18 months

A year and half...wow...where has the time gone. I can not believe I am the mother to a 1 1/2 year old!

***There are 3 very adorable videos on this post - they get me laughing - so if you don't have time to ready it all...just go look at those. They are sure to serve up a smile!

Last Monday (5-19-08) Kegan went in for his 18 month check-up (18 months on May 14). Let's just say he has a great memory. He knew EXACTLY where we were and what usually goes on as soon as we walked into the room, at the doctors office. He cried with the nurse who took his measurements -
weight: 24 lbs.
height: 33 inches (roughly...he was a bit squirmy...to say the least...while she was getting his height)

He stopped crying when the nurse left, but as soon as Dr. Guthrie walked through that door...ooo...the water works and wailing started again. However, I must say, that when the doctor was done doing his check-up and moved to the other side of the room to update Kegan's charts on the computer and talk to me about questions I had, Kegan stopped crying and even offered the doctor a smile and "bye-bye", with a wave when he left. Update from the doctor - Kegan is doing well - 100% boy with all the bumps and scratches he has! We are still keeping him on the inhaler and just keeping an eye on his breathing, till he gets a little older. Otherwise, things are good!

The visit, much to Kegan's fears, was not over. The nurse who gives shots came in next, and up his engine roared again. I decided to dress him first, before the shot - it is not too easy to dress a freshly shot given, distressed, child. Well, Kegan started to calm down while I was dressing him, whimpering just enough and keeping a close eye on the nurse who was waiting in the room while I got him ready - not sure if he still needed to worry or not. Poor guy, after he was dressed and he saw the nurse move closer to him, up started the wailing again...oh...my poor baby. I must say though, as soon as she left the room...he was ok, again. So much drama!

Well, with the 1 1/2 milestone being crossed comes a lot of new tricks.
* A runner - who needs to walk...really...
* A lover - Kegan loves to give kisses - still. This morning, he woke up around 7ish and I went and got him and brought him into our bed to go "wake up" his daddy. He got on the bed, next to Matthew, then leaned over and gave him a kiss, looked at me and said "shhh..." withe his finger over his mouth, kissed Matthew again...repeat this scenario a few time...I was cracking up, which made him go "shhh..." even more. Matthew, was of course, loving it and trying to hold back his own laughter. Seriously though, this is not out of character for Kegan, he loves to give Matthew and I kisses.
* A talker - Words...words...words...some are right on and everyone can understand them and others...well he is consistent in what he says, it just may not sound exactly right.
examples:
Roo and Maggie (our dogs) - woo and nannie
flip flop (yes he can tell the difference between, boot, flip-flop, and other shoes) - fi fa
shoe - shoe
up - uh
train - choo choo
outside - shi shi
water - la la
taost - to
Elmo - Melmo
toot (his daddy taught him to say it, hear it, know what it was, and mimic it...super...) - toot
Karsyn - kar ka (something like that...it is hard to spell it out)
please - peas
Bible - Bible
Josh/Stephani/Josh and Stephani (for all three) - Josssshhhh
My favore...and only said once so far - "wuv ooo" (Last Thursday night Matthew and I were getting Kegan ready for bed and Matthew said " I love you" , to Kegan , and Kegan goes "wuv oo" back to him...ohhh...my heart jumped!)
I know there are more...but I can't keep up with them all. He is also getting more animal sounds and motions down.
* Did I mention a runner???
*A puzzler - We have been working a lot with two of his puzzles (shape puzzles and a puzzle of things that move) and he puts these back together pretty good - barring distractions ( With the things that move puzzle he likes to roll the bus or car on the ground or fly the plane in the air, etc...) - he needs to be refocused a lot, but he can do it!...haha...
*He is climbing more...as you will see in a bit.
* Still LOVES the swing. We can go to the park - lots of new and different things to play on and he still will go right over the the swings.
* When he hears something of interest, or a new sound in the environment, he points to his ear. If he knows what it is he will say the name, or doing the motion (ex: hearing a train - "choo choo" while moving his hand up and down, or if he hears a plane he will point up in the sky and look)
* He feeds himself very well and will wipe his mouth with a napkin or rag if you ask him to.
* How could I forget, the doctor said we should start thinking about potty-training...ok, well I am thinking about it, and to get Kegan thinking about it, I decided to get him a potty chair, so off we headed to Wal-Mart. As I was looking at the wall of training toilets, Kegan starts going crazy saying "Melmo, Melmo, Melmo"...there, right in front of Kegan was an Elmo training potty. He seemed to excited, I splurged the extra $5 and we got Elmo. Kegan, so far, as just looked at the potty, and Elmo and said "Melmo"...and pushed his little hand that makes Elmo talk. Well...we are thinking about it, and certainly not scared of it - that may be as far as we get for a while...we shall see!
* Runner....

Well, that is enough facts and figures for now, lets get to the fun stuff - the life of Kegan, this past week, in pictures!

After the shots on Monday (hence the band-aid on the arm), and a good nap Kegan decided he wanted to go outside. It was a beautiful day, so after an application of sunscreen, out we went to the back yard and played in the water and swung and played some more in the water.

Now, I did bring his sippie cup outside, but I guess that was just not what he wanted. He wanted the outside water.
Attempt #1

Attempt #2 (A little more successful)

Attempt # 3 (Success - the most efficient way to drink the water outside)

Oh, Maggie is thirsty. No fear puppy, Kegan will share.

Hmm...I can't remember if this is the same day, or the next (we were outside a lot this week). I know - the diaper. The child does have clothes...cute ones, but when he goes outside, he gets wet and dirty and this is so much easier. Anyways, since we put up the fence, Kegan loves to pretend he is hammering nails into the fence post. He gets the hard, rubber, dog-bone, will walk up to the fence and start hammering - very seriously...I think it is so cute!

Wednesday, after a nap, and playing around the house, I could not keep him in any longer - he wanted out...and we needed out of the house, so to the back yard we trekked. If you will notice, he was dressed rather adorably - we had lunch with some friends that day and he was going to Grandma's that night, so he was dressed to impress...UNTIL...if there is a little bit of mud...even the smallest amount...in one tiny area of the entire back yard, he will find it...and find it he did!
Using the dogs empty food bowl to play in the little area of mud from water that dripped form the faucet...and yes, by the end of it all, he did have mud on his shirt, hands, shoes, and a little on his face.

Before the mud - a silly face on the swing. Raspberries anyone?

Thursday - he realized he could climb up on the rocking chair in his room all on his own. He now loves to get up there and rock...crazy rock!

A former teacher, turned full time mommy's dream - Kegan LOVES his books. He goes over to his bookshelf constantly, get out books and looks through them. He now can look at books and point to the pictures when questions are asked, will usually turn them right way up if they are upside down, and really familiar books he will look at them and tell me with his little words, actions, motions, sounds, etc... what is going on or what he sees on that page (example: He has a little book about dogs and on one page it talks about them drinking their water (a picture is shown) and now when he looks through that book he makes a sipping sound and brings his hands to his face like he is drinking). I know, part of that is a proud momma bragging, but seriously, I think he is so smart!

Thursday night we went to a chat n' play - out door water fun.
Splashing in the pool with some friends.

Playing in the water hose, crazy squiter, thing... (Aren't the swim trunks cute!?!)

Wow...this ball has water coming out of it!

All wound up Thursday night...seriously. He did not go down till almost 11:00...if not a little later...even then it was with a lot of protesting and crying. He was having a ball playing with his mommy and daddy.

Crazy rocker!

Aaaa-choo...'scuse me..., a little dancing, and a little talking...


Friday - Kegan played around the house most of the day. We did take a trip to the park where, yes, we swung. Matthew did come home briefly and Kegan woke up right as he was leaving, so Matthew took him with him while I ran some errands. Then, that night he stayed with his grandparents, so Matthew and I could have a night out to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. From what I heard they had a LOT of fun.
Back to Friday - I said earlier in the post Kegan was climbing more. Here he is climbing his slide toy. I love this face!

Video footage of little man getting around and up and down.


Tomorrow we leave to go to the Frio with the Setliff's. I can't wait to see Kegan playing around in the water - it will be a total different experience than last year!