Time Marches On...Into March

That was Keelie at seven months. Yes, she keeps getting more and more adorable.

These updates are getting less frequent, but time is short as a parent… as you other parents know… but will never tell your kids until they’ve already made grandparents out of you.

We all battled some bug that was going around, the strongest symptom of which was a lingering cough. I dealt with it the longest. It finally seems to be almost completely gone. Long after getting over it herself, Keelie decided to go on a weeklong strike against solid food. Kori prepares such great stuff, and Shelby is always eager to have some hit the floor. But for some reason, Keelie took about a week off from her normally enthusiastic eating sessions. Still, the doctor said she is really good at putting on weight. Those would be my genes at work. But it is a mystery to me how a creature who will readily stick anything she finds anywhere into her mouth, will be so determined to not allow a spoonful of food in.

Here's the little darling somehow finding this a comfortable napping position.

Keelie likes to say “ma ma ma ma ma” and “da da da da da”, which is exiciting, until she goes on to say “bah bah bah bah bah”. She does seem to have picked up the ASL sign for “milk”.

She has this preference for non-toy toys, such as a round, red lid to a jelly bean jar, plastic bottles, phones, eyeglasses, and remote controllers. Junk mail and paper napkins are especially entertaining.

Keelie still avoids taking long naps, but she has taken one or two now over 90 minutes.

Thanks to modern communications, Kori continues to be able to stay in contact with (mostly) first-time mothers across the country with children about Keelie’s age. It started when they were pregnant, and it was organized around the month their babies were due. Some of them, of course, are pregnant again. It is helpful to be able to compare notes and I’m glad Kori has that interaction.

Since Keelie sailed past the 8-month mark, we have finally arrived at the point of returning some of the baby stuff we borrowed. Thanks again, Carla & Steve! One of the things we returned to them was the swing Keelie is using in this shot to help her stand up.

It’s at the point where we need to strap Keelie down now to change her diaper, since she has become so good at turning over, sitting up, crawling, and standing up by grabbing something. I’ll get her diaper off, and then off she goes, reluctant to be clad in a fresh one. We finally got her a playpen, so we wouldn’t have to hover over her like penguins sitting on eggs when she is on the floor. She’ll stand up using the edge of the playpen, then “ring” the playpen over and over by walking sideways while holding on to the top of the playpen.

I think she's looking for weaknesses... just like a velociraptor.

As usual, we have enjoyed visits to Nanny’s and to Puma & Granddaddy’s during the time since our last update. During one trip to Nanny’s, we finally went back to Burger Continental. I don’t think we’d been back there since we took Nanny there to tell her Keelie was on the way.

Due to how retirement pay is calculated, February is always retirement season for the County of Los Angeles. This past Thursday, we joined Grampa Pellman and True and Marina at Don’s retirement party. Don was the Director of Public Works, where True, Marina, and I used to work. The party took place where Kori and I had our wedding reception, and it was packed! We took Keelie along so she could meet some people with whom I used to work. It was all a bit overwhelming for her, I think, but clearly good that her Grampa was there.

Thanks for stopping by. Comments are welcome, either here or via e-mail at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Please let us know how you are doing, especially if you don’t have your own blog for us to read to keep track of ya.