We Survived the Ides of March

Happy Palm Sunday! And Happy BIRTHday to a certain special little girl who couldn't wait for her due date to get closer, and a huge congrats to Bob, Julie, and their families.

Wanted to check in with a few pictures and a short video clip. Since a high school classmate of mine checked in with a comment, I wanted to remind you that if you want to drop us a line, that’s great. If we don’t have your e-mail address, it is probably a good idea to write us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com so that we can write back.



Keelie continues to gain mobility, much to the dismay of Shelby. We’ll all be on the king sized bed Kori and I have, and Keelie will crawl around, trying to get to the poor dog. Fortunately, Kendra has been over a few times helping Kori to babyproof while I’m out fishing. Uh… I mean… working. Keelie doesn’t know about Daylight Savings Time, as it turns out, which means she was staying up and hour later than usual, at least by the clock. She now makes a clapping motion, and has figured out how to make clicking noises with her tongue, since her teeth aren't poking through yet.

Check out Elmo in the background. This Elmo is the one who talks, laughs, falls over, doubles over, stands back up, asks to be tickled, begs you to stop tickling, ice skates, solves quadratic equations on the walls with permanent marker, and tries to set the house on fire. He’s probably spying for the Children’s Television Workshop and siphoning funds from our accounts to PBS.

Keelie is so active, and if she is fussing and climbing up the back of the sofa, we alternate between sitting on the floor with her, putting her in the playpen, putting her in her Winnie the Pooh plaything where she can stand up and be ringed by toys, or in the doorframe jumper. She enjoys jumping more on the Pooh plaything than the actual jumper.

Here she is jumpin' a bit.

Recently, we went to a little fruit and vegetable market we have nearby where Kori picks up fresh fruit and vegetables, many of which she turns into food for Keelie. I don't think we've bought any jarred baby food. Kori is very dedicated to making fresh baby food. We then went across the street to Stater Brothers to pick up some stuff, parking near this camper/RV. The people in the RV, by their stares, seemed a little too interested in us, making me wonder if our van would have something stolen out of it. There was liquid on the ground... and after we stepped in it, went shopping in the supermarket, and came back to the minivan and stepped in it some more, I realized what was going on. The people in the camper were dumping their sewage into the parking lot... and we were walking through it.

I pulled our minivan up to a security guard in the parking lot and told him what was going on, but he didn't care. Apparently, even though he usually faces out towards the parking lot, he was there to work for Stater Brothers, presumably to keep someone from running of the store with some shoplifted cheese. He told me to talk to the parking lot security... which drives around in a little cart. It would have been easier for HIM to contact them. We didn't see them as we drove out. It is rare to catch illegal dumpers red-handed... and very frustrating that this guard didn't do anything about it.

Dave & Jenn were sweet enough to have us over for dinner recently. They even sent us home with some lemons after I drank up a lot of homemade lemonade. Mmmm.

We’ve been over to Puma & Granddaddy’s for a couple of family dinners since the last update, the most recent one being last night. We went over early to hang out and enjoy some time in the hot tub. Keelie currently hates taking baths, but doesn’t mind a dip in the hot tub. Go figure.

Work wise, I recently talked on-location with a reporter from KFWB AM 980 about some work state crews were doing that my coworkers were monitoring, and so clips of me were being played on the radio throughout that day.



Thanks for stopping by. You can leave a comment here or e-mail us. Let us know how you are doing! -Ken

Bonus: Keelie's 8-Month Pics

Because you have been so good (not because we can't stop bragging about our little girl... no), here are Keelie's official 8-month photos. The portrait studio asked Kori to sign a waiver allowing them to use the images for promotion, because they came out so well.

Remember - you can click on a picture to get the largest image.

Time Marches On...Into March

That was Keelie at seven months. Yes, she keeps getting more and more adorable.

These updates are getting less frequent, but time is short as a parent… as you other parents know… but will never tell your kids until they’ve already made grandparents out of you.

We all battled some bug that was going around, the strongest symptom of which was a lingering cough. I dealt with it the longest. It finally seems to be almost completely gone. Long after getting over it herself, Keelie decided to go on a weeklong strike against solid food. Kori prepares such great stuff, and Shelby is always eager to have some hit the floor. But for some reason, Keelie took about a week off from her normally enthusiastic eating sessions. Still, the doctor said she is really good at putting on weight. Those would be my genes at work. But it is a mystery to me how a creature who will readily stick anything she finds anywhere into her mouth, will be so determined to not allow a spoonful of food in.

Here's the little darling somehow finding this a comfortable napping position.

Keelie likes to say “ma ma ma ma ma” and “da da da da da”, which is exiciting, until she goes on to say “bah bah bah bah bah”. She does seem to have picked up the ASL sign for “milk”.

She has this preference for non-toy toys, such as a round, red lid to a jelly bean jar, plastic bottles, phones, eyeglasses, and remote controllers. Junk mail and paper napkins are especially entertaining.

Keelie still avoids taking long naps, but she has taken one or two now over 90 minutes.

Thanks to modern communications, Kori continues to be able to stay in contact with (mostly) first-time mothers across the country with children about Keelie’s age. It started when they were pregnant, and it was organized around the month their babies were due. Some of them, of course, are pregnant again. It is helpful to be able to compare notes and I’m glad Kori has that interaction.

Since Keelie sailed past the 8-month mark, we have finally arrived at the point of returning some of the baby stuff we borrowed. Thanks again, Carla & Steve! One of the things we returned to them was the swing Keelie is using in this shot to help her stand up.

It’s at the point where we need to strap Keelie down now to change her diaper, since she has become so good at turning over, sitting up, crawling, and standing up by grabbing something. I’ll get her diaper off, and then off she goes, reluctant to be clad in a fresh one. We finally got her a playpen, so we wouldn’t have to hover over her like penguins sitting on eggs when she is on the floor. She’ll stand up using the edge of the playpen, then “ring” the playpen over and over by walking sideways while holding on to the top of the playpen.

I think she's looking for weaknesses... just like a velociraptor.

As usual, we have enjoyed visits to Nanny’s and to Puma & Granddaddy’s during the time since our last update. During one trip to Nanny’s, we finally went back to Burger Continental. I don’t think we’d been back there since we took Nanny there to tell her Keelie was on the way.

Due to how retirement pay is calculated, February is always retirement season for the County of Los Angeles. This past Thursday, we joined Grampa Pellman and True and Marina at Don’s retirement party. Don was the Director of Public Works, where True, Marina, and I used to work. The party took place where Kori and I had our wedding reception, and it was packed! We took Keelie along so she could meet some people with whom I used to work. It was all a bit overwhelming for her, I think, but clearly good that her Grampa was there.

Thanks for stopping by. Comments are welcome, either here or via e-mail at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Please let us know how you are doing, especially if you don’t have your own blog for us to read to keep track of ya.

We Survived Groundhog Day

It has been more than couple of weeks, so it is time for another update.

Keelie tends to wake up in the morning in a great mood, but strongly protests bedtime.

We’ve been seeing Puma & Granddaddy regularly, as they often have their kids over for dinner.

Keelie has had recent follow-ups with doctors. She’s at the taller and heavier end for her age. When she got the second part of her flu shot, she took it pretty well. Much better than getting four shots in rapid succession.

On a recent afternoon off, Kori arranged for us to drop Keelie off with Kendra & Steve (who are great at being her aunt and uncle) for a couple of hours so that we could be alone. It seems ridiculous, but that is where we are for a few reasons, including the fact that Keelie doesn’t take long naps and she’d much rather be interacting with one of us than playing with a toy.

But... she is very cute when she does nap.

Of course, we think she is cute all of the time.

Keelie has been enjoying all sorts of “solid” foods, most of which Kori has diligently prepared from raw materials. I am usually the one to feed Keelie her dinner (Kori feeds her the other meals), and it is a lot of fun. She gets all excited and slaps her hands on the tray, makes a face as she inhales sharply, and then says "mah-mah-mah-mah", which she has taken to saying at other times, too.

Below, she sits in her feeding chair, anticipating the culinary delights.

She promptly falls asleep when the sound of it doesn't excite her.

But then she perks up when she realizes that she has inherited my eating genes, and loves just about any meal!

Keelie seems to be fixated on left ears. Not sure if that is because we hold her on our left sides more often, or what. She also is interested in Kori’s hair, which Kori has taken to wearing in a bun so that less of it is torn out. She is very good at snatching our eyeglasses for taste tests, and loves running her hands over our faces in general. Crinkling up junk mail can keep her entertained for several minutes.

Here she is with the drawstring from Kori's sweatshirt.

We went to babysit for Chrissy & James, who have an 18 month-old boy. Our daughter and their son got along just fine. But they really didn’t interact all that much.

This past Friday evening, we had dinner at Puma & Granddaddy’s. The highlight was when we were all standing around and Keelie said "Ma-ma!"

It had been a few weeks since my mother and siblings had seen Keelie, so we went to my mother's place for dinner this past weekend, where my mother, Kim, Vicky, and my nephews could see how Keelie had grown. I think Blaine has grown even more. He’s 17 and getting really tall, so he looks different each time we see him.

Here's Keelie with Aunt Kim.

And Keelie with Kori...

Keelie has become quite adept at rolling to get from here to there, and has finally picked up crawling. She’s not an expert crawler yet, though, often sliding on her belly or getting up on her feet instead of her knees. Her favorite thing is standing, grabbing our thumbs for balance. Lately, she has realized that she can stand up by grabbing on to furniture, too.

Shelby continues to adapt. She knows exactly how far away she has to stand from Keelie to avoid her clutches, as Kori noticed.

Like 100 million other people, we watched the Superbowl. One more NFL football game left, and then Keelie will have to find something else that interests her until the next pre-season. I liked the commercial with Richard Simmons.

And now, since you've been so good, here's a word from Keelie...

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment here or e-mail us directly at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. We want to know how you and your loved ones are doing!

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].

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year!

We hope you and your loved ones are doing well. Thanks for stopping by.

The holidays were nice, but busy. Keelie has a lot of adoring family nearby, and everyone wanted to see her.

All three of us, plus the dog, spent a night at my mother’s place so that Kori and Keelie could be there all day on Christmas Eve while I went in to the office. That way, I didn't have to drive home after work and double back with the ladies to my mother's.

When I returned to my mother's place on Christmas Eve, we enjoyed Mexican food for dinner and exchanged gifts. My little sister was working, but my brother, other sister, brother-in-law, and nephews were all there in addition to Nanny.

Christmas Day was a long day. We were late getting over to Puma & Granddaddy’s for the morning session (yummy food), and thus we were late in getting up to Grampa & Grandma’s for their brunch (more yummy food).

Here's Keelie with her Grampa Pellman...

And here she is with Grandma...

The usual gang of Kathleen's family was there. It was nice to see everyone again.

In the evening, it was all the way back to Puma & Granddaddy’s, where everyone had reconvened – Kendra & Steve, Troy, Toby, Kirby, and more. We had dinner (more yummy). Keelie was exhausted and I took her into a different room while everyone exchanged gifts, so she could nap in my arms. What a feeling that is.

I was supposed to be back at work the next day, but ended up needing to recover, so I took the 26th off.

We were back at Puma & Ganddaddy’s again Thursday night to celebrate Steve’s birthday.

Friday night, we joined up with our friend Tony and the gang for dinner out and then some Christmas cheer back at his place. Everyone took turns playing with Keelie, who loves flirting with the guys. We didn’t stay too late, of course. It was a nice time and it is always nice to see everyone who makes it there. For the first time in years, we missed Dave & Jason's annual Crappy Gift Exchange, because I mistakenly thought it was on Saturday, despite Dave's mastery of EVites. Keelie would have had a blast there.

Here's Keelie taking a break from the flirting...

The next day, we were hosted in a very lovely home of a fellow LaughingPlace.com contributor and his family for a lunch along with Dave M and Doobie & Rebekah, who were in town from Florida. It was great to see them again! I liked it when they lived nearby. So many of you have left us here in SoCal!!!

This update is like a really easy game of Where's Waldo?, only with Keelie.

Doobie was getting some good practice.

Sunday brought another dinner at Puma & Granddaddy’s.

Our friends Craig & Kristen and their daughters had us over for a while on New Years Eve to have dinner and exchange some gifts. Their 2007 baby is walking! And she was very affectionate towards Keelie.

Craig is holding the walking, hugging, "older" girl of 2007, and Kristen is holding... take a guess...

For the turn of the year, though, we were home and taking it easy. We also took it easy on New Years Day. Keelie and I had a lot of good bonding time.

Keelie is almost crawling (she rolls instead of crawls) and very clever. She seems to understand that just because something is out of sight doesn't mean it went away. Also, she figured out that it is easier to pull a blanket closer to her to get something on it than it is to crawl. It is a little scary. She responds to her name and gives kisses. Since she hasn’t mastered crawling, her cheeks often get rosy from friction as she climbs around and as she propels herself with her legs. When she gets tired of me and starts to fuss, her absolute favorite thing is for Kori to take her off of my hands so that as she sits on her Mommie's hip, she can look down at me where I'm sitting and smile.

Keelie is trying different foods. She loves oatmeal.

Kori snapped a bunch of pictures yesterday when Keelie wrapped herself up into a Keelie burrito...

Thanks for coming by again. You can comment here or you can e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Let us know how you are!

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!