The End of the Year

Welcome to our last update of the year. Our Christmas letter is below, after this short update covering this past week.

Visions of sugarplums...

Last Sunday, Nanny came down to see Keelie, as she hadn’t seen her in a while, partly due to a trip to central Florida. Keelie was really happy to see her, and while Keelie was off of our hands, we got some chores done.

Keelie reached SIX MONTHS OF AGE during the week! Yay! That meant another trip to see her pediatrician. Our precious little girl was upset by the shots, but was over them quickly. Her reaction was subdued compared to her screaming getting her 4-month doses. Keelie also checked in at the 50th percentile in height, so she’s smack dab in the middle of average. Amazingly, though, she has more than recovered from the rough going early on with her weight. She’s now in the 75th percentile! There’s proof for sure that she has some of my blood.


Here's an example of how Keelie has grown. That picture above is Keelie at 26 weeks. The one below is Keelie at 10 weeks.

Here are some pics of Keelie in her bassinet.

This is where she has been sleeping.




Everything goes in the mouth.

Ain't she adorable?

Friday night, we started Keelie on “solid” food. Up until now, her diet had been almost nothing but breast milk.

There have been signs that she is mentally ready for variety. For example - she used to spit out some of her medicine if we weren’t careful, but now she not only will happily drink it, she will grab the oral syringe we use to give it to her and she’ll hold it herself.

She’s also reaching for our glasses and plates whenever she can. In this video below, you can see her trying to grab the spoon.


So that’s what we’ve been up to since our last update. Here’s our end-of-the-year message...

The Year in Review 2007: State of the Pellmans

We’re not sending out a lengthy Christmas letter this year, since everything we’d put in it had been right here in this blog, and as you’ve read, we’ve been occupied with the baby. Here’s our brief-as-can-be end of the years message...

Greetings to you and your kin!

The first half of the year was mainly about preparing for the arrival of Keelie. The second half of the year has mainly been about taking care of Keelie. Any parents who remember having their first child can relate, I’m sure. It is an event that changes everything. Keelie has five grandparents, nine actual aunts and uncles, and two cousins in the area, many of them right here in Anaheim. So, there has been lots of visiting with family.

There hasn’t really been too much excitement.

Professionally, I settled into my new position.

Didn’t have as much time for freelance writing.

We took a couple of trips, but no long out-of-state vacations. March was the trip to San Diego/La Jolla scheduled around a wedding. November was the trip to Philadelphia scheduled around a Bar Mitzvah.

Throughout the year, we got together with multiple times with three friend groups. Homecoming (our friend group from church) officially disbanded this year by absorbing into a larger group that has official meetings at church. We hope to still get together with everyone from Homecoming for lunch or something here and there. One of the families moved to Africa, so it is a little harder to meet up with them. Then there are the current and former Disneyland cast members that Donna keeps going as a group by mailing out invites to monthly get-togethers. We’ve made it about every three months or so. Finally, there’s a group of Disney enthusiasts (some of whom are professionals within the corporation) who get together for dinner and home theatre entertainment and sometimes field trips. We’ve only met up with them twice since Keelie was born, because the home theatre sessions aren’t really at the time or place for a baby. Each of these three groups have been great social support and fun and needed adult contact.

So far, there have only been three times we have gone somewhere without Keelie. The first was the “Weird Al” Yankovic concert in October. The second was the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” anniversary event in November. Finally, there was our anniversary this month.

We did lose a family member - Kori’s paternal grandmother, who had been beyond interaction for a while. And, one of my heroes who I had been fortunate to have casually known over the years, died suddenly at a fairly young age.

Our legal matter, in which we are the plaintiffs, is continuing with the possibility of being resolved in 2008.

So, it wasn’t a big year for changes other than Keelie’s arrival, which was change enough!

Kori is a terrific mother. It has been such a pleasure to watch her take care of our little girl. Four years ago, Kori and I hadn’t even met in person yet. And here we are, married and proud parents.

Thanks for reading and thanks for your love, friendship, and support throughout 2007. We look forward to 2008 and pray the New Year will be a great one for you, full of health, happiness, and His love.

Merry Christmas!

Keeping Cool As Summer Winds Down

Every year, August and September get really, really hot in southern California, yet we tend to forget that until we experience it all over again every year. We’re thankful for air conditioning.


My sisters and mother are constantly requesting we visit so that they can fight over holding Keelie.

Tuesday, Kim and Vicky came down to see Keelie and we all went to dinner at El Cholo in La Habra. Kim picked up the check – bless her! Kori and I had to get our green corn tamale fix.

Thursday evening, we dropped in at Kendra & Steve’s. Steve hadn’t seen Keelie in a while and neither had Pam & Bill, who were there for dinner.

Friday, we took Keelie for a follow-up appointment with a specialist. The drive to and from the office, which was not hampered by slow traffic, was longer than the visit. Keelie is getting heavier and longer, like she should. Kori and the doc went over some of Keelie’s symptoms/likes/dislikes and thought she might have silent reflux. So now Keelie has “yummy” (like mouthwash) medicine to take.

In the evening, we went to bid farewell to Jeni, Jon, Graci, and Isaiah (in utero) who are moving to Kenya. Jon’s family is there (he was actually born in Africa). Jenn & Dave hosted the send-off and most of Homecoming was there.

This is Jenn holding her.

Jon, Jeni, and Graci...

Aaron and Cherise...

Cherise, James, Chrissy, and Dave...

Saturday, we went to the Keel household so that Bill, Pam, Toby, and Kirby could see Keelie again, and then we went to my mother’s place for dinner, where my mother, my siblings, nephews, and brother-in-law caught up with Keelie. My mother loves to feed us - bless her!

Here's Auntie Kim with Keelie...

As you can see, Uncle Mike is as sociable as ever...

Another one with Auntie Kim...

With Nanny...

Yesterday, Kori noticed the earthquake that hit about 10:30am. No big deal, thankfully. We stayed inside the condo all day as it was hot outside and we weren’t feeling our best.

On Daddy's shoulder earlier today, thinking hard about what Daddy should write...

We hope all is well with you and your loved ones. 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.