December Descends

Kyle’s first Thanksgiving Day is behind us. Keelie is appreciating the Christmas season more this year, being two-and-a-half. Our fifth wedding anniversary is approaching. On top of all of that, we’ve all been under the weather at some time over the last several weeks, with Kori and Kyle still dealing with that as I type. So this update is pretty much going to be all about the pictures. I’m thankful life isn’t more interesting for us right now.

I’ve included a few pictures like the one below, to demonstrate Kyle’s second-favorite place to be.

Having his left cheek on Kori’s left shoulder is where he wants to be…

…when he’s not nursing, anyway. But we’re not posting pictures of that. Notice the roll of paper in the above shot… it is standing in as facial tissue.

Keelie loves her books. Now that her baby brother has been around and out of the womb for three months, she’s caught on to the fact that he’s not going away, and sometimes she gets jealous of the attention he gets. But she does frequently offer him kisses anyway.

There he is again!

And below, he’s next to Cousin Lainey.

And it is back to his second-favorite spot…

Here’s Cousin Lainey being a flirt, as she and Kyle are held by their scruffy fathers…

Kyle with Nanny…

We were able to have a Thanksgiving meal with Kori’s side of the family a couple of nights early, where Keelie had a lot of fun with her aunts and uncles, as she typically does. Then on Thanksgiving Day we went to my old apartment in SoPas where Vicky and her latest roommate (and longtime friend) hosted my side of the family, among others.

We were able to eat outside, after sundown. That’s SoCal for ya.

As you can see, Keelie couldn’t wait to clean up.

Kyle got fussy at one point, despite being the arms of Nanny and Aunt Vicki. But when Uncle Chris took him, Kyle calmed down and was docile for quite a while.

So we call Chris the Baby Whisperer.

Vicki got her turn to hold Kyle…

Keelie is very fond of her Uncle Mike. Here she is playing with him, seeing who can blow the biggest bubblegum bubble…

..

Notice Mike’s shorts and flip-flops, all you who are about to be snowed in.

Planning some mischief…

Playing with Cousin Macon…

More with Uncle Mike…

And who knows what Kyle is plotting from his portable throne?

The kids have been keeping us busy. We live close enough to Disneyland that I’m able to take Keelie there from time to time after returning from work, like we recently did to view the holiday edition of the fireworks.

A lot of annual events are coming up, and we hope to make most of them. Maybe we’ll see you at one?

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

Sleep is a Luxury

We’re ten weeks along with Kyle. I look forward to when he’ll be sleeping through the night. I’m so glad Kori takes care of him most of the time - and so is he! Let’s see… where did we leave off? Oh yes. With something like this…

Notice the reddish tone to his hair? I may be a little biased, but I think he’s adorable. Especially when he isn’t screaming in my ear.

Kori got a picture of Keelie sleeping, too.

Yeah, normally she takes her naps in her bed, but here she simply fell over in the pool and went to sleep, which was okay since it is devoid of water and in the dining area. She looks all peaceful and everything, but there’s hell to pay when she wakes up in any other place than her bed. She does not like that at all.

We made it to Boot Hill this year. Actually, I was the only one of the four of us who ventured through the experience. But Keelie was entertained by the walkarounds. I told her they were “spookies” and she referred to them as “smookies”. Boot Hill gets better every year.

We made it up to my hometown of South Pasadena on Saturday, October 31, as some friends call it. Others call it Halloween, All Saints Eve, or Reformation Day. Did I miss anybody? First, we hit Garfield Park to meet up with Grandpa and Grandma Pellman.

The park was convenient because their house had recently taken it upon itself to spontaneously begin the remodeling process early in a rather dramatic way. Keelie is better suited to parks than delicately decorated homes, anyway.

After leaving the park, the four of us dropped in to Nanny’s place for a while.

Then Nanny and Auntie Kim took Keelie trick-or-treating, with Kori, Kyle, and I going along. No pictures of that – sorry. But you can see where we went by checking out a few movies. Kyle was dressed as the Sun, Keelie as the Moon, and Kori and I were stars.

Clearly still on a sugar high, Keelie was happy to be going to Disneyland the next day.

We stopped by the Ranch.

Be nice to the goats!

Kyle, as you can see below, was very excited to be there.

Keelie can be a rather intense child. Witness this pictures we took of her coloring…

Yeah… this is NOT the same picture…

…she’s just really intense, like I said. You can imagine that she can be a handful sometimes.

To celebrate Granddaddy’s birthday, we all (Kori, Keelie, Kyle and I… Kendra, Steve, and Lainey… Troy, Toby, and Kirby, and Puma & Granddaddy) got together at Puma & Granddaddy’s for dinner. Here’s Kyle telling Uncle Troy all about what he’s been doing these days.

Being held by Aunt Kirby…

…who took Keelie to the park as the Sun set.

These pictures really catch Keelie’s personality…

Smiling at the thrill ahead of her…

Getting ready…

Let’s do that again!

On the way out of the park, Keelie had to stop at the trees and count as if she was starting a game of hide-and-seek.

Caught ya!

Ahhhh, the three babies… Lainey, Kyle, and Keelie.

Keelie makes a bit of a mess when she eats cake and ice cream.

But she does manage to keep her peeps entertained.

Here she is with the birthday boy.

That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by and checking it out. You can comment here or contact us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Be sure to keep us up to date on what you’re doing!

A Way Overdue Update

Okay, okay, so it has been way too long since we’ve updated this blog. My excuse is also the reason we should have been updating the blog more frequently – our two precious little darlings.

Now that I think about it, there really isn’t much to say. It’s the pictures we have to share. As much as we were wallflowers before, we have been even more so now. Mommie and baby need a lot of time at home resting, if not sleeping. There’s the lack of sleep, the high-energy-crying-at-the-top-of-his-lungs, the diapers, the feedings… not much time for anything else, really. Ah, parenthood.

While I was still taking time off from work, some of the folks at the office threw us a mini baby shower of sorts by taking all of us out for lunch at Claim Jumper. Grandpa Pellman joined in. That was so sweet of them.

Other folks at the office, as well as friends and family, have also made quite a fuss over Kyle while also including Keelie. Thanks to everyone – your thoughtfulness has been heartwarming. I truly didn’t expect anyone to make a fuss over the birth of our second child.

As any parent of more than one child can confirm, they demonstrate different personalities from birth – or even before. One of Kyle’s traits is that he just LOVES his car seat. See?

He’s about three weeks old in that picture. For comparison, here’s Keelie in the same car seat at about six weeks or so…

Another difference is that Kyle will let us know if his diaper needs to be changed. Keelie didn’t care.

Keelie has been friendly enough to her little brother, who has certainly changed her life. She briefly toyed with the idea of joining a monastic order, as you can see in this picture…

Kori is tired but happy.

Unlike his sister, Kyle took well to breastfeeding. He’s definitely packing on the pounds.

Kyle has had his first Disneyland trip, though it was a short one. Here we are getting ready to enter Disney’s California Adventure with Nanny, who can’t resist feeding Keelie.

Keelie loves to run around and climb at the park’s Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

Puma and Granddaddy have had us all over for dinners, as usual, where Keelie keeps her grandparents, aunts, and uncles entertained.

I’d like to get more shots of Keelie’s beautiful eyes and smile, but she will often squint when she knows a photo is coming, and drop the smile.

We’ve been able to make one trip to Pasadena to see my side of the family. Here’s Kyle looking up at his grandmother.

Keelie, like her mother, enjoys her sweets…

Kyle in a milk coma after a feeding…

I like moments like this a lot more than when Kyle is trying to make me deaf…

The kid gets the hiccups frequently, which is no surprise, since he had them often while still in the womb.

Ah, such a little cutie…

We finally made it back to one of the monthly get-togethers at Hometown Buffet the other night, to see some of the people I used to work with at Disneyland.

I try to get Keelie out and about to get her some exercise and a break from her screaming brother. With the days shorter, I don’t get her to the local park as often, but I have been taking her to walk around the Disneyland Resort, spending more time in Downtown Disney than anything else. Fairly regularly, on one of my days off, I’ll take her to the resort to play around and meet up with Nanny.

Keelie continues to be a big fan of Oswald, Signing Time, and Elmo/Sesame Street, but has also added Clifford the Big Red Dog to her viewing demands.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by and reading. You can comment here, or e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com.