Tuesday, January 24, 2006

A cold day at the park

It wasn't warm, but temperatures remained above freezing and we had been taking care of a post-operative Nic all weekend. Kellan needed to run off some steam, so we bundled up and hit the park.









When Daddy won't let you have a dog...

...you make do with the next best thing. Poor boy, cuddling a cold metal statue of a dog at the park. One day his father will have to admit defeat.


Busy days...

It has been a crazy couple of weeks with barely a moment to catch my breath, let alone get around to any proper posting here. Nic had his vasectomy to ensure Kellan's place as our one and only, so I've been single-parenting it a bit, plus nursing a sore husband. Work is manic. The weather has been lovely, so we're trying to fit in as much outside time as possible. All in all, its been busy, so I thought that I'd recap the last couple of weeks with some memorable Kellan moments:

1. Begging to dress up in his Elmo Halloween costume -- to go to Walmart!

2. Day after day after lovely fun-filled day of playing at the park together, often with his friend Carmen.

3. Standing in his footie pajamas helping me to unload the dishwasher (when you're doing it all on your own for a week, a gesture such as this is more than simply cute, it is truly monumental).

4. Learning to say, "All right!" -- "Ah riiiiiigh!", adorable.

5. Taking items from my dresser to put on his stuffed toys. Real make-believe play!

6. Speaking in sentences. The boy has been chatting up a storm and no longer uses one or two words, but puts together multi-word sentences for every thought. The current favourite is, whenever you give him something, a cup for example, he'll reply: "Here you go, cup". Or when finished on the carousel, "All done neigh neigh (his word for horse)". Last night there was something rather long and complex involving nursing, though I never did figure out what he was talking about!

7. His new word for video -- "Lo lo". The sound that a rooster makes -- "Neigh neigh oooooo". His word for jacket -- "dadet", and his word for Elmo -- "Ohm".

8. Running circles around the teacher at his Church Mice music class, chased by Carmen, and inadvertently falling into the box of instruments when he turned around to look at Carmen in pursuit. This is the first time that he ever blushed.

This is such a fun age. Every day is an adventure. I am loving and savouring every minute of toddlerhood. Yes, there are tantrums, and yes, he can be stubborn and try every last bit of your patience, but overall he is a happy, fun loving, brilliant, and absolutely perfect little boy. Less than a month until he second birthday and I am sad to see these baby years fading so quickly, but so excited to witness what is yet to come. Isn't motherhood the ride of a lifetime?

Saturday, January 21, 2006

At the park -- in January!

We have had an incredibly mild winter here in Springfield and have been taking advantage of every last warm minute. These were taken last week at the park with one of Kellan's best pals, Carmen.





Sunday, January 08, 2006

The new game

We have a new game at our house, developed last night as I attempted to make the beds. This game is called, "Duvet Diving". It involves the participant (usually Kellan -- ok, so far always Kellan) standing at the edge of our thick winter duvet (on the floor due to said bed making), counting to three, and then diving into the duvet with great bursts of laughter. This game can fill at least 30 minutes and one must be careful not to over run bedtime while playing.

Whether or not this is pure coincidence, last night is the first in many months that Kellan slept for 7 consecutive hours. Nic went in with him shortly after 11pm, settled him back down, and I wasn't called in until 6:15 this morning. We may be playing a lot of duvet diving before bed to test this new and wonderful hypothesis!





A future photographer?

You saw it here first. Two original works by Kellan. He got his hands on the camera last night, and these were the resulting masterpieces. An artist at only 22 months old. These will be worth millions one day...


Friday, January 06, 2006

My baby is growing up...

We've had two big milestones in the past couple of weeks. First, Kel is finally feeding himself with a spoon. He took the same attitude as he did towards walking -- don't bother to do it until you're going to do it right. He suddenly picked up the spoon and started feeding himself one day without any mess, without turning the spoon the wrong way up, without any problems whatsoever. Just as he started walking one day without ever stumbling or wobbling, simply got up and did laps around the house. He took his time, but he got there in both cases. We didn't push the spoon issue. As often as they ask about it at the pediatrician's office, I don't believe that it is an important skill in the grand scheme of things. Eating with arbitrary utensils is an unnatural and wholly social construct, not something that I allowed the pediatrician to bully me into worrying about. But you know what? Somewhere in the back of my mind I keep hearing that little voice say, "Thank goodness he got it before his two year check-up!".

The second milestone is in his new recognition of babies. He has started pointing out babies wherever we go. He will wave and say, "Hi, baby!". He does this with actual babies, as well as with children who are perhaps only a couple of months younger than himself. But, to be fair, he was a baby only the blink of an eye ago, so perhaps he's not far wrong. He also tells me about pictures on the wall at home, naming each person in the photo and then pointing out the "baby" (baby Kellan). My favourite photo is one of my mother, sister, and Kellan at about 3 months old. It is now one of my favourites to hear him describe as well -- "Auntie, Grmama, Baby!".