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 :-*