Looooong time no see!

It's been awhile since last I blogged and I have some catching up to do! But first, an excuse... perhaps flimsy but at least a reason for the big delay in this post. Our computer was in the shop- something to do with a fan and so it was sent off to the place where computers are fixed and we were without my blogging laptop for a couple weeks. But it's back now and so I am going to combine what would have been three or four posts in to one big one and then try to keep up from now on!
So first on today's post- Presely's 1 year birthday party at my parents. It was a lot of fun- sort of a replay of Kieran's what with the pizza, cake and family/friends... but with lots and lots of PINK! Presley was a little doll in her spotted sun dress and later her pink tutu. Kieran and she had lots of fun playing with all her gifts- in fact Kieran wasn't completely convinced that some of the things didn't belong to him ;) Presley loved her cake- who doesn't love sugar- especially pink sugar?! Thanks to grandma and grandpa for putting together another fun and memorable birthday for the grandkids!
The outside pics are from Kieran's 13 month birthday. KP LOVES to be outside, playing in the dirt with grandpa or blowing bubbles with mom and dad- doesn't matter to him- he just wants to be out! As you can see he is growing again- he seems taller and a bit leaner, more and more like the little boy he is destined to become. He still isn't walking unassisted yet but he takes a lot of steps holding hands and cruising around furniture and walls. He stands from a seated position by himself pretty well now- but those first independent steps have yet to come- however I am sure they are just around the corner!
Kieran hasn't added any new words recently to his vocabulary- I think he is too busy concentrating on this walking thing. In fact most things are now "da" or "dada"- much to Rick's delight ;) He is eating more and more finger foods as mommy eases up on her terrible fear of choking-just a little ;)
We have spent the past few weekends with family a lot and some with friends. We visit grandma/grandpa every weekend and love to play outside- grandpa has even let Kieran ride in the wheel barrel which he isn't too sure he likes but it's cute anyway. This past weekend grandpa was working in his flower bed and when Kieran came out to see what he was up to, grandpa put KP's feet in the dirt and buried them! Kieran thought this was great fun and proceeded to kick the dirt everywhere- too cute!

A couple weekends ago we had a garage sale, which kept us busy all spring break as we prepared. Lori and Jesse were nice enough to host the sale in their yard. We sold a ton of stuff- it was great to get the basement and closets cleaned out. All of this of course is in preparation for our eventual move. Rick has been busy working in the yard- getting it in better shape for curb appeal. We have also begun packing away things like books and frames to make the house seem larger, less cluttered and more like a "hotel room" as has been suggested to us to increase our chances of selling. It's been strange packing away things that I know we won't see for a year or more but it's also nice to open up the house a little and declutter as well.
I have been busy looking for day care for Kieran for next fall as Sheila is retiring. No luck yet but we have our name on a few wait lists and I have seen a couple in homes as well. I think finding care for Kieran has been one of the hardest choices we have had to make so far. It is such a big deal- letting someone else care for and basically raise your child while you are at work. Talk about guilt. And when we finally get comfortable with someone, we have to change and do it all over. We are taking suggestions, so if anyone knows anyone or can recommend an in-home or center, we would love the advice.

Rhythm and rhyme time!

We took Kieran to the Daniel Boone Library in Columbia today for his first "class"... rhythm and rhyme time! First off I would like to say that despite the rather horrid exterior, Columbia's public library is pretty awesome on the inside! We particularly love the strange, green tiled, dome-shaped room in which the children's classes are held... very Oz-esque! I think our teacher's name was Emily and she was full of energy and excitement and that helped put us stiff and anxious parents at ease- of course the babies were ready to rock right away! And speaking of babies- there were a lot there and some pretty darned cute ones too- we really loved Itzel- a little blond haired elf like girl- very cute! Kieran didn't notice the other kiddos too much- he was too interested in crawling around, dancing to the tunes and mouthing anything and everything he could get his little hands on! Today's theme was rain- so of course we all sang the itsy bitsy spider and Kieran thought that was pretty cool. He also liked the bubbles at the end and the chance to just "jam" and play with some plastic food. After our time at the library we headed over for some Indian food downtown and then stopped by Triathletics for some new kicks for mommy- time to get back into that whole running thing again (hopefully!). A good time was had by all... next on the spring break agenda... the Youzeum...

First marks made...

Wow... this has been a momentous day for Kieran... first "thank you" and waving good bye caught on tape and now his very first scribbles go down in the history book as well! What a great March evening! We are so proud of you KP- you are such a smart, beautiful and amazing little boy! (oh and Kieran says his name now too- "Kay-Kay"!)

A messy "thank you"

Here is proof positive that Kieran can indeed say "thank you". Also this is visual evidence that we do try to feed him "healthy" food- avocado, spinach, lentils and sweet potatoes are all over his face!

This and that...

There are a few changes going on in Kieran's life right now or coming up so I thought I would share.

First off, on the language front... our PAT Alla visited last night and wants us to keep track of Kieran's vocabulary so here goes...
Dog, kitty cat, hello, thank you, mama, dada, baba, car, choo-choo, mmmm (a stretch but he uses it when he's eating so I think it counts!)
So far I think that's it. Of course none of these words sound very clear but he says them none the less. We don't hear baba, car or choo-choo very often but he can say them. We are going to work on parts of the body, simple every day objects and animals this month and see what we can accomplish. KP for sure understands a lot more than he can say, which is so cool that he knows what we are telling him some of the times now and can respond.

Moving on to well... moving on! Kieran stood up unassisted Tuesday night, twice. We were standing around watching the baby (a favorite past time) and suddenly, without warning or provocation, Kieran just stood up without holding on to anything! He held it for mere moments but all the same, he did it! It's like some light went off in his giant baby head and suddenly realized that he could stand on two legs, just like all the big people in his life. He is also crusing a lot more now and crawls less and less to get places. I think we will be seeing walking within the next month or so... will keep you posted!

Now on to how Kieran spends his days... I had mentioned in an earlier post that KP had friends at Sheila's- well that didn't last long as they have transferred to a different daycare so Kieran is on his own again and I think he is just fine with that! Sadly though, we were informed this week that our beloved Sheila is retiring and will not be caring for Kieran next year... uh oh... now what?! Back to the childcare trenches trying to sleuth out the best possible fit for our little man.

So we are stuck again between center and home. I am sooooo glad we went with an in-home for Kieran's first year- he was barely sick and he had so much one on one love and nurturing. Ideally, we would have liked to have kept him with Sheila for another year (sigh). But I am not sure we want to go with a new in home now that he is becoming more interactive and mobile, he might like having friends around and more structure... so that leads me to think a center may be in our future. But then I still worry about the germs and the sleeping situation... We are really interested in a local Montessori school here but they don't accept children before they are 2 1/2 so that's not an option this year. We will keep you up-to-date on what we decide and if anyone has good references or suggestions we would love to hear about them!

That was a rather long post... lot's going on in the life of Kieran Rother. Spring break is coming up so we will be out and about more with the little man- look for lots of undoubtedly adorable pics to come! BTW- the pics in this post were taken at nana/papa's house- Kieran is enjoying one of his new blocks- he just loves to stack!

Slàinte (aka "cheers"!)

Happy St. Patty's day a bit late from Kieran and family! Notice that he was sporting his shamrock bib and that there are actual shamrocks behind our little Irishman (thanks grandma Sandy)! Also notice the breakfast smeared across KP's forehead... he decided to wear his oats Wednesday morning, rather than eat them! This is why we try to avoid self feeding before daycare and save it for the evenings, right before bath-time! But apparently Kieran had other ideas because he ended up with both the helper spoon and the actual eating spoon and then proceeded to smear his yogurt/fruit/oats mix on his forehead! Luckily I had a camera handy and was able to quickly capture the moment before he used the food as a styling product! Slàinte!

The first birthday party!

What a wonderful day!!!

Thank you so much to our wonderful families for their generosity, time and love today!

Kieran's first birthday was a smashing success and a good time was had by all! From the spider cake to the fun gifts to the Kieran slide show to our great company and delicious food... everything was perfect!

No major meltdowns from either of the babies (or mommy!), plenty to eat, the cake turned out great, everyone made it and most importantly Kieran seemed to have a wonderful time!

One of the best parts was watching Kieran demolish his first cupcake... I am not sure if he got much in his mouth but he sure did have a fun time playing with it and making a great big mess! Hopefully the blue frosting will come off his cute Itsy Bitsy Spider shirt Grandma Sandy had embroidered for him- we want to wear it again!

As you can see, KP had so much fun he passed out cold on the way home... mommy stopped mid-way through unlatching him to snap a quick photo of our sleepy little one-year-old tuckered out in his car seat... soooo tired!

Happy first birthday little one, we all love you very, very much.