changes with a baby: this time around we were always the first up! It was sad to leave: hopefully we will get to see everyone real soon.

Aunt Sue

Aunt Karol

Aunt Mary

It is hard to believe, but we are slowly starting to have pieces of our old life back. On Monday, Memorial Day, we went to a concert: Elvis Costello and the Police. It felt very good to be, once again, in a concert crowd. It almost felt like the old days…except from the fact that we used to tailgate and drink beer beforehand, and now Tizi was …(Warning: TMI)….expressing breastmilk in the parking lot. But the show was really good: we have both been waiting for this for a long time, and it was the first time for both of us to see the Police perform live. Tizi was even able to get a nice Samuel Adams: it cost $13, but it was well worth it!

Both Elvis Costello and the Police put up a great show, – and a fun duet– if a little short…and you know you are watching middle-aged musicians (to be generous) when the show starts early, it finishes before midnight and you are the younger people in the crowd…But it was all great: the seats were very good, and thanks to one of Tizi’s colleagues, we drove to the arena, notorious for traffic jams, on a shortcut and we were in an out with no trouble. We watched other unlucky concert-goers being stuked in bumper to bumper traffic well into the Police set.

We had a great time but most of all it was wonderful to realize that with some adjustements (and a little extra cash) we could still do some of the things we enjoyed BB (before baby).

Elvis Costello performing at Cricket Wireless Arena (how lame of a name is that???)

Keegan’s room (also our guest room) is getting close to be finished. It only took us 6 months, after all. We applied some cool decals to the wall and to the closet door. The art is by Keith Haring, and awesome artist who died way too young.

Another exciting development: Keegan got his first taste of solid food…well, this is a little of an euphemism, as the consistence of the rice cereal is not much different from milk alone. Still, he had his first taste of eating with a spoon and in a chair. He took it very easily and he seemed to enjoy the experience. We mixed some rice cereal with formula, and we sat him in our new cool space saver booster chair. Tizi liked it because it saves space, has three reclining positions, turns into a toddler booster chair and most of all, it comes in her favorite, earthy tones and modern patterns. It also half the price or more than a regular high chair. Feeding time also allowed her to use all the cool accessories we bought: Boom utensils and plates and Bumkin bibs, which came really handy as it was hard to tell if there was more cereal inside Keegan or ON him…

prima pappa

check out the cool chair, bib and spoon (and they all match)

dad is a natural

Overall, he is doing really good with the eating part, but he still squirms a bit when he is sitting for more than a few minutes. Now, if we could only feed him while he is standing up, he would be happy. Talking of which, he is still enjoys standing quite a bit: he is now lifting himself up from lying down to a sitting position, and immediately after to a standing position. His legs are getting quite muscular and his calves are impressive: is he preparing to be a soccer superstar?

Since he needs to stand all the time, we bought him an exersaucer, hoping we could get a break: so far, no luck. He stays in it a few minutes, but then he still wants us to pick him up. Good thing we got a second hand model…we are not losing hope, though. Maybe he simply needs to get used to it.

trying out the new toy

May 11 was Tizi’s first Mother’s Day. It felt a little weird to be on the receiving end, but definitively it was very nice. Keegan brought home a nice hand-made (or should I say foot-made) “card” from daycare: his feet were dipped in blue paint and stamped on a cloth, as little flowers. Stems and a cute message were added. The cloth was folded inside a heart-shaped envelope, origami style. Mom was really touched (and finally understood why Keegan’s feet were metallic blue).

Tizi’s first Mother’s Day gift

The day was great: Matt made sure Tizi was pampered; he prepared a delicious breakfast, bought some pretty flowers, kept Keegan most of the day, so Tizi could get a break, and cooked an amazing dinner. He also got a nice gift, a pretty necklace. The only gift that was missing was sleep: Keegan didn’t realize it was Mother’s Day, and woke up pretty early.

All in all it was a great day: thank you Mattie for making it so special!

mother and son on mommie’s day

So, the Social Security statistics for 2007 came out, and we had to check it out and see how the name Keegan is stacking up.

Keegan is at number 222 of the most popular names in US in 2007 (up from 226 in 2006), which means that 1,676 baby boy got that name last year. This is equals 0.077 of the total boys.

Not bad at all. A lot of the other names that were on our list were at much higher place on the list. The statistics are quite interesting, and you can definitively see trends. One of those is that the name Sawyer appeared in the top 1000: lots of Lost fans out there.

You can see all those stats at the Social Security site.

Our little guy is 4 months old. It is hard to believe it has been so long since we took him home, and even harder if you consider that the Coming Home outfit still fits him…well, it was a little big then, but still. We had our standard check up and everything is well. The doctor commented on how strong and reactive he is, so we are happy. He is still following his grow curve, that places him on the 5 percentile for his weight, but someone has to be at the bottom end of the normal range, right? So these are the magic numbers:

weight: 5.1 Kg (11.4lb)
length: 61 cm (24 and 3/4 in)
head circumference: 40cm (15.7in)

He got his second round of immunization shots and again he reacted quite well: just a low grade fever in the evening. Everything else is great: Keegan is a very happy boy, who loves to smile. So much so it is hard for mom and dad to feel special, since he smiles to everyone.

He can now be carried facing forward in the baby Bjiorn, and he likes it quite a bit. He went on walks, at Costco and the grocery store: he always elicit compliments and smiles. He even fell asleep in it a couple of times. He still appreciates punk rock more than any other music. Talking of rock music, mom and dadare planning on attending a couple of cool shows coming up in the next months.We are interviewing babysitters, and so far we have found a couple of good ones. Keegan sees to like them.

What a handsome pair

On other news, Tizi went back to work on Wednesday. it was not easy to go back to “normal” life, and to leave the little guy, but she was also happy to get back to a job she loves and to the people she missed. Everyone has been very supportive and made her feel missed and appreciated. This eased the transition. Now it is just a question of finding a new routine and the time to prep for class everyday.Usually Matt drop keegan off at daycare and Tizi pick him up aroud lunch time, when she gets off work. This is a great schedule, because he can still spend quite a lot of time with mom in the afternoon. With the beautiful days we had been having, this often includes nice walks on the bay or at the beach, or hanging out at the park.

fun in Balboa Park with mom and dad

not that we need a bib to tell us who is really the boss…

As we get closer to the two months mark, we are uploading a couple of more pictures of the little guy. We finally got some nice picture of the grandparents, that have been so great with little Keegan (who adores them already). They have been so very helpful and we are deeply grateful to them for all they have done. They play with him, sing with him, dance with him to calm him down, and they are really doing a wonderful job, with endless patience, giving mom and dad a much needed break. Thanks to them, Tizi and Matt were able to go out on a real date, dinner and a movie to celebrate Tizi’s birthday: for one day, it was not all about the baby! And Tizi finally got a nice glass of wine, for the first time in 9 months…

Keegan is growing fast, and learning new things everyday: he is finally enjoying watching the mobile that Aunt Sue got him and following the little animals twirl around and he started rolling over, from his tummy to his back. He likes to do it when he is lying on someone’s chest: he pitches his feet, and throws himself on one side or another, landing on his back. He seems to be very amused by this, and so are we. He also likes to likes to practice his new skill during tummy time.

We are very excited about his progress. Now, if he only would sleep a little more…

Grandpa and Grandma at Tizi and Matt’s house

Grandpa and Grandma at the beach house

testing his lungs despite an adorable outfit (gift from Tizi’s sister in law, Martina)

Tizi’s birthday cake

Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful one. The weather was great, in the low 70s, and we enjoyed our quite time together. We had our turkey and all the trimmings, thanks to Matt, the awesome chef, long walks on the beach, movies, and of course some baby shopping. We are finally getting things a little more under control. We are not ready yet, but getting there. We went for an anti-natal test, which included a 20 minutes monitoring of the baby’s heartbeat and an ultrasound. Everything looked good, and most important, the baby is positioned head down. No estimation on actual arrival date, or weight. So now the countdown begins…

Enjoying our feast on the deck

It looks like Tizi is ready to pop… but we are still two weeks away (hopefully)

It has been a long time coming, but we are finally live. This blog will help us keep in touch with family and friends all over. Yes, the design still needs help, but if I procrastinate any longer, this will never happen. So we will try to keep you all updated on what is going on in sunny (and very smoky at the moment) San Diego, and of course we will update on the little alien that is about to land.
By the way, we are safe and sound, and the wildfires fortunately, didn’t affect us personally or our house. Thank you for all your concern.

We are hoping this blog will make the distance feel a little smaller.