Lincoln Balloon Festival

San Diego photos are coming soon. I have lots, but haven't had time to upload them to the blog yet. Work is busy and Kel's social calendar has been fully booked -- people missed him while we were away! These photos were taken last weekend at the Lincoln Balloon Festival in Lincoln, Illinois. Unfortunately, chasing a toddler around the fun fair for hours in the afternoon made for a very tired mother and child, so the photos are a bit uninspired and lacking in smiles on the boy's part. Still, San Diego photos are coming!

Off home again

These photos were taken at our local World Breastfeeding Week event held this morning at the zoo. We arrived early to beat the heat of the day. Once the other kids arrived, it was all I could do to keep up, let alone take pictures!

We're off home to San Diego for a couple of weeks now, so will hopefully have a chance to post some holiday photos while we're away. Otherwise, we'll be back in late August. We're ready for the beach!

World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7 2006)

In honour of World Breastfeeding Week, this is a photo of Kellan, aged nearly 2 1/2, nursing happily last weekend. He remains a happy nursling and I remain committed to providing him with the best and most natural sustenance available. I wonder if we'll be celebrating World Breastfeeding Week 2007?

The Entertainer -- need I say more?

Playing in the Back Garden

The garage was in the process of being rebuilt and all of the toys were gathered together in one location. What fun! This was about three days pre-much-needed-haircut.

Messy Hands

The child who hates a mess. If anything at all is on his hands, his clothing, his legs, his face, the table, the floor -- you name it -- he whines, "Meh-hee, meh-hee..." until you clean up the offending substance. So, you can imagine that this pudding painting was a hit. Notice the confused expression and the staring at a hand that has one tiny drop of pudding on it. The painted paper -- that was all me. And you know what? I enjoyed it -- especially licking off my hands afterwards! He doesn't know what he's missing.

Kellan and his good buddy Carmen

Summer Cold

Don't look too closely at these two photos, or you'll see the snotty nose! Poor guy had a nasty summer cold. He woke up fully congested one morning and ran in to our bedroom crying, "Momma, messy. Its messy. Its stuck!" and pulling at his nose. That was so sad. I am pleased to announce that he has since made a full recovery.

This week's main attraction was daily private swim lessons. Which didn't go so well. Apparently, when you're two, and even if you swim every single week of the year and even more often in the summer, it is not ok to swim with somebody other than mom or dad. I mean, really not ok. To put it bluntly, he spent the first two days screaming down the pool area for the entire lesson. Until they finally agreed to bend the rules and let me come into the pool with him. And now we're actually getting somewhere. One more week to go and then home to San Diego to put these lessons into practise.

Just another day at the park

I suppose that I haven't really updated everybody on Kellan's most recent exploits in awhile. Where does the time go? Kel is heading towards the 2 1/2 mark now and amazes me daily with the speed at which he changes, learns, and develops. His language is advancing at light speed. There are very few silly words left, and more than that, he can mimic just about anything that we say and picks things up at first listen. He is still nursing and enjoys it immensely. He nurses about four times a day now, though sometimes more if things are particularly stressful, or, conversely, if I actually attempt to sit down and relax for five minutes -- Mom's resting, must be time to nurse! He is social and happy, loves his "buddies", and finds no greater joy than in simply being with other children. So much for the only child loner thing. Nice try Mom, but you're only getting the one. He has started sleeping through the night now, and better than that, actually putting himself to sleep at bedtime. I nurse him, then give him a kiss and leave the room -- we don't hear from him again until he wakes up around 5am the next morning. Life is beginning to resume a more normal pace. Kellan gets more fun by the day and we regain our sanity in the process -- this is a good age.

First Potty!

He did it! First time using the potty. Still a long way to go and no progress since his first success, but he is at least happy to sit and give it a go. We'll get there in time. No reason to rush what is a natural process. When he's ready, it will happen, and until then, we'll get in lots of good practise.