The Magic House!

So this first picture is not from the Magic House, but it seemed to go along with the theme- it was taken the day before, so I added it in because he looks so stinkin' cute in it!

Trying to make the most of our final days of summer, Rick, Kieran and I ventured out to the St. Louis area again- this time to visit the Magic House in Kirkwood. The driving didn't go as smoothly as our last trip- Kieran was awake almost the entire way there with lots of crying jags off and on to punctuate the journey- he did however, fall asleep the final five minutes before we pulled into the parking lot ;) He was a real champ though when we got inside and only had a couple miner melt downs- mostly due to sharing things that are so obviously there just for him. But otherwise, despite the missed nap, the crowds and the delayed meal, Kieran did a great job and had a lot of fun.
After enjoying a little lunch at the Magic House Cafe, we went to visit Aunt Joyce and Uncle Furcin in St. Charles. Kieran was on his (mostly) best behavior for the duration of our stay and we all had a lovely time chatting and catching up with family- even though mommy and daddy were on KP duty (a.k.a. following KP around to make sure he didn't break anything!) most the time;)
The drive home was perfectly quiet, as Kieran passed out almost immediately and slept the whole way home- yay! However, this set him up for a rough nite-nite routine as he was sufficiently re-wired for action and did not go so quietly into his crib. Below are some highlights from the trip...

Me and Kieran watching the model trains. He LOVED the train... he made his "CHOO! CHOO!" noises with so much enthusiasm he sprayed the protective glass with spittle!

We were really impressed with the "construction zone"... lots to see and do. Of course KP loved playing in the rocks. He wasn't so sure about the Caterpillar earth-mover, but he sat long enough for a photo opp!

In the "under two" section Kieran really enjoyed playing pretend: driving a car, rolling in the ball pit and playing with the doll house- that is until he had an altercation with another chubby tot that seemed to think he should be allowed to play too... silly baby- doesn't he know everything Kieran sees belongs to him?!

Finally, here Kieran is playing at the sand and water tables- he loved this. These are no ordinary sand and water tables- they are huge and have fountains and wheels and things that move and go. We especially liked the little red waterproof apron he got to wear to help keep him dry- at least in theory ;)

End of July

Fun around the house with daddy while mommy was away on a float trip. *We don't endorse cell phone use whilst driving.

We took Kieran to the Boone County fair last week. It was terribly hot and apparently after we left there was a gang related shooting. But otherwise, we had a fun time ;) Kieran's favorite part was feeding and petting the animals- this may, however, be what led to two days of vomiting though- yuck.

While at the fair, Kieran enjoyed his first Popsicle- a bomb-pop. I bought it thinking he and I would share it, but alas, he gobbled the entire thing down in less than five minutes, which meant mommy had to get her own! As you can imagine he was a sticky, icky mess, but he loved it and it was great fun to watch- well worth the clean up :)

Art-ful play and a sleeping break through!

In an attempt to break the monotony at home (and get out of the house so daddy can recover from his stomach bug) I took Kieran to my school today. After stripping him down to a disposable diaper, I let him go to town on some finger paint and then play with sand. As you can imagine he created quite a mess and ended up being cleaned up in the sink! He had a lot of fun though and so did mommy- we saved his first painting to frame and display in his nursery. KP also explored the library and played with some balls in Mr. Nolke's gym- all-in-all a very fun way to spend a morning.
On another note, I am very proud to announce that I have been putting KP to sleep in his crib this past week too. For the past month or so, Rick has been putting Kieran down for naps and bedtime in his crib and staying with him over night in an attempt to get him out of our bed and night wean. It has been a very successful campaign- as KP is sleeping through most nights and often goes to sleep without crying or fussing. I have finally gotten in the game now that Kieran is used to going down in his crib. The first night I tried was rough- he cried a lot, reaching out for me from his crib and crying "mama, mama, MAMA!!" but I stayed strong and read to him from Charlotte's Web (great suggestion Jenny) until he finally fell asleep. The next night was about the same- maybe a little less crying but I read on. Last night and the past two naps, I have put Kieran down by first nursing him in our glider, then holding him on my lap and reading Good Night Moon twice, putting him in his crib, saying "nite-nite, mommy loves you" and reading Charlotte's Web from the glider while he slowly drifted off sans any crying or fussing!!!! YAY MOMMY and YAY BIG BOY!!! It is such a relief and a pleasure to put Kieran down in his own bed and read him off to dream land without any big crying sessions and knowing that he will sleep soundly either for a good nap or all night long. Now to get the crib out of our bedroom and into the nursery... baby steps mom, baby steps ;)

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 ;)