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Valentine’s Day time again. While I agree that Valentine’s day is a cheesy marketing holiday, it is always nice to take some time and tell your loved one how much you appreciate them. And, here in the States, Valentine’s day is also very much a kids’ holiday. I am still learning the ropes as far as these things so I am never sure about what I am supposed to do or prepare. Oh well.

Keegan’s daycare closed early because of the holiday, but they had the chance to squeeze in a small party. They had decorated a shoe box and collected all their goodies inside. he got little cards, play-doh and bubbles. In all truth, though, he did not seem to care much at this point.

On Saturday, we had a nice Valentine’s Day party at Lina’s house. Hannah, Mila, and baby Liam and their parents were at hand to celebrate (and sneak in some Olympic games watching). We all had a great time. After some warming up period (on Keegan’s side) the kids played together wonderfully. We brought our jumpie, so the kids got to hop around. They were also dancing and singing along to their favorite tunes.

It is so much fun playing with Hannah and Mila

I am dancing, and dancing and dancing around

They even spent time in Mila’s room sharing toys and playing quietly ALONE for more than 20 minutes!!! It was great, and the adults got to talk and relax and enjoy some good food.

Keegan has been more interested in drawing, so here he is, donning the cool heart shaped glasses — the same ones he refuses to wear at home — creating his masterpiece.

He seems like a real artist…

Saturday night Matt cooked a wonderful dinner, and we enjoyed a romantic evening together.

On Sunday, while Tizi caught up on her beauty sleep, Keegan prepared his card (and so did Matt). He helped setting the scene by spreading pink, red and white M&M’s on the table, and setting the beautiful flowers on the table and the balloon Matt got for both of us.

When Tizi woke up, we exchanged cards and little gifts. I know it is not really a gift giving holidays, but we bought this fun talking dog that can be personalized for your child, and I figured this would be a good occasion as any to give it to him. He also got a cool booklet from Winnie the Pooh and a musical card, he picked himself out at the store.

Look at all the goodies…

what would that be? A talking dog!

He seemed excited, and he liked the bear.  Hopefully it will keep him entertain him for a while. The rest of the day was quiet. We called the grandparents and saw them via Skype, so Keegan could wish them Happy valentine’s Day too. We enjoyed beautiful weather and high temperature of 75 and above, and were even able to sneak in some romantic times, just the two of us, when Keegan was sleeping.

So, it was a great weekend, and thank you to both of my guys for making it so special.

Sooo, we may, MAY, have some sleep progress. As you all know, we have been suffering through Keegan sleep issues for a long time, since birth in fact. I know you are tired of hearing about it at least as much as we are dealing with it, but the most frustrating thing is that they don’t seem to improve as he gets older. After an excruciating couple of months when we battled with jet lag, guests, and simply regular life that translated in multiple nights wakings, super early wake ups (as in 4, 4.30am), more sleep training, crying and just overall crankiness, especially on our part, we decided to try something new. Enter My Tot Clock. It is an over-sized, sturdy clock, whose face changes color depending of the time of day, mainly blue during sleep time and yellow when is time to wake up.

The idea is that Keegan will not be allowed to get up till the yellow light comes on. Of course you set the wake up and bed times, and you can dim the night light to nothing as well. You can even set to have lullabies playing and wake up music, or story telling, but we do not use that feature. It has settings for timeouts (red light), positive reinforcement (green light) and naps. You can also override any setting, and manually start any routine.

Taking advantage of Keegan’s fascination with clocks, we began using it during the Christmas break and I have to say that we had some moderate success so far. Nothing as drastic as the site’s testimonials, but success nonetheless. First of all, now Keegan knows that he is supposed to wait for the yellow light. When he goes to bed he says “yellow light on awake ” or “luce gialla up” or something to this effect. It is a big difference from before, when we could only tell him he was too early, which of course meant nothing to him. Also, he often stays in bed till slightly later (we are still in the 5.30/5.45 range, but it is a start, and much better than 4.30/5). We had been creeping up the wake up time, little by little, and we are now at 5.40am. Hopefully we will be able to move it closer to 6 am, eventually.

There are of course set backs; there are still times when he wakes up a little earlier, but at least now we have an enforcement measure: we are not picking him up till the yellow light comes on, no matter how much he cries or how many times he calls out mama or Tiziana…oh yes, if after a while, if I don’t answer his calls, he starts calling me by my first name. Maybe he thinks I am not quite certain he is referring to me when he calls out mamma. What a weirdo. Not that he ever calls out for daddy or Matt.

The clock also helped with nap time. Again, for a LONG time we decided not to fight his preference for stroller or car seat naps. We were simply too exhausted to deal with it, and with the blessing of our doctor we enjoyed his 2/3 hours naps strapped in into some sort of seat. However, with winter coming, we really wanted him to get him used to sleep indoors, in a bed. So, with many days to reinforce his behavior during the holidays, we started putting him to bed in his room, in the big bed. Again, we used the clock, which has a setting for naps, and stood our ground. The first day he cried more than half an hour, and we had multiple escapes, but the next few days got better. Now, while still resisting, sometimes crying and escaping from the room a few times, he naps in his room. We don’t always get two full hours, but it is a start.

So, is this a miraculous clock? Not quite, but we did get some improvements so far (hoping that they will stay even after the novelty effect worn out, and when construction will begin). Most importantly, Keegan accepted the clock as part of his sleeping routine and he is excited when he waits till the light comes on.We are also really hoping it will be more and more effective as time goes by. When Keegan will be older, we can even use it to teach him to go play on his own in the morning and not to wake up up till the yellow light is on, maybe set to a comfortable 9/10 am…one can always daydream, right?

For now, we will wait for our morning call: “mamma, yellow light!!!”

The dreaded day has arrived, and the big birthday has come and gone. Age, of course, it is only a state of mind, and this is my new 2010 resolution: to believe I am 10 years younger! Jokes aside, I had a nice three day weekend to celebrate, and a very needed one at that. We had a very stressful week so the extra day off was a nice bonus, especially because Keegan’s daycare was open. We did not do anything exceptional but we had a very nice time, and I now ready to start this new chapter in my life.

I began the celebration early, on Friday. One of my great coworkers, Brad, let everyone know that it was my birthday, and so my collegues took me out for a jummy Thai food lunch. My boss also got me some pretty flowers and two great cheesecakes to share with my class. Thank you everyone!!!!

We started out the weekend with a trip to Seaworld on Saturday. Tizi and Keegan met Jennifer and Hannah (while Matt enjoyed some ME time). It has been a while, so Keegan was very excited about seeing Hannah, and playing. We saw the penguins, the dolphins, the sea stars, and of course Shamu. The show was great, 5 whales at once and lots of jumps, but the kids were more interested in playing on the stairs and singing the alphabet song with each other to care. Jennifer and I chatted and got all caught up with the latest news. Keegan had a little bit of a cold so he was a little fussy, but fell asleep in the car, so mom and dad could have a peaceful lunch. As we got home, Tizi found the beautiful flowers her parents sent: I loved the modern, ikebana-style arrangement with lilies and orchids. Thank you.

I love the “deer in the highlights” look on Keegan’s face

The afternoon was mellow, and for the evening, Matt cooked a delicious meal, so we could relax while watching a mindless movie.

The next morning, Keegan woke up really early, and he was in a feisty mood all day (maybe because the attention was not on him but on me). Fortunately, we got him to go back to bed for a little longer; when he got up, he sang his rendition of happy birthday: “Ha birthday to mama”. He was aware it was mom’s birthday, but he was still hoping his birthday would come up soon again too. After a couple of timeouts, for random biting and hitting, we started our day. Well, Matt and Keegan did: I went back to bed for a couple of hours. I woke up with the smell of eggs and bacon: Matt cooked up a great breakfast, and we all ate together. There were of course the long phone calls with family and friends, and the morning flew by.

Keegan went to bed late and somewhat fussing, and woke up early, just as we were starting to relax. So we off to the park we went, to tire him out. Lots of running and kicking the ball around, his new, favorite- to-the-border-of-obsessive game to play. It is all he wants to do, at home, on the patio, outside…He better become a great soccer player.

It was starting to rain, so we ran home for cake and presents. Matt bought this awesome white chocolate cheesecake from Extraordinary Desserts. Some of you may remember it: it was also our wedding cake.

Keegan was very excited about the candle blowing, but even more about the present opening: he liked to distribute them and did not even insisted into opening them. Matt cracked into my Amazon.com wishlist, and bought me a couple of books I really wanted, so I was very happy. We left one last gift for our private birthday celebration later that night.

At 6.30, our babysitter came by, and Keegan was happy to see her. Not only he did not cry when we left, but he was busy playing with  his back to the door, and barely acknowledge we were leaving.

getting ready for a birthday date

Matt must have read my mind, because he made reservation at Bertrand’s at Mr.A’s, an awesome restaurant with a great view of San Diego.We had dinner looking at the glimmering downtown lights and San Diego Bay. Magical! Being the old people we are, we were home by 9.30 pm, but we were so stuffed we could barely move. After we got home, we concluded our celebrations with the last present, a beautiful necklace.

On Monday, I did not have to work, so I had the whole morning to myself…after an early scare. Keegan did not sleep well because of his cough, and ended up waking up till 6.15 am As you know, this is unheard of, unless he is sick, so I was  really worried he was not feeling well…we gave him some tylenol, and we sent him off to school. Fortunately he was fine, and he had a great day…and so did I. I leisurely had breakfast, prepped for class, cleaned up, and had long chat with friends, via phone and Skype. It was a great end to a good birthday weekend.

I did get some flak from not throwing a big bash, but honestly, it is more work than anything and with most of our friends having young children, it would have been hard to ask everyone to get sitters. Instead, since the BIG day is coming for Matt too in a few months, we decided to have small celebrations all year long…isn’t this more fun?

2010 is here and we want to wish you all a wonderful new year. May it be full of happiness and joy, and lots of fun.

Our 2010 started well. We rung in the new year with our friends Krista, Eric and Torin. By now, the 6 months gap between Torin and Keegan is really not very noticeable, especially because Torin is as tall and big as Keegan, so play dates are a lot more fun.

They arrived in the late afternoon, and we were actually able to stay up till midnight! It was Keegan’s first “night time”play date, and it went great. Again, the bouncie did come to the rescue, providing lots of entertainment for two very active little boys. Again, no much fighting, which was great: they even swapped their toy cars and played somewhat together.

bouncing with the cars

It was really interesting to see them play together: definitely a different kind of playing than when he is with one of his girlfriends. Nothing outrageous, but definitely more high energy.

no figthing, but lots of “parallel”play

We were even able to have a wonderful dinner all together: the kids sat through the whole meal, playing with each other, and making the most obnoxious and loud sounds they could come up with. It was hilarious.

They both had a later than usual bed time, but by 8.30 they were both crashed out, Torin in his pack-and-play, and Keegan in his room. So, it was adults time. It was really nice to kick back, chat and drink.  Television shows are lamer and lamer each year, but we did need an accurate countdown.

almost 2010 (proof we were in fact awake)

We were even able to see some fireworks, which were so loud that they woke Keegan up. So we cheered at the new year under a beautiful full moon, a blue moon at that, in the warm San Diego evening.

The first day of 2010 started exactly like the first day of 2009. I could have written the same text as I did last year:

Tizi and Matt started [2010] cuddling the little “monster” in the big bed and playing around: is there any better way to start a day? It is a rhetorical question, of course, but despite the sleep deprivation, it is awesome to get started listening to Keegan giggle. It makes it all worthwhile.

The only difference was that we were actually grateful of the 5.45am wake up, (more on a later post), after so many 4.30/5am wake ups. See how your perspective can change?

After an Tizi’s early morning nap, Keegan had a play-date with Jada. Our neighbor Sharon stopped by late morning, and again, the bouncie was the star. I tell you, it was money well spent. Besides some arguing about books, again all went well. Keegan is definitely a social boy, and loves to have friends over. He also tries to boss them around, to no avail.They had so much fun, Keegan went to sleep later than usual, and he was so tired, he DID NOT FUSS at all, and slept two full hours.

jumping is more fun with some milk

hamming it up in the bouncie

And with these, we promise, we will conclude our bouncie pictures series.  You would think we are getting paid to advertise it…are you listening Jump-o-lene?

The rest of a the long weekend was quiet: a walk to the juice store (Keegan’s new favorite), a bike ride on the bay, lots of playing with new toys, reading books, and riding around. We even got to go around the block with Jada and her big wheel. Keegan is doing well, but still getting the hang of pedaling and steering, so a ride around the block takes quite a long time.

check out my new wheels and my hot girl

The end of the weekend also meant, going back to work and daycare. All and all it has been a great vacation: Keegan has been really good, and we thoroughly enjoyed the time spent together. We are very grateful for our healthy, happy little guy. So, invigorated by these days off, we are going back to reality and to our normal life.

Wow: the holidays came and went really fast. We had a great end of the year, even if we did not go anywhere…or maybe BECAUSE we did not go anywhere. After all, we did not have to fight the crowds at the airport, or face delays, extreme weather or enhanced security. And we could simply have fun in our beautiful, warm city. Keegan’s daycare closed on the 23rd of December till after the new year: good thing it was the same time I had off.

He had a great last day:  they organized a Secret Santa gift exchange, and he got a great firetruck, with lights and three different sounds from MacKenzie, together with some candies. He was excited and played with it non stop for the following days. We did a few last minute errands: post office, visiting the neighbors, checking out holidays displays…

Christmas eve was a flurry of activities, mainly more last minute errands for me: Matt had the day off, so we spent some time together as a family. We went to see the Christmas lights again, and after putting Keegan to bed, we got to work: I had Keegan’s gifts to wrap and Matt had a tricycle to build (plus wrapping Tizi’s gifts). We tuned in to the 24 Christmas Story Marathon and morphed into little elves.

ready, set, go!!!!

The hardest part was to decide what gifts to give him: I did not want to overwhelm him with too much stuff, especially since he still had lots of new toys to play with from his birthday. So we settled on the Little Talking Broom, two emergency vehicles (we saved the firetruck for later), the magnetic Let’s Build Book (to get him used to the idea of construction), the Tickle Monster Book Set, two books from Italy, (the alphabet book, and a puzzle book), and of course the tricycle.

Matt is almost done with the tricycle

I went to bed by midnight, and Matt did not make it to bed till 1.30…This is the life of procrastinating parents.

All the gifts, minus Tizi’s (still to be wrapped)

Keegan woke up bright and early, as usual, but he did not quite realized it was Christmas morning, so we got our usual cuddling time before dashing to the living room by 6.30am. It was so much fun: Keegan was so excited about the presents, and loved to open them and distribute them to us. He liked everything, and immediately started playing with the new toys.

Hopefully he will like sweeping long enough to b able to help us clean

It all happened so fast we did not have the time to take many pictures. By 7.30 it was all done….and Tizi went back to bed: a most welcome Christmas gift.When I woke up, Matt went to take a short nap, and I called my parents. Keegan wished them Merry Christmas and Buon Natale via Skype and we had our digital family get together. I cooked (!!!) breakfast, and we all had brunch together. After Keegan’s nap, we went to Mission Bay for a bike ride since it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. Again, we rode about 15 minutes, then Keegan wanted to play, i.e. run up and down the grassy hills,then we rode back. It was wonderful.

When we got back, we opened our stockings: Keegan did not get any sweets, since he does not really crave them yet, but we got an awesome bootie. He did get a couple of little play things, including a screaming monkey, a tambourine and his favorite Twinkle Twinkle Little Star book, that mom had to sing over, and over and over again.

We did not quite make it to have a big dinner together, so when Keegan was sleeping, we had our own adult dinner and crashed pretty early. What a great Christmas. My Christmas of course, was not over yet, as I still had to finish wrapping the gifts for Italy, and write the New Year cards, and ship everything…for the new year.

The calendar really helped out this year: because of Christmas being on a Friday, as well as January 1, Matt had two long weekends and we had plenty of time to spend together. We had a mellow weekend: we played with the new toys, we tested out the new wheels, and we played at different parks. Now he mainly likes to kick the ball or play in the sand, so it does not really matter where he is, so the Clairemont community parks will do.

first tricycle ride

The following days were heavily scheduled: mom was really worried that Keegan would get bored, driving the both of us crazy. As a first thing we got the bouncie back from storage: it has been  a big hit on Keegan’s birthday, so we figured it would have been entertaining him more on his days off. And we were right: he has been bouncing in that thing quite a bit, alone or with his buddies. Fortunately it fits in the sun room, so we don’t have to drag it in and out.

We started the week by visiting the New Children Museum. We had discounted tickets, and we spent a couple of hours there. Keegan had fun jumping on the inflatable horses, and playing around the Rain House and inside the Trojan horse. He was so tired he fell asleep in the car.

On Tuesday morning we met with MacKenzie at the park: he was so excited he squealed when he saw her. They played, and run, and climbed, and aside form one little meltdown and a couple of sand throwing episodes from both parts, they had a blast. Once again, he was so tired, he fell asleep in the car and slept 3 full hours. I finally got to ship my gifts: let’s hope they will arrive.

On Wednesday morning, Tizi got a belated Christmas gift: a morning off. Our wonderful sitter came over, so Tizi could enjoy some ME time. As an added bonus, Keegan did not cry at all when she left, so no guilt trip there. I went to the movies and checked out Up In The Air: i really liked it, and it was a great distraction. In the afternoon, my old college buddy Lidia stopped by: we have not seen each other in at least 4 years, so it was great to see her. Keegan got to do one of his favorite activities: grocery shopping! Matt got home early and met us at the store, so it was an easy trip.

And just like that, it was New Year’s Eve: Matt got home at lunch, and we spent the last few hours of the year getting ready for our play-date/ New Year’s Eve dinner.

2009 has been sometimes challenging, but definitely never boring: we are looking forward to a new year full of excitement and new adventures with our fiery little guy.

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!

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?

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.

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.

Last weekend we took Keegan to his first puppet show. They have shows all year at Balboa park, and both Hannah and Mila were going, so…how can we say no? The show presented two of Aesop’s fables, and I have to say that Keegan was not too impressed. His attention span lasted only for half the show, and then he started running up and down the aisles and checking out the Elmo puppet that was for sale. Of course the two girls were perfectly still…

Oh well it was worth a try. The best part of the outing, though,was playing around in the grass with Hannah and Mila. They ran around, chased imaginary targets, and played Ring Around The Rosie. They were so cute together I could not resist snapping a few photographs… It is probably one of the first time I see him playing with other kids in a coordinated manner, which also means mom and dad could relax and catch up with their friends too. By the way, the origin of this nursery rhyme seems to be hard to track down, with some morbid interpretation cleverly debunked by snopes.com. In any case,even if it makes no sense whatsoever (and what nursery rhyme really does?) they had a blast. Keegan particularly enjoyed throwing himself down at the end.

Ring around the rosie,

A pocket full of posies,

Ashes! Ashes!

We all fall down! 

say cheese

WARNING: Well, this actually may be the most boring post yet, read at your own risk. At least is not a long one. (-:

The first weekend of November we had two incredible, and unrepeatable events that are worth reporting.  Actually two and a half. We started the weekend with yet another bad night…I know I promised not to talk about it anymore, but it is relevant (at least to us). We decided to let him cry out, which he diligently did for a full hour, falling asleep only for an extra 15 minutes. Well, nothing new here, but despite the fact he knows how to climb out of his crib, he decided NOT to, which is obviously great, and our half miracle. In fact, for some reason, he decided that climbing out of the crib alone will hurt him. He never did hurt himself, nor we told him so, but hey, we will take it. He did proceeded to completely undress though: unzipped his one piece fottie jammie, and completely removed it, but we can live with it.

Of course  he was very tired that day, which may explain miracle number 1: when it was nap time, he VOLUNTARILY went in his bedroom, climbed up on the big bed and said he wanted to sleep. In a few minutes he was asleep, and there he stayed for two full hours! WOW…we know it will never happen again, but we did enjoyed it. We had no chance to try it again because we were out the next day, but we will see next week. (Quick update on that: it did not work again, as expected. So we are back to stroller and car seat naps for now).

The next day we have miracle number 2: he peed in the toilet. He has been fascinated by the toilet, the paper, the water flushing and such, so we bought a Elmo toilet seat. He has asked to seat on it a few times, even without diapers, and when he is there he pushes as he was really trying. On Sunday the timing must have been perfect, because as he sat, he had to pee. Again, we are not deluded to think this is more than a happy coincidence, but we made sure to make a huge deal out of it. While he still definitely not ready for full on potty training, we are hoping that this is the first step towards a diaper free life! (Quick update on that: no more success, but he did requested multiple times to sit on the toilet, and he is pushing…)

Just as we got back from Italy, it was time for Halloween! Fortunately we got Keegan his outfit before leaving, so we did not have to rush at the last minute. And with Halloween displays popping up in August, is really not that difficult. I could have bought Christmas decorations as well at the same time if I wanted to, but that is a different story.

We tried to explain him the whole candy business, but I am not sure he really got it. Fortunately he does not eat candies at this point, so for him candy is more of a fun little thing to play with. We had a couple of Halloween festivities to show his his adorable monkey outfit.

First off, his daycare had a Halloween Carnival on Thursday night. We prepared him for the excitement the whole week, and by the time Thursday came around he know that when is “dak outside…mankeey” (translation: when it gets dark outside, he gets to wear his monkey outfit). We all headed to school, and he actually enjoyed wearing his suit: he even kept his hood on for most of the time.

my little monkey in front of the school

The school was a mad house, with kids everywhere, and lots of games going on. His room was the most popular one because it had coloring stations and stickers galore. I have never seen so many little kids in one room. It took Keegan a good 10 minutes to get acclimated: he was just staying in one corner, watching carefully what was happening.

Keegan really got into the part…at least he did not threw feces around

MacKenzie was wearing an adorable Chargers girl outfit, and seeing her, helped him feel more comfortable. She is very social and determined, just as he is shy and determined. It is fun to see them playing together and battle it out.

He played outside in the big play-house, climbed up and down stairs, and played with stickers, while mom and dad were happily snapping pictures and socializing with the other parents.

you look like a monkey…

He also got more familiar with his soon-to-be new teacher, Ms Ivette.

They sent us packing in about an hour, and we headed home to get some dinner and some rest from all the excitement.

The next morning, Keegan’s daycare organized a trick or treat session with the neighborhood stores. Unfortunately we were not able to go, but he got to wear his outfit again for the Halloween lunch and party. He seemed he enjoyed it a bit…I know he loved the Halloween cookies, since his face was all green from the froating when I picked him up.

On the actual Halloween day, we took it easy. Since it was Saturday, we did not really want to fight our way through the crowds at any amusement parks, so we just played around the house and yard. As the sun went down — “dak outside” — it was time, once again, to don our costume and hit the neighbors for some candy. Just like last year, I wore the same Halloween outfit: the sleep-deprived, overworked mom. Hey, at least I wore orange and black!

And Just like last year, we went with Keegan’s little buddy Jada, who lives two doors down. Check out how much they have grown since last year!

Halloween 2009: Jada and Keegan

Halloween 2008: Jada and Keegan

We only went to a few houses, and while Keegan had learned to say something close to “trick or treat” he did not wan to knock on doors…he did not have any problems accepting candies, though, or running around checking all the fun lights and decorations.

this is fun!

any more houses we can hit?

When we got home he had quite a booty in his bucket…and we added to it all our leftover candies.We always ended up with way more candies we can possibly eat. Fortunately I can bring them at work, where they disappear in a few hours. Keegan definitely had more fun playing with the candy, putting the pieces in and out of various containers, than actually collecting them (or eating them).

check out all my booty (literally)

And no, he did not eat any. Again, he fortunately does not really know what they are, and what is missing, so we decided not to start him on it. I am sure he will learn soon enough, but if we can postpone the inevitable for a few more months…why not?

So, it was a very good Halloween. Keegan still mentions his costume, but he also adds, making a knocking noise, “…no trick or treat”: I guess he just does not like to talk to strangers…hopefully, just like not eating candy, this will be a trend that will last.

Going back home has always been a bittersweet moment. It is nice to be back in your own home and reality, and it is good to see all the people you have left behind: in one word to get back to your normal life. On the other hand, it is always sad to say goodbye to family and friends, especially knowing that it will be  many months at best before you can see them again.

Since Keegan arrived, however, the bitter part has been push to a whole new level.The whole first week was a nightmare…in fact, I can’t even define it as that, because having a nightmare implies getting sleep and we really did not get much of that at all. Jet lag, hit Keegan really hard: we are talking about multiple night wakings, not going back to sleep without us in the bed, and final wake ups at 3.30am. So here we are , taking turns trying to find the energy to play with him at 3.30 am. Brutal! I guess we had a head start on Halloween and were sporting our ZOMBIE costumes all week.

should I say more?

Fortunately, I had a week off, so I could get some stuff done (never enough) and I am very  proud to say I only napped the first day. Keegan adjusted much better to his daytime routine: he was excited to see all his friends at daycare, and we got to see pretty much all his best buddies the first week. We went to the park with MacKenzie and out at dinner with Jada. The next week, it was zoo time with Hannah.

He also got to do his favorite things: playing at the park and going to the beach. We are still getting some nice, warm days, so despite the fact that fall is in full swing, and that there was a strong wind blowing, Keegan did not think twice about jumping in the water and getting all wet. He had seen videos of his cousins swimming and diving in Italy, so he could not wait to get into the water himself.

Cold? Not me!

Keegan misses his grandparents a lot, and he remembers well all the fun games they played together. So, to help us all keep connected we started again our Skype calls. Keegan is now really interacting with the screen, and respond to his grandparents as if they were face to face. It is really nice to see.

sending a kiss back to Grandpa and Grandma

So here we are, entering the third week since we got back,and he is kept on learning tons of new words. We stopped keeping track, because it would really be impossible to remember them all, but I guess by now he knows probably 100/150 words. And he even know some words in both languages. One word we could not help but keep track of is…his first 4-letter word. Not the passable one (shit)…oh no…my kid went for the f-bomb! Of course it is our fault, but one morning he overheard me saying it (guilty, but I am not the only one) and sure enough he started repeating it, over and over again, laughing, and really enunciating the CK sound. Mind you, this is the kid that had trouble using the C sound or pronouncing his name: but in this case, he puts emphasis on the CK. That’s my son! He repeated it a few times, but we tried to ignore it completely. We are just hoping he will not say it at daycare.

And of course, we are still struggling with sleep issues. I promise this is the last time we talk about it: I get bored myself.  It is not jet lag anymore,  but he still wakes up really early, does not want to get back to sleep, needs assurance…once again we will try to “sleep train” him but we don’t have much hope at this point since he knows how to get out of his crib and room. We get to the conclusion that he is a “difficult to adapt toddler”, as listed in the What To Expect – Toddler years book. I know what you are thinking: stop reading books…but honestly, books are the only thing that gives me hope and make me feel we are not the only ones who are going through this. He will eventually sleep…in his teenage years. Then is PAYBACK TIME!!!! (-;

These three weeks, as always, went by really too fast. Once again we found ourselves having to say goodbye to everyone. We did have a nice send off, though.

On Sunday, Matt’s birthday, we had a nice lunch with Tizi’s family: her parents and her sister’s family were all there to celebrate and to say bye bye.Tiz’s mom prepared a wonderful 3 course lunch with some of Tizi’s favorite food (spinach and besciamelle tagliatelle, and green pepper filet mignon, and fruit cream cake and gelato). Keegan missed most of it, as he slept though the majority of it. He did wake up for dessert, though. Call him stupid! So he got the chance to eat gelato, and cream covered blueberries. Not bad.

happy birthday dad

He also got the chance to play some more with his cousins and spend some time with aunt and uncle.

our little pianist

We took the famous group photo, among many technical difficulties and many cameras (so the results are not the best…). And then, just like that, it was time for them to leave…

Tizi with mom and her sister Cinzia

The rest of the afternoon was spent between packing and saying goodbyes to friends. We actually managed to get everything done reasonably early, so we were able to catch some zzzz in preparation of a long trip home. And long it was. And stressful. Ironically, the solo flight was easier than the return, when there were two of us. I am not sure why, but a combination of scheduling, length of trip (it is always a few hours more when you fly west. Something about the winds…), general crankiness, maybe the sadness of leaving.

So, here is a lengthy description of our painful fight…feel free to skip it, but this maybe will explain why we really don’t travel much with Keegan.

Anyway, we arrived at the airport bright an early for our 10.45am flight. No much line at check in, but we started with our first surprise: Delta decided to change our assigned seats (I guess they switched airplane) and, surprise! we are not seating together. Not even close. Fortunately Matt thought about checking it AFTER we left the check in line, so I went immediately to complain.The agents in Milan were super nice and apologetic, so they not only seated us together, but they also put using the bulkhead section, so we would have more space. Unfortunately they could not switch our seats in Atlanta, but they said they place a note in our reservation and to talk to the agent there.

The flight to Atlanta was not too bad, considering. The bulkhead seats allowed us to have more space for Keegan to get up and walk around…or for Tizi to sit on the floor as Keegan enjoyed her seat. We played, read books, did multiple poopie diaper change in the cramped airplane bathroom, did lots  of eating…basically everything but sleeping. He did feel asleep the moment we sat down on the plane and slept for about an hour and then fell asleep again as we were landing…but the whole 9 hours in between he was wide awake.

We also watched some photos of Keegans friends on the iPod. We were trying to get him all excited about getting back to his old life and it seemed to be working, as he was constantly repeating the names Yadira, Isella, Titti, Hannah…

We landed on tine in the huge Atlanta airport: it took us more than 15 minutes to reach the gate after landing! We had a long layover, which was a good thing since we had to clear immigration. So, with Keegan sleeping on his stroller we started clearing security; now US residents get the same treatment as visitors: full fingerprints and iris scan…so pleasant. Then we grabbed our bags,  and we had to dig through them because one of them was beeping…we really did not want to get our bag blown up! It was just the baby monitor, but still…then, after custom, back to security screening. Why do we have to do two screenings, since we never left the airport is beyond me, but here we are, trying to pass all of our crap through again, waking up Keegan to get his stroller through x-ray….and his car seat back for multiple screening…

I really would like to know is all this extra screening EVER resulted in finding something suspicious or dangerous, because at this point it only seems to be inconveniencing people that have done anything wrong.

Anyway, once we cleared everything and Keegan settled back down and fell back asleep we went to the gate to change our seat assignments. We had about 2.5 hours before the flight, so we thought there should not be any problems. We were  wrong. We showed up at the gate which was already showing our flight number on the board and the agent asked us if we were going to San Diego. When we said yes, she barely looked at us and said: “5.55”. Is that some kind of cryptic Delta message? What is that supposed to mean??? With a very annoyed tone she said she will not even look at our flight till 5.55.  So we went to grab something to eat and tried to rest. It is about 10pm for us at this point. So we wait and then we come back. The attitude did not change. Despite being there an hour before departure she said there was nothing she could do, the flight was completely full and all seats assigned. Showing her our reservation with our seats together and explaining our situation did not even make her look at us. No apologies, no attempts to be helpful. I have to admit that at this point I am pissed, and not very polite, since it is THEIR screw up, once again, and she was not willing to help us in any way. She sent us to customer service if we wanted to talk about it. We did, and they were even less helpful, telling us that it was the agent responsibility to re-seat us. So we went back, and still more attitude. So we are waiting to board, hoping some kind soul would switch seats. In the meantime, at least 7 stand-byes get seated!!!!! And they are all in our area of the plane: one of them gets the seat next to me!!!! How is this possible, if there are no seats? Shouldn’t we have precedence in seat assignments? Obviously not.

Chuck this one to DELTA AIRLINES SUCKS!!!!!!!!!

So we got in tired, cranky and pissed off. Fortunately Matt and I were in front of each other, and he had an aisle and I had a window, so we could easily switch the middle seat with the window. Still we were not happy. And guess who else was not happy? Keegan. He woke up as we got him off his stroller, and never fell back asleep again…so we had a 5 hours flight in a small, crammed airplane, with a kid who is awake in the middle of the night, super cranky and that only wants mom, who is also at her wits’end, and very tired. What a fun flight. Sleeping was basically impossible since it was Monday Night Football and everyone was watching the Charger losing its game on the tvs and hollering in disapproval.

Fortunately, we did not have too many crying fits, just because I was able to walk with him up and down the aisle, but I was basically in tears:tired and frustrated. Keegan was saying “mama, mama, mama” non stop, and now wanted to sit on my seat, and could not understand why he could not seat in my seat. Matt tried to distract him and give me breaks, but nothing was working.  The only quiet moments we had was when we popped in the Underwater Adventures DVD: then he would sit, transfixed, for about 10 minutes at a time…and then he was bored again.

Fortunately, even this flight came to an end: we landed on time, and by the time we got to the baggage claim, all of our bags were already out. We got a cab, and we finally made it home. Keegan was very excited to be back and took all his toys out and looked around, getting re-adjusted. Putting him to bed was not easy, nor keeping him there: he woke up pretty much every hour.

I was trying to let him cry out a little while I was doing dishes in the kitchen (Matt was out for a Milk run), when all of the sudden his cries became less urgent, but also somewhat louder, and then stopped. I turned around and … SURPRISE!!!!… Keegan is in the hallway, with a surprised look, staring at me. Holy cow! Now he can climb out of his crib. This is just great. Could he wait for another week or so? Noooo. And he did not even fall, or struggled: just like that, he was out. Oh joy! That made our nights even more complicated…but this is a different story.

We comforted ourselves thinking that, no matter how difficult the trip and the adjustment time was we got to spend lots of time with family and good friends, and this made it all worthwhile.

So we end this lengthy post with some good memories:

At the park

Keegan took a shower, just like the big boys

Keegan is starting early: he is ogling hot women in the Armani catalog, and showing his approval

We have found this butterfly on the sidewalk when we were going out for a stroll. It was probably dying for the cold; it did not move for hours, so on our way back from our walk, we picked it up.

Keegan was fascinated by the colors

The last week of our vacation started out well. The weather had improved, and even as the temperature dropped, the sun returned. So, we took advantage of thatand spend lots of time outdoor.

On Sunday, Keegan spent the whole day outside. In the morning, the granps took him for a walk in a nice park; at lunch time, mom and dad took him for a walk in the neighborhood, hoping he would fall asleep (in vain); and in the afternoon, we met up with one of Tizi’s best friends, Loredana and her family for yet another park. Keegan loved it. Not only there was lots of places to run and some small hills he could climb, but Loredana’s daughter Francesca loved to play with him, and so they had a blast in the playground and all around the park.

We even had pit stop for ice cream. Keegan is now well aware of what gelato is, and as soon as you mention the name, he starts smiling, saying YUMM and rubbing his belly. Who can resists? He got to slurp down a HUGE ice cream cup, the “famous” Coppa Tiziana (Tiziana’s cup) I remember from my own childhood. Except I don’t think I ate the whole cup when I was not even 2! Check out the size of that thing!

Loredana, Carmelo and Francesca

Oh well, I guess that we suspended our food rules in Italy, and Keegan got to eat almost everything he wanted: this included gelato of course, but also tons of focaccia bread and pizza, and regular bread, and delicious Italian cookies and croissants. Good thing that Grandma was also cooking him a delicious vegetable soup he loved to ate almost every day. He even ate olives! And of course, he overdosed on milk. Man, that kid will have bones of steel. It must be his absolute favorite thing in the world: he just sit there, content, drinking from his cup, and playing with his left ear.

The rest of  the week has been a whirlwind of activities for Keegan: more time with his cousins, more playgrounds to discover, more walks to be done. He feel in love with public transportation: buses, trolley and especially the subway: we could  pass by a stop without him saying: “choo-choo. Inside! ” We took as many subway trips as possible, and let me tell you, it was NOT fun for us. Milan is not very kid friendly, so most stations don’t have escalators (let’s not even talk about elevators) and you are dealing with many ramps of stairs, carrying your stroller. Not fun. This is why you don’t see too many young children on the subway. I do have to say I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the time, someone (mainly new immigrants) gave up a seat for me as I was carrying Keegan.

 on the subway train, on a windy day

even Italy gets ready for Halloween

Matt and I became very familiar with all the snack bars in the area, we took Keegan for walks almost everyday at lunch time. He usually fell promptly asleep in his stroller and to increase the chances of a longer nap, we would stop and grab some lunch outside. It was actually very nice and gave us the chance to spend more time together. If we were not successful, we tried other methods: lullabies, sleeping with grandma, laying on the big bed…anything but putting him in his bed, which he can’t stand. When all failed, I have found myself one day stuck on the couch for an hour when he passed out on me. We know better than waking him up, after all the efforts to get him to sleep. So, here another one for the “Keegan’s Sleeping Places” collection. Don’t I have another image exactly like it…when Keegan was three weeks old????

Tizi revved up her social life, getting to meet high school friend she has not seen in 20 years (ah the magic of Facebook). Matt stayed home for this one, and it was great to see what everyone has been up to. It was weird how it did not feel like 20 years has passed. Anyway, I will spare you the comparison pictures; let’s just say we all look exactly as we did in high school, just better. (-:

Franco, me, Tiziana and Luigi

Matt joined me for other social events, like an awesome dinner in the trendy center of the city with an old friend. Yummy tartar filet and great wine and limoncello. In that occasion I discovered that the Porche Carrera actually seats 4 people. I would have never guessed. And honestly, the back seat is way more comfortable that the jump seats in Matt’s truck.

We got to do some shopping, Tizi more than Matt: one morning, as she and Loredana hit the town and its shops, Matt, Keegan and the grandparents went to The Natural History Museum, repeating a family tradition: I guess it was one of my favorite places to be when I was little. Keegan had fun running around and watching stuffed animals. Yes, a little creepy, but that is the best you can do if you live in a city, right? And I guess I still find it somewhat fascinating. It is really well done, and the scenes and settings are well thought out.

what the heck is a “cefaloco”? It looks like a deer to me

We also added some cultural events: we went to check out a Frank Geary Exhibit. It was very interesting, presenting plans and models from his projects from 1997 on. And we got more date nights. I guess an advantage of living in a city like Milan is that there are so many places to go. So we got our fill of great food, awesome home cooked meals, drinks and shopping. What else can you ask for?

Well, to be totally honest we really wanted to go somewhere a few days, to see something different, maybe to the mountains or even the beach. I love the beach in the fall/winter. However, seen how difficult it has been for Keegan to get adjusted, we really did not have the energy to deal with one more adjustment(=night wakings, crankiness, etc.. ) After all, it was supposed to be a relaxing time for us, so if it would have brought us more stress, why going at all? Oh well, next year we will do it for sure. We will plan it in advance so we can back out, and hopefully, by then, Keegan will be a better traveler.

As always when we go away, he seems that Keegan had a huge developmental growth. We started losing track of how many new words he has been adding. We guess he probably added about 40+ new words in these three weeks alone and most of them in Italian. And he is adding more and more everyday. My favorite one is probably “honey”, that he usually repeats after I say it to him: is he mocking me? Most importantly, he is really trying to repeat most sounds he hears, and often times he succeeds. Hopefully he will not lose all there new Italian words, and I will make sure to reinforce his Italian.

He is also got better at his motor skills: climbing, running, walking backwards all improved. Check him out walking on rope bridge and walking over obstacles.Yeah, yeah, big deal, I know. But this is a big progress for him, and he was damn proud of it too.

He even started using the big boys swing: still not a big fan of swings in general, but he seems to have fun on this one.

We even saw his first real jump (feet off the floor), and his signing has improved as well. I bet they will be very surprised at daycare when they see him and notice how much he has grown.