Camera Day

At least this weekend we got a few shots in. You can see some of them on the website that Ken put up, but here are a few of my favorites.

This was taken about 2 months ago, but I think it's a great photo of my dad (aka Zadie) and Kieran.



This one is very recent. Kieran can be an extremely messy eater. He gets very fussy when he doesn't get the food fast enough, then he's a moving target to get the food to his mouth. This results in a mess all over him. He also likes to run his hands over wherever you have dropped food and then he proceeds to take those hands and put them on his forehead, in his hair, in his ears, etc. Most of the time he's not quite this bad, but he was so messy on Saturday I just had to take a photo of it. You can tell he likes feeding time since he's smiling.

Nothing else is that new. He's still kinda cranky during the day since he's teething but at least he's been sleeping through the night. We'll see if that persists during our upcoming trip to the shore. He'll have a lot of fun with his cousins though (Zack, Becca & Pete) and they're going to be running high from their recent trip to Disney. It'll be a fun weekend. OK lots to do at work. Blog again soon. Enjoy the photos!

Upsetting the Balance

I think Kieran is finally truly teething.

He's been drooly for quite some time and he loves to chew on things (I mean, really, who doesn't?). Lately though he's been more crank than usual and he's waking up a few times a night to complain, though he usually goes right back to sleep without intervention from Ken or me (as a matter of fact, by the time I get up and get what I think he's asking for, he's back asleep).

Anyway - that's about all that's new. Crawling is coming soon, he's started to figure it all out. I still think that he's not particularly thrilled with that method of movement and that he won't be doing it for long. Once he figures out he can pull up on furniture and begin standing, we're done for.

I had a shock just the other day at how big he's grown. Ken bought him a Thing 1 outfit at Seussland in Orlando. It was a 12 month outfit and I didn't think it would fit him. Yeah, well, I guess I just didn't realize how big he's getting. His 12 month outfits seem to fit just fine. They're a little big, but not terribly. I think it's because he's so long, he definitely doesn't fill them up from side to side. He fits into his 6-9 month stuff still too but I guess that's going to go away shortly. We've got so much newborn, 0-3 and 3-6 stuff to giveaway that I need to get in touch with our friends who are due in September. If they're willing, we can bring it to them, we just need the extra storage space for the 6-9 month stuff and the 18 month stuff that we've got.

Thanks again to Debbie for the CRAZY amount of stuff she bought. I hope you got enough Kieran time while you were here and, like I said, we hope to have new photos starting next week.

OK, that's about it. We've got a nice weekend ahead of us - going shopping with a girlfriend of mine on Saturday and we're hoping to hit the Baltimore Pow-Wow on Sunday. Love to all, blog again soon.

Documentation, Please!

Ken and I are horrible. We just had his family in town and we brought out our camera exactly zero times.

I was wondering about it lately, as Ken and I have been really bad about taking photos. You would think Kieran is not our first child. Then I realized - we're so busy living our lives and spending time with him that we don't think about documenting our lives. This blog is really one of the few ways I spend time to talk about the minutiae of our lives. And I do that mostly for the family and friends who can't share it with us everyday (I'm sure my brother and mother are bored STIFF at the bland details I share with them).

Anyway - in this effort, I hereby declare Saturdays Camera Day and we hope to get the camera out and take photos at least once each Saturday. That way we can have some photos to choose from each month, change out the digital picture frames. I hope that in this effort I can also post more regularly new photos of the little man who is growing at a good clip.

Finally - thanks Debbie, Jeff, Kaleb and Noah for a great weekend. Had a lot of fun hanging out with you and I hope you got enough Kieran time (and Ken time) to last you a while. Hopefully we'll see Kaleb again before 5 years are up. OK, back to lunch. Have a great week - will try to blog again later.

We're All Simpsons Now

OK, so with a little too much interest in The Simpsons, I have been hitting the Simpsonizing website today. Here are just a few images for your viewing pleasure.

Me as a SimpsonAnd Kieran as a Simpson (on the Krusty set no less)


Ken has one too, but I can't save the image. He kinda looks like Smithers, which should bother us but just makes us laugh.

Who the Heck is This?

Got a call last night and Ken asked me to listen to his new cell phone voicemail. He asked me if I could tell who it was who was calling. The message was a bit garbled (even if it's new, it's still a cell phone) and so was hard to hear. I listened and said "Your Dad maybe?" He thought it might have been his cousin Tim... turned out to be our nephew Kaleb! It's been a while since we've heard his voice and I guess when you're 15 you sound more like an adult than a kid... it was just weird (but nice to hear from him directly).

He's headed this way tomorrow so we'll get to see just how tall he's grown (I haven't seen Kaleb since he was 10, I think). Also got a box yesterday of gifties from Debbie (thanks!) I have to go through it tonight to figure out if there are clothes he can wear now or if I should set them all aside for the time being.

I'm getting a little nervous because Kieran has stopped eating (formula) as much and he's been sleeping hard. His intake of formula went down from about 32 oz to less than 20 within 2 weeks. I'm worried because in addition to refusing his bottle he's also been sleeping hard at night. I'm trying not to over-worry. He doesn't get much sleep at daycare anymore because there is so much going on around him that he just wants to be awake all the time. I'm going to keep an eye on this and call the dr if it really starts to bother me or get worse.

OK back to work, had to blog quick.

Go Ravens!

Kieran went to his very first football game last night, courtesy of Zadie. He had a good time, even if he didn't smile much. He was confused, I'm sure, as to why I had him up so late (game started at 7pm) but enjoyed flirting with the woman who sat beside me. He seemed to enjoy looking at all the new sights so hopefully he'll do better on Sunday when Ken takes him to the game at 8 pm.

That said, we got home at 8:30 after the game (no, it wasn't that short, we left halfway through the second quarter) and by 9pm he was sound asleep. He slept until 6 am. I, on the other hand, tossed and turned all night long. Oh well...

He also had a bit of a blow yesterday as his best buddy, Carolyn, was not at daycare. I don't know if she's out for the week on vacation or if she'll be in later today. He's also started flirting with the lady who runs the Infant II room. She was saying what a love he is and that he'd been eyeing her all day yesterday. I guess he just likes the ladies... at least he does right now.

Other than that, not much else new. Got Debbie, Jeff, Kaleb and Noah coming in this weekend so we've got a big weekend planned. ESPN Zone on Friday, Aquarium on Saturday, Shopping/Movie on Sunday with the game that night. They leave Monday morning (and I'm sure they'll be exhausted by then!). It will be fun. Kieran's going to enjoy meeting his other cousins and I'll enjoy doing some local sight-seeing.

Love to all, blog again soon.

Love Bites!

Kieran got bit at daycare yesterday by another child. They can't tell us which kid did it, but did assure me that they will do everything they can to keep it from happening again. From what I understand Kieran was in the megasaucer, minding his own business when the other kid bit him. I do know that it wasn't any of the kids who are normally in his room - besides the fact that none of them have teeth yet...

He was fine, had two small red marks on his chin but got lots of kisses, hugs and some ice (after they washed the area with soap and water). The skin was not broken. I think it may have bothered him at some level because he woke up 3 times last night, faking us out each time. He would cry/make noise for a bit, we'd get up, go get a bottle and by the time we got to him he was fast asleep. Ken got up twice, I only got up once. I'm thinking that he was processing what had happened and it upset him but he doesn't know how to deal yet. My poor baby.

Though, I have to say, he's such a little flirt these days. Especially with the little girls. This morning, dropping him off, he couldn't take his eyes off of Anna (one of the older girls). He would just watch her and smile. He's also been playing quite a bit with Carolyn, who is just about his age. They are quite cute together as they play side by side, babbling at each other and sharing toys (and germs, I'm sure). Maybe one of the other kids bit him because he flirted with their 'girlfriend' or maybe one of the girls thought his attentions were unwanted. Who knows?

More on Our Marine
Ben's (that's Ken's younger brother for those looking at the family tree) doing okay now. He's finally getting the hang of being physically active from before sunrise until after dark. If he can do that I'm sure he can master climbing the rope, which is the only thing concerning him right now. He misses everyone but the whole family is writing him at least once a week - if not more often - and that's helping. I'll keep everyone updated on Ben's progress as I know more.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Our little guy is stuffed up again. I swear I pulled enough snot from his nose this weekend to sculpt a likeness of his whole head. He's possibly going through a growth spurt as well. Yesterday he was on this weird 3 hour schedule - he'd wake up, be OK for about an hour, hour and a half; then he'd start to get a little cranky - you could distract him for maybe 15-20 minutes. After that you had to feed him and put him down to sleep, when he'd sleep for about an hour and do the whole thing all over again. At least by the time he went to bed (6 pm!) he was ready to sleep through the night.

When he was littler and hit a spurt, you could tell because all he wanted to do was eat and sleep. Very similar to yesterday. Last night I didn't sleep much because for some odd reason I got up at 3 am. Managed to get back to sleep for a bit, but then Kieran got up at 4 am. He was up for about 45 minutes, so I went back to bed close to 5 am (at which point Ken got up) and finally the alarm went off around 6 am and Kieran woke up then too. Took a quick shower and we were headed out the door. But man, right now I could go for a nap.....

He seems to be in a fairly good mood today, yesterday he didn't want anything to do with solid food unless it was the Gerber stuff. He was having none of the cereal. It was fine, he ate plenty and probably had more formula than he would normally. Like I said, possible growth spurt.

And in Ken News....
Ken had a GREAT day on Friday with a call from an immigration judge in York, PA with a potential client, a call into his firm with a potential client and a very nice compliment from one of the partners at his firm. Today is seeming to do as well with people responding to his recent round of networking with immigration questions. He's pretty excited to be able to get into the practice area he's always wanted to do. So, things are looking very busy shortly for him.


Ok that's it. Love to all, I'm gonna go nap on my keyboard now...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Raspberry Boy

The follow-up appointment for his tongue-tie went well, looks like no further medical intervention will be necessary. Even if it is, we won't know that until he's 2 yrs old at least. Dr. German said his tongue-tie was not an issue anymore, that he had good mobility with his tongue and that since he can suck well and eat well, he's not concerned. Language issues won't arise for another year or so.

All seems to be good, he's back on formula and eating VERY well. I think we may be back on a good schedule today - all week has been somewhat messed up (Monday I was sick, Wednesday was a Doctors appointment, yesterday we had to go get Ken at night...). We got up extra early (Ken's clock thought it was an hour later than reality) but we got to daycare in a timely fashion and I got to spend some time with him, feeding him and whatnot.

He loves to blow raspberries. Just like my kid. Unfortunately, he also likes to do this while being fed. This morning I was using the lid of his bowl as a shield so he could blow all the rice cereal he wanted, and it wouldn't get on me. It worked for awhile, then he decided that spraying the room was much more fun than the lid of his bowl. At least he knows what's funny.

He's still trying new foods, we're now into mixed foods - Squash and corn; Bananas, apples and strawberries; Peas and carrots, etc. Still hasn't met a food he doesn't like. I've heard that this may go away as he gets older and that he'll start to not like foods that he once ate. I guess only time will tell.

OK enough chatting with you all - back to work for me!