Week Off!

Cameron had last week off and we did lots of things. We decided to travel around the surrounding areas of Portland and explore. Since moving here we have been to a lot of places and have see much, but there were still places on our list. Last week to got a few of check marks added to the list.

We went to the Bradbury State Park.

 

Check out that view!

We went to Willard Beach.

Kelton is looking at his Mama.

The sound of the crushing waves was so pleasant.

We had Kelton's first birthday party!

 

First cupcake.

Happy Birthday, Kelton!

And Kelton did some awesome things of his own.
He crawled into a box

He enjoyed a book with Daddy

 

Put his blanket over his head. He does this all the time. And not always with just a blanket. He loves to put his clothes or soft toys behind or on top of his head .

He was just cute.

Put a toe hole in his sleeper

Started to grow some serious hair

And, most importantly, overcame his fear of the grass! ...Oh and he also turned one.
Kelton also loves to dance. Whenever he hears music he starts shaking his head and bottom too. He talks a lot. His most common "phrases" are: "da, da, da", "ssss, ssss," "ah, ah, ah", "bda, bda", "nan, nan, nan", "hee, hee, hee,", "ma, ma, ma", "aza pt". His physical development has been highlighted by him becoming an advanced chair-walker. He has also learned to climb up on the couch by putting his leg over. At first he would wait for us to be next to it so that he could then step up on our feet to get on the couch. But now he doesn't need us anymore because he has figured out how to thrust his legs up. He is also learning how to get off of the couch. He puts his arms out and lets the carpet catch him. It is amazing how he is just so interested in things and doesn't let any fear stop him in learning.

11 Months Already

Kelton is 11 months today. It is amazing to see him grow and learn. I just want to say that he is the joy of our lives and we love him to pieces.

Some developments:

• Kelt is now an advanced crawler.
• He has learned to make the tooting sounds with his lips and tongue. I must say that he learned that from my dad through Skype. He is just such a smart boy of mine.
• He is cruzing a lot and we are waiting with the most anticipation for him to start walking.
• He is even more aware of things now. Because of this he doesn't take naps in public anymore. It's just too distracting to him. He would rather interact with people and giggle.
• He has started following us around the apartment. He loves to be in the kitchen when I cook and just watch me. He also loves to crawl on Cameron a lot. And I mean a LOT. He just loves to crawl back and forth across his Daddy.
• He had his first ear infection. We wouldn't even know about it if it wasn't for his ear picking. He is just such a happy baby and always sleeps through the night that it is hard to tell when he is sick.
• Kelton makes a lot of different noises. He can make "a", "b", "s", "v", "d", and others. It always impresses me how he can make all kinds of different sounds in interchanging order.
• He waves! He is so cute about it too. There have been times when he waved to people in the store or at a restaurant.
• He makes people around him happy. One day I was putting him into the car and he was giggling really loudly. A woman was just getting out of her car as she heard Kelt making joyful sounds. She came up to us and thanked Kelton for making her day.
• He weighs close to if not more then 25 pounds.
• He loves to play with other older kids. A friend from the ward babysat him while Cameron and I went on a date. Her two kids loved Kelton because he is just so awesome! She also said that he is very easy to watch. (He is happy all the time, I tell you).

First Swing

Today we took Kelton out on his first swing! He loved it!

Here is the first go. He is already showing his teeth!

I just love his giggles.

"Mama, don't worry I won't fall out."

Here, he is carefully examining the rubber to ensure his safety...or the taste.

Birthday

I am now 25!! I don't feel any different, probably because I have been saying that I am 25 ever since the year started. I always do this by the way. But I must say that I also try to be more specific and say that it is my 25th year. So that it's less confusing because "technically" I wasn't 25 until now.  Anyway, I had a fun day with my husband, adorable baby and some friends.

Here I am on a birthday walk with my family.

 We played some games and had tons of sweats. I really mean TON. I like sugar, but on my birthday I think I might have gone just a little overboard. I know this to be a fact because I could not have any more sugary treats for a few days afterwards. And that does not happen very often.

Party!

The game that I think most people enjoyed playing was the story writing game. It goes like this: A person starts a story and then passes the paper on to the next person. This next person then read what the first on wrote and adds on to the story. The second person then folds over what the first person wrote and passes the paper on to the third person so that they cannot see what the first person wrote. And it goes on and on until the paper is filled. It was so funny to read the stories at the end. Everyone in the group were very creative and there were many writers born. Just kidding, but I think that if any of us ever have a midlife crisis, taking up writing might be just the thing to do.

Playing "Psychiatrist"

Here are a few of the stories, the three best gems if you will (I wrote them in different fonts to show where the paper was traded up):

There once was a small blueberry named Terdle. He was very happy and very blue, and he lived in Maine.One day he decided to change his name so he grabbed his huge glass eyeball. He couldn't see his future, so he grabbed a cloth to wipe the glass eyeball off. He put it back where he got it, and heard a voice say "How did you get in my home!?!" "Uh?!" he stammered. "The back door was left open and I had a desire to set fire, and I was for hire, sire. So badabing, badaboom!! How did you get in here good sir?" he said back to the voice. He didn't understand the riddle, so he just shrugged. What could he mean? But was the question worth learning? "Was it about the destination or the journey?" he thought. Light entered the young mind like the scent of an orange going forth amongst the crowds.

There once was a yellered bellied gnome (actually he was part gnome and part whale). He wanted to be just like everyone else, but that was impossible because of his whale genes. He just wanted to swim! He could hold his breath for hours! And the eerie moans and groans he made were just his way of communicating! He put his skills to good use and swam and caught fish the size of birthday balloons, so he could feed his family. The fish was so large, he had to fashion a sledge to drag it upon. When he returned, his family shunned him for his lack of strength and affinity building sledges. "Ah drat!" he thought. This was the second time he failed his family's expectations in one day! Wiggling his nose he fought off the tears of despear and looked in his book. It was a magical book and he turned the pages faster and faster. The dust from each page covered his eyes, then his ears and nostrils, he began sneezing and sneezing...he's still sneezing.

When the clock struck midnight, Johnny got out of bed fully dressed and snuck out the window. It was the coldest, wettest, most delirious night of all nights. But Johnny has a secret and he was warm. And when Johnny's body temperature increased he couldn't lie. The hotter he got the more... Sour candy he wanted. His mouth was watering really bad. He had to use lots of towels to wipe off the puddle of spit on the floor. And when he was finished the floor was shinny. Shinny like something familiar, he realized. Shiny like a newly waxed dance floor!!! A disco tune started up in his mind. He broke out a move unannounced. There was a reporter who saw him dance, who reported it in the news, and a dancing career was started! He soon was on a world tour. Sadly, a fellow dancer, who was jealous hired someone to hit him in the leg with a pipe.

Easter

As it turns out, the holidays are way more fun when you have kids of your own. This Easter we got really into it. We even went on an Easter egg hunt. Kelton, on the other hand, didn't get all into it. As a matter of fact, he couldn't wait to get out of it. And by that I mean, he couldn't wait to not be around grass anymore. We found out pretty quick that he hates grass. The moment we put him down on the grass so that he could pick up an egg with candy, he started screaming. It wasn't a scream that he does when he is just annoyed. No, this was a full-lung-capacity kind of a scream. The kind that makes people turn and see which limb we were trying to cut off.

Here he is about to start screaming. But he looks sharp in his sweater!

It was pretty sad, but he is just so cute when he cries that we couldn't stop admiring his cuteness at the same time. Once we gave him an egg, he got happy again. His reaction to the grass is something that tells us that he is developing more and more every day. He is finally starting to develop real emotions and feelings for things and people. He is 10 months now after all.

And he is happy again!
 

That same day we went on a little hike in the neighborhoods. The weather is getting warmer and we are loving it more and more!

 Kelton really likes going on walks and hikes. We are blessed to have such a baby! As he grows up I hope that we will be able to join him in his favorite activities as he continues to join us in ours. He is very interested in his surroundings and always looks up at the trees and the sky. I remember even when he was  a little baby, he liked to look up at the tree branches and examine them. I always point out birds to him when we are outside. And Maine sure has lots of birds! My goal has been to learn the bird calls and I am getting good at it. Kelton and I can now recognize a few birds when we hear them. I love my boy! He is such a wonderful baby.

Kelton is Nine months

Here we are in Cape Elisabeth.

I dedicate this post to Kelton. I cannot believe how fast time flies. Just like yesterday I had a baby who I called a blob. He couldn't do anything for himself except to cry when he wanted something. It is hard to imagine him being so helpless. In the last month he took a few very big milestones. He now crawls, sits up, and pulls himself up to standing. He is everywhere now, but I really like this stage because he can help himself in so many ways. And because of that he is just so happy all the time. He really is the happiest baby!

"Check out my tong!"

Some interesting facts:

• Kelt's favorite toy is a pillow
• His second favorite toy is a door
• His favorite activities include bathing, going on walks, and eating

Here he is modeling his sweater that I made him.

• He is finally starting to say the "M" sound
• He waves his hand now and we are teaching him the meaning of waving "hello" and "goodbye"
• He is still is size 3 diapers, which has probably been the longest that he has been in the same diaper size ever.

• Some days he tries to skip his morning and evening naps and only wants to take a long afternoon nap like a toddler. He is growing way too fast. Slow down baby. You are just a baby still and don't you even think that you can just wake up one morning and stop being my baby and become a toddler. Some day it will happen, but not yet.
• His cry has changed again. He only has two cry tones now. One when he is hurt which is a high pitched cry. And another one when he is tired which is his "I am annoyed at something type of cry". And well actually there is a third one for when he is hungry, but that one is less of a cry and more of a grunting mixed with some "ah" sounds. 

• He know wears size 12 months clothes
• He loves playing "peek-a-boo"
• He loves talking to his relatives on Skype. This includes Grandma and Grandpa McCombs, Grandma Ana, Grandpa Sasha, and Aunt Tanya and Cousin Daniel. 
• People at church love to hold him. He never cries around new people. He loves everybody. 

• Anywhere I go strangers always comment on what a gorgeous and well-behaved baby he is
• Kelton's favorite word still remains to be "dizzzzzy". He really likes the "z" sound, it makes him giggle. 
• He is fearless. He is not afraid of balls or dogs. Or heights or insects or anything... 
• He loves his Mama and Papa very much!!

Valentine's Day

This was Kelton's first Valentine's Day and we had lots of fun with him. We knew that we wanted to go out to eat, but here in Portland it seems to be impossible to pick a place to eat. There are just too many places to eat. Something like "more places to eat per person than in any other place in the states" dilemma. So after careful thinking and hours of research on line. Yes, hours, we take our eating out experiences very seriously. We don't let ourselves eat out very often, so when we do, it has to be a good experience. And this is why we decided that there is no better place to enjoy our day of love celebration than to go to the tried and true Olive Garden. Our time there was highlighted by Kelton's extreme friendliness. And this time it wasn't the best thing to do. Here is what happened. Right before our main courses were served an older couple was seated next to us. The second the husband passed our table, Kelton started staring at him. At first it was very fun and the wife even made a joke of how Kelton is a mini-me of her husband. They both have bald heads and big bellies. But after the first minute I started trying to get Kelt's attention. We even rotated his child seat towards us, but he moved his legs over the bars and rotated himself around just to continue staring. This lasted way too long. It was funny, actually very funny and the couple agreed. They loved Kelton, just as everyone does. To remember the night of uncomfortableness, they took pictures and video of Kelton. So if you see a video of him on-line be sure to let us know. We want a fair share of the profit. 

Earlier in the day I had a Valentine's Day party at Brenna Fowler's house. We decorated cookies and I had lots of fun talking to other moms. It is just so wonderful to have people around who know exactly what you are going through. Anyway, I brought Cameron some of the cookies and he loved them!

And the Winter Has Begun

We had our true New England winter experience recently. It all started with the coming of a, in the words of the weather forecasters, "historic snow storm". I will be honest, I never believe the forecasts. I have had way too many experiences to know that they are only right about 5% of the time, which to me is not big enough percentage to bet my money on any predictions. I even have the chatty Dollar Store cashier to back me up on this one. I must first say that the previous hike up of a storm was before Hurricane Sandy and all we got was a little wind. So according to the chatty cashier this happens all the time, she would know because apparently she lived all her life in Maine. So as I was checking out at her line a day or so before Nemo (that's what the storm was named) hit, she assured me that only rarely do the storms really hit as hard as they predict. I eagerly agreed because that has been my experience as well. Little did I know that Nemo fell into the 5% accurate prediction zone. It was the storm to set a new record of over 30 inches of snow in one storm in Portland. It really was a horrible storm with 6 states declaring a state of emergency, flights were cancelled, schools had snow days, and our balcony on the third floor had over 5 feet of snow on it from the wind gusts. But with every snow storm comes a great work out. Cameron was the one to take advantage of it this last time. I am a big fan of shoveling, but we only have one little shovel that fits in our trunk and so it becomes a one-man job.

The pile of snow was almost as high as I am. It kept getting taller as the storm continued.

At the end of it all, we had so much fun seeing a tremendous amount of snow. It made us very grateful for a warm apartment, food, electricity, and warm clothes.And I must also say just how impressed I am with the Mainers for cleaning the roads very fast. The day after the storm we were out and about driving and going places.
After the storm, the weather has been getting into the 40s which feels warm here. Kelt and I have been taking advantage of it by going on walks. I have been using the Ergo Baby carrier a lot lately because it is a lot more convenient to walk with it than with the stroller on the thin snow plowed sidewalks. They are only as wide as the plow, which is not wide enough for the stroller. My love for the carrier has increased with these cold days. Having Kelton so close to me makes us both warmer and I can talk to him a lot easier. 

I love it when Kelton wears clothes that I have knitted him. This green jacket looks so adorable on him and makes me think back to before he was born and how anxious I was to meet him.

Here is Munchkin and me right before one of our walks.

Kelton has grown a lot in the past month. Probably the most amount of development in the shortest time period that he has even accomplished. He crawls, more like an "army crawl", but crawling nonetheless. He can sit up all his own. As a matter of fact, earlier this week I observed Kelt trying to sit up all day long and when Cameron came home from school I told him to watch Kelton closely in case he sits up. And what do you know, but that that same evening he sat up all on his own. I just love it when our Buddy demonstrates new skills when Cameron and I are both home. He has a funny way of doing it, too. He starts at being on his belly then he pushes himself backwards and gets on his hands and knees. He then proceeds with walking his hands backwards which often times results in him crawling backwards (with his belly off the ground) until his hands reach his knees. From here it's like watching a new kitten walk for the first time. He is sure, but has to catch himself. He knows exactly what he is doing, but when he finally sits up there is a spark of nuisance in his laughter. Oh that laughter of his! It is the most delicious noise in the whole universe. I have recently noticed that Kelton doesn't "gargle" his sounds anymore, but now has a very sharp and high pitched sound repertoire. Though his new voice development and by far the funniest is grunting. He started doing it when he wants his bottle or a certain toy that I have taken away because it has a potential of harming him, i.e. pieces of his board books that he so very much loves to chew on. He has gotten very strong, strong enough to rip pages off of his board books and then chew on them of course. 

Winter Holidays

I am a little, well maybe even a lot, late on this post, but I finally have the time to do it. I decided that it is always better late than never. Here is the recap of our holidays. First of all let's talk about Christmas. We spent it at my sister's house in New York City. To be more exact she lives on Staten Island in a very nice area. None of the bad neighborhoods that I seem to always have an imaged in my head of every time we talk about NYC. We first drove to Vermont to my mom's house and then all drove down to New York. It was supposed to take us 6 hours to get there, but it took us a whole 9 hours. Now that is a big discrepancy, wouldn't you say? Well, it turned out that our luck brought us to the heart of the city at around 6 pm and it was only a few days before Christmas, so traffic was beyond horrible. Much, much worse then just any bad traffic congestion  We were only a few miles away, maybe about 20 miles only and it took us hours to get to Staten Island. It wasn't the most fun of the trips that we have taken, but on the positive note, we have the most amazing baby in the world who did just fine with being in the car for so long. And that fact made the trip a lot easier.

Once we got there, we just enjoyed ourselves the whole time we were there. My sister had a very pretty Christmas tree up and I was happy that Kelton could enjoy a Christmas tree for his first Christmas. That boy just loved opening presents. I honestly didn't think that he would like it all that much, but he loved it! It was so fun watching him open them. His face would get the concentrated look as he reached for the package and carefully pulled on the wrapping paper. After a present was all unwrapped Kelton would open his mouth as wide as he could because whatever he was getting had to first get into his mouth. He likes to examine his toys with his mouth first and then pull them out in front of him by stretching his little arms as far as he can and look at them from the distance. He makes me laugh so often. 

While in New York we took a trip to Manhattan. We first took a ferry and then numerous trains. It's a huge place. I mean everything is huge. For example, department stores are three or four times of the size that I am used to. The ferry had two stories on it, instead of one that I have ridden on before. There are so many people that for the first time since being in the States I though about the possibility of me getting behind the group and getting lost. But we liked it nonetheless.

We saw this pretty lady while on our ferry ride.

Cousins, a.k.a. best friends for life. 

Central Park!  Notice that there is no snow on the ground. 

Kelt loves presents!

Guess what I knitted for Cam? 

Kelton got a crib from Grandpa and Grandma McCombs for Christmas. He loves playing "peek-a-boo". 

Next holiday to mention is New Year. We were back in Portland. And it was nice to celebrate the coming of the new year in our home. We hosted a New Year party. We just love to host. There is nothing more fun for us than to prepare food and treats for friends and then entertain and get to know people better.
For me personally, last year was very eventful. The most wonderful of all events was the birth of our wonderful son. I can't even believe that he wasn't a part of our family for forever. It seems like the life before him never even happened. And of course another major event was moving across the country. We are excited for the new year and what it will bring to us. Good or bad we always make the best of it all. That is something that I love about how our marriage works. Cameron and I always try our best to be happy no matter where we are, no matter what we are going through. That single decision to have happiness and joy always, I think makes all the difference in the world. It makes me not worry about the future because we will always make it all work out.

My happy 7 month old. I just love this boy of mine so much!

Party! 

And here are some updates on Kelt. He is now eating finger foods.

He loves to eat! This boy is so quick to learn. He was already putting food in his mouth and chewing it the very first time I showed him how it's done.

He is now 8 months! He has 1 tooth and has gotten his belly off the floor. We are waiting with the most anticipation for him to start crawling  But I won't lie I think that it will take him a few more months because he just rolls to where he needs to go. At the same time I know that it will get a lot harder to keep him out of things once he starts to crawl. I make sure that I enjoy this time of limited mobility.

Here is my 8 month old with his Daddy. 

We are really starting to see Kelt's personality now that he is older. He is so easy to play with and he loves to play by himself too. He lets us know when he is happy and when he needs something. He is so observant. We get comments from people all the time about just how observant he is. It is another way that he shows how smart he is. My favorite activity to do with him is the imitation game. He loves it too. I often start by smacking my lips together and then he follows. Then I switch to a sound and wait for Kelt to copy me. He is so funny when he stops if I do a sound that he hasn't heard before and very carefully watches my lips and tong. Then after a few tries he makes the sound and giggles. He is my most adorable baby in the world!