Kellan and the flowers (in December!)

Home again

There were some brightness issues with the sun and the water here (also a novice using my camera!), but you can see that Kellan and I were enjoying a lovely day out at Seaport Village. We're home again for the holidays and loving every minute. Temperatures are in the 70s and 80s, the sun is shining, and all is well with the world.

Enjoying a winter's day inside

As evidenced here, Kellan would much rather enjoy his snow viewing from inside the house.

Kellan and the snow

Not a great fan. There are lots of "Ah dun!"s and generally grumpy attitude. I don't entirely blame him.

The Lumberjack Look

The Bear Rug

We got a great bear rug for Kellan's room last week. He loves it. These days, if we can't find Kellan, he is almost certainly sitting in his room reading books on the bear rug.

Forget "X-mas"...

Kellan has decided to rename Christmas. I don't think that it has anything to do with his stance on popular religion or the inclusion of all people in the holiday season. I believe that the word "Christmas" simply isn't able to sum up the wonder, excitement, and universal joy that Kellan finds in all things Christmas. From the over-the-top display at the house across the street to the hanging holiday advertisements in our local grocery store, from holiday lights to the decorated tree in Denny's, from the Walmart Santa to a wreath hung on someone's front door, Kellan simply loves Christmas. And so, he has decided that the word for Santa, elves, Christmas lights, Christmas trees, wreaths, and in essence, any holiday themed or related decorations will be --

Pah-puhm

Yes, you heard it here first, "Pah-puhm", the new word for that holiday time that we all love to love. And you know, nothing is quite so wonderful these days as Kellan's absolute joy at having spotted something Christmas, er, Pah-puhm, related, as he runs to me shouting, "Momma! Momma! Pah-puhm!". Who knows, he may just be on to something.

Thanksgiving Fun

Not that these are obvious Thanksgiving photos, but because we have no family locally (to understate it), we attended the Festival of Trees on Thanksgiving afternoon, then stuffed ourselves on a huge dinner. I was the only one to have pumpkin pie, as Kellan was full and Nic won't touch it. We returned home for some fun dancing to Christmas carols and general silliness. It was a lovely day.

Thanksgiving comparison

Kellan and Mommy, Thanksgiving 2004 (he was so bald!)




Kellan and Mommy, Thanksgiving 2005

21 Months

Here we are in the home stretch to another birthday and Kellan has never been more fun, interesting, or wonderful. Everything that he does these days impresses the life out of me. This is such an exciting time in his development. I am already worried about my ability to master the art of meaningful praise -- how do you not throw up your arms and shout in delight with every new accomplishment? The fact that Kellan produces the phrase, in exactly my intonation, "Good job!" many times each day is not lending me much credibility. On the other hand, Nic is, if anything, underimpressed by each of these new feats of development [Nic: "So when's he going to learn to drive and go out on a Friday night?"], so perhaps we'll even things out in the end.

Kellan is really mastering his letters at the moment, thanks in large part to the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics magnet set. I can not recommend this product highly enough. It is sweet and simple, fun, and gets the job done. He has always enjoyed playing with the magnet set, but in the past month has really started shouting out the letters and letter sounds, and recently actually naming a letter, then going to get it from the fridge. He has begun to see letters that he recognizes in words and signs, pointing to them and naming the letter. Reading is next!

Kellan has recently become very involved in his music classes as well, having mastered all of the movements to go with their songs. He also enjoys the independent back and forth of selecting instruments, returning the instruments, sitting on the listening mat, and having a bit of responsibility for maintaining the structure of the class. Of any activity that we do in a week (swimming, Fun Shop, play group, and others), I believe that he gains the greatest benefit from music class at this point in his development. It is the one class that really carries over to home, a class that has both given him a background in music and movement, and has fostered some independence and responsibility in his actions.

He remains totally devoted to Dora the Explorer. He loves trains, trucks, and anything that makes a good noise or involves lights. He is crazy for dogs and I wish that we had the time, energy, or inclination to get one, but Nic is not a lover of pets and I honestly am not up for the battle right now. Eventually we'll get there. He talks ceaselessly, to us or to himself, doesn't matter. He says more words than I can even hope to list anymore and all of them are adorably mispronounced. I will really hate it when he starts saying, "grape", instead of, "ahppa". He loves to have his teeth cleaned and asks for "zees" (teeth) every time that we go into the bathroom. When tired he will tell you that he wants to go to bed, give his daddy a kiss, then find Roger and crawl on in, whether or not you are ready! He is still absolutely devoted to nursing and nurses a minimum of four times each day.

Things have changed a lot since our earliest posts when Kellan was 7 months old. And every day, these things just keep getting better!

Photos from last weekend

Having a bit of a bad hair day. He's only recently had enough hair to actually brush, but it is alternately curly or wavy and I really don't know what to do with it. We'll see if things change after his first haircut, but that's a ways off. I do admit to having chopped off one particularly unruly strand a couple of weeks ago that stuck straight out from the back of his head, but nobody seems to have noticed!

Our Ozarks Holiday

We spent last week traveling around the Arkansas Ozarks and had a wonderful autumn holiday. The leaves were spectacular and the weather was unseasonably warm. Here are a few photos of Kellan playing in Ozarks National Park.

Missouri

These two photos were taken in the Missouri Ozarks on our way down to Arkansas.

Little Rock

These were taken in Little Rock. There are a few from the Discovery Museum, one from the zoo, and one from our hotel room (holding the ever present Roger).

[Note: Kellan was not injured by the sheep in any way. That face is due to the fact that he thought we'd run out of food for feeding said sheep when in fact I still had three quarters in my pocket! He loves to feed animals at the zoo]

A Few Late Halloween Photos

Better late than never. Here are a few photos taken at the play group Halloween party.

Kisses, and cuddles, and love, oh my!

Kellan has recently become a very kissy and cuddly boy, very different to his previous aversion to all things lovey. Everybody gets kisses these days, including the little boys in his play group. He leans in to his intended kissee, puckers his lips, then kisses them (preferably on the mouth) with a great big "smooch!" sound. I know that this will be a short phase (he is a little boy after all), but I am loving every moment getting love from my son.

A soggy trick-or-treat

It has been raining all day and promises to continue well past bedtime this evening, so we're going to have to resign ourselves to a soggy trick-or-treat. We have a large umbrella and plenty of Halloween spirit. We may not hit as many houses as planned, but Kellan will still get his trick-or-treat experience.

This child loves to trick-or-treat. It is all very new to him this year, but the idea of meeting lots of friendly people who give you free candy simply for saying "Tic-tee!" is simply fabulous. You should see those little legs go! Last night we were at a friend's home in a community that did Sunday trick-or-treat (I really don't know why, but it was good practise), and Kellan was unstoppable. The other kids had long since headed back to the house and he was still running up the sidewalk, turning in at each driveway, while I tried to keep up.

Two incidents of note: Beware the person who is handing out Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (Kellan's favourite). A woman apparently didn't give him enough in his bucket last night and he rushed her, lunging into the candy bowl with his big Elmo hands. She honestly didn't know what to do. At another house, Kellan decided that he was going to come in for a visit. He simply ran past the woman at the door and took off into the house. I caught up with him in their kitchen, where a very startled man was staring in bemused confusion.

Yes, tonight promises to be a fun one, umbrella and all.

Elmo

We attended a Halloween event this weekend and were able to test drive this year's Elmo costume. Kellan is the hit of his peers in this costume. The little bee is Carmen, one of Kel's buddies.

Mommy and Kellan

Here we are after our shower last night. And please forgive the brown appearance of my teeth in photo number two. I'm not sure what happened there. I don't even drink coffee or tea!