Levi Turns One!

Kellan was lucky enough to be invited to a Beach Party for our friends Andy and Lexi's little boy, Levi!  Levi turned one on July 23rd and he is just the sweetest and busiest little thing!  He is a fun loving little guy and he likes to get into everything!  Kellan and Levi are so close in age we just know they are going to be good friends growing up together.

Kellan went to the water table station first...it took him a little while to warm up to what was going on

You can see our friends Kevin and Bracey's little girl MaKinley dipping her tootsie's in the water in the background

Next we tried out the pool with some of the "big kids."  Kellan wasn't too sure about this at first...it probably didn't help that mommy had to hold him up in the corner.

We sat on the slide for a little while but don't worry...we didn't go down THIS time!

Hey maybe this isn't so bad!

Look at Levi the birthday boy!  He found his own mud puddle...I told you he is into everything!

Playing with the beach ball!

Kellan was not a fan of the sprinkler...and Levi turned it over...we just know he was trying to be a good friend and keep it from spraying Kellan :)

Look at this wild birthday boy!  Kellan was not convinced of the fun he was missing out on!

Hey buddy!  Try it like this!

No one could change his mind...

No?  Oh well...more fun for me! :)

Daddy rescued him and brought him up to dry land for a little while

Back to the water table for a little while...

Someone is learning to splash!

Watching the big kids go down the slide

Somebody missed their nap...

Levi with his beach ball birthday cake that his mom made!

 

He DEVOURED his slice of cake in just a few seconds!

Levi got lots of fun presents!

Kellan LOVED his beach bucket filled with a fun straw, bubbles, shovel, and yo-yo!  He has been chasing this bucket across the floor ever since he got it home!

Happy Birthday sweet Levi!  We are so glad we were able to share in the fun at your beach party!  We can't wait to watch the two of you grow up together and in just a few short months we will be celebrating Kellan's 1st birthday!

Kellan is 9 Months!

Kellan turned 9 months on Friday, July 20 and we went to the doctor yesterday for his 9 month vaccinations :( I hate when he has to get shots but the good news is that we did get accurate measurements and its always a relief to get the confirmation that we have a healthy baby!

Height: 29 3/4 inches long

Weight: 22 pounds

Head Circumference: 18 1/2 inches

A few more statistics for this month:

Sleeping: Kellan's bed time is still 8:30-9 pm. Actually the truth is that we aim for 8:30 but it usually ends up being closer to 9 before he is in his crib.  He typically will wake once between 3-4 a.m., nurses, and then sleeps until 7:30 am.  He nurses again and usually falls back to sleep until between 8:30 and 9:30.

Kellan is much better with his sleeping during the night and he rarely wakes up other than once to nurse.  He has even slept completely through the night a time or two.  We are continuing with the feed-wake-sleep schedule and he usually needs a nap after being awake for 2 hours in the morning and 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the afternoon.  By that time nothing makes him happy and he starts rubbing his eyes.  He is such a good napper and even took regular naps while we were on vacation.

Eating: Kellan has still only had the food I make for him. He continues to be a great eater and eats three times a day. Around 9:00-9:30 he has a finger food "snack".   He can feed himself homemade pear gummies, cut up avocado, banana, cooked carrot, papaya, and canteloupe pieces.  Around 12:00 he has lunch which is when I introduce a new food for 4 days in a row (this is in case he has an allergic reaction or upset stomach I can trace it back to the new food) and a fruit or vegetable that he has had before or yogurt. Around 5:30-6:00 he has dinner which always includes a meat and either a fruit or a vegetable. In addition to the foods he's already had, now he's also tried pork, yogurt, peaches, apples, blueberries, and cherries.  He loves all of them.

Oh blueberries are SO good!

Drinking: Kellan is exclusively breastfed and nurses about 5 times a day (once during the night, when he wakes up in the morning, after his morning nap, after his afternoon nap, and then before bed). He is pretty good at drinking out of a sippy cup but he mostly likes to play with it, chew on the spout, and bang it on the table!  He only gets the sippy cups during meals.

Clothes: Kellan can still wear a few 9 month clothes but is almost exclusively wearing 12 months.  This size fits him well right now.  Especially when he wears little polos and shorts...he looks like such a little boy instead of a baby :(  We are using up the last of our size 3 diapers before we move into wearing size 4 all the time (he wears a 4 to bed to prevent leaking).

Milestones:

1. Kellan is trying so hard to get up on all fours and crawl (he still scoots everywhere but hasn't been formally crawling).  He gets up and rocks back and forth.  He is now able to push himself back up into a sitting position from laying on his tummy. 

2. He loves to "talk" and da da is his favorite phrase.  I think I've heard a ma ma in there somewhere but not consistently.  For now its mostly a lot of babble with a lot of da-da, da-dee, and hey.  He doesn't say hey at appropriate times so I don't think he knows what he's saying. 

3. Kellan finally got his bottom two teeth while we were on vacation.  One day we looked and there were two little white lines breaking though the gums!  I'm thinking this could also be the reason that he is sleeping better at night.

4.  Kellan is starting to cry when I go into another room and he can't see me.  He has never done that before so I'm hoping this is a phase.  Now that he is scooting, as soon as I walk out of the room he gets mad and fussy and follows me.

5.  He is into everything still but now he has started pulling his walker up to the kitchen cabinets.  He opens and closes the cabinet doors and drawers.  When he manages to get the door open (he has to manuever the front of his walker in order to do this) he pulls out whatever he can get his hands on.  He has also started noticing a big plant that we have in the corner on the other side of our fireplace.  He likes to roll up to it and pull on the leaves.

6.  Kellan still loves tags, his Jesus Loves Me bunny, his brush, and books.  When we are away from home and I pull any of those out of the diaper bag his eyes light up!  Michael has introduced him to a set of soft baseballs and he even can play a baby version of catch!  We got him a musical light up table but he can't stand well enough yet to play with it so I took the legs off so he can sit and play.  We also bought him a zebra that he can eventually ride or push.  Right now when you put him on it he pulls his legs up and puts his feet on the wheels and wants to be pushed!

Playing "catch" with daddy

7.  I have been really bad about teaching Kellan sign language but somehow he has learned to clap.  The week we were on vacation he just started clapping out of the blue and now if you say "clap your hands" he smacks his little hands together with a big grin.  I really want to get back on track with making several signs part of our daily routine.

8.  Whenever music plays Kellan starts making a string of babbling noises.  We are convinced that he is trying to sing.

9.  Kellan went on his first flight on June 30th and he was a wonderful traveler!  He slept most of the way there and almost the entire flight back.

10.  He visited his 3rd state, Florida.  We live in Virginia and we have visited my family in North Carolina lots of times.

 

Happy Birthday To Me!

My 31st birthday was Sunday, July 22!  I had not really planned on doing very much since it felt like we had just gotten back from vacation and Kellan had been invited to a 1st birthday party on Sunday afternoon.  Michael suggested that we go somewhere on Friday, stay the night, and come back late Saturday.  I told him I would think about it and decide where I wanted to go.  By the time he got home from work on Friday, the thought of packing again, after it seemed like we had just unpacked from Florida, was so unappealing I told him that I thought we should just stay home.  This is very unlike me because I love to go check out new places...but it tells how MUCH I really did not want to pack up everything all over again, even for just one night.

Instead of going somewhere and staying overnight, we decided to spend all day Saturday in Richmond marking through some places on our list of things that we have been wanting to do.

This is our list that we are continuously adding to:

 

1.  Wilton House Museum

2.  Agecroft Hall

3.  Museum of Edgar Alan Poe

4.  Science Museum

5.  Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

6.  Walk around the Capital grounds and 6th Street Market

7.  The Civil War Museum

8.  The Children Museum (when Kellan gets a little older)

9.  Hollywood Cemetery

10.  Virginia Historical Society

11.  Canal Walk

12.  Byrd Theatre

13.  Former White House

14.  Valentine Museum

15.  Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

16.  Weezie's Kitchen (restaurant in Carytown)

11.  Maymont Park

12.  The Museum of the Confederacy

13.  Virginia Holocaust Museum

14.  The Jefferson Hotel

15.  Dot's Back Inn (Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives)

16.  Village Cafe (Diner's Drive-In and Dives)

17.  Carytown

18.  Landmark Theatre

Michael and I have already visited Maymont Park, the Museum of the Confederacy, Carytown, and the Landmark Theatre on previous visits but we were able to get to a few more this weekend.

Our first stop was Dot's Back Inn for lunch.  This was one of the restaurants featured on the Food Network TV show, Diner's, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  It is a restaurant definitely off the beaten path and its not really somewhere you would find unless someone had told you about it.  It is not that big of a place and not fancy by any means but our food was phenomenal.  We will surely be back to try other things from the menu.

Next, we headed to the Virginia Holocaust Museum.  On the way we passed the Farmer's Market in downtown and decided to stop and walk around there first. It was overcast and a little misty so there weren't a lot of vendors out but we still found a few interesting things.

We bought some Strawberry Basil Lemonade from this little boy's lemonade stand :)

We bought a book for mommy and a book for Kellan from a used book stand...I love a book stand, new or used!

After leaving the Farmer's Market we went to the Virginia Holocaust Museum.  The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. is one of the most interesting museums I've ever been to so I had been wanting to check this one out.  They both have such sad stories to tell but definitely stories that everyone should hear and photos and videos to see.  This museum shared the general history of the Holocaust but also information about survivors of the Holocaust that settled in Virginia.

Next we stopped by The Jefferson Hotel.  It is one of a few hotels in the nation that has a 5 Star AND 5 Diamond rating.  It opened in 1895 and has had 12 presidents, Charlie Chaplin, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and many other celebrities as guests. 

What I found most interesting is that when the hotel opened alligators used to live in the main lobby in a moat that surrounds a statue of Thomas Jefferson.  Guests would bring pet alligators home to Richmond from their vacations to Florida.  When the alligators outgrew their homes, they brought them to the Jefferson to live.  Throughout the hotel and gift shop is an alligator theme.  Including this alligator statue at the front entrance. 

 

I didn't take any pictures on the inside because there was a baby shower, several groups having afternoon tea, and a wedding reception all going on in every area that we wandered into!  I felt a little too much like a creepy photographer.  So if you want to see photos of the inside look here and click on photo tour.  The grand staircase is a must see...we'll have to try again when we aren't in town on a weekend!

For dinner, I picked The Black Sheep because its description is "Southern, Eclectic."   I love southern food and I like different so this was a perfect choice for me.   After we got there we found out that this restaurant was featured on the TV show Man versus Food.  They are known for their sandwiches but we ordered an appetizer, a bowl of soup, and two entrees.  I would definitely go back and try a sandwich on another visit.

We had a window seat :)

"Oh gosh, decisions, decisions..."

Kellan eating his dinner

Oyster gumbo and Squash fritters with tomato jam

These acorn salt and pepper shakers reminded me of Raleigh The City of Oaks :)

Michael's lamb kabobs

My grilled peaches and pork chop

The plan was to head to Carytown Cupcakes for dessert but they sold out for the day!  We headed to Frostings in Short Pump instead to try out their cupcakes!  We each chose 3 and brought 1/2 dozen home with us.

Frostings was on Cupcake Wars on the Food Network...it was a TV show restaurant kind of day!

Peanut Butter Cup, S'more, Vanilla/Vanilla, Cookies N' Cream, and 2 Red Velvet

And of course we made a stop at Whole Foods before heading home!

And as if I needed any more sweets I brought home a strawberry rhubarb pie.  I've always wanted to try this type of pie and when I saw it at Whole Foods, on sale in July, I just had to get it!  Soooo good...definitely worth the 10 pounds I will probably gain. 

It was a great day-before-my-birthday filled with good food and fun adventures!  I guess I have to now officially say that I am "in my 30's."  30 itself just seemed like a buffer zone but now I'm really in there!