2 Weeks of Rapid Development...and rapidly going...

Well, the word rapid really does describe Kegan's pace in life now. The last week and 1/2 we have been BUSY GOING places and Kegan and been busy crawling...getting better and better EVERY DAY and FASTER...yeah...I think! Ha! Kegan is definitely getting crawling down. Pretty much now - if he sees something he can go and get it...this includes cords...any kind of cord. Needless to say I have tried to hide a lot of them (all sockets have been covered up for quite a while) and I have become a good a good sprinter. It really is a lot of fun to have him crawling...to see what his eyes have been investigating the past 9 months and now he can finally go and see it close up.
Kegan is getting curious about the world around him and noticing things he has never taken interest in before. An example: the light switches. Just yesterday I walked about the light switch and turned off the light. The next thing I new a little hand flew up in front of me and was trying to push the switch up and down. He loves to stop and try them out, now, every time we pass one.
New things he has learned to do, besides improving his crawl: Pull up on things to stand (We are going to have to lower his crib, again, because he likes to protest his nap by pulling up in his crib and standing...it will be lowered tonight.), claps to music (He now claps with open palms and not his fists. Kegan will also now start clapping is you sing "If You're Happy and You Know It..." and "Patty Cake" - so cool!), and he sort-of has fed himself with a spoon (Yesterday while I was taking the food to his mouth he reached up to take the spoon in my hand so I let him help me take the food to his mouth, then I just let him have the spoon. He actually kept putting it back in his mouth, so I helped him rake up some green beans and he would take the spoon into his mouth. Granted this was all right before he started using the spoon as a drumstick, but I was still proud. He repeated these skills today...so I think it is a skill that will stick around.).
Oh yes - he is about to get 2 more teeth. This process seemed to start at the middle of last week with very swollen gums, then at the beginning of this week his gums started to open where the teeth would be, so we should soon see some teeth poking out.

Ok - on to pictures and a review of the past few weeks. Last Monday, Aug. 20th, Kegan got to go for his first cotton picker ride. He was, once again, fascinated with everything going on and stayed very content and happy for a long time. Below is a picture of Matthew and Kegan up on a module builder. There is a piece on top that goes up and down, and back and forth to compress the cotton and Kegan LOVED watching it move around. He stared and stared whenever we were close to it.

Daddy and Kegan standing on the picker - so tall!

Ok, Kegan is ready to drive!

"See Dad, I can work the orange lever with lots of buttons!!!" (Kegan was so excited about the buttons he saw - too bad none were for him to push.)

"I could help you drive, dad."

"Or, I could just drive it by myself!" (Doesn't he really look like he is concentrating?)

"Second thought, I think I will just sit here and look out this BIG window!"
(This is what kept him entertained the longest. He enjoyed looking at the cotton and all the moving parts to the machine, right below him.)

Mathew and Kegan sitting down in the cotton. It was a VERY hot day out there. Thank goodness for air conditioned tractors!!!

Before I start telling about our travels, I wanted to play this video of Kegan's car song. He has been singing this tune in the car, for the past few weeks, right as he drifts off to sleep...only in the car though, not at the house.

Tuesday morning Kegan and I drove up to go see his Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Kyle. It was so great to see them and I could tell they really enjoyed being about to see Kegan...even though he did spit up, multiple times, on their new carpet. Thank goodness Uncle Kyle was quick with the cleaner! We had a great time with them. I do believe Aunt Lindsay spoiled him though - she loved to hold Kegan whenever she could, and he gladly let her, when he was not showing off his new crawling skills! Uncle Kyle even got in on the action - I forgot to get Kegan's bumpo to feed him in, so Kyle held Kegan while I fed him his dinner - so sweet! The next morning we had to head out, to come home and repack for the next day. We had a great time with them - too short - but nice visit...and I wish I had pictures to show, but did I remember to get out my camera...no....

Thursday, we headed up to Pasadena to spend some time with my Meme and Poppa before heading to Houston for Karsyn's birthday. My meme is just getting over surgery and I think Kegan was the best medicine and therapy for her and the best pick-me-up for my Poppa who has had to be "nurse" while Meme recuperates. It is wonderful to get to see him interact with them - such a blessing!

Kegan had been smothering Meme with lots of "kisses" when I snapped this.

Kegan and and Poppa are chatting about something.

Here is a short clip of Kegan crawling for Meme and Poppa, at their house.

Friday afternoon Kegan and I headed over to Aunt Wendy, Uncle Nolan, and Karsyn's new house. Kegan and Karsyn were so excited to see each other. They just talked and squealed back and forth- Wendy and I were laughing. It really seemed like they were having a conversation about something. Below is a picture of them continuing to talk and laugh about whatever they were saying.

After eating we headed to the play room while we waited for Grams to arrive. Here Kegan is crawling RIGHT UP TO his momma!

Cousins playing together. This toys has some buttons that you can push to play different music and they were really enjoying that feature. Karsyn was even dancing some!

Grams made it so Both kids had to share her lap while they played the maracas. I think I am going to have to get Kegan a set of these. He loved them!

Playing at the play center, again. Look at how he is standing! Grams is not holding him...he is doing it all himself.

Here is a cute picture of them playing in the bath. I know, neither of them will be very happy with this when they are about 12...but it is cute now!

Saturday morning bottle times two!

After their bottles we packed up the cars and headed over to Debbie Rutherford's house for Karsyn's birthday. (Since Wendy and Nolan moved they did not have a house, per say, that was party ready so Mrs. Rutherford offered her house for the party.) It was a swim party, so Kegan of course thoroughly enjoyed himself!

Below is a picture of Kegan, with my Aunt Betsy, playing with some balloons. He is still so fascinated with them.

The birthday girl enjoying her YUMMY cake. Happy Birthday Karsyn!

The birthday girl and her guest (minus 2 infants). Do you notice something in this picture? Kegan is EXTREMELY out numbered!

We had such a great extended weekend getting to celebrate Karsyn's 1st birthday with her and getting to see some of our family!

Sunday evening we headed home and went straight to visit dad in the fields. Kegan was SO excited when he saw Matthew. He started smiling and squealing - too cute!
Back up for a ride in the picker.

After spending some time with Matthew, we headed home to unpack and sleep! It was a great week, but it wore us out!

Monday, (the last day I took pictures this week - till I took the time to save all my pictures and clear my memory card today) we did have some interesting excitement - an impromptu field trip. We were at the park with some other mommys and babies when a fire truck came rolling up. (It was there because someone had called in 911 when they saw a drunk man sleeping in the park - hmmm...not such good news. Anyways, they got the man to leave.) After they had handled the problem they let all the kids look around at the fire truck and take pictures in it. This is one picture a friend of mine snapped for me. SOOO CUTE!!!

As I stated at the beginning of this entry...things have not slowed down this week and Kegan has quickly discovered new talents and new things to discover. I will try to get an updated video of him crawling and clapping to his songs, a little later.