Fourth of July and other random things

Peanutbutter goes great on both Cheerios and Ritz- mmmm!

KP  doing a little light reading in his pool floatie and then wearing Presley's dress at grandma's.

We visited shelter gardens on the third after getting some goodies at the farmer's market for our fourth of July dinner.

Here's Kieran at a Independence day parade in Jefferson City. He had this look on his face the entire time- well until the end when the fire trucks blared their sirens and he cried as he clung to mama like a distressed kola.

The first photo is Kieran eating a typical lunch of fruit, tuna salad and goldfish- I love the way he holds one hand up while the other one sorts his food) The next two photos were taken at story time at the Columbia public library- Kieran is sporting his adorable green seer-sucker overalls and hat- which made some of the older children think he was a girl- guess it's time to put away the super-cutsie baby clothes in favor of the more boyish toddler wear- sigh ): Mommy thought he was adorable!

These photos were taken of KP while we were shopping at Toys R Us- notice how he eats his Ritz crackers by shoving the entire thing in his mouth and then removing pieces as he attempts to chew it ;)

This last, rather creepy photo, of my left eye shows me wearing a contact lens... why you might ask? Well apparently contact lens are the perfect eye-band-aid. Why do might I need a band-aid on my eyeball? Because Kieran scratched my cornea whilst playing the game "where's mommy's nose?!" It was excruciating and terribly annoying as well since I couldn't keep my eyes open because of all the pain. Thank goodness for patient, gentle and knowledgeable ophthalmologists! FYI- The doctor says they see more accidents like this than one might think ;-o

Kieran is walking (finally!)

For those of you who keep track, Kieran is indeed finally walking and has been for a couple weeks now. The transition from crawling has been a slow one, with lots of cruising and hand-holding along the way, but he is officially walking (short distances) on his own now- YAY BIG BOY!!!

Early June...

We've been hanging out at grandma/grandpa's a lot the last week or so since daddy's at work and because they have such cool stuff to play with! Here, KP is cooling off in the basement after taking a little dip in the baby-pool outside.

More fun with sunglasses! Both Presley and Kieran are starting to figure out that sunglasses are actually kinda' fun to wear... here they are sporting their cool shades ;)

Kieran LOVES visiting grandma Sandy's house... she always has lots of yummy food and she lets him play with it too! Here KP is tearing into a red-velvet cupcake and some cool-whip... mmm!!!

Grocery shopping has become an adventure recently as we have more time to relax and enjoy the trip! We have been going in the morning to HyVee for breakfast and then tooling around the store in their fun car-carts- which of course KP absolutely LOVES!

After all the fun Kieran's been having with mommy and daddy, he naps well ;)

Kieran's first haircut!

Okay... so not the first time scissors have touched his golden locks... but the first "real" haircut performed by a professional with shears rather than by mommy with fingernail scissors!
Kieran did great and so did Auntie Shannon! I was a bit worried when we put him in the highchair and he threw a huge, kicking and screaming fit- figured this haircut wasn't going to happen... but then we gave him a Graham Cracker and turned on some random cartoon and ta-da! KP was entranced and didn't hardly move at all and he got a great cut! Thanks Auntie Shannon for the big-boy-do and thanks to grandma for letting us make a hairy, cracker-crumb mess on her kitchen floor!

Kieran's first trip to the ZOO!!

Today we ventured to the St.Louis Zoo for one of our first family mini-vacations! We started out early and were on the road by 6:30 (which means mom and dad had to get up by five to get everything ready and that's pretty early for summer break!). We went through a McDonalds drive through for a not so healthy but oh so delicious breakfast and two hours later we were parking at the zoo! Kieran slept most of the way there- which was great and what we had hoped for- leaving him refreshed and ready to go when we arrived.

Here's mommy and KP with a hyena which is mauling a gruesome looking leg bone... scary! This is actually one of our only shots with the animals but we really did see some pretty cool beasties while were there- just forgot to get the camera out! Kieran saw elephants, giraffes, bears, rhinos, monkeys, big cats, zebras, camels, penguins, puffins, stingrays and a random assortment of other super cool birds and animals during his first visit. He really liked looking at all the animals but was especially impressed with the leaping monkeys and long-necked giraffes- probably because he got a chance to see these animals pretty close up and in action!

We stopped by the petting zoo and KP and mommy got to love on the gentle and sweet goats that reside there- brings back memories of my own childhood ;)

The zoo has a super-cool and really BIG carousel that we of course had to ride! Once again, KP was a bit reluctant to sit on an animal so we settled for a bench- but he loved looking at all the animals, kids and lights- great fun!

The biggest hit by far for Kieran was the cho-cho train! He already loved trains before we went- one of his favorite sounds/words has been "doot'\-doot" for the past month- but riding on an actual (although small) train truly sealed the deal! We road all around the park and Kieran was perfectly behaved the entire time (other than having to wait for 15 minutes to board)- he LOVED it! He even made friends with a fellow train enthusiast while on board!
We left the zoo around 1:30 and within ten minutes Kieran passed out in the back seat and didn't wake until Kingdom city when we stopped for gas. What a great trip and wonderful first visit to the zoo. The weather was great, cool and over cast and the crowds were very manageable... we will for sure go back and soon!

Hanging out with Grandpa R and Kimi!

Kieran had a great time hangin' with Grandpa R and Kimi Sunday to celebrate daddy's birthday. As you can see, Kieran always finds things to keep him occupied! From daddy's old toys to Grandpa's golf stuff to Kimi's giant teddy bears- there was lots of fun to be had! Thanks to Grandpa R for returning some of Rick's childhood toys- such as this cool wheel-barrel as well as an adorable, child-sized wood rocking chair that plays music when it's rocked! Thanks also to Kimi for the AWESOME meal- shrimp and pea Alfredo from scratch- mmmm!!