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!

Ken's Indiana Jones Film Review Online

My film review (and a little bit of what we did yesterday) can be found over at my individual blog by clicking here.

Three Years Since I Was Korinated

Check out these pictures of Keelie from back at the 5-month mark.

She has Daddy's feet!

She’s almost six months old now.

It really looks like Keelie will be crawling any day now. She has mastered sitting with little support, rolling over from any position, and gets up on her hands and knees. She also does her best to get off of the sofa and to the floor. She’ll turn over and “climb” the pillows on the sofa. I’ll try to get her to crawl, but so far she sticks to rolling to move from here to there, since she knows how to do that.

She really likes this thing, and we'll put her in there when she's fussy and nothing else is soothing her, and it usually works.

We have Keelie on a strict diet of breast milk... and flowers.

It was a Saturday evening two weeks ago when I last updated this blog. That day, I gave Kori one of her anniversary gifts early (we both maintain wish lists on Amazon.com), because it was a book on getting babies to sleep through the night. Then it occurred to me that the book needed a prequel... a DVD on how to find the time to read when you are a new parent!

Well, as it turns out, after Keelie finally fell asleep at 1am, she ended up sleeping straight through until 11am. Woo-hoo!!! She must have seen the book and realized the jig was up! Poor Kori, though, woke up a few times wondering if something was wrong. We would later learn that Keelie must have forgotten that she ever saw the book. Oh well.

Keelie's taste test says that there is no lead in the toys.

The World Famous More In-Demand Than Lion King Tickets Annual Keel Family Christmas Party was good this year.

The place quickly filled up with the usual suspects, most of them people from Pam & Bill's church. Keelie was getting lots of attention, of course, and it was nice to let other people share the joy of holding her, which gave us breaks.

Santa showed up and thrilled everyone...except for Keelie, who did NOT like being held by the jolly fellow, even though he had glasses and plenty of beard for her to grab hold.

As the title of this post indicates, we celebrated our third wedding anniversary. Woo-hoo! It was Kori's year to plan.

Kendra and Steve were very kind to watch Keelie as we dropped in on the Disneyland Resort. Being without pregnancy or height restrictions for the first time in a long time, we rode Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, and Big Thunder Mountain before catching the holiday fireworks show. Then we hopped parks and rode Tower of Terror.

Dinner was the Napa Rose in Disney’s Grand Californian. We'd eaten there once before. They are supposed to be really good with the wines, but there was no way Kori was drinking any and I wasn't going to drink any since she couldn't. Dinner was nice but took a while. It was late when we picked up Keelie.

Here's Kori posing with the dessert. Notice the writing in chocolate syrup.

Back at home, we exchanged our anniversary gifts.

Okay, because you're still reading this... here's another cute picture of Keelie to reward you.

We went to my office holiday party at the end of a workday. There was a yummy buffet, one drink per person included, and a raffle. We left after the raffle was over and before the dancing started.

...but not before we got some good pictures of Keelie in a Christmas dress.

Here we are fighting over the bottle.

Keelie grabs my necktie to draw me closer to "clarify" who should control the milk bottle.

Keelie raises her arms in victory.

She shows off her ruby shoes, telling us she can get us home with a couple of heel clicks.

Keelie got to see one of her doctors again, and he’s pleased with how she is doing. He told us we can start her on solid foods. We’re planning to after she sees her regular pediatrician again.

Last weekend, we made it to an annual Christmas get-together of some current and former Disneyland Custodial people. The group has monthly get-togethers at a Hometown Buffet, but this was at an apartment. Like the department, it is an eclectic mix of people.

Check out Keelie impersonating a fly trap...

The writing says "All Mommy wants for Christmas is a Silent Night". So true.

We kept up the tradition of gathering at the Keel home to decorate. That was this past Thursday. Last night, we went to a party at Dave & Jenn’s to congratulate Dave on his graduate degree. Way to go, Dave!

Here’s Keelie right after a workout.

This afternoon, we made Bill & Paula’s annual holiday party, which was good as always.

So, as you can see, we’re keeping very busy. Thanks for stopping by. You can comment here or send us a message at KEPellman [at] yahoo [com].

One last thing.

Since you have been so good, here’s video of Keelie doing “peek-a-boo”. She loves it. You can hear her laughing if you listen closely. Normally, she’ll pull the blanket over her face and pull it off by herself. But she’d already been doing it for a while this evening before we got the camera going, so I had to help out a little.