Kellan and Briggs have so much fun together when she comes over to play. Especially now that they are a few months older, they are actually starting to play together instead of just sitting near each other and playing with separate toys. Now they follow each other around, pass toys back and forth (or take them from each other), and they are great partners in crime, helping each other get into EVERYTHING.
I wish I had a video of this because Kellan was just babbling away, pointing to his book, and turning the pages. I guess he was "reading" but Briggs just stood right there taking every "word" in. It must have been a very entertaining story.
Their new favorite place to sit. I'm not sure who decided to use this as a seat first but the other one was not far behind. Now they sit there several times a day, always together. They will only sit for a few seconds, then pick up and move on to the next adventure.
Kellan begging for food...as usual. The only difference is that now Briggs will throw pieces down to him! She must feel sorry for my little piggy :)
This picture was from a few months ago but it still cracks me up. She went back in Kellan's room, took one wipe, came back in the living room and started wiping this chair down. I have no idea what prompted her to do this but it was so funny. She scrubbed it for a while.
Typical man already! Briggs is working her fingers to the bone...cleaning house. What is Kellan doing? Stretched out on his sofa watching TV.
They still LOVE to sit on this sofa together. They don't always scoot over to make room for the other one and sometimes somebody ends up tumbling out onto the floor, but they never get upset and always manage to both squeeze on there (even if somebody is perched on the arm).
I wish I had more pictures and videos of these two (I will have to make an attempt to capture their fun times more often) because they are so entertaining to watch. Even more so now because Kellan can actually walk! Before, Briggs would walk and Kellan would crawl behind her. She would turn around, point to him, and sometimes she would call him "baby" and sometimes he was "doggy." :) Like I said before, they are both into everything and it makes it difficult to take pictures when I am constantly pulling them out of kitchen and bathroom drawers and cabinets, keeping them away from toilet paper rolls and toilets, and trying to return Kellan's changing table items back to where they have pulled them from! They are a mess but they seem to really enjoy playing together and get along well. I am so thankful for Kellan's friend and the time that they have together every week :)
My niece Eden's first birthday was on December 5th but we celebrated with a party on December 1st. My sister made Eden her own cupcake to dig into, but at first she wasn't quite sure what to do with it.
Buuuut she figured it out quickly.
And she was one happy girl :)
Big brother Owen didn't get a nap during the day so he crashed right before the party.
My cousin Dana's daughter Brooklyn drinking her bottle and wishing that she could have some cake :)
Future "Big Brother" watching Eden dig into her cake.
After seeing how much Kellan enjoyed the cupcake at his own birthday party, we figured he would just love to help Eden eat hers. We were wrong because he started to cry for some reason but he was more than happy to help me eat red velvet cake and ice cream.
Mimi and Papa gave Eden a princess couch and she sat on it to open her gifts. Kellan must have learned a lot at his birthday party because he was much more interested in opening Eden's presents than he was his own.
Eden loving on her zebra pillow pet from Great-Grandma Hazel.
Baby Brooklyn watching Eden open her presents.
Owen woke up just in time to see little sister open her presents. Afterwards they all attacked the Christmas tree.
The next morning at Mimi and Papa's house, Kellan made himself at home on Eden's sofa :)
Happy Birthday sweet girl! We sure do love you :) Thank goodness for little cousins all close in age. They have so much fun together and I'm sure much more fun is in our future!
So...I just bypassed three months of Kellan's growth updates. Including the most important one, his 12 months!! *sigh* There is no point in trying to back track those 2 months so I'm just going to pick up with his 14 month update which is today! Kellan turned 14 months on Thursday, December 20. I haven't attempted to take his measurements this month. He will have his 15 month check up next month so we will get his stats then. These were his most current measurements from his 12 month appointment:
Height: 30 1/4 inches
Weight: 24 lbs 9 oz.
A few more statistics for this month:
Sleeping: Kellan's bed time is still 8:30-9 pm. Most nights its closer to 9 and lately with all of our traveling it has been as late as 10! He wakes up anywhere between 7:30 and 9 a.m.
So far Kellan has not dropped his morning nap and will still sleep for an hour to an hour and a half around 11 a.m. He also takes an afternoon nap anywhere between 3-4 pm and he sleeps for another hour and a half. Lately his naps do not always take place at the same time everyday. I just watch for signs during the day and when he finds a pacifier, pops it in his mouth, and starts laying his head down on stuffed animals, the furniture, or my lap...I know its nap time.
Eating: I'm still making the majority of Kellan's food and he continues to be a fantastic eater. However, we have become MUCH more lenient when we are out to eat. A lot of times I will pack his meals when we go out and other times we will order him something off the menu. When we do order off the menu for him we try to choose the healthiest options. Sweet potatoes, grilled chicken, green beans, and steamed vegetables are choices we make when they are available.
He has 3 meals a day with breakfast being between 8:30-9 am. He usually eats half of an avocado and half of a banana cut up into pieces so that he can feed himself. Around 12:00-12:30 he has 3 items. Most of the time he has cut up fruit, pieces of cheese/cup of yogurt, and some kind of vegetable. Around 5:30-6:00 he has dinner which always includes a meat, a fruit and a vegetable.
I honestly don't even know if I can list all of the foods that our little piggy has eaten over the last couple of months. There is not much that he won't eat and lately we have let him try pretty much anything. I would also like to note that most of these foods he has had *ONCE or TWICE, not on a regular basis: *Pizza, *spaghetti, *lo mein, *white potatoes, *rice, green beans, *cheese quesadilla, *star fruit (he didn't like it and I didn't either), *ice cream, *cake, cranberries, black beans, butter beans, mushrooms, *macaroni and cheese, *french fries, *cheeseburger, shrimp, applesauce, hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, clementines, tomatoes and bread/rolls/biscuits (Kellan is obsessed with bread...he LOVES it and screams and points whenever it is brought to our table at restaurants which is pretty much the only time he gets it).
This sounds like we have just gone crazy and abandoned everything we have done in the past and now just let him eat anything! The majority of the time we still stick to his same diet of fruits, vegetables, dairy, eggs, raisins, and cheese but at birthday parties and certain restaurants we have let him indulge :) He is a kid after all and to me the most important thing is that he WILL eat healthy foods. At home he always eats healthy and at restaurants we pick the healthiest option available.
First time eating pizza at Pino's
First time eating spaghetti also at Pino's...can you believe this mess was made with US feeding him? Imagine what he would have looked like if he had fed himself!
He just eats SO MUCH. People think I'm exaggerating until they see him in action for themselves. We don't know where he puts it all. There are times that I'm pretty sure that he eats more than I do at a single meal. There are lots of times that he cries when we say "all gone." When someone else is eating he will often camp out under their feet or circle the table until he finds someone willing to share.
The face I see standing under my bar stool while I'm eating lunch...begging for a crumb!
Drinking: Kellan pretty much weaned himself from breast milk and started dropping feedings on his own. He stopped nursing after nap time first, then the morning feeding and last his night feeding. He just gradually became less and less interested in nursing and just wanted to go play. I was really lucky how easy it was for him to move straight into whole milk. By 12 1/2 months he was totally weaned and drinking whole milk out of a sippy cup. At first we gave him whole milk with meals and before bed but he doesn't want it before bed anymore. Right now he has a sippy cup of milk with his meals and water when we are out and about. He loves water and will drink a whole glassful when we are at a restaurant. He is much better with swallowing when drinking out of a straw instead of letting it dribble out. There is quite a bit of back wash going on and I just can't bring myself to share a cup with him.
Clothes: Kellan is wearing 18 months and 24 months, it really just depends on the brand. Some 18 months fit him perfectly, some are a little snug. Some 24 months fit him perfectly, some are a little big. He is still wearing size 4 diapers and he has shoes ranging from size 4 to size 6!!!
Milestones:
1. Kellan is walking all over the place! He used to have to pull up on something but now he can stand up on his own.
2. He "talks" more and more to us all the time and tries so hard to copy words that we say. Words that he can say: nana (banana), night-night, cheese, shoes, socks, duck, yes, no, ma-ma, da-da, thanks. He babbles a lot but the sounds he's making are often him trying to copy what we've just said. Most all foods he calls nana, no matter what it actually is. Whenever you hand him something he almost always says thanks.
3. We are now up to 8 teeth. He has 4 on the bottom and 4 on the top.
4. He visited his 6th, 7th and 8th state last month, We traveled to Michigan to visit Michael's brother Matt and our sister in law Alison for Thanksgiving. We stayed the night in West Virginia on the way up there, stayed in Michigan with them, and spent the night in Ohio on our way home.
5. Kellan can point or find the following objects when you ask for them by name: his ears, nose, mouth, hands, hair, belly, foot, socks, shoes, duck, shirt.
6. He loves to play in the bath but absolutely hates to have water poured on his head. He stands up and tries to get out of the tub when it is time to wash his hair.
7. The screaming and impatience that we were worried about a few months ago has slowly gotten better. He still has his moments when he demands food NOW but for the most part he has mellowed out.
8. When you get him out of the tub and wrap him in his towel he ALWAYS snatches up a toy within reach to take with him. No matter how fast you pick him up he finds something to grab everytime :)
9. Just within the last few days he has become a climber. He stands in chairs, climbs in suitcases, sits on stools, sits in baskets, anything he can find he will sit on it or climb on to it.
10. I have gotten in a very bad habit of laying down with him sometimes when he takes naps. I've just been so exhausted and he is such a good snuggle buddy...
11. When he wakes up in the morning the first thing he says is "nana." One time when he woke up from a nap the first thing he said was "cheese."
12. Michael asked him if he wanted a little brother or a little sister and he said "nana."
13. Kellan has a signature dance move of waving his hands by twisting his wrists whenever he hears music. He loves music of any kind and almost immediately starts to dance as soon as he hears it.
14. He still loves books and will often sit on his little couch and "read/babble" outloud to himself as he turns the pages.
15. Nothing within his reach is safe. He has broken 3 or 4 picture frames and will stand on his tip toes and run his hands along counter tops and the pool table until he feels something. Then he grabs it, pulls it down, and runs aways with it. His favorite toys are inside of kitchen and bathroom drawers and cabinets. He also enjoys digging in house plants.
Stirring up something delicious with a tampon and a Nettie Pot that he pilfered from the bathroom cabinets.
Caught digging in the house plants!
16. Right before he takes something he knows that he's not supposed to have (cell phone, TV remote, etc.) he will flash you the biggest, cheesiest grin that you can imagine with his eyes squinted shut.
17. Kellan has gotten his first and second "boo boo." First he broke the globe from a nightlight and slightly cut his thumb. It was bleeding just enough to warrant his first band aid. Next he fell face first out of a chair that he was standing in and got a scratched nose and a puffy lip. Thank goodness that was the extent of his injuries.
He worked and worked on this band aid until he finally succeeded in pulling it off.
I take pictures of Kellan all day everyday but periodically I like to have our family pictures professionally done. Our friend, Lexi Jones, from Alexis Jones Photography has taken Kellan's newborn pictures, family pictures when Kellan was 6 months old, and then family pictures for us in November when Kellan was 1 year old. She always does such a great job and if you are looking for a newborn, children, family, wedding, or any other occasion photographer in the Southside Virginia area, I highly recommend her. The link above will take you to her photography business blog where you can take a look at some of her work.
Here are the images from our 30 minute mini-session. She got some great pictures and I used them on our Christmas card this year.
Michael's brother and our sister-n-law Alison live in Michigan and are expecting a baby girl in January. Since she is so close to her due date they were not able to travel for Thanksgiving so we decided to go up for a visit. Usually we don't think twice about jumping on a plane but tickets were really expensive so we decided to make it a road trip. The drive is around 12 hours and with Kellan along for the ride we split the time over 2 days. Michael decided to avoid traffic on 95 so instead we traveled west through Virginia, then up through West Virginia, Ohio, and then into Michigan. We left around 5:30 p.m. the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and stopped in Charleston, West Virginia to spend the night.
Kellan at the hotel in Charleston on Wednesday morning.
We stayed in downtown Charleston so I had to snap a picture of the capital building before we got back on the road.
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Kellan dancing for yeast rolls when we stopped for lunch somewhere in Ohio. This boy loves to eat...
It was getting late and Matt and Alison had already eaten so we stopped in Jackson, Michigan to eat at Jaxon Pizza Factory. Matt told us he had heard good things about it but had never eaten there himself. We decided to give it a try and it turned out to be really good. We ordered a pizza and halfed a coney dog to share.
Half everything and half cheese (Michael's was the cheese half but he shared with Kellan)
We got to Matt and Alison's Wednesday night and we were so glad to have that long drive behind us. Kellan always does so well on trips but we are still surprised every time. The only time he gets fussy is when he is hungry. Most of the time he either sleeps, looks out the window, babbles to himself, looks at books or plays with whatever toy I hand him. He's not always so perfect. He does have moments where everything that I hand him gets immediately thrown but eventually he finds a way to entertain himself.
Here are a few pictures from the rest of our weekend in Michigan...
Matt cooked a delicious, traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, asparagus, and homemade cranberry sauce.
Somebody was getting impatient when we weren't feeding him fast enough.
Kellan LOVED playing with their cats Oscar and Meow. The cats tolerated Kellan but were not quite as in love with him as he was with them.
The high for a couple of days was around 34 degrees...it was COLD! There were even snow flurries.
Daddy and Kellan watching The Muppet Movie before bedtime.
Daddy and Kellan hanging out at the record store while Uncle Matt was shopping.
Uncle Matt and Kellan
Kellan with Uncle Matt and Aunt Alison before we left to head home on Saturday night. Kellan is holding Scout that they gave him for Christmas. Scout calls Kellan by name, sings songs, asks him questions, and they even share avocados as their favorite food!
Sleeping in the backseat with Scout on Sunday afternoon during the last leg of our trip.
We stopped in Richmond for dinner at Cheesecake Factory before we finally made it home Sunday night. The next time we see Matt and Alison, Kellan will have a new baby cousin Violet. We are so excited and can't wait to meet her!
