Summer is Here!

Since I last updated this blog, I had a birthday, Keelie had her third birthday, and my nephew Macon graduated from my alma mater. On a sad note, we lost Aunt Vicky. No, not my sister. The woman who married my mother’s late uncle. She was Aunt Vicky long before that, though. She had been in declining health and had defied the odds for a long time – her death was not unexpected, but still sad.

She’s the one in red in this picture…

When she saw the picture later, she asked, “Did I really wear red to your wedding?!?” Of course, it was December and reds and greens were part of the look of the wedding. She was like a grandmother to me, though she hated to be called that, so it was always “Aunt” Vicky.

On to happier thoughts… like playtime!

Yes, we have a playpen full of colorful plastic balls.

The next five pictures were taken by Kori’s father, who definitely knows his way around a camera.

Keelie is getting into animated features, so I get to watch some of the DVDs in my collection. “Toy Story” and the sequel are favorites. She sings “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and she also likes “Mary Poppins” and will sing the songs from that movie, which goes along fine with the Sherman Brothers songs she knows from Disneyland.

Kyle is quite the crawler, and he’s learned to stand up without holding on to anything and sit back down.

The whole family relaxing in the hot tub…

Kyle has been in the habit of nibbling on his own toes. When I try, Keelie says, “No Daddy! Kyle’s toes are yucky!” They aren’t yet though, since he’s not walking. Well, he was doing his thing and his cousin decided she wanted to try…

…ah yes… one of those pictures that will come back to haunt both of them.

Keelie and Kyle got decked out in Tiger Orange for Cousin Macon’s graduation.

I went to SPHS, as did Kim, Vicki, Chris, and Blaine.

There’s Cousin Blaine holding Kyle, Autie Kim, Cousin Macon in his gown, Nanny, Uncle Mike, Aunt Vicki, and Keelie.

Keelie contemplates turning 3.

For Keelie’s birthday, we had some people over for a party – it was mostly a family event, but when you have families the size of ours, that’s a lot of people. We’d only hosted one such event before since moving in. Keelie had a lot of fun and certainly enjoyed the presents and cake. So much so that fives days later she informed Kori that she was ready to turn 4, have everybody come back, and have me bring home another cake – but one with four candles. But she also talks about going back to being 2 and thus getting her crib back.

Kyle hams it up for the camera as we watch Keelie enjoying one of her presents…

Keelie points to where she’s going to hit the ball.

Well, there you have it. Thanks for stopping by to check out this latest update. Leave a comment here or e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com.

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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.

May We Update You?

It has been a long time since our last update, so if any of you have found yourselves unable to function due to the lack of updates, then I apologize.

Life has actually been mostly mundane, which is good. We were all under the weather recently, unfortunately, and we got killed on our taxes due to some one-time events last year, but other than that, things are okay. Kori is great at finding ways to stretch our dollars, and will literally shop around.

The biggest news is that we found out that our second child is a boy! Keelie is getting a brother. We also found out that her cousin, due mere weeks before her brother, is a girl. Kori is mostly handling this pregnancy well, and I sure do like the way she looks. Yowza!!! She doesn't like some of the side effects of pregnancy, but she hardly complains.

Keelie keeps growing and keeps learning new things as she should. For example, she lets us know when she needs her diaper changed and why. We'll hear this soft "diaper wet" or "dirty diaper" in the midst of the other stuff she'll be saying to us. We're close to trying potty training again. She continues to enjoy water in general... she likes drinking/spilling cups of water on herself, she wants to snatch the garden hose from my hand, she likes showers, baths, wading, and swimming. She is also quite the adventurous kid... a budding daredevil. She has been taking some "gymnastics" classes for kids her age – just about 45 minutes per week. She does enjoy them, but she hates waiting her turn to do things. It's now a habit for Keelie and I go to on walks around the block, and she likes it. She'll go so far as to bring my shoes to me and try to get hers on, to get the walk started.

Keelie has discovered Sesame Street, especially Elmo's World. This is in addition to her obsession with Oswald and enjoyment of Signing Time. She now asks to watch specific episodes. I need to get her hooked on Disney animated features.

As for Kori and I, we we've been watching American Idol, Survivor, and Celebrity Apprentice together, and The Soup, which, unlike the others, runs year-round and is on basic cable. Celebrity Apprentice has been the longest two hours on television every week. If they really need more than an hour, they could still keep it down to 90 minutes... but I guess then NBC would have to find something else to fill that half hour.

On the home improvement front, I planted an avocado tree in the backyard and a shade tree in the front yard – both were delivered by the City of Anaheim. I hope they live. Our front yard really isn't much of a yard at this point.

We continue to spend some time over at the Keel house, where Keelie loves seeing her Puma, Granddaddy, aunts, and uncles. Her godparents live next door so she gets to see them there, too. We also continue to make trips up to Pasadena to spend time with Nanny and Keelie's other sets of aunts, uncles, and her cousins Blaine (when he is home from college) and Macon. Nanny also continues to join us at the Disneyland Resort, where Keelie loves playing in the areas that are designed to be hands-on play areas.

Remember....you can see bigger versions of these pictures by clicking on them.

In early March, we went to the beautiful Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens with Grampa Pellman (above) and Grandma Kathleen. She's a docent there. Keelie loved it.

Keelie also loves bubbles.

Keelie loves hanging out at Disneyland!

Above, we leave Disneyland with Nanny. Below, she enjoys candy while being held by her Uncle Chris.

Keelie also loved going back to the Los Angeles Zoo in April, where we spent some time with Nanny, Aunt Kim, and Uncle Mike (along with her parents).

There she is below with Uncle Mike. It was Easter Weekend, hence the bunny stuff.

We're definitely catching her smile on camera more often.

Kori and I recently hit the Newport Beach Film Festival – thanks to Kendra & Steve watching Keelie. You can read about that by going to my column. Kori joined me the first of the two nights I went, and we had dinner before the screening and caught up a bit with some friends we don't get to see very often these days.

Well, that's it for this installment. Happy Mother's Day! Thanks for stopping by again. We hope all is well with you and your loved ones. Please let us know how you are doing and what you've been doing. Leave a comment here or contact us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Or connect to one of us on Facebook - the links are to the right.

One of the best feelings in the world!

Grad, Dads, and a Birthday!

So hard to believe it has been over a year since Keelie emerged into the world!

Keelie is doing well as far as height, weight, head size, and developmentally. She got her latest round of shots and was really upset about it but was fine after a couple of minutes.

We tried to surprise my father with dinner out the Friday before Father’s Day. All of us – Kathleen, my dad, Kori, Keelie, and I - hadn’t been together since Easter Sunday.

In this picture, you can see Keelie’s technique of getting everything from the bottle without using her hands, which she likes having free to pick up things and to point.

These days, if you pick her up, you are almost guaranteed to get her to point to something and say, “Muh!”

Here she is having a good time sitting next to Grampa. Notice the bottle.

For Granddaddy, Kori’s family - all of us but Toby and Kirby, who couldn't make it - got together at Marie Calendar’s on Father’s Day.

Keelie has become obsessed with patty-cake, and will grab your hands or wrists, no matter where they are, so she can get you to perform for her. Like so...

Shelby and Keelie are interacting more, with Shelby being more willing to allow Keelie to put her hands on her. But it sure looks like she’s tired.

My nephew Blaine graduated from SPHS, my high school alma mater, and the ladies and I joined my entire family at the graduation ceremony. At an SPHS function, you’re just as likely to recognize a face because of their appearance in film or on television as you are because of family resemblances. “Do I know you? Or do I just know your work?”

As always, the grads are reunited with their friends and family on the baseball field after the ceremony.

Here they are all together – Mike, Blaine, Kim, and Macon. In the background, you can catch a glimpse of the high school’s pool, where I spent much of my childhood and adolescence engaging in recreational swim, swimming lessons, swimming practice, races, and community service. And sunbathing. Ah yes… soaking up the deadly rays of the sun and going through puberty in a Speedo.

We did go swimming after the festivities… but that was back at Nanny’s condo complex. Here you can see Keelie in a rocking chair at Nanny’s that is a family heirloom. My mother was counting up the generations that had sat in that chair as of Keelie’s use… I think it was six.

Keelie’s birthday was celebrated over at Puma & Granddaddy’s. Here’s Keelie about the moment she reached a full year.

Keelie and I enjoyed the pool. I have been taking her “swimming” at our condo, too.

After dinner but before presents, Keelie got to enjoy a cake, albeit with everyone standing around - two big, flashing cameras, and a video camera pointed at her.

She probably expected me to take the cake away and clean her hands and face. She seemed a little hesitant.

She did manage to get into it enough to make a little mess. Such a cutie.

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