Birthdays, an Anniversary, and Indy... Oh My!

Thanks to another new camera that Kori got for Mother’s Day (this being a “real” camera), we’ll have some better quality pictures to post here. Remember - you can click on the pictures to see bigger versions.


Puma is reluctant to let Keelie go.

Keelie is over 11 months old now and is getting smarter by the day. Since I was still days away from turning five when my youngest sibling was born, I didn’t remember how fast kids grow and develop new skills. Wow! She’s learning new climbing techniques; she has learned to point to things that are out of her reach, which is effective – as long as it is something we want to give to her. She's also started doing the sign for "more" when I'm feeding her, and developed a habit of sticking her fingers far enough back in her throat to gag herself (girls learn so early, don't they?).

My two ladies!

Keelie has figured out how to get around the gate we use to keep her in the living room. When Keelie does manage to get around the gate and I pick her up, she is okay until I take her back across the gate, thus thwarting her progress. Then she'll let me know she isn't happy. Her sulk mode includes sitting on the floor with her legs apart, leaning forward so that her face is nearly on the floor, and crying. She seems to be able to do simple counting, too.

One of the best feelings in the world!

She likes it when I'm home when she wakes up for the day, and she knows based on Kori's routine whether or not I am home and in the other room when they wake up.

There she is, no doubt plotting a way around that gate.

We bought some new clothes for Keelie since she's finally outgrowing most of the clothes she received as gifts. While we were in the store, we picked up a toy she likes because of the music, sounds, and lights. Stuff that lights up – like cell phones or buttons on a remote – capture her attention.

I wish they could stay this peaceful.


Adorable!

Who knows what she is plotting here? Look at her tummy peeking through.

Since our last photo update, we celebrated a belated Mother’s Day at Puma & Granddaddy’s, and we went to Nanny’s place to jointly mark my birthday and my brother’s. I spent a little time in the pool. Keelie didn't mind the water. She wasn't thrilled about it... probably didn't know what to think about it.

There she is with her Aunt Binky.

I took a couple of days off from work for my birthday/our engagement anniversary and so we could see a midnight screening of the Indiana Jones film with the usual suspects at the Big Newport in Newport Beach, as I wrote elsehwhere.

Oh, the places we go!

I like this shot below because Keelie is laughing, she's playing with her new toy, and the dog is in the frame, too. Me? I needed to shave.

Thanks for stopping by. Let us know how you are doing. You can submit a comment to this blog or write us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Thanks!

Happy Mother's Day

It's Kori and Keelie's first Mother's Day since the umbilical cord was cut. Woo-hoo! Kori has been such a great mother to Keelie. She takes to it like a duck to water, or like a nerd to Apple products.

We've been keeping things simple around here. Hopefully, we'll be looking for a house before too long. If the prices continue to go lower, perhaps there will be someplace around here under the seven figure mark.

Now for a round of the game "Where's Keelie?"

Keelie has become very familiar and comfortable with the family room, and can navigate around it quite well. If we don't put the gate up, she'll make a beeline for kitchen. If we get the gate up before she make it there, she let's us know how disappointed she is in our protectionist ways. She's at the point where walking is becoming preferable to crawling, but if she elects to crawl, off she'll go! She also climbs into her little rocker, though she' s more apt to slide and wiggle off of furniture, or out of someone's grasp.

Shelby and Keelie seem to have arrived at a new level in their interaction. Shelby is still not always happy with Keelie, but is more open to playing with her. That's probably because Keelie slips so much of her food to her.

Below we can see Keelie inviting Shelby to join her in waiting for me to come home.


"Nope, that's not Daddy. He's coming. Mommie says so."

"There's Daddy!"

I like how both Keelie and Shelby express excitement at my return. The topper, though, is getting the welcome home from Kori!

We like these pictures below, because if Keelie ever wanders away, we'll have good "mug shots" of her.

"Look to this side, Keelie."

"Okay, now look to this side."

She's our little blue-eyed cutie.

I wanted to slip in some more photos of Keelie and Shelby waiting for me on a different day. Can you blame me?

"Hey, Daddy's almost here."

"Open...open....open..."

We decided to go to see my mother a day early and spend some time with her, Kim, and Kim's family. Here Auntie Kim is helping as Keelie learns "Patty Cake".

Keelie loves to play with lids. She'll bang two together to make noises. She's got rhythm.

Here's a short video clip of her playing in Nanny's kitchen.

Thanks for stopping by. You can leave a comment here, or e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Let us know how you are doing.

Keelie Feeds Shelby

Okay, here's the short clip of Keelie feeding Shelby.

Almost to Three Months

We bid all of our Jewish friends a peaceful new year.

It has almost been a couple of weeks since our last update. My apologies to all of you who crave the pictures of Keelie.

Keelie is nearing the 3 month mark. Wow. Our lives are so different from three months ago. Yeah, we knew to expect that, but living it is another story, as I’ve said over and over again.

"Get my good side!"

Keelie almost always sleeps well through the night, except her Mommie will wake her up to change her, feed her, and pump, which in turn wakes up Daddy. Shelby will usually leave the room during the pumping - it must be a noise the machine emits. Kori will try to let me sleep if I have work in the morning. I try to give Kori some time alone each day, since she takes care of Keelie around the clock otherwise, and that gives me bonding time with Keelie.

Diaper changes almost never prompt Keelie to cry anymore, although she may be crying for other reasons, such as being hungry since she just woke up. She is pretty good at "anointing" her clothes with one of the two substances that escape from that end. I think she does it on purpose because she likes trying on different outfits.

I joke that she has RBS – Restless Baby Syndrome – because she will often insist that Mommie keep walking around as she holds her. Stopping causes Keelie to fuss. Plus, she is constantly moving around while she is awake. Sitting still is not part of the program. We should have known to expect this, given how much she moved around during the pregnancy. A very active baby, indeed.

Here she is practicing cheers. "Go LSU!"

I’ve been keeping busy with work, even working extra hours. Modern communications mean I can be working wherever I am.

Recently, Keelie’s Puma and Granddaddy Keel made a visit to see her and take some pictures, and we visited them and had dinner at the Keel household -bless them! Both evenings were made possible by Pam’s shift being changed to stand-by.

We’ve also been taking Keelie to church, but not for main services yet – just the group meetings.

This is Keelie at 12 weeks.

Our friends Bill & Paula recently had friends over for a BBQ, and so we went to savor the conversation and the yummy food – bless them! They insisted that everyone travel there lightly by not bringing anything to serve.

Yesterday, we took Shelby to get a long overdue professional grooming. I’m sure she’s just thrilled we waited until the end of summer to remove her heavy coat and leave her almost naked. We also took the opportunity to run some errands, including stopping by the Wonder/Hostess outlet on Orangethorpe. We love the place and we were bummed to hear the recent news that seemed to make it clear that Wonder and all related bakeries/stores would be leaving the area. But we were happy to see the notices up that this place was remaining open and would still carry Wonder products. Yay! The cashier on duty hadn’t seen Kori since the birth, so she came over to us and asked how it all went down.

Here's the nearly naked Shelby.

In the evening, we stuffed ourselves at the monthly get-together at Hometown Buffet that we seem to make every third month or so.

We haven’t really done a lot of exciting stuff lately. We’ve been even more hermit-like than we used to be, because we’re taking it easy, focusing on Keelie and spending time together to help each other with that, and avoiding the hassles of going places with a baby. It makes us unavailable for a lot, but it’s the way things have to be for now. When we do go out, we always hear 1) how adorable Keelie is, and 2) how in-shape Kori is so soon after giving birth. She really did snap right back into shape. Hmmmm, maybe I should give birth.

Thanks for reading. We always appreciate hearing from you. You can leave a comment here, or you can write us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com.

No Screaming During the Bath, But Then Came the Shots

Last Sunday, Keelie hit the two month mark.

This week was the first time we were able to give Keelie a bath without her screaming her head off. Progress! I’m also enjoying the “Daddy & Keelie” time I get with her after working.

Changes have been afoot while we have been recuperating at home. We really enjoyed our friends from church that would meet as a group called Homecoming. The situation settled into six regular couples, three of us having young kids, and we’d meet weekly in homes. However, the group decided to go in a new direction and was basically absorbed into a larger group that meets on the church campus. One of the Homecoming families is about to move “permanently” to Africa, and they are expecting their second child. We're going to miss them.

Here's Keelie sleeping hard in a "nest" of pillows, Kori couldn't resist taking a picture!

Kori took these shots below when she noticed Keelie rising up off me during Daddy & Keelie time. Shelby couldn’t resist getting into the shots.

A kiss from Shelby?

"More pictures, Mommie?"

"Daddy, why does Mommie take so many pictures?"

Here’s Keelie reaching nine weeks of age on Tuesday, and raising her arms in victory.

Kori, Keelie, and I checked in with the lactation consultants again. Well, I didn’t need to be there, but I was. Things are looking good. Kori is doing a very good job and is producing a lot.

Yesterday, Keelie went to the doctor again so she could get her first shots. Four times, she had to endure needles being stuck into her thighs. Even though it was done as quickly as possible, Keelie was not happy about it. However, she’s doing well at gaining weight and getting longer. For her age, she’s at the 20th percentile for weight (as she was at birth), and 50th percentile for height. For hair, she’s off the charts. And she seemed to be in a good mood for most of the rest of the day. She was probably hoping that she could avoid more shots that way!

Kori ventured out for the first time without Keelie. She ran some errands while I stayed home and had some Daddy & Keelie time. Kori was happy to be fitting back into her “ultra-skinny” jeans. But then, she was looking like her pre-pregnancy self very soon after giving birth.

As you can see below, we’ve started to try out putting things in Keelie’s hair. You know - to get people to notice it. They seem not to see it, otherwise.

For dinner, we met up with Bob and Julie at the PCH Grill, located inside the Paradise Pier Hotel at the Disneyland Resort. They brought a present for Keelie - so nice! We hadn’t seen them in the longest time. The PCH Grill is where Kori and I ate on our first date, and look what happened to us! (Of course, we did go into Disneyland Park, too, on that date).

Finally, I’ll end this post with a picture of a gift that arrived this week for Keelie, sent by Adam, whom I consider a professional and creative mentor (even though he was never a PIO for a County of Los Angeles Department).

Meet Moxy. Now that’s a “stuffed animal”. Thank you, Adam.

As always, you can e-mail us at KEPellman at Yahoo dot com. A note to our less tech-savvy friends and family: By clicking on most of these pictures, you will see a larger version of the same picture.

Keelie is Five Weeks Old

We continue to get acquainted with our little bundle of joy, who hit five weeks old today. Keelie often tries to stick her fist in her mouth to suck on, but her arms don’t cooperate for long and she gets frustrated when her hands move away from her mouth.

This is Keelie at exaclty four weeks old.


Keelie likes being the the snuggly, as long as Kori keeps moving around. While she is still fussing and crying most of the time she is awake and not eating, there are some moments now when she will quietly look around. We also received our first order of Gripewater. That seems to help Keelie to sleep most of the night, waking up only for feedings. She’s surprisingly strong with her grasping, pushing, and kicking.

When I can, I will take Keelie into another room when she is full-but-fussy, and Kori needs sleep. If I recline with Keelie on my chest, she will lift her head and maneuver around – the precursor to crawling. The best is when she simply rests her head against my chest and falls asleep.

She still doesn’t like pacifiers most of the time, but there is a different one we’ve tried that she will accept on some occasions. She still prefers one of Mommie’s fingers or Daddy’s pinky knuckle, as you see above.

We went to Pasadena on Friday so I could have my typical doctor visit and we could take Keelie to see her Nanny, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The scale, surprisingly, said I’d lost two pounds since my visit to the doctor four months ago. Woo-hoo! I celebrated with a combo burrito, chili cheese fries, and a chocolate shake from Hi-Life Burgers. Just kidding. We went to Nanny’s and ate by her pool.

Below you can see a rare moment where the pacifier is working for Keelie.

Saturday, we went to get a professional picture of Keelie and she was her usual fussy self. They did manage to get an okay photo of her where you can't tell she is crying. It took a long time, though.

From there, we went to a Mongolian BBQ place that Craig & Kristen like (we like it too) so we could meet up with them and their two girls and introduce them all to Keelie. Craig & Kristen picked up the check – bless them!

There's that pacifier again.

There’s not much else to report these days. We’re tired and spending most of our time at home. Although I enjoy my job, I miss my ladies terribly when I am in the office.

Alison (Kori's half sister) & Steve sent this great contraption pictured below. I put it together. I made the plastic and painted it and everything. Okay, not really. Like I said... they sent it to us and it was easy to assemble. It enthralled Keelie for fifteen minutes straight, which is hard to do.

Yes, Shelby is still handling things well. She has accepted Keelie as part of the family all along, even though she is confused as to why we get on her case for barking even as Keelie wails away.

Here is a picture I took of Mommie and baby earlier tonight, after Keelie passed her five-week birthday! As you can see, the excitement wore her out.

I've made another heartfelt comment on fatherhood over at the other blog right here.