Spring 2010

Okay, so the updates here are getting less and less frequent. Maybe it is because we’re out painting the town red. No, that can’t be it. Maybe it is because we’re too busy Facebooking, or because whenever I try to work on an update when Keelie is around, she demands to get between me and the screen and then “requests” to see pictures of certain people.

But here we are… another update. And looking back since our last update, I am reminded what boring lives we lead. That’s a good thing, I suppose. To give you an idea, one of the most exciting things in the past couple months was that the bank contacted us to propose a refi of our mortgage; they covered the closing costs. It made a lot of sense and lowered our payments. See – not much excitement. But there are plenty of cute pictures!

We celebrated the anniversary of our first date - which is close enough to Valentine’s Day that it covers that, too – by going to Pasadena. We spent time with Grampa Pellman and Grandma Kathleen.

Keelie is at an age where she really enjoys climbing around on stuff in a park. She also requests to see various family members.

Keelie surveys the park, plotting her domination…

Kyle takes a more relaxed approach…

“These aren’t the droids you are looking for.”

From there, we went over to my mother’s. Kori and I escaped to have dinner at Gus’s BBQ in my home town, South Pasadena. Even though I’d been by the place thousands of times over the years, I’d never been there. I think my parents might have gone there eons ago and weren’t impressed. However, I’d read that the place had been completely overhauled. Sure enough, the place was doing a lot of business, but they still managed to give us a booth table (meaning a table for four) so that we could sit next to each other on our anniversary. I enjoyed the meal - and especially the company, of course.

I don’t think we’ve been on a date since. Can’t imagine why…

Oh… right.

Keelie was inspired by the Winter Olympics. No kidding…

However, I’m not sure what this arrangement is about…

Perhaps she is taking care of her doll the way Mommie takes care of Kyle?

Most indoor pictures we get of Keelie these days have her squinting, because she knows when the flash is coming. But we did manage to snap this one…

But, of course, she usually has food on her face and resists us when we try to wipe it off. Kyle, unlike his sister when she was his age, is a drooler, so he always has a bib.

Naptime…

Keelie’s godparents, “Oma” and “Opa”, spent some time with us Easter weekend. They live next door to Puma & Granddaddy, so we spent some time in the park across the street with them before dropping in on the Keel house.

They gave Keelie a stuffed bunny, and she was convinced it was THE Easter Bunny. She even tried to feed it the carrot we left out for the Easter Bunny. We had to explain to her that it was a doll of the Easter Bunny, like she has dolls of Mickey Mouse, Minnie, etc.

Mommie and Kyle share a moment when he’s awake…

And here is Daddy and Kyle sharing a moment while Kyle naps…

If only Kyle would stay asleep like that through the night. He’s done it once or twice in his life, so we know he can. He’s no dummy… he works it so as to get the most interaction with Mommie throughout the night.

He’s got the Pellman eyes, to be sure. The lids hide under another flap of skin.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for…

NUDITY!

Yeah, we finally got the bathtub fixed. We’d been using our shower all of the time for the kids, as the bath wasn’t getting hot water. But a couple of days of professional work and $$$$ changed that. Exciting stuff, huh?

Thanks for stopping by and looking over our annoyingly “proud parent” pictures. Leave a comment here or e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com and let us know how you are doing.

Keelie is Seven Months Old

Keelie is seven months old, and Kori also celebrated a birthday. Wow, how time flies. I still want to write 2007 when writing the date.

I finally managed to catch Keelie gumming her toes on camera.

Not wanting to be rude, she offered me her toes, too.

Who can resist?

It has been a couple of weeks since out last blog update. In that time, Kori turned...an age older than seven months. Yes, another birthday has come and gone. We celebrated by getting sick with something that has been going around.

Actually, first we had a blast celebrating Steve’s birthday late at Puma & Granddaddy’s where Kendra threw him a party. Puma had to leave for work, so she only got to hold Keelie for a bit. Granddaddy, though, was at the party and helped put the karaoke machine to good use. There was a good turnout and more than enough good food. People took turns holding Keelie.

Several days later, the celebrations for Kori’s birthday began. First there was the dinner at Claim Jumper – just the three of us. Then another day, our dear friend Dale got our good friends Dave & Jenn into Disneyland Park so that we could treat them to dinner. It was our graduation present to Dave. We also took some rides, including Keelie’s first trip on Pirates of the Caribbean. Here she is being our lookout on the Buzz Lightyear attraction.

See how she cleverly pretended to be asleep on my arm? That child is a military genius!




Then came Kori’s birthday dinner at Puma & Granddaddy’s. We had a birthday dinner again the next night at Nanny’s.

Here's Keelie being a lookout again.

Finally, last night we had a specially prepared dinner with Grampa and Grandma, prepared by Grampa, to jointly celebrate Kori and Kathleen’s birthdays. You can see Grampa still working away on dinner in this shot.

Keelie really likes gumming fingers.

In this shot, Keelie forgets to not smile when the camera takes her picture.

Grampa and pink tissue paper is all that is needed to entertain Keelie, but Grampa used a stuffed animal anyway.

We finally had the cable company install their recorder, and we’ve instantly become addicted to it. It will help us keep up with the new seasons of American Idol and The Apprentice, and of course it is handy to pause those political ads on the ballot propositions so we can see that they are sponsored by "a coalition of people who sponsor ads for some ballot propositions and against other propositions and the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things."

Keelie still likes watching football. Too bad the season is almost over. She also really likes to stand up, using our hands for balance rather than support. However, we're still trying to get her to crawl properly instead of rolling and using other work-arounds to bring what she wants closer to her.

Not much else to say, because we’ve been taking it easy to recover. Thanks for stopping by again and let us know how and what you are doing. You can comment here or write us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [com].

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year!

We hope you and your loved ones are doing well. Thanks for stopping by.

The holidays were nice, but busy. Keelie has a lot of adoring family nearby, and everyone wanted to see her.

All three of us, plus the dog, spent a night at my mother’s place so that Kori and Keelie could be there all day on Christmas Eve while I went in to the office. That way, I didn't have to drive home after work and double back with the ladies to my mother's.

When I returned to my mother's place on Christmas Eve, we enjoyed Mexican food for dinner and exchanged gifts. My little sister was working, but my brother, other sister, brother-in-law, and nephews were all there in addition to Nanny.

Christmas Day was a long day. We were late getting over to Puma & Granddaddy’s for the morning session (yummy food), and thus we were late in getting up to Grampa & Grandma’s for their brunch (more yummy food).

Here's Keelie with her Grampa Pellman...

And here she is with Grandma...

The usual gang of Kathleen's family was there. It was nice to see everyone again.

In the evening, it was all the way back to Puma & Granddaddy’s, where everyone had reconvened – Kendra & Steve, Troy, Toby, Kirby, and more. We had dinner (more yummy). Keelie was exhausted and I took her into a different room while everyone exchanged gifts, so she could nap in my arms. What a feeling that is.

I was supposed to be back at work the next day, but ended up needing to recover, so I took the 26th off.

We were back at Puma & Ganddaddy’s again Thursday night to celebrate Steve’s birthday.

Friday night, we joined up with our friend Tony and the gang for dinner out and then some Christmas cheer back at his place. Everyone took turns playing with Keelie, who loves flirting with the guys. We didn’t stay too late, of course. It was a nice time and it is always nice to see everyone who makes it there. For the first time in years, we missed Dave & Jason's annual Crappy Gift Exchange, because I mistakenly thought it was on Saturday, despite Dave's mastery of EVites. Keelie would have had a blast there.

Here's Keelie taking a break from the flirting...

The next day, we were hosted in a very lovely home of a fellow LaughingPlace.com contributor and his family for a lunch along with Dave M and Doobie & Rebekah, who were in town from Florida. It was great to see them again! I liked it when they lived nearby. So many of you have left us here in SoCal!!!

This update is like a really easy game of Where's Waldo?, only with Keelie.

Doobie was getting some good practice.

Sunday brought another dinner at Puma & Granddaddy’s.

Our friends Craig & Kristen and their daughters had us over for a while on New Years Eve to have dinner and exchange some gifts. Their 2007 baby is walking! And she was very affectionate towards Keelie.

Craig is holding the walking, hugging, "older" girl of 2007, and Kristen is holding... take a guess...

For the turn of the year, though, we were home and taking it easy. We also took it easy on New Years Day. Keelie and I had a lot of good bonding time.

Keelie is almost crawling (she rolls instead of crawls) and very clever. She seems to understand that just because something is out of sight doesn't mean it went away. Also, she figured out that it is easier to pull a blanket closer to her to get something on it than it is to crawl. It is a little scary. She responds to her name and gives kisses. Since she hasn’t mastered crawling, her cheeks often get rosy from friction as she climbs around and as she propels herself with her legs. When she gets tired of me and starts to fuss, her absolute favorite thing is for Kori to take her off of my hands so that as she sits on her Mommie's hip, she can look down at me where I'm sitting and smile.

Keelie is trying different foods. She loves oatmeal.

Kori snapped a bunch of pictures yesterday when Keelie wrapped herself up into a Keelie burrito...

Thanks for coming by again. You can comment here or you can e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Let us know how you are!

Eight Weeks Plus

Okay, it has been a little long since our last family update – almost two weeks. So we have a lot of baby pictures to show you.

Like her father, Keelie was born with a lot of hair. It is usually the first thing people notice about her. It’s thick and getting longer, of course.

She still hates taking a bath. Hmph. She’ll never become an Olympic Gold Medalist in Swimming if that keeps up. She does, however, love being in this bouncer, which vibrates.

Changing her diaper is no longer guaranteed to make her scream and kick. Quite often, she will quietly look around and cooperate. Kori pointed out that it could be because she is usually fed right after a changing, and she definitely likes being fed!

She usually has a quieter overnight schedule, but there are nights where she’ll want to eat more often.

Kori stays busy taking care of Keelie around the clock.

Last Friday, our friends True and Erick came over to meet Keelie, and they brought sandwiches - bless them!

Keelie had a busy day on Sunday, as we dropped in on her Nanny, Aunt Binky, and Uncle Chris, then went to see my dad, his wife Kathleen, her niece Tammy, Tammy’s husband Jeff, and Jeff’s daughter Marissa.

Here she is with her Aunt Binky, who is telling everyone that Keelie is #1.

Keelie turns away from the cell phone camera as Nanny holds her. Notice that gate, which holds back Nanny’s meddlesome dog.

Keelie is with her Uncle Chris, but someone else wants to hold her, too.

Grandma Kathleen posing with Keelie.

Here she is with Grampa Pellman. Notice the view. In the background, there’s also a table with a mosaic that they made.

My dad and Kathleen love to try new recipes, and they did so with a fish Jeff caught. The original plan was to eat outside, but flies started swarming the table area, which I hadn’t seen there before. We moved inside, where the flies followed us. The food was great. That could have been why there were so many flies.

I was able to snap this picture of the two ladies enjoying a nap.

Monday, Keelie’s Aunt Kendra came over.

Tuesday, Keelie reached 8 weeks! I like the pictures her mother takes.

I told you she likes this thing.

Keelie and I taking it easy last night. I try to take Keelie completely off of Kori’s hands for at least an hour each day.

Here she is early today. Adorable!

Tonight, we were able to get out to see the “Friday night gang” we were hanging out with many of the weeks leading up to the birth. It was the first time we’ve seen them since Keelie was born.

Stacia was kind enough to snap this picture while we were all out eating Chinese food. We don’t have a lot of pictures of the three of us, and this is a nice one, even if it just shows Keelie’s hair.

Pam with Kori and Keelie.
\

Keelie started to get fussy, but we just had to snap this picture of her with Tony before we bailed out early and came home.

Keelie is getting bigger and thicker. Yay!

Thanks for stopping by. You can always write us - KEPellman[at[yahoo[dot]com.