Tom and Mary Lou visit, Daycare, and Daddy had an oops.

As Suzanne mentioned in the previous post, Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary Lou came in town this past weekend and visited. We had a great time together and Keegan showed off his smile. We had a good dinner on Thursday and celebrated Krista and Suzanne's birthdays. Then on Friday Tom and Mary Lou came over to our house in the afternoon. We got a good chance to sit down and talk and then walked over to the local church festival for some festival food. Keegan slept for the first little bit despite being in range of music I even thought was too loud (I know, I'm getting old, but we could hear it from our house with the windows closed). He was really good, though and daddy even won him a stuffed lizard. All in all it was a good visit. I would love to post some pictures but I erased all the pictures on my camera, which I found out takes all of 2 seconds. Luckily, Suzanne backed them up a week and a half ago so we didn't lose a whole bunch, but alas, no Tom and Mary Lou photos. I will see if I can get some from other sources.

It is hard to believe that Keegan has been in daycare almost a week now. This seems to be a recurring theme in my posts. In two days he will be officially 3 months old and it is hard to believe. I barely remember him as the little bundle that came home from the hospital and able to do little interaction than crying and looking around. He is now smiling and even laughing at times and can easily make Suzanne and I laugh ourselves. The ladies at daycare say he is doing really well and I think the head teacher, Michelle, has grown quite fond of him. The other teachers say when he gets hungry and starts crying, Michelle snatches him right up to feed him before they can get to him. The hardest thing to get used to is getting up earlier in the morning. I get up to feed him and prepare his bottles for the day before taking him to daycare. I think in the end it will be good for me; it's the kind of thing they say builds character. So far, I am pleased with the daycare. Everyone is really nice and they even have Keegan sleeping in his crib during the day, which we haven't managed to do successfully up to this point.

Well, here are some pictures that didn't get erased and I also added a couple albums to picasa (links on the right!)

HaHa!

Hi. My name is Keegan and I am adorable

Always thinking

One of Daddy's favorite pictures

Daddy and Keegan with a full belly

Happy Mommy and Baby

Mommy's Back at Work

Well, I knew this day would come, but I tried not to think about it...

I am officially back at work full time. I started back last Thursday, and I'm still getting used to it. Grandma Shary watched Keegan Thursday and Friday, and Monday he started at a daycare right down the street from us.

Luckily, Keegan is now steadily sleeping through the night. He still wakes up once a night to be rocked and to have his pacifier, but it's much easier than getting up and spending an hour feeding and burping him. We were very worried about the middle of the night feeding and both getting up for work. And I did pretty good getting up and ready on Thursday and Friday. However, this week has been a different story. My adrenaline rush is no longer there when the alarm goes off. Thank goodness for caffeinated coffee!

But now that I'm back at work, we have less time to take pictures and video... I think we'll try to update the blog at least once a week.

Later this week we will try and get the pictures of Uncle Tom and Aunt MaryLou with Keegan posted. And I'm still working on capturing his roll-over on camera. Although Jeremy and I have both now witnessed the event in person!

More later this week when we have a chance...

Suzanne

What A Week!

Wow! What a week it has been in the Boyle household - especially for Keegan... Most notable, Keegan has begun to roll over from his back to his belly. While no one has seen this in person yet, he started rolling onto his side about two weeks ago, and a couple nights ago, I went in to his room when he started crying to discover that he was on his belly. And we always put his down on his back (because we all know that "Back is Best" :) He has done it a few nights now. In fact, last night he managed to get his chubby little leg in between two rungs of the crib. We've since taken off the bumper pads I'm so proud of just in case he would roll his face into the side of one of them. But I know we'll get to put them back on when he's old enough to move his body if he needs to. I'm hoping to get his rollover on tape during the day, but right now it seems that he only does in when he is tired in the crib and looking for his pacifier with his mouth...

Keegan has also started taking an interest in mirrors. There is a mirror that hangs on the top of his floor playmat, and he will coo and talk to himself if it's at the right angle. And there is just something so innocent about a baby smiling and laughing at his own image...

Although I'd hate to jinx ourselves, we have now gotten two full nights of sleep in a row. Every so often we would get a full night's sleep, but this two in a row is a very good sign. Especially since I'll be back at work on Thursday, and I can't take naps during the day at work :( Everyone cross your fingers that the trend continues (for Mommy and Daddy's sake)...

I'm on the fence about going back to work. While I'm looking forward to the adult interaction and problem solving that I missed while being at home, Keegan is starting to get very aware of his surroundings and the world at large. And I hate to miss these small but important discoveries he's making. But you know what they say: "You gotta do what you gotta do." And right now, I have to go back to work...

I do have some videos to share:



Keegan has begun to really reach for and play with the tinkling animals that hang on his carseat.



And he is really into kicking his legs while he is lying down or sitting on your lap!

~Suzanne

Keegan will be 11 weeks old in a couple of days and I am in constant awe of how quickly he is changing. It seems like he is awake so much more and for the most part he is happy and playful when he is awake. You can see him thinking as he watches various things, whether around the room or a toy in front of his eyes. Mommy discovered that Keegan likes his high chair and the mini play attachment (its way more than just a toy) which plays a good number of songs. It really comes in handy when cooking in the kitchen. He isn't quite playing with toys yet, but you can just see him wanting to reach out. He does manage to hit them every so often, but I'm not quite sure it is on purpose yet.

Last week Keegan had his first long trip. Suzanne and Grandma Shary took Keegan up to see Great Grandma Shary and bring her back for the weekend. According to Suzanne Keegan did very well on his first road trip and slept most of the way, both ways. It just took a little longer due to the feeding stops, but that's quite all right as long as he is quiet on the road.

Keegan also got to meet Aunt Catherine for the first time this weekend while we celebrated Grandpa Shary's birthday and father's day a little early (the fam was in town). Some pictures are below but not as many as I had planned. Blogger is giving me fits tonight. I'll try to post the rest of the pics and some more video of the little chatterbox in the next couple of days.

Keegan sleeps on Grandma Boyle

Keegan sleeps on Great-Grandma Shary

All smiles

Aurora watches over her baby

9 weeks and then some

It's hard to believe, but Keegan turned 9 weeks this past Friday. He also had his 2 month checkup on Friday and got a clean bill of health! He was a very good boy at the doctor's office, especially considering he got 2 shots (vaccines). He had another, but we figured 2 was enough at one time so he'll be back in there in 2 weeks for that. He barely made a peep and a scrunchy face while getting the shots, which I believe is the exact opposite of his father at that age. I was so bad I would cry when we drove past the doctor's office as a kid, even if we weren't going there. I remember being afraid of the scale. Hopefully Keegan's heroics will remain intact throughout the myriad visits we will have to the doc's.

So on to the good stuff. He weighed in at 13lbs 4 oz and measured 23.5in head to monkey toes. He has gotten noticeably heavier and is drinking a consistent 8+ oz of formula at his late evening feeding and actually slept 8 hours on Friday night! We can only hope for some routine out of this since Suzanne is back to work in 3 weeks.

Overall he seems more vocal every day and I've started calling him "smiles" sometimes because he is smiling more and more often (he likes to see his mommy).

I'll try to post more often. I promise! Some pictures from the past couple weeks in no particular order...

Happy Baby

Thoughtful Baby

From the left: Boris, Keegan, me

Sleepy Baby

Smiley Baby

Not-quite-sure Baby

Clean Baby

From the left: House, Aurora, me, Keegan (view the full size pic to see the family)

Happy Baby in Moving Picture Format