Kyle is Born

At 7:34am PDT this morning, without having slept in the past 24 hours, my wife Kori gave birth to Kyle. I was by her side and so was her mother, who had just ended her shift in that wing of the hospital.

There’s the happy grandmother! (Puma).

Kori was amazing.

So far, everything looks good. Kyle weighed in at 7lbs., 7oz., and measured 20 inches long. He also has quite the head of hair.

My father made it to see Kyle. There’s the proud Grandpa!

More to come, but if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to my wife and son! Thanks you, everybody, for your assistance and well-wishes.

Our Niece Has Arrived!

The big news around here is that while Kori is still pregnant with Kyle, Kori’s sister and brother-in-law, Kendra and Steve, have welcomed their first child, Lainey!  Yay!!!

Ain’t she adorable?!? Her grandmother “Puma” sure thinks so.  Congrats to Kendra, Steve, and Lainey!!! Kori was able to assist Kendra during the birth – what a blessing!

It has been forever since we last updated this blog. I think this has happened for two reasons:

1) Facebook. We’re on Facebook. This is Kori’s page, and this is my page. I also Twitter. Now you can know about it every time I sneeze! Okay, so I don’t use Twitter THAT much. However, Kori and I do tend to update our Facebooks every day, and I suppose we’ll do so until the next big thing comes along and MySpaces Facebook. Connect with us there if you haven’t already.

2) Life has been fairly mundane, which I suppose is a good thing… if you can call any pregnancy mundane.  Fortunately, Kori’s family lives nearby and my family lives a short enough drive away – so we get to see them all fairly regularly.

See? Mundane.

As I said, Kyle is still growing inside Kori. This means the next full update here will likely be just after Kyle comes home.  Here’s Kori at 32 Weeks, with Keelie pointing to “Baby Kyle”…

And here is Kori now at 37 weeks…

Pregnancy hasn’t bothered Kori much until the last couple of weeks or so. It is good that she had been able to go so long without mood swings.

Keelie likes it when I talk to Baby Kyle, so the pregnancy has been somewhat entertaining for her.

Kori has been quite the mother and wife through this pregnancy, as she is the rest of the time. She’s also been very good at stretching our dollars, as usual. (It helps to have friends and family who have been very generous with baby stuff – thank you!) I knew I needed a wife who was good about money, and I sure did find one. Her packing my lunch, as she has been doing almost all of the time lately, not only is an appreciated gesture of love, but it saves us money and it is good for me as I am eating out lot less for lunch.

We’re nearing the first anniversary of obtaining our house. The place is definitely home to a 2-year-old, but we’re marking progress on the place in general. Kori is preparing Kyle’s room, though he’ll probably be in our room for a while, like Keelie was.

Keelie has been happy and cute and completely unaware that these babies – her cousin and her little brother - are going to change life dramatically. She’s had most of her grandparents and aunts and uncles to herself as far as being the cute little kid fascinating them with what she has learned. She continues to like swimming. I wonder where she got that?

As you can see, I will take her to a local park to let her burn off some energy.//

She found these little people there – here she is holding one.

I have to stay close, because she will jump off of the equipment without warning, expecting me to catch her.

That’s Keelie trying out her little brother’s Boppy, warming it up for him. She knew exactly where to put it – right next to her Bobby!

Here’s a funny story since out last update… although I didn’t find it too funny at the time…

Keelie will most likely be with my mother while we are in the hospital for Kyle’s emergence, so we tried to get her used to the idea of spending the night at my mother’s place by having a sleepover there.

I'd even shown Keelie the episode of her favorite cartoon where the main character goes to a sleepover.  Well, Keelie didn't get the picture for hours.  She just assumed we would be going home at some point, even though we did most of the "going to bed" routines and we turned out the light and went to bed.  She wouldn't let us put her in her own little bed, and she wanted to play around with the clock, lights, jumping on the bed, whatever.  It was awful.

Finally…Close to 2:45 a.m., she got really close to Kori and said "Mommie, I ready to go home, see Shelby".

…!!!…

I told her (again) that we were having a sleepover and she needed to go night-night.  That seemed to do the trick, although she stayed in the big bed.

I still didn't sleep very well after that.  More than once, Keelie did something she must do in her crib... she stood nearly straight up and then flipped so that her head and feet changed places... without waking up.  I had to make sure she didn't fall off of the bed.

Keelie gets to spend time at the Disneyland Resort, especially California Adventure, mostly playing as she isn’t ready for rides and shows that get dark and noisy.

Here she is in a water play area, getting thoroughly soaked.

And, getting ready to go down a slide.

We celebrated her second birthday there, and rested in a room at Disney’s Grand California Hotel (thanks, Nanny).  Here’s Keelie trying to order room service, with her cousin Macon taking notes.

Who is that girl in the mirror?

Resting with Nanny at Nanny’s crib…

Looking cute…

One of her activities…

Work is going well. I’m keeping very busy, though our work usually isn’t as high profile as the previous Department I represented. Sometimes I will make a note on my individual blog when I make it into the news.

I keep doing work here and there for LaughingPlace.com and TheDisneyBlog.com.

Thanks for checking in with us. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail us at KEPellman[at]yahoo[dot[com]. Let us know how you are and what you have been doing.

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!

Marching On

Well, here we are again.

Life has been rather quiet, which is good.

Keelie had to deal with a cough for a long time, in addition to other sickness symptoms here and there. She impressed her doctor with her language development, and her growth is good.

Kori has "popped" already, with her belly showing signs of Keelie’s sibling.

We are slowly but surely doing little projects around the house.

Kori and I celebrated the fifth anniversary of our first date, which is our alternative to dealing with the Valentine's Day craziness. Looking back, it looks like things happened so quickly - which they did. Thankfully, things have been good.

We all celebrated Mardi Gras over at Puma & Granddaddy's, where Keelie made sure to put on every strand of beads (dozens) she could find, and then methodically took them off one by one, before she tried to put them all back on again.

Here's a picture I snapped during one of the local toddler-parent meet-ups.

And here are a couple of good pictures of Keelie...

I wish I could bottle up toddler energy and toddler fury and sell it. You parents know what I'm talkin'bout.

Still no haircut for the little princess.

Can you spot the candy in this shot?

Keelie loves to climb things. She enjoys the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail at Disney's California Adventure, and I got these pictures on a recent trip there.

Nanny, Mommie, and Keelie.

And here's Keelie crawling towards Daddy.

And as far as the pregnancy... here's an ultrasound image of Kringle, complete with hand up to the face.

We were only eleven weeks along during this appointment, and we do not have a definite answer on whether Keelie will be getting a brother or a sister. It is always easier to make out features during the live ultrasound, as the baby moves around. The still images are more like Rorschach tests, aren't they?

The ultrasound sessions are always a treat, even if we aren't as nervous as we were with the first pregnancy. Kringle seems to be doing well.

Go on to the next entry to see three recent video clips of Keelie.

Thanks for stopping by again and please let us know what you are up to. You can always leave a comment here, or send us an e-mail at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Also, you can find us on Facebook (and even MySpace) - the links are in the right column of the blog.

Recent Videos of Keelie

Here are three recent video clips of Keelie.

Quite often, when the camera comes out, Keelie stops doing whatever it was that go us excited enough to whip out the camera in the first place.

This first clip, from back in January, is the first time we caught her on tape saying both "Daddy" and "Mommie" instead of only signing (ASL) the terms.



Keelie likes the strange noises Daddy can make when he claps and makes a face. There's a little bit of that at the start of this video, and then...

I really needed a haircut. I finally got one. More importantly, Keelie recognizes and says letters now, whether we are signing them to her, or whether she see's them on a sign as we're driving. Going past McDonald's elecits an "EMmmmmmm".

This is Keelie enjoying some play time at Disney's California Adventure.

She can't get enough of slides, and she doesn't let anything or anyone stand in her way when she wants to get to the top of a slide. At the end of the short clip, she starts to run back to get back up on the slide. Every major family theme park needs what is known as a "soft play" area for the kids. It lets the kids work off some energy.

Settling In to the New Year

Greetings once again from Anaheim.

Actually, that photo above is from a trip to Nanny's in Pasadena, where Keelie had fun decorating a gingerbread man.

The biggest news from us lately was what we reported in our previous blog entry - that we're expecting our second baby. Other than that, we've been settling in to the new year. As she should, Keelie has been getting more expressive with her words and signs.

She LOVES playing with water - to the point of wanting to go outside in the rain. She had been protesting her showers, but when she realized that it was another chance to play in the water, she started to ask for them again. She'd readily jump into any body of water if she could - fountains, puddles... you name it.

We played it cool for the New Year celebration. In fact, here's a shot of Keelie from that evening...

Keelie enjoys having me chase her around the furniture in the living room. If I stop, she will come back to me, grab my finger, and drag me until I start to chase her again.

We've been enjoying short trips to the Disneyland Resort - one of the perks of living so close to the place in Anaheim.

Keelie hasn't had a haircut yet, so we usually put her hair up.

Here she is chilling at Minnie's house.

She will sign for Mickey and Minnie Mouse, whether she sees them in person or on artwork in our place. She was happy to have some one-on-one time with the Big Cheese.

She notes Mickey's nose...

Mickey found her cute enough to eat...

We celebrated Kori's birthday with her family, and broke the news of the pregnancy to them.

That shirt says "I'm going to be a big cousin in August" on the front. But on the back it says "And a big sister in September!" That was how we broke the news. Yup, things are going to to very interesting around here this summer.

Here's Keelie doing her best Elton John...

She likes playing the piano, as her favorite animated character is a piano player, too.

She also likes playing with glasses.

Kori reads a birthday card...

Here we are together. Keelie had a bit of boo-boo under her lip.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures yet...

Kori's father has always taken good pictures.

Keelie has nine actual aunts and uncles nearby, plus cousins Blaine (when he is back in town from college) and Macon, all of whom pay her a lot of attention... and that's in addition to all of her grandparents.

She usually doesn't mind being the center of attention.

Here she is with Aunt Kirby...

I'm glad we actually caught Keelie smiling on camera a few times.

In addition to having me chase her around, Keelie also likes being taken for a ride... on a sheet of cardboard, or dragged in a cardboard box, or being swung around in a cardboard box.

I should do this for exercise...

If anyone from the Downy company is reading this, you can send us a check for this publicity.

I tire of it long before Keelie, of course.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by again and please let us know what you are up to. You can always leave a comment here, or send us an e-mail at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com. Also, you can find us on Facebook (and even MySpace) - the links are in the right column of the blog.