"Halloween Chicken!"

October was a busy month for us. We celebrated my birthday having brunch with friends at our house which ended up being a lot of fun with the toddlers running around. We we're lucky to have both Grandma Susan and Grammy Sharon come visit us and spend time with Mr. Keelan. We also got to attend Todd's Grandfather Eric's 90th birthday party in Seattle! Keelan got to see loads of family that he hasn't seen in quite a while including Aunt Heidi and her fiance Dennis, Todd's cousin Chet and his wife Sally and kiddos, Grandpa Bruce and Grammy Sharon, Todd's uncle Steve and his wife Janny, Aunt Catherine, and of course Great Grandpa Eric and Great Grandma Ruth. We stayed at a nice hotel and all the youngin's went swimming together. Unfortunately for me, I was quite sick over that weekend/week and spent most of the time in bed, so didn't really participate in the festivities :-( When we got home Grammy Sharon hung out with us for a whole week! Which was super helpful cause I was a sick preggo lady who even had to take antibiotics, ick. Halloween was a lot of fun with Grammy Sharon, we went to a 'candy free' kids fair dressed as a chicken family and a gypsy - didn't last too long their but Keelan loved it. He also LOVED passing out candy and trick-or-treating. He kept saying "More houses!!". My favorite line of the night was when he answered the door and said, "Halloween Chicken!" to the trick-or-treaters. It was pretty cute! We traded his tiny bag of candy for grapes, he didn't mind at all. The couple days after Halloween Keelan had a low grade fever and was under-the-weather but thankfully it didn't last long and he didn't end up like his Mama. 

Now, at 32 weeks pregnant, I'm anticipating the holidays which mark the last handful of weeks before this new baby boy arrives! Auntie/sister Sarah is going to come for almost a whole week for Thanksgiving, taking a break from med school in Yakima, Hooray! I'm really excited for her to have a lot of time off and hang out with us. My Mom is planing on coming to Bellingham for a whole month when baby boy comes and my sister will come back for Christmas to celebrate and help out too. So, there's a good chance we'll have three capable adults (NOT including myself) in the house when this baby arrives, that would be the best Christmas/holiday present EVER! Keelan needs the entertainment/support, that is for sure. 

"terrible" two-ness & walk-bouts

This morning was the first day back to storytime after a short summer hiatus and wow, it was pretty miserable. For me that is! The class was fine, and Keelan enjoyed himself for the most part, but he was not... how do I put this... on his best behavior. Over our time going to the library, I've noticed something interesting about the population of storytime goers. There are loads of girls of all ages, many baby boys and 2.5+ boys, but a serious lack in the 18-30ish month range. Hmm... Keelan is most definitely in that category. I have to give myself a pat on the back for keeping my cool as he wandered around on the stage (where the teacher says not to go) gently encouraging him to move back to the seats and smiling as he wandered around looking into all the other Mom's diaper bags saying, "Snack? Snack?" (fits when I wouldn't let him eat their food). Oy. But, we made it out alive and I didn't loose my cool. I may have to gear myself up to go again next week :-)

This afternoon I was thinking about how much I've been enjoying our neighborhood walk-abouts lately. We've had such amazing weather these last couple months, 70's and sunny! We usually go see some neighbor's chickens, goats, dogs and gardens. Keelan is getting pretty good at naming the pumpkins, apple trees, tomatoes and other various growing things.


Today was also his first time exploring finger painting (have NO idea why I haven't tried it before!) and he was hesitant at first, but then started loving it. He started putting the paint in his mouth, hair and on his body, but I let him go for it until the eating it part got out of hand, then it was time for a bath! Later in the day he asked me to "eat color!" ;-) Such a funny dude.

Experimenting with toddler activities

Around fourteen months (he's now 20) or so I noticed that although Keelan's verbal skills were on the rise, his fine motor skills weren't developing as quickly. I started thinking back to my Montessori assistant days (summers during college) and the activities I observed and helped set up. The majority were for 3-6 year olds and too advanced, so I started scouring the internet and pinterest for toddler fine motor activities and 'busy bags'. I was shocked at how many awesome activities I found and started putting things together from stuff we had in the kitchen (mostly coffee and oatmeal containers) and around the house. Oh... then I discovered the dollar store and bought more cheap supplies for his activities. I was amazed at how much he enjoyed focusing on these simple tasks and I think they have helped him develop. He does get frustrated with them at times; more recently asking, "Mommy, help!" or just throwing them all over the floor. But I've decided it's part of the 'process' :-) I've also realized I HAVE to get him used to being at home more, we tend to be out and about a lot, and I know once the new baby comes we'll be home-bound much more than Keelan is used to. So, this is part of planning our future sanity as well! 

Here are some 'action' shots I took from this morning, hence the pants-less boy. 

Popsicle sticks

Pom-poms

Straws & multiple holes (+ check out the curls!)

Farm animal figurines

Some Summer Memories

Here are a few pics from the past few months, not quite chronologically, but pretty close. We had an amazing summer with lots of family time and sunny warm weather. Todd just started back with teaching this week and I can't believe this is my second year NOT in a classroom but as a stay-at-home Mom, crazy! I'm enjoying the final few months of just Keelan and I bopping around town, exploring parks and making friends until the new baby boy arrives. So much change just around the corner for our little family.

Keelan and his second cousin 

Keelan and Great Grandpa Jim

Great Grandpa Jim

Christianson family

Grandpa Steve

Great Grandma Silvia and my cousin Anna

Grandma Susan

Love this Bellingham view..ahh

Auntie Sarah

"Doctor" to-be Sarah

Grandma Susan, her Sister Barb and Great Grandma Millie

Cousin Jessica's wedding in LA

Fun verbal developments

Looking dapper at my sister's med school 'white coat' ceremony.

Even though these are probably only interesting to Todd and I (and maybe the Grandmas), we wanted to write them down for posterity. It seems if I don't write stuff like this on the blog, I never write it down anywhere else and it ends up slipping my mind. I was trying to remember some of his developments early in infancy, and couldn't remember!! So, here are some of his recent verbal combinations.

• Watching me sit at the table and put my face in my hands... "Mommy sleepy!" Yes, pregnant Mama is sleepy!
• Looking at the rain out the window... "Water, down."
• After running into the road at the park..."Car boom (hitting the top of his head) owie"
• Pointing to bears all over his pajamas... "Bear! Two, two, two, two"
• Berries = "Biggies"
• Pacifier = "Pappi"
• Cookies = "Yummy, yummy!"
• Fish crackers = kiss lips + "cracky"
• Library = "La baby"
• Cup = "Puck"
• Watching the toilet flush... "Peepee bye bye"
• Watching the water go down the drain... "Water, drain, bye bye"
• Keelan, what does Meimei (our white cat) say?... Makes claws with his hands and says, "Hiss Hiss!!"
• Looking at two squirrels..."Squirrel, one...two!" 
• Picking up one of Daddies many library books... "Daddy book!"
• Watching another toddler play a drum..."Baby, drumbo, bang bang."
• After running into the road and getting in trouble from Mommy... "Car (hits own head) owie" 

things I'll likely forget

As our little toddler quickly changes and starts pushing limits and making it clear what he wants (dramatic fits included), I find myself trying to enjoy and remember the sweet moments. He now comforts himself by touching his ears (and also ours) when he's tired, falling asleep or in the early morning when he's first woken up. I know kids develop all kinds of ways to comfort themselves, some have blankets or stuffed animals or thumbs, but Keelan is all about his "pappi" (pacifier) and his ears. It cracks me up because his aunt Heidi used to be into her ears as a child and would suck her thumb at the same time, maybe it's in the Denton genes.

When he was sick recently and I would have to rock him to sleep at night and for naps, I would sing simple children's prayers to him until he fell asleep. If I ever stopped singing or humming he would look up at me in his sleepy state and sign "more". This is so funny to me because he doesn't really use his sign language anymore now that he's speaking, so it seems so 'baby-ish' to me, but I think it's sweet ;-)

sicky times

sick kid ammunition

The last couple two weeks went something like this... Keelan gets a cough and runny nose, no problem normal cold stuff. Then he keeps us up late at night and is unable to go back to sleep, we spend hours rocking a conjested and crying baby in the rocking chair (memories of his infant days are flooding my mind). We begin to notice that he is running a little hot- but having recently returned a poor performing baby thermometer without bothering to bring a working one home we have no way to check it.  The night we finally pick up a new thermometer Keelan wakes up burning, we check his temperature... 104! We of course feel horrible and start the rounds of meds to bring down his temp. Thankfully, it comes down to 101 and continues to drop. He stops being interested in eating or drinking and gets really low energy, cranky and clingy. We decide to take him to the pediatrician who says it's just a virus and not to worry, just keep an eye on his temperature and encourage him to drink as much water as he can. The next day the diarrhea and horrible diaper rash begin... ack! After two days of this we bring him back to the doctor who said the virus moved down into his digestive system AND he has an ear infection... great. Feeling pretty wiped out after over a week of this we were relieved that he was getting some antibiotics (his first) and that this should be done with in 48 hours or so. It took until yesterday, Friday, for him to seem really back to normal, but boy are we grateful! We went to nature babies with a friend and Keelan played in the water at lake Whatcom and we all felt like normal, healthy humans again. 

Keelan has had colds and some stomach upset before, but never like this. I had moments when I felt like, "Wow, so this is what it feels like to be a parent..." holding a feverish out-of-it Keelan in my arms. I just can't imagine how difficult and intense it would be to have a child with a terminal illness. Two weeks of this and we felt wiped out emotionally and physically, I just can't imagine that being every day. I feel so lucky that we have a healthy child and I hope our second one is just as blessed. 

new baby and mini-reunions

A lot of big changes around the Denton household! Biggest one would be... we're going to have another baby! Currently I'm 14 weeks pregnant and starting to awake from weeks of sleepy ickyness. This pregnancy has been so much better so far than with Keelan and I feel so grateful for that. I was expecting it to either be the same, or harder and amazingly, it's been better! We saw the first ultrasound and listened to the baby's heartbeat, it was pretty wonderful.

Keelan looking like a big brother!

I know a lot has been going on when I have to put all the photos into one slide show cause it's too hard to pick and choose from all the options. Or perhaps it's a testimate to the fact that I haven't been feeling that great. Todd can sure vouch for that, he would come home from work and I would basically hand him Keelan and beg to take a nap... and then just make grilled cheese for dinner :-)

Here is the run down of the events from May through early July... First in a series of mini-reunions with old friends was with my high school buddy Ashley Bahney, her mother and three month old son Brock in Seattle, WA. Of course we were so busy hanging out and enjoying our time together, I didn't really get any pictures with her :-(

Next was our Montana road trip which consisted of A LOT of driving and a lot of good friends too. We stopped in Virginia City for my good college friend Angi's wedding. Angi and I became great friends when I was going to school in Missoula, MT. There's nobody quite like Angi ;-) It was a beautiful day and Keelan enjoyed dancing around and getting attention from everyone at the reception.

From there we drove to Bozeman and hung out with some of Todd's friends from his Montana State University days, including Dewey (his old Juneau buddy) who is living and working now in Bozeman. It was in the 90's when we were there and the aircon in our car didn't work too well and we didn't have it where we were staying so my pregnant self just about died in the heat! I am not accustomed to it at all. Keelan did pretty well, enjoyed playing with a friend's daughter and running around in his diaper in the kiddie pool.

Lastly, we went to Eureka which thankfully is the northern most part of Montana and was much cooler and comfortable. We visited our dear friends Sarah and Ben Quilling and their son Emil. We hadn't seen them since their wedding in 2007. Sarah and I became close friends at Berklee in Boston and have stayed in touch since then.

Oh, I almost forgot! When we got back to Bellingham our friends from Shanghai (all teachers at SAS) who all have connections with Bellingham area were in town and all came over to our place. It was fun to spend some time reconnecting and hearing about all the changes in Shanghai over this last year.

Whew... I hate cramming important life events into one blog post, but unfortunately if I tried to be too ambitious it wouldn't get done!

Family time at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

So after moving to Washington state one of the 'must see' things that we've been told is to go to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in April and see one of the largest growing areas of Tulips in the world. Apparently it is one of the only other places, besides Holland, that has one of these festivals. Of course we decided to go on one of the busiest weekends of the season so ended up stuck in traffic for a long time. Thankfully Keelan is a champ in the car these days and enjoyed watching one of his favorite things (cars!!) and playing with some toys in his car seat. Getting stuck in traffic was worth it, we had a really nice time and got some great pics. Plus Todd found a way to avoid the log jam on the way back by taking a scenic ocean route on chuckanut drive. A pretty nice way to end our weekend :-)

A "five paces" toddler

The first of April Keelan turned 15 months! I can't believe how quickly the last couple months have really flown by, it almost seems like time is speeding up. He's started acquiring verbal skills a bit faster now, and is babbling constantly. Here are some of his newest skills.

• Ball, Go, Hi, Heidi, Socks, Shoe, Car, Hat, Animal sounds: moo, quack, monkey sound, cluck
• Kicks the ball around, does "headers"
• Found his pacifier again after giving it up at 9 months (when his top teeth came in) and it was almost like "Hello old friend, I've missed you!" So now I'm trying to figure out what limits I place on it, just for bedtime or naps etc.
• Does "all done" sign for more than just food. Does the "help" sign when he wants me to help him with pretty much anything... getting up on the sofa, out of his high chair, playing with his toys etc. 
• Still doing the "eat" and "milk" signs all the time
• Waves and says "Bye bye" and "Hi"
• Does high fives

AND the biggest new development is his new found love of cuddling :-) He now is very much into hugs and kisses and just being a sweet little guy. I think the reason for this might be that around 14 and a half months or so I got ready to nurse him to sleep and he looked up at me and started giggling! It was like, "hey ma, I'm so done with nursing!!" So, from then on he hasn't nursed. It's funny because that day I had mentioned to Todd that I thought Keelan was going to stop pretty soon, and that was the night!

Lastly, for my long winded list of my amazing son's accomplishments (so I don't forget, it's all happening so fast!) He is what I have recently dubbed, a "five paces" toddler. Example A., today I walked into the kitchen (about ten paces away) to grab something and all of a sudden it got very quiet. I ran into the bathroom, and there he was laying in the kitty bed, with the kitty. Now this kitty, MeiMei, is really not fond of Keelan and had her ears pinned back and scratched Keelan on the arm. This type of event is becoming more an more common and it seems if I don't have Keelan literally strapped to me in the ergo or I am five paces away from him, things happen... a lot. Worst part of it all, even when he gets hurt, he doesn't care or learn his lesson, he'll do it again and again. I was certainly not this type of baby, I would get hurt once and be done with it. I'm crossing my fingers he'll start learning his lessons.

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Below are some pics from the Baha'i Naw Ruz (New Year) party. Here is Keelan and his little girl friend sharing some sweet baby kisses :-*