Thankful

Wow – it has been two months since our last photo update. That is because we've been keeping busy. We're still settling in to the house. With a toddler around, it takes a lot of time to do anything. Kori is very handy with fixes and improvements. She sometimes asks me to do part of whatever she is doing, but she's been doing most of the work. Let's face it – the house is her domain. That's why I have my cave. Every husband needs one. She does run her ideas past me, though.

We were also trying to get our condo rented out, which we were finally able to do a little over a week ago, thanks to help from Kori's father. We finished removing our last little tidbits from the place.

Keelie is over 17 months old now and has learned to speak a very few words, but has been acquiring American Sign Language signs at a rapid rate. She'll sign "More Oswald, please!" more than anything else. She's obsessed with that oxygen-deprived, hydrocephalic animated octopus. I’m sure you other parents in the DVR/VHS/DVD age can relate to the endless viewing of the favorite programs/movies of your child.

Keelie also sees us on the desktop computer and figures she wants in on it, so if we make the mistake of stepping away without pushing the chair in, she's on it like white on rice. She has also gotten in the habit of grabbing one of our fingers and leading us where she wants to go. If not by the hand, she will literally push against our legs, often so that we are walking backwards. She'll push harder if we stop, and will tug on our clothing if we turn the wrong way. She also brings us books and signs that she wants us to read them. She did a happy dance when she discovered that Kori had brought home more Oswald books.

Whenever we get up on a ladder or stepladder in the house, Keelie tries to climb up with us. Another little thing Keelie will do is use her sock-clad foot to "clean up" any drops of milk that have fallen from her sippy cup. And like I used to, she'll hum while eating.

As usual, we've been spending time with Kori's family when we can. We live even closer to them than we did while in the condo. We've also managed to make it to Pasadena to see my family a few times since I last wrote.

We had fun at Disneyland Park with my mother. While riding the Mark Twain riverboat, Keelie most enjoyed climbing up some stairs and then sliding back down them.

We all made it to a "mommy meet-up" at a local park. It was before Halloween, so some of the kids - and adults - were in costume. I wasn't the only father there, thankfully. Keelie again had fun running up and down steps. If we had some in our home, she’d probably be indifferent towards them.

There are my two ladies!

Keelie considers a slam dunk.

She likes the slides, but sometimes she needs added excitement.

So here she is imagineering a new thrill ride.

Daddy and Keelie watch TV.

There's Keelie innovating new skin care products.

Also before Halloween, we went to a pumpkin patch with Kori's parents.

Below is Keelie trying her hand at Outdoor Vending. That's heresy to this old "jani". At least it isn't popcorn or cotton candy.

She's on the prowl!

Keelie wants YOU... to be ready to hand out candy.

She's carefully considering her options.

For Halloween, we went to Kori’s parents’ house. Kori was "faith", I was "hope" and Keelie was "love".

We took Keelie out trick-or-treating and it is a busy neighborhood for that.

Keelie started off with candy her Puma gave her. She wanted to hold the candy in her hand at first, and didn't want to carry the bucket we had for her. When we tried to hand her the bucket, she would push it away. When we put her candy in the bucket, she would take it back out. It wasn't until residents started putting candy into the bucket that she was willing to put her candy in as well and carry the bucket.

"This way to more candy!"

She would sign "candy" over and over to get more candy from the same person. When Puma offered to carry the bucket for her, Keelie let go of my hand and held on to the bucket with both hands until Puma retreated. It was hilarious stuff.

On a Sunday earlier this month, we woke Keelie up “early” and drove up to the L.A. Zoo. We were meeting with my mother and sister (Kim) so that Dr. Craig Stanford, USC professor and Director of the Jane Goodall Research Center, could give us a personal tour of the zoo. My sister won this in an auction benefiting the South Pasadena Educational Foundation. Obviously, the guy is an expert in primates and so he was able to point things out to us as we checked out the exhibits. Keelie seemed to enjoy herself a lot - mostly at a playground. It had been forever since I'd been to the LA Zoo – same for Kori. And Keelie hadn’t ever been there before.

Below: Auntie Kim, Keelie, Kori, Dr. Stanford, and Nanny. (I don't know the names of the people in the above shot, but they have even more hair than me.)

On Saturday the 15th, we had a playdate with a high school classmate of Kori's out in Murrietta, which is on the way to San Diego in Riverside county. That means that with traffic going full-speed, it takes over and hour to get there. I noted to Kori that there was going to be traffic because we would be driving right past a fire off of the 91 freeway. It was very windy, hence the fires.

So sure enough, we were crawling along on the 91 and the smoke was rising literally right off of the westbound side of the freeway, and the helicopters were flying right over us and the airplane that drops the reddish chemical was off to the side, too. These were the fires that made national news recently.

We made it out to Murrietta. We were late, but we’d made it. Kori's friend has four kids and her husband was at work. We went to a park to picnic and for the kids to play. Keelie kept running over to this large puppy, signing "dog" over and over, and the puppy kept knocking her over and wrestling with her.

As the sun came down and it was time to come home, we kept checking the news and sure enough, the 91 and the 57 were closed, so they were telling people to take the 15 to the 60 to the 605 to get back to Orange County. Instead, we took the advice of Kori's friend and drove back on the 15 toward Lake Elsinore, then got on the surface streets to take Ortega Highway. There were a lot of other people doing the same thing. That stretch of Ortega Highway is something like 20 miles, and it goes over the mountains, and is narrow and winding. So there I was, seeing the tiny lights of civilization out of the corner of my eye, but not daring to take my eyes off the car in front of me because I'm terrified of heights in certain situations and because I didn't want to slow down and tick off all of the drivers behind me or miss a turn and go rolling hundreds of feet down a steep drop.

Toddlers don't seem to like long car rides, at least not when they are awake.

Finally, we emerged in San Juan Capistrano and took the 5 north back to Anaheim. Ash was falling down everywhere. It was sad that homes were lost in the fires, but I’m glad they weren’t worse. We'll be heading into rain season here in southern California. January and February are traditionally when we're hit the hardest. Then, there might not be any meaningful rainfall for the rest of the year – which is fire season.

And now... something I had never in seen in person before... Kori with bangs...

After Kori worked so hard preparing the place, we hosted Thanksgiving here for our families-of-origin. On Kori’s side, Kirby, Kendra, and Steve were able to make it, and on my side, Kim, Mike, Blaine (back from college), Macon, and my mother were able to make it. I remember all those years I worked shifts at Disneyland, either opening or closing shifts, and often had two homes to visit for Thanksgiving. The advantage of hosting this year was not having to drive anywhere, especially two or three places. We do appreciate the invitations we get, though, and driving around the southland is a small price to pay to see family and have good eats. Things went well here, especially with all of the help we got. Thanks, everyone!

Here's a shot of the Great Room.

We're getting there. You can see the kitchen on the left and the entryway on the right.

Oh – and one last thing I wanted to mention that Keelie does. She climbs on top of this ball that is wedged between the sofa and the excercycle, and bounces up and down. Sometimes she has a pratfall, but she’s a tough one.

Thanks for stopping by and reading up on what we've been up to. Find us on Facebook and MySpace (see the links on the right). Go ahead and write a comment here or e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com to let us know what you have been up to.

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].

It’s a Small World

It’s rushing around time, since we’re almost to the end of the year. It gets dark so early. I’m more of a summertime person. That goes back to my swimming and bodysurfing days. Kori is much more in to the Christmas season and all of the decorations and such. I’ll be glad when we pass up the Winter Solstice and the days can grow longer again.

That's Keelie sleeping off her milk coma. You can see the bottle on the left of the screen. Actually she tends to keep her naps really short.

Keelie continues to grab everything within reach and hold on to it, if not gum it. She loves using my thumbnail to scrape her gums. We think she’s teething, but then again we’ve thought that for a long time now. She loves her blankets. Remote controls and cell phones are often objects of her attention, since they seem to be so important to Mommie and Daddy. She’s been sucking on her fingers, and more and more is picking up thumb-sucking, though she likes keeping her hand/fingers parallel to the floor as she sucks on her thumb. Is that gangsta style?

She’s always had strong legs, to the point of being able to “stand” as long as we hold her so she doesn’t fall over. Her leg strength is also what allows her to suddenly push off of whoever is holding her and to try to take a dive, or squirm off of their laps in an attempt to reach the floor. She attempts to do pratfalls quite often by sitting up and rolling over.

Keelie has acquired a high-pitched squeal. It isn’t as pleasant as her babbles, but we suppose she has to explore her full vocal range.

For some reason, if we refer to the child safety seat for the car as the “Captain’s Seat”, she doesn’t mind going in to it. She used to pitch a fit when we told her we were putting her into “the car seat”. Definitely a first child. She’ll love getting siblings to boss around. Er, uh, I mean for whom she can be an example.

You wouldn’t know it from these pictures, but she does laugh and smile.

We bought a new digital camera to replace the one that was stolen in Philadelphia. No, we still haven’t so much as received a phone call back from National Car Rental at the Philadelphia Airport. Thanks, National. But on the bright side, American Express went ahead and covered the loss, which is cool. Yay, American Express!

Last Sunday afternoon, we made a Disneyland visit with Keelie, just as it started getting dark. We didn't take the stroller or wheelchair, but rather I carried Keelie in one of those chest-snuggly things. She was facing forward this time and it was the first time she was there awake. She held on to my thumbs most of the time. We just went in to walk around a little, say hi to a few people, check a couple shops, and ride the holiday version of It's a Small World.

For some reason, the camera flash made it look like I was wearing neon (Kori says it is for safety.). Can you spot the milk bottle in that picture?

For those of you who don’t know, Disney has always made a very big deal about the holiday season, but Small World Holiday started up ten years ago. I already wrote about the history of Disneyland holiday celebrations here.

Keelie seemed to like the stimulation.

This picture below is Keelie at 23 Weeks!

She seems a little surprised. Maybe she was still recovering from Small World?

That’s Keelie with her Uncle Troy.

I think Keelie is signaling that she’s ready for a larger bottle. (It’s closed.)

She’s able to sit up on her own, but after a short while will attempt some stunt.

Yesterday, we went shopping at Wal-Mart, and we happened to bump into Keelie’s Puma and Aunt Kirby. I would have found that to have been such a fluke, only I know of people who have bumped into each other on the other side of the world. It’s a small world, indeed.

Here’s one of the things we got her at the store. I put it together and we stuck her in there, and immediately she picks the least interesting thing as the thing on which to focus.

Maybe she's overheard her mother calling her father Eeyore?

Finally, here’s some video Kori took of Keelie babbling, since pictures might not be enough for you to enjoy.



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There are lot of parties and get-togethers coming up. See you there!

A Dip in the Pool and Making the Rounds

After I last blogged here, on Saturday the 15th, we took a trip to the Disneyland Resort, to Disneyland Park in particular. It was the first time we pushed Keelie around in her stroller, still in the car seat because it attaches to the stroller. No pictures, though. I didn’t think to snap one. Oh well.

All we did was walk around. That’s it. We roughly circled the park in the after-dark hours to take a look at how things were, and we came home. Keelie slept for a good chunk of the time. We find it a little difficult to stay out in public too long.

The next evening, we caught a little bit of the Emmys. I think it is a little silly that we have to watch stuff three hours after it happens because we’re on the west coast. The upside is that all I had to do was a quick search online to find out why people were getting cut off in mid-sentence with an odd camera shot accompanied by silence.

We are part of a homeowners association, although there has been almost no activity with it since I married Kori and moved in (yes - in that order). There was a single contentious meeting last year, attended by a rabble-rouser who doesn’t even own or live here. I suspect he was there simply to get people to join his activist organization, because once the “minority” group he was targeting signed up with him, he disappeared, apparently sidetracked with bigger fish to fry in some more high-profile protests last year.

Well, this week there was another meeting. This time, without the huckster. We’ve hired a new management company. The old company didn’t really do anything. This new company claims to be strict, which I know can be a mixed blessing. The downside is that our fees (or whatever the technical term is) will likely increase, but they are ridiculously low right now.

But enough about such mundane matters. Most of you are here to get your Keelie update.

Keelie hit two milestones this week. She hit 3 months of age, and she’s up to the weight she should be, given her birth weight and her age. Yay! Kori has put in a lot of hard work. As a result, we are graduating Keelie from her newborn onesies.

These pictures are from Keelie’s 13-week mark, a day before she turned 3 months old.

Eyes are opening up...

There they are!

Friday, we went to Puma and Granddaddy Keel’s to visit with them and to enjoy their wonderful pool.

It was Keelie’s first time in water, aside from the bath. She didn’t hate it.

I barely recognize this man holding my daughter.

Puma’s enthusiasm for her granddaughter has not diminished in the slightest.

We stayed for quite a while, and so I went and picked up dinner for the four of us. Granddaddy Keel wasn’t feeling well, so he didn’t hold Keelie, which is why there is no picture of that.

Yesterday, we ran some errands and made some more visits. That’s no small feat around the Los Angeles County/Orange County area when we’re undergoing the first real rainfall in many months. Even on a Saturday, traffic was horrible and there were accidents everywhere.

We stopped by Nanny’s, so that Nanny, Aunt Kim, and Aunt Binky could all hold Keelie again.

They are also unfailingly eager to see Keelie.

From there, it was off to True’s housewarming/birthday party. The place was packed. Even though we hadn’t seen the house before, we could tell True had really done a great job on the place.

Keelie hadn’t met Marina since being born, so it was nice to let Marina take Keelie off our hands for a little while.

There were two other babies there and lots of food. It was good.

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.