Keegan in Full Color

Here are some photos and a video from the past few weeks.

Paper is one of my favorite toys!

Tired little man

The tower will not survive very long

Keegan hijacks the train

Enamored by the singing snowmen

Trying to crawl!

Aunt Kay Kay and Keegan havin' a good time Thanksgiving day!

The tree is big and bright

Do not try this at home. I am a professional

Just plain happy

Giggle Monster

Up, up and away!

So it has been a long while since I have posted. I didn't give up, so don't worry. It's just that nothing has really happened in 5 weeks.

Just kidding! There has been an awful lot going on; I have just neglected the blog. In fact I don't know where to start. I'm not even sure where I left off. we'll just start with the big stuff and see how it goes.

Keegan is almost crawling! He is also speeding around the house on two legs as long as he has some support. He is great at sitting up from lying on his tummy and getting on to his tummy from sitting. He can get up on all fours and has even down the downward dog pose a few times. All that and he still isn't quite crawling around. He has all the motions down, just not the timing which we all take so much for granted! His current mode of locomotion is to lie down on his tummy, then sit back up on the opposite side. He then completes this several times and can move surprisingly fast. Look away for a few seconds and he is five feet away. I do think he prefers to be walked around, though that is made more difficult by the slick hardwood floors and his socks. The little grippies just don't do a whole lot to help.

He is up to more foods than I can count or remember. I am happy to say that we are the only parents in his daycare who make our child's food (though to give credit where it's due, Suzanne has made all his food up to this point). Everyone else uses prefab packaged stuff, but Keegan gets real food. His least favorite by far is Broccoli. His favorites are just about all the others with a few exceptions that he sometimes decides he just doesn't want time to time.

He is as talkative as ever and says, "dadadadadadada" very distinctly. As of yet, he has not explicitly linked it to his father, though hopefully that will come soon. He still loves the animals and gets excited when they come by. I pity them the day he realizes he can give chase. Christmas decorations also seem to interest him greatly. He seems mesmerized by the lights and interested in the tree and the garland. We were walking around the store and he saw some greenery hanging from the ceiling. He rubbernecked just so he could watch it, mouth wide open. It is really amazing to see him in action. The simplest things are magical to him.

Over Thanksgiving Keegan got to see lots of family. We had an early thanksgiving with the Shary side and spent Thanksgiving day with the Boyle/Vogeler clan. Then we were invited out to Jay and Carol's farm near Athens for the weekend. We spent Friday through Sunday relaxing, playing and checking out the farm. Keegan got to do all kinds of fun stuff. It was his first time meeting Jay and Carol and they made sure he had a good time! He also got to see horses up close and go on a good long hike. He missed seeing the chickens by a few minutes, but nap time took precedence.

Sorry for the lackluster job! Enjoy the video and I should have some photos to follow soon!

Keegan vs Kung Fu Hampster

It's the Great Pumpkin, Keegan Michael! - Redux

So these pictures are a little late, but they are too cute to pass up. We had our biggest Halloween crowd yet this year. I think we had a total of about 12 kids come around versus the 5 we had last year. Grandma Boyle stopped by and we sat outside for probably 45 minutes enjoying the beautiful weather and the glow from our pumpkins!

Gramma and her l'il Punkin'

Our neighbor Pasha gave Keegan his first lollipop

Decisions, decisions

Haven't I been in this costume long enough?

Mommy and her l'il Punkin'

The world's cutest talking Jack 'o Lantern

The world's happiest Jack o' Lantern

A tale of two kitties

I have mentioned before that Keegan gets excited when he sees the animals. Here is some video proof of him and his hilarious reaction to the cats. For most of the video they are walking around off camera, but you can see him following them and then the excitement on his face. If anything gets him to crawl, I believe it will be his desire to get the animals. Sony will be glad to know that he is also playing with his remote and it is one of his favorite toys. Lately, though, his favorite is anything he has not touched, held or mouthed. He will drop the object he has seen before for the chance at something new. That is so cool.

p.s. I am going to have some halloween pictures up soon, so check back over the weekend!

Rub a Dub, Dub, There's a Kitty in the Tub

Keegan is really starting to dig his baths. He loves to kick and kick and he will laugh when you squirt him with his little alligator or whale toys. During one of his recent baths, Bella decided to join him in the tub (the big tub, not the baby tub). He was so excited Mommy decided to take some pictures. He is excited about the animals in general, and watches them anytime they are within sight. Look out kitties once he starts crawling!

I don't think I really need a caption here

Here kitty, kitty, kitty!

I am cute and I know it

Chubby baby

I missed the bath scene because I was traveling for work last week. It was four days away from the family and it was weird. I am very used to being around him whether it is holding him, feeding him, or even just watching or hearing him. I kind of missed getting him ready in the morning (not the being up early in the morning part, but the being with him part). He can take you from being groggy and grumpy to being smiley. I want him to be happy and in trying to make him happy I become happy. Just look at these faces and you can't help but smile...

The face that can turn any frown upside-down

The teeth are getting bigger

Hey, that looks cool. Gimme that.

We also recently introduced peas into Keegan's diet. He is unsure of them as yet and Suzanne says he makes the same face she does when she eats peas (this from the woman who eats brussels sprouts, blech). He will eat them all, but he makes a face the whole way through. Not sure what that really means, because he will voluntarily grab the spoon and eat them. Maybe he keeps expecting us to give him something he likes? He is still extremely messy (evidence below) but he is trying. He can also hold a big bottle of formula and drink almost all of it. It takes him a little longer to eat it because he ends up playing with it as well, but it is kind of nice. I gave him a bottle while we were at the store and he ate most of it without any help from me.

Don't worry, I have this covered

It's the Great Pumpkin, Keegan Michael

Keegan is in there somewhere

I'm not really sure what is going on here

This is kind of comfortable, though

We have had quite a week this past week! To start it all last Sunday we went to Shaw farms to get some pumpkins for Halloween. Aunt Krista, Uncle Steve and Aunt Lucia came along also. Though we did not see the Great Pumpkin, mommy did use this as a stage and put Keegan in his pumpkin costume amongst the piles and piles of real pumpkins. He did look adorable (see for yourselves!) and was amazed by everything going on. He was just looking around and taking it all in. We got some pictures and mommy and daddy have some pumpkins to carve. In a few years we will be able to help Keegan carve his own.

A few days later we got to see Keegan's cousin Elly (technically second cousin, but who's counting?) who is quite adorable. Hopefully they will be good playpals since they are only six months apart. Unfortunately we forgot our camera so I don't have any pictures, but I promise to get some the next time! So to distract you here is a video of Keegan playing with daddy.



He also had his six month checkup and is donig very well. He is over 20 lbs (90th percentile) and is 26.5 inches long (50th percentile). As the doctor commented, he is eating well. We are eating sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas and pears regularly. He seems to like them all and we plan on adding in new things every week or so. He also added a new sound over the past day or two. It is a definite "D" sound. Not quite "Da" but it's getting there. He is either on his way to saying Deoxyribonucleic or Dada. We'll see which he comes up with first.

Aurora is realizing there is food to be had

Who you callin' messy?

Of course I know I have food stuck to my palm. I'm saving it for later.

How strange, this tiger tastes just like my food.

I like dinnertime!

This is the proper way to eat

Not long after Keegan's first tooth came in, the second one followed. The two teeth of note are his bottom front teeth and I have a frame capture that shows the teeth. You may have to blow it up to full size and they are still a little shy, but they are there. The picture was taken a few days ago and they are even more pronounced now.

There are two toofers in there

Daddy and Keegan

His laugh is crazy cute

Smile!

A whale of a tale or tooth...

Not quite yet, but it sure seems that way. He has made so much progress in the past week or two that I don't even know where to begin. He just looks different. He looks taller. He looks a little older, somehow cuter. The infant car seat is going to quickly become a memory. I barely need to tighten it down in order to secure him. It is only a matter of time before we are going to have to buy another new car seat (we finally got one for Suzanne's car a couple weeks ago). He is laughing and talking and making other random sounds. In fact he has started making a sound that is a cross between a raspberry and the letter 's'. We were joking that he must have picked this up at school (at least I thought it was joking). He's been making the sound for maybe a week and a half but 'lo and behold a few days ago I am picking him up from daycare and a little girl is making the exact same sound. I comment to the teacher that he must have picked it up from her and she says, " Yeah, she does that all day." Well slap me silly. I really thought it was just a new sound he was trying out.

Hey, there's something different. Lemme grab that.

The camera (and anything else I get my hands on) goes in my mouth

Nom. Nom. Nom.

Sitting is quickly becoming easy for him. He can stay upright longer and longer every day. I also believe that crawling is just around the corner. There have already been a few times I thought he was going to do it. Not quite there yet but he has managed spinning and also going backwards. Standing and walking are a little ways off. He can hold himself up, but doesn't really seem super interested in trying to walk or stand for long periods. For some reason standing makes him smile and giggle so I still try it out on him.

These still taste pretty good

During one of his feeding sessions this week, Mommy discovered that after about a million gallons of drool (cute, huh?) he finally has cut a tooth! He was chomp, chomp, chomping on the spoon and she heard it. He has actually been pretty good through it all. He gets a little fussier at times and at rare times just wants to be held. No other distraction will do and he is fine in your arms. I can't say I've noticed any other change towards the fussy side. If you look in the picture above where he is trying to eat the camera you can kind of see where his tooth is. It is his bottom left front tooth. He is reaching for absolutely everything within reach and will turn himself into a pretzel to try to grab things if you are holding him. The good part about this is he is also going for his bottle and can hold a little bottle of formula with minimal assistance. He is also reaching for the spoon when eating real food and can actually get a pre-loaded spoon in his mouth. Next is getting him to get the food on the spoon.

Hey! Aren't you supposed to be holding this?

Keegan Unplugged and other stories

Keegan takes a Liking to the Camera

Keegan Takes a Liking to his Fingers

They Call Me "Blue-Eyes"

Keegan Feels How Soft his Gift from Uncle Mark, Aunt Heidi and Co. is

What a week! We started off the week with a visit to Great Grandma Shary's new apartment. This visit happened to coincide with the beginning of what would be a nasty windstorm caused by the remnants of hurricane Ike. While we were there the power went out so we decided to head home lest we get caught in the middle of the wind. There was already some damage and many lights were out so we hurried home dodging things flying across the interstate. We made it okay though Suzanne's door handle was glad to be free of her grip. Our electric was already out, though we do have a gas range (installed a month ago) and a gas water heater. Since it was nice outside we opened our windows and fared pretty well. We cooked up the food we could and when we realized it could be a few days before we got power back took some food to Grandma and Grandpa Shary's for temporary storage. We ended up spending the evening Monday with Grandma Shary and Tuesday with Grandma Boyle and Aunt Krista. Wednesday afternoon our electric was restored and we went back to our routine and started preparing for the open house. I must say that Keegan probably didn't notice any of this. He was still fed at the usual time and got an extra day with Mommy and Daddy on Monday as we both stayed home from work. The only complaint I think he may have had was that he didn't get his carrots and bananas for a couple days.

Mommy and Keegan by Candlelight

As an addition to the rice cereal, we have started adding something new every week or so. Keegan has tried bananas which he seems to tolerate and carrots which I think he really likes (the rice cereal isn't so bad with the carrots, if I'm honest). He is actually opening his mouth when the spoon gets near and is just as good at blocking with his tongue when he is done. This goes for the bottle as well. We used to be able to sneak some in, but now he knows he can prevent that from happening. For the most part he is doing well with the slids and this week we plan on trying pears.
This weekend we had an open house just so people could stop by and see everything we have done to the house. We had a good turnout and Keegan got to see his cousin Peggy again. It is just amazing because they both can tell the other is a baby and they just look at each other and talk to each other and and reach out to each other and it might just be the most amazing thing in the world. They also came the closest to having what you would call a play session (video forthcoming post haste) that they have so far.

Keegan and Peggy Playing! (But distracted by the camera)

We finished the week with an open house to see cousin Nick off to boot camp and Keegan got to see much of his family again. He doesn't mind being passed around and gives smiles to everyone. I hope all our babies end up as easy going as he is!
As a last little note, Keegan is getting very good at sitting up. Literally every day he shows improvement and I don't think it will be long before he adds crawling to his repetoire.

Gramma Boyle and Her Family