Sunday, December 30, 2007

Kaleb's First Christmas

Christmas 2007


We celebrated Kaleb's first Christmas last week and it was exactly what one might expect from a 10 month old. First of all he didn't really get it and just ended up getting frustrated with the whole thing. I think he didn't like how crowded it was in his normal play area and on top of that every time he got a hold of wrapping paper we took it away from him. He seems to look at paper these days in the same way that Jennifer and I look at chocolate. Today he even managed to get some paper from an emery board. Anyway once the morning of present opening was over he had a very difficult time falling asleep, which only compounded the problem. Eventually he did fall asleep in his bouncy seat, which ave us a chance to prepare for the party. Once everybody arrived for the party he was wide awake and glad to see all of the guests. It didn't take long for him to run out of gas though and a couple hours in we tried to get him to take a nap with no luck. He was pretty exhausted, but still behaved so well. Finally once everybody cleared out we were able to get him to take a nap and upon waking up he was in good spirits.

Fast forward to Friday and Kaleb came down with a cold and has had a runny nose and a dry throat ever since. He is still happy, but is very squeaky and slimy. Besides that he is doing well and has really become super mobile over the last couple weeks. We are finally to the point where you can't leave the room without him tearing across the room and getting in to something he shouldn't be touching. Standing up is no big deal now and once he is up ends up cruising all over the place. I can say with almost complete confidence right now that in only a few weeks he will be walking on his own.

A snow storm has already started and depending on the network you listen to we are getting anywhere from 1 to 10 inches. This coupled with my mom's New Year's Eve party tomorrow afternoon probably measn we won't be going in to Boston to see the ice sculptures and other First Night displays. Oh well maybe next year.

Keegan

Sunday, December 16, 2007

White Christmas Guarantee?

Kaleb: Day 298


Kaleb: Day 300


The snowstorms continue to hit us up here in Merrimac. On Thursday we were hammered with a quick daytime storm that dumped about 8 inches on us in a short five hour time span. Luckily I left work around 12:40 and my commute was only an extra ten minutes compared to some people in Boston who sat in traffic for up to six hours. Some students at Jennifer's school didn't get home until 8 pm.

Today we were hit again with another 8 inch storm, but this one dragged out for a much longer period of time and fell short of its true potential when it turned to rain about halfway through the day. I ended up shoveling at the perfect time while the snow was still dry and light.

Besides the snow it was a very busy weekend. Yesterday we went out for a late breakfast at Me and Ollie's and had our photos taken for the locals board. I stayed around and worked while Jennifer and Kaleb went back home to prepare for our holiday party. Once I was home I started making pizza sauce for the pizzas I planned on making at the party. It turned out to be a good idea because the pizza was a big hit. The party was also a hit, we ended up with about 15 people at the house and it went very well. Its always fun when we have a party, because it is such a hodge-podge of our friends. Everybody usually has fun, well at least it seems that way plus they drive all the way up from Boston, we must be doing something right.

Kaleb had a great weekend although he was mostly stuck in the house, which I am sure at this point is getting old. Jennifer and I both recognized how much he has changed over the last couple weeks, not only is he standing up and moving around (not crawling or walking yet) with great ease, but his personality has really come out as of late. He now reacts to more things and is much more animated. He also has been talking a lot more adding several new sounds to his repertoire. He had another first yesterday, the first time he reacted to me taking something away from him. He was chomping on some bread and I grabbed the bread and he immediately started growling at me until I gave him the bread back. Before that he would normally just move on to something else and forget about the bread, but not this time.

Keeg

Monday, December 10, 2007

Cardboard Sledding



Kaleb: Day 296


I watched Kaleb today and while I cleaned off the car I had him sit on a piece of cardboard in his snowsuit. He was a great kid and just played around with the snow. Once my car was cleaned off I dragged him around the yard a little bit. We eventually made it to the back yard where there is a little bit of a hill. You know what comes next, I helped pack down a little trail for him and he took several short trips sledding down the hill. He loved it and even tried to scootch forward to get the ride started. Unfortunately he did do one face plant before one of the rides down, but recovered quickly.

Keeg

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Quiet Weekend

Kaleb: Day 295


As strange as it may seem so close to Christmas we had a very quiet weekend. Saturday we met up with some friends for lunch, but before we did we took the opportunity to get a little shopping in. Oh I almost forgot on Friday night we went out to dinner and we ordered Kaleb his own meal for the first time. It was a grilled cheese sandwich at a Mexican restaurant, but he loved it and did very well. Ever since Jamison showed us that baby's can eat more than just canned baby food we have stepped up the difficulty level a bit. Of course sometimes that makes for nervous instances of coughing and spitting up. Kaleb also has progressed with movement. He sits up from lying down without a problem now and even crawled a couple paces forward. He is as daring as ever when it comes to standing next to things, often times going from one object to another.

Today we didn't have anything planned, so I decided to go out and do some work at a local cafe called Me and Ollies. It takes about fifteen minutes to get there, but is the best place around for just sitting, sipping a coffee and working. I was able to get a lot done so I only have to work for a few hours tomorrow evening. My mom is working tomorrow so I will be watching Kaleb, as long as the weather is okay we will be going into the new CaseNET office tomorrow to unpack my stuff. Unfortunately, we are supposed to get a few inches of snow tonight followed by sleet and freezing rain in the morning.

Keeg

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Christmas Tree is Up

Kaleb: Day 290


Here are some new photos of recent events at our house. First we went out and got a Christmas tree and set up all of our Christmas decorations. We also received our first snowstorm and I learned the joys of shoveling a crushed stone driveway.

Keegan

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Snow is on the Way

Kaleb: Day 285


It was another busy week, especially due to the extra time I had to put in working. It all paid off on Friday when I went with the sales team to a demo of our software in Boston. Now I know its further from coding than what I am currently doing, but it still more fun than what I am currently doing. Unfortunately getting to Boston for 9AM isn't exactly easy so I left around 6:30 and met Kate for breakfast, just in case traffic was crazy. We met at True Grounds, the same place we used to meet all the time. The scones were just as good as I remember them.

As for Kaleb's week, he slept a lot more than me and didn't have nearly as many meetings. He did have his first bubble bath (you can see how he felt about that in the photos). He is standing up while holding on to things all the time now and it really seems like only a short while before he will take those first steps. He has also been eating level 3 baby food without trouble, when he first started he had a little trouble with the big chunks.

Bedtime has changed slightly since last month, our doctor told us to try and feed him as much as possible and to push his bedtime back an hour. He suggested this because we told him how we always have to rock him to sleep before putting him down. Now we put him down and he cries for a couple minutes but then goes right off to sleep from pure exhaustion. Unfortunately he continues to wake up between 9:30 and 10:00, which is tough because he won't just go back to sleep easily and letting him cry to sleep has failed to work so far even after 20 minutes of sobbing. Now we are determined to break this awful habit, so we can enjoy our bed without a little person stuck in between us.

Yesterday Jamison and Megan came up to visit. We played at the house for a couple hours and then we went downtown to Flatbread for lunch. Jamison is such a cutie and is such a great kid, Kaleb is lucky to have her for a girlfriend.

Today we are hoping to find a nice Christmas tree and will try and attend the Merrimac Santa parade. It sounds like a busy day ahead, I am sure Kaleb is up for it though considering he just slept for quite a while in his high chair. Oh yeah and one more thing it sounds like snow is on the way for tonight and tomorrow, although it is not really clear how much we will receive in Merrimac. Being this close to the ocean always messes things up and makes each storm a complete mystery.

Keeg

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Kaleb's First Thanksgiving

Kaleb's First Thanksgiving


We went down to Connecticut for Kaleb's first Thanksgiving. I would go into more detail, but right now I have a pounding headache and I am exhausted.

We did have a great time though. Kaleb has been mumbling "Momma" all weekend long, it is his new word thing. In other development news he successfully sat up from laying on his stomach Saturday morning. He also managed to crawl/scootch backwards. He seems to have come down with a cold and his voice is very raspy. Sometimes its funny because his crying just doesn't sound right.

Okay now we are off to bed.
Keeg

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Sleepy Eating

Kaleb was a bit sleepy while eating yesterday morning. Here is a video:



We are heading down to Connecticut for the holiday. The plan is to leave on Thursday morning to try and avoid the traffic. We'll see if thats going to work.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Keeg

Friday, November 16, 2007

Another Week Ends

Another busy week is finally coming to an end and once again I am exhausted. It is a little combination of being busy, almost frantic, at work and Kaleb's early mornings. Its okay though because it means time is scooting right along and we are that much closer to paying off our house (only 356 more payments to go). Kaleb has been doing very well and got a clean bill of health from the doctor. For the record he is now 26.5" long and weight 15lbs 3oz. His height actually puts him in the 5th percentile for his age, which means he is now on the chart. After talking to the doctor about his sleep schedule we have pushed back his bed time an hour so he is more tired and it has really worked out well. Jennifer has been putting him to bed while he is still awake and he cries/fusses for about five minutes before passing out.

I am not quite sure about our itinerary for the weekend outside of a couple get-togethers with friends. I have compiled quite a queue of shows on the TiVo and kind of feel compelled to watch all of that stuff. I also bought the latest installment in the Mario series called Super Mario Galaxy and I want to get some time in playing it. Jon has also said he will come over and we can remove the rotted shelving from the basement.

That's it for now.

Keeg

Sunday, November 11, 2007

A Chill Is in the Air



Kaleb: Day 266

The true autumn like weather has arrived and for now I am okay with it. It hasn't been cold enough to break out the winter jacket, which still keeps me happy. It was another relatively quiet weekend, a little yard work, a little trip to Newburyport, a little shopping, nothing to involved. Yesterday we went over to Stella's in Newburyport for a delicious breakfast, Kaleb was a good kiddo and just hung out in his high chair snacking on our his food and a little of our food. We then returned home and I went outside to rake leaves and went crazy on our grapevines. You see we have these wonderful Concord grapevines in our backyard, but they were really taking over several smaller bushes and were just plain out of control. So I ripped them out of the trees and trimmed them back so we can hopefully attach them to an arbor in the spring. After the yard work we piled into the car and went shopping up in Salem, NH.

Today we had the morning I have always dreamed about having. My wife and son in the kitchen of our house eating a breakfast of scones and mocha's, while listening to some nice "coffee house" type music. It was just wonderful, and goes to show just how great things have become in my life. A little later in the morning, my mom and Jon came over to install new smoke detectors throughout the house. We had some, but they didn't have a battery back up so if the power went out they wouldn't have worked. I had also bought some electronic themostats a while back and Jon was able to hook those up. No more cold mornings downstairs!!! After they left we went over to the cemetery to pay our respects to my grandparents, Arthur and Gigi. Jennifer had asked if we could a few weeks ago and since it was Veteran's day it seemed like the perfect time. Kaleb slept in his car seat while Jennifer and I shared a few tears. It was beautiful over there with the giant oak leaves falling in the chilly autumn sunshine. We then grabbed some lunch before returning home for the rest of the day.

Since five I have been working on a little project for work. I am working on something I would like to get done during the work week, but just don't have time for it. Its sort of strange that I can't do the my real job during the week and have to save it for the spare moments I can scrape up.

There was some big news in the world of Kaleb. Friday afternoon he rolled over from his back to his front for the first time. He has been rolling from front to back for a while now, but this was the first time that he was able to pull the other arm from underneath him. Of course this means he is now able to roll across the floor and has on more than one occasion rolled off onto the hard wood floor.

Hopefully I will have some photos up soon.
Keeg

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Long Weekend (1 hour longer than normal)


New England Aquarium

As my dad pointed out today it was a long weekend thanks to the moving of the clock back an hour to officially end daylight savings time. We had a very relaxed Saturday and an uber busy Sunday. We mostly stayed in on Saturday with the exception of a late afternoon trip to Panera. Today we met the Noonan's at the New England Aquarium, where we wandered around for a while and then we went over to the North End for lunch. After saying farewell to them we went shopping at Downtown Crossing. We then jumped in the car and drove up to my dad's house for dinner. We spent a good two hour there and watched the big Patriots/Colts game (some called this the biggest regular season game in history) the Patriots ended up winning in the lat few minutes.

Once we were back at home Jennifer and I sat on the floor of our bedroom and had Kaleb practice walking on his own. He still isn't very stable but for the first time balanced himself all by himself for a couple seconds before toppling over. He also took a step or two towards Jennifer before falling over. I don't think we are going to go as far as saying it was his first steps, but he is definitely getting close. I will be sure to document it on video when it happens.

Very exciting times!!!
Keeg

Kaleb Making Some Noise

Friday, November 2, 2007

Trick or Treat



Halloween Photos

Another crazy week has passed at the Sands household. Kaleb's teeth continue to make their way up through his gums and his trouble sleeping has increased. We have had a really hard time with him the last few days going to sleep and staying asleep. Besides that a slight loss of appetite he seems to be weathering the storm fairly well. He has really taken off in his walker and marches around the house quite a bit. We have even taken him outside, my mom got him to climb her entire driveway and I took him to the Amesbury Skate Park for a little exercise. Despite the occasional fussiness at home he is still a very well behaved little boy.

As for Kaleb's parents we have been very tired lately. I have been burning the midnight oil and then waking up at six which is starting to catch up with me. Jennifer on the other hand has been working all day and then taking care of Kaleb in the evening. Parenting is a strange thing, it seems that you always think you are at the most difficult time for one reason or another, but a month goes by and it seems even more challenging. Like for instance right now Kaleb is pretty demanding attention wise and his attention span is pretty short so there is a constant pressure to keep him busy and moving around. This compares to a few months ago when you could just put him in one place and he would sit there quite content. Right now I think if only he could walk things would be easier, but I am sure it will just bring up more different and challenging issues. The bottom line is probably that each stage is equally as hard as the last, but just different. I am certain of one ting we will soon see if I am right.

This weekend we are off to the New England Aquarium on Sunday with the Noonans followed by a birthday party up at my dad's house.

Busy busy busy!!!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Now Tell Me the Tooth

You can probably guess from the subject what exciting development has occurred with Mr. Kaleb Arthur. Yep you are right his first teeth are starting to make there way to the surface of his gums. Jennifer noticed it on Saturday morning, we can't really see anything yet, but it definitely feels different. Everything seems to be moving along so quickly.

It was a busy Friday, Kaleb and I spent the day around the house because my car was in the shop getting another new glove box. We did a little raking and then I let him run around on the deck in his walker. Once Jennifer was home we rushed around to get my car and then I got picked up by Kelly and Andy for a night in Bethel. We got up to Bethel around 8 and met Mark and Kate at Suds. After a yummy Suds pizza we went up to the mountain for the Entrain concert. Around midnight we left the show and went back to Mark and Kate's to sleep. Kate woke me up nice and early and we went back towards Boston.

Once in Merrimac Kaleb, Jennifer and I piled into the car for a weekend at Nonna and Sir's house. We had a great time as you will soon see from the photo album I uploaded. Today Jennifer's family from New Jersey made the trip up for a yummy lunch of the world's best pasta. It was a wonderful afternoon and the trip back was pretty good despite the pockets of traffic we ran into along the way.
Weekend in Connecticut

Kaleb: Day 257

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Head of the Charles and a Walker

We went to the Head of the Charles Regatta this weekend. The weather was great, there were lots of free samples and a good time was had by all. Today I went out and bought Kaleb a walker so he could finally move around at will. He loved it!!! You could tell that he was excited because he was screaming with joy the entire time he was in it. He kept going back and forth across the kitchen floor. He is still learning how to navigate with it, but I have no doubt that in the next week or so he will be an expert. Hopefully this will provide some relief for our aching backs.

Head of the Charles Photos

Kaleb in his new walker video

Friday, October 19, 2007

Halloween Costume Preview

The end of the week is here and it has flown by. I watched Kaleb two day and tried to successfully juggle a handful of meetings at the same time. Luckily I made it through and feel like I got ahead of some of the work that was crazy out of control.

Yesterday we got Kaleb's first Halloween costume in the mail. Given his timid nature we decided the cowardly lion would be the most appropriate costume for him. So here is a little preview of his costume until next week when he puts the whole thing on.


Kaleb: Day 244



Tomorrow we head off to the Head of the Charles, that should provide for some interesting photos.

Keeg

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Gorgeous Day

Today my mom was working so I got to spend the day watching Kaleb. We are really getting into a routine for days with me and my mom. I try to stick to the same morning routine which involves Kaleb and I playing from 7:45 to 8:30. At that point I put him in his bouncy seat and take a shower. Usually if it is my mom's day he falls asleep in the car which works out really well for both of us.

Today after his morning nap we ran a couple errands and went down to Newburyport for lunch. First we stopped at Starbucks so I could pick up the free Song of the Day and then we went to get me some pizza. We ended the trip out on the grass near the waterfront. Kaleb started to get fussy because he hadn't eaten in five hours. We went home and he ate a nice lunch. The rest of the afternoon went well. Pepe came over to visit us and Kaleb continued to behave splendidly. He really is a great kid.

Keeg

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Wonderful Weekend

Strange as this may sound it was a restful, but busy weekend. We stayed relatively close to home. Saturday we went to the Woodsom Farm Festival then on to the Jewell Town vineyards and then returned home where Jennifer raked a pile of leaves for Kaleb. Today we went up to Odiorne State Park then went into Portsmouth for lunch before returning home.

Here are some photos from the weekend Kaleb: Day 240

Video of Kaleb playing in the leaves

Keeg

Friday, October 12, 2007

Late Rainy Night

I have had more then a few complaints due to my lack of entries. In my experience whenever you don't update at least a couple times a week your readership drops of dramatically. Unfortunately, my friends and family haven't discovered the joy of RSS feeds, which allow you to get a subscription to my blog and whenever an update is made it is delivered to your reader. Check out reader.google.com and this video:


I have been using the google reader for about four months and I love it. I have signed up for all sorts of feeds including: Eastern Essex County weather alerts, Tampa Bay Devil Rays news, Dave Matthews fan site news, Apple daily news just to name a few. The more you get the harder it is to keep up, but it sure beats going from one website to the next. Here is the feed for my LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/keegsands/data/rss

Okay I will now stand down from my soapbox and return to your regularly scheduled program. Kaleb will be 8 months old in less than a week, my how the time flies by. He is definitely turning into his own little person, a very quiet and timid little one, who seems to have his parents wrapped around his finger. You will see if you spend more than a couple hours with us that we "coddle" him a little too much and never hesitate to pick him up if he starts fussing. We aren't the strictest of parents and I think it is going to possibly bite us in the butt in the near future. Even now we are starting to feel the pain in the early evening after we put him down, he wakes up every two hours, whines and slams his feet down until we go pick him up. Once he is on your should he falls right back to sleep and then the real challenge comes, putting him down. If you don't wait long enough he will wake right up and you are back at square one. He also has a knack for waking up just as we are heading off to bed, and by that point we are both too tired to go through the motions and we just bring him into bed. It seems that as long as this continues he is never going to sleep through the night.

Developmentally he is doing very well, although he has been extremely quiet the last week, very different compared to his jabbery couple weeks. It is very strange how his chattiness goes in cycles. Walking around (assisted) is still his favorite thing behind going outside in his Bjorn. Today he actually pulled himself up from a sitting to standing position for the first time. It was kind of awkward because he used my guitar for leverage, but it is all he can really use given his height of 2' 2". His sitting skills get stronger and stronger each day and now he rarely tips over. He still doesn't crawl, mostly because he hates being on his stomach and is really good at rolling over.

I have been watching him the last couple days and he has been great. Today we went in to Jennifer's school to visit the kids and then went down to CaseNET. He slept for most of the car ride and behaved wonderfully at both places.

Okay I have to get back to work. Hopefully I will put up some photos soon. btw I got an iPod Touch and I love it!!!

-Keeg

Monday, September 24, 2007

Weekend in Vermont


There has been a problem with the slideshow feature for some, so here is the link, Weekend in Vermont

Kaleb made his first trip up to the Riebe cabin in Vermont. We left early on Saturday morning and he slept all the way up there. We had great weather the entire time with the exception of a relatively short rain shower on Saturday evening. Kaleb slept in bed with us, I kept waking up throughout the night because of various reasons. Jennifer was still recovering from her cold, but she seemed to sleep okay. We got a chance to wander down by the stream and even celebrated Jennifer's 30th birthday. It was a great weekend and Kaleb behaved very well, which was very nice.

Today was Jennifer's 30th birthday. We didn't really do anything to special because she had "Parent/Teacher" night at school, I got her a new Citizen's watch that doesn't use a battery, but instead gets its power from ambient and solar light. She did manage to come home for about an hour to feed Kaleb. My mom dropped him off and also brought dinner and a pumpkin cheesecake for Jennifer. I then got the fun task of getting Kaleb to sleep. He had been fussy all day and dinner was no different, I think a combination of him being full from Jennifer feeding him and his general fussiness kept him from eating most of his dinner. He enjoyed the bath, but was upset when I tried to get him dressed. Luckily he fell asleep relatively quickly and now I am downstairs updating my LJ.

Keeg

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Busy Week





Work has been crazy busy this week, but I finally found a chance to post some photos from the past week. Kaleb is doing very well and is really adjusting well to spending the day with my mom. I hope you enjoy the photos. This weekend we are going to Vermont for Kaleb's first trip to the Riebe cabin.

Keeg

Monday, September 17, 2007

Seven Months Old

Today marked seven months since Kaleb was born. We don't have exact numbers, but he weighs somewhere around 14 lbs and is about 25" tall. He has adjusted fairly well to Jennifer's return to work and is warming up to Gunnie. He is now eating solid food twice daily and has really expanded his repertoire to now include prunes, apricots, peaches, carrots, pears, applesauce, green beans, peas and sweet peas. He still doesn't like tummy time and usually cries after just a few minutes of it and so as a result hasn't had any success crawling. However, he does really like standing up and does a great job of walking if you hold his hands. We have been somewhat weak parents lately in that he spends half of the night in bed with us. It really just comes down to sleep deprivation and by having him in the bed, Jennifer can easily just feed him and he falls back to sleep on his own as opposed to having to rock him and spend an hour trying to get him back to sleep. The important thing is that he does start in his crib and spends some of the night there, if he could just learn to sleep longer we wouldn't have a problem.

Anyway that is it for now. Happy Seven Months little man!!!

Keeg

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Kaleb: Minute 1

I was messing around with my phone last night and realized I never uploaded some of the photos I took immediately after Kaleb was born. So without further ado here are photos I took on my phone from the delivery room. Also included is his first photo with his mom.



Last night I went to the BoSox-Devil Rays game at Fenway and while it was exciting the Devil Rays blew an 8-1 lead and ended up losing 16-10.

Keeg

Sunday, September 9, 2007

And then the rain came



After a couple scorchers we finally got some much needed rain. Saturday evenings brief rain showers marked the first measurable rain we have ever had while in the new house. The roof finally got its first test drive and I was finally able to see if the gutters were all hooked up correctly. The gutter on the shed is still sloping in the wrong direction, and the new gutter on the side seems to be leaking near the bottom, but no big deal there. I also made our first attempt at figuring out what animal is spending some time in our ceiling. We assumed it was a squirrel because there is an obvious hole in the soffit and because it seemed to be much bigger than a mouse. So I covered up the hole with computer paper and duct tape just to verify that something was coming in and out through the hole. It took a half day, but finally the paper had been pulled back and is now just dangling. I am not sure of the next step, from what I read we are going to have to catch the squirrel and move him or kill him because now that he has a home in there he will do whatever possible to get back inside, regardless of whether or not we cover over the hole.

We had a nice relaxing weekend. Megan and Jamison came over yesterday and we went over to my mom's to go swimming. Today we did a little shopping in the morning and then stayed home in the afternoon before Amy came over to visit us. At this point I am not sure what else to do in the yard, it might just be time to call it a year and start fresh in the spring. Now it is time to compose a list of all the things we need to do this fall and winter.
- Fix the drainage around the house
- Buy a de-humidifer for the basement
- New electrical panel
- Build/buy an arbor for all the grape vines out back
- Get rid of the giant stump in the back yard
- Fix the spigot outside
- Remove the rotting wood structure in the basement and replace it with lally columns
- Install a railing on the stairs
- Rid house of squirrel
- Railings for the deck
- Replace some rotting trim
- Get chimney checked out
- Put in new smoke detectors with a battery back up

It seems like quite a list, but I don't think any of the things are too crazy. I think I will certainly be busy this winter though.

Keeg

Friday, September 7, 2007

Mr. Mom

First here is a video of Kaleb stepping, it is his latest trick. He seems very excited about the prospect of joining the rest of us upright walkers.



Now that school has started up again for Jennifer I am shifting my work schedule around. Two days a week I will be at home with Kaleb during the day and then working at home in the evening. Yesterday was my first day and it went very well. We stuck to the schedule we had used for the earlier part of the week, to try and begin a routine. He was very good, taking two naps, both over an hour long and even drinking some milk from a bottle. We did some grocery shopping and also went for a walk later in the afternoon. It was certainly a long day, but it was great to hang out with my son.

Keeg

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Quick Weekend Update

Our weekend on Cape Cod was a complete success. We really had a great time out there and I feel like I got a pretty solid taste of what it is all about. On Friday evening, we went took advantage of Jeff's over sand permit and drove down the beach in the Liberty. There were a couple seals, lots of wind and some big waves. On Saturday we went up to Provincetown to check out that whole scene. I think living in Somerville has desensitized me so I didn't see anything that seemed to out of the ordinary. After P-town we tried to find a restaurant and ended up in the middle of the woods, it was pretty crazy. We finally got to the restaurant, but the parking lot was full so we had to move across to the bay side and eat at a different restaurant. We stayed in that evening, played whiffle ball and cooked pizza on the grill. On Sunday we walked out on the beach at low tide in Brewster. It was really cool because you can walk about a mile from the beach and the water was less than knee deep. We saw all sorts of sea creatures including, but not limited to, moon snails, jelly fish and horseshoe crabs.

We rolled out of there around 12:15 with the intention of catching the final race of the Long Pond season at 2PM. Unfortunately the traffic was a bit crazy and we made it in time to catch the final three legs. Mark ended up winning the Long Pond Cup and also won the Labor Day Weekend races. I helped put the boats away and then we hopped back in the car to get Kaleb home in time for his regular bed time.

Kaleb has had a rough couple of days. First we had him in the car for most of Saturday and then again on Monday. Last night his schedule was pretty screwed up, so he was up kind of late. Today the day started off well, but since it was Jennifer's first day of school he had to go to my mom's house. He had a long day with a bunch of crying and as I type this he is awake and crying because of what is most likely constipation. Poor Three!!!

The good news is that he really likes to stand up. He still needs assistance, but has now started actually moving his feet like he is walking now. I keep hoping it won't be long before he can balance without assistance.

Okay time to get back to work. I added some new photos to my Cape Cod photos in my previous entry.

Keeg

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Weekend on Cape Cod

Cara and Jeff were kind enough to invite us to spend the weekend with them in Brewster. I have never really been to Cape Cod except for a brief winter time excursion to Hyannis so it should be a great experience for me. Here are some photos I have already taken since we arrived this morning.



Here are some other photos from this past week.


Later,
Keeg

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Tough Start



We had a tough start to Kaleb's first day with Gunnie, but he ended up being just fine. Given the relatively stressful situation I left work a little early and the three of us went to the beach. I really love being at the beach in the late afternoon/early evening, the light is great and it usually isn't hot. Anyway I have attached several photos from the beach.

This weekend we will be heading out to Cape Cod and staying with Cara and Jeff at a house they have rnted in East Brewster. Oddly enough its my first time out on "the Cape". I am excited although I don't know the best way to handle the traffic.

Keeg

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Hot Weather Returns



The cool and dry weather of the middle of last week was officially replaced with classic summer weather. Apparently there was even a record high temperature at Logan Airport yesterday of 96 degrees. It was hot in Merrimac, but not too bad. We did go up to my mom's house and went swimming, but it was a little toasty to be refreshing (ninety two degrees). We spent the rest of the day laying around and watching a bit of tv. The house stays very cool in the hot weather so the fact that we don't have AC downstairs isn't really an issue.

Today I got outside early and cleaned up the back of the right side of the yard and now the yard work, at least the cleaning up, is nearly complete. I opened up a ton of new space and now we just have to decide what to do with it. My initial thoughts are to plant some grass seed, but we may end up putting in some sort of a vegetable garden for next year. Either way the mess that had been there is gone, it was just a bunch of dried up old weed stalks and a rotting arbor that collapsed long ago. The grapes over there are crazy they have grown up the apple tree and up towards the willow tree, some of them are at least twenty feet off the ground. We really need to figure out what we are going to do with them, since they seem a little bit out of control.

Kaleb has been handling the heat fairly well, but it has made him extra tired. He has really been downing solids very well and moved on to pears this past week. I have been working with him on his standing.

Finally, tomorrow is the first test of Kaleb spending the day at my mom's house without Jennifer or I there. Jennifer has a class all day at school and I have to be at work. Luckily I don't have to leave for work until 9:30 so he will only have to last six hours. So far whenever we leave him there he just cries the whole time, its going to be a long day for all involved, but hopefully we can get him to understand that we will be coming back.

I'll keep you all posted on how it goes tomorrow.
Keeg

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Kaleb's Six Month Party

This past weekend we had a little get together to celebrate Kaleb's six month birthday and our housewarming. We had a ton of people here and did some cooking on our new grill (thanks to the in-laws). Everbody seemed to have a good time although they all left before we actually got to eat the cake Jennifer made. It worked out pretty well for us though since we had an entire cake to enjoy over the last couple of days.



Since Jen's parents were stayed with us we were able to cut down a bunch of trees. The yard is really coming along. I finally got a start on the back and right side of the yard. I can't believe how good it looks, it should be done just in time for autumn :P


Kaleb is doing better than ever, he is now eating solid foods such as oatmeal cereal, peaches, bananas and apple sauce. Tonight it was really cute because he was really excited about eating. Jennifer would move the spoon towards his mouth and he would open it right up and do his pit bull impression as the spoon approached. He was downing the food like crazy. He also kind of took a bottle this morning, which is some major progress. We went over my mom's house for a little while and left Kaleb there and as is typical for him lately he cried like crazy. It is certainly going to be interesting in a couple of weeks when Jennifer goes back to school.

The other big news was with the house. The roofers finished our new roof in just a couple days. It looks really great and we are really excited about having that huge task behind us. Now we need to focus on the wet basement and getting it dried out.

Thats the update for now.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

New Mower



I know I have been bad about doing entries, but you have to understand I am now a homeowner and need to do lots of yard work. Speaking of which, over the weekend we went out and bought a new lawn mower. It is one of the manual one's, as in it doesn't use gas or electric. I know people probably think I am crazy, but for the size yard we have I think it is good enough, plus it is good for the environment. We ended up buying it after my mom refused to buy us one although she said she would get us a gas powered one if we wanted it. The other important bit of yard work I did this weekend was cleaning the gutters. They had been pretty bad and hadn't been cleaned in so long that there were five inch maple tree seedlings growing in them. I quickly used my new ladder (thanks dad) to clean them out and now I am just waiting for a rainstorm to see if they work.


Kaleb has been doing very well. We are still struggling to get him to eat out of a bottle and he will have about three spoonfuls of food before he starts whining. While the food hasn't been going well, Jennifer has done a great job of getting him into a nice bed time routine. It is sometimes a bit of a struggle, but seems to be getting easier every night. He has been very vocal lately and is constantly yelling or talking to himself. He gets more personality by the day.

This weekend we are having a house warming/six month birthday party. It should be fun and also good to have some friends and family over to our new house.

Keeg

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Another Milestone



Yesterday Kaleb was standing up in my lap and so I took a chance in stood him up next to the foot stool for the chair and he stood there for a good two minutes. His legs stayed strong and didn't buckle.

Keeg

Monday, August 6, 2007

Long Time No Post





My apologies for the huge delay between entries. It has been a very hectic over the last week between moving, closing, moving and work stuff. So last weekend I ended up driving back and forth between Amesbury and Somerville about six times, on the bright side we got most of our stuff moved. On Monday night we had the walk-through of the new house, which went well. However, near the end of the walk-through we got a call saying the mortgage company was having trouble verifying Jennifer's employment and the closing was postponed from 9AM to 1PM. We tried our best to keep things on schedule by calling Jennifer's HR worker, but the mortgage company needed to talk to them at their work number. The next morning things were find and we went through the entire closing and received the keys. The catch was that it was getting late in the day and they weren't sure if they could get the house "On The Record", but the attorney gave us the keys and let us go. Now the seller also closed on a place earlier in the day and couldn't move in until we were "On The Record". Anyway we started moving in when we got a call at 3:45 saying the closing still wasn't "On The Record" and almost had to move our stuff back out. At the very last minute everything worked out though and we were able to continue the move.

Since then we have really settled in and it feels like we have lived here for years. Jennifer has done a wonderful job of unpacking and we are pretty much all moved in at this point with the exception of some crates of clothes on the back porch. I have been hard at work in the yard. Yesterday and today I spent a good eight hours total lopping, sawing and raking. You can really see the difference in the front corner of the yard where I have really cleared out a bunch of stuff and it is really coming along.

Now for the update you have all been waiting for, Kaleb. He has handled the move relatively well except for his sleeping habits. Before we left he would go to sleep without too much difficulty, but since we have been here it has been a real struggle. Tonight has worked out the best, but it didn't come easy. The other problem is that we are so tired and don't have the energy to battle with him so we have been letting him sleep in our bed. Developmentally he reached a new milestone by rolling over. He has only done it once, but we were quite proud of him when he did it.

Okay I am tired it is time for bed now.

Keeg

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Craziness Continues

Ever since returning from vacation we have been non-stop busy. Jennifer has been working hard packing and I have spent more than my share of time driving back and forth between Somerville and Amesbury. As of this afternoon we have about 90% of our stuff moved up to my mom's garage. Its been a lot of work, and we will hopefully reap the benefits of it once we move in and don't have to drive back down here for anything.

Of course this process hasn't been without a snag. Today we went up to Merrimac and everything went very well and then we got a call from our mortgage broker. Apparently the banks are now doing a lot of last minute double checking on people and decided to call Jennifer's employer today to make sure she is actually working there. They weren't able to reach anybody so they put a hold on our closing. Now we have to move the closing back to one, which is going to cause trouble for the seller because she needs to close on her new place at eleven. It basically a big mess, but should hopefully all be resolved by 2PM tomorrow. We will then start driving back and forth from my mom's to the new place. It is sure to be a long day, but in the end we should be officially moved up to the quiet suburbs.

I'll keep you posted once we are all settled.

Keeg

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Fort Running












Fort Running
"Fort Running" on Google Video
Episode One: Lakitu Goes Fort Running

Here is a video I recently made while on vacation in Maine. I really love our MacBook.

See you all soon!!!
Keeg

Final Vacation Photos

Our vacation is coming to a close today, I have actually been working up here in Maine for the last two days. I will provide more text updates soon, but in the meantime here are more photos. I will say that Kaleb has made a lot of progress sitting up on his own as you will see in the photos. He also has a lot more aware than even a week and a half ago. He is growing up so fast.



It's back to Somerville tonight and then we start moving up to Merrimac for the big closing date on Tuesday.

Keeg

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Quick Post from Bath

Here is a quick post from a cafe in Bath, Maine.



We are currently on vacation and everything has been wonderful. I will hopefully post more later when I have more time.

Keeg

Friday, July 13, 2007

Kaleb's New Noise












Kaleb's New Noise
"Kaleb's New Noise" on Google Video
A short clip of Kaleb demonstrating his new screeching abilities. He also goes over the list of things to bring on vacation with mom. Sorry I don't have any photos, but we are going on vacation and I should be putting a bunch of stuff up soon.

Keeg

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Gotta Love Working Late Nights

I first want to apologize if it takes a few days before you get any updates or see any photos of Kaleb. The truth of the matter is that I have been working non-stop and on top of that I have started the process of moving things up to my mom's garage. My days at work pretty much go like this:
10 AM Arrive at work start up my computer and check email.
10:15 AM One of the emails is from somebody asking for assistance.
10:45 AM Return to my desk briefly to check email and update my source code.
11:00 AM Go into the kitchen for a snack and on the way get dragged in to an impromptu meeting.
12:00 PM Return to my desk to check email, and read anything new in my Google Reader.
12:15 PM Lunch time
1:15 PM Return from lunch, check email, update source code and do another local build.
1:30 PM Head to kitchen for chocolate. On way back get called into the boss' office for discussion.
2:00 PM Return to my desk to check email and see message from engineer who needs assistance.
2:30 PM Back to my desk again and get to install the software before getting bug emails that I need to review.
3:00 PM A scheduled meeting is planned, which runs anywhere from 1 to 2 hours depending on how side tracked we get.
5:00 PM Finally, I return to my desk and start to pack things up so I can get home in time for dinner.

I don't know really why my title is Software Engineer, because I don't seem to do much of it lately. I know being a jack of all trades is a good thing, but seriously I just want to sit in a room for eight hours and get some work done. Oh wait actually I do get to do that, but only after 8PM at home. The second part of my day, when I actually get work done starts at 8PM. I pull up a seat at the dining room and quickly get to working. The only breaks I take occur about once an hour when I creep into the nursery and lean into Kaleb's crib to make sure he is still breathing. Once I confirm that everything is okay I return to my dining room station and work until about one or two depending on how tired I happen to be and how much work I NEED to get done.

Thankfully a big break in all this madness will be here and I will get to rest. You see at the end of the day on Friday my vacation begins and I am going to be keeping the work computer off for the entire week. No email checking, no phone calls, just the peace and quiet of coastal Maine. I will be using a computer though, but it will be our MacBook and I will be editing all of the movies I have filmed so far this year. I can't wait!!!!!

Keeg

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Some More Firsts



Kaleb had a couple more first today. First we went up to Plum Island to meet Nonna and Sir at the beach. Once out on the river side of the beach Kaleb got his first chance to touch sand at the beach. He was cool with it and didn't have any reaction. Later on I took him down near the water and dipped his feet in, of course being New England the water was super cold and he cried a little until I pulled him up. We then sat down in the wet sand and made his first footprints in the sand. After a couple hours we packed up and went over to my mom' house.

Once there Kaleb ate some lunch and then I got to take him into the pool. He was surprisingly calm and didn't mind it at all. We hung out in the pool for about fifteen minutes going back and forth in the shallow end and just swimming around. He was a bit tense at first, but eventually relaxed and had a grand old time.

Now I have to get over to the dining room table and start doing the work that I have been putting off all weekend. Only five more days until I start my vacation!!! I can hardly wait.

Keeg

Saturday, July 7, 2007

A Couple Firsts



Kaleb had a couple of firsts over the last few days. The first first was eating solid food. I think it was the Fourth of July, we mixed up a little breast milk and rice cereal for him. He didn't really eat it very well and most of it ended up on his bib, but we are confident at least a little bit made it to his little stomach. We have since continued solids every night and he gets a little better at each feeding.



The other first occurred today and it was his first boat ride. We were invited to Liz's birthday party which was on Georges Island in Boston Harbor. So we met down near Christopher Columbus park and boarded the boat. Kaleb didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, but I would say he enjoyed seeing all of that water. It was a first for me too, I had never been to Georges Island. The island was pretty cool and at one point I wandered off and checked out the cool fort on the island. It was a really great day and another successful first for Kaleb.

More details later. Be sure and check out the actual album and view the album view for the Georges Island trip.

Stay cool out there, a heat wave is on the way.
Keeg

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Today is Independence Day



We originally had grand plans for this lovely Independence day, but around 8AM this morning I woke up and decided I might just need to take my day off and rest for a change. Jennifer and I also weren't feeling too well so it made the decision a little easier. So we stayed in bed for a few more hours, I made Jennifer a latte and brought in a plate with our anniversary cake and some blueberries. It was then back to sleep for me for a couple more hours. I woke up around noon to find Kaleb sound asleep next to me. We put him in his fourth of July outfit and went up to True Grounds for lunch. Now we are back at home watching the Devil Rays-Red Sox game.

Hopefully after the game my mom, who is at the game, will be coming over to visit, well if she can find her way here.

Keeg

Monday, July 2, 2007

Last Free Weekend



Saturday marked the last weekend day until the first week in August that we didn't have anything in particular planned. Since I had seen a movie in as long as I can remember I went in to Boston and saw the latest Die Hard movie. I have to admit I am such a huge fan of the entire franchise, it is the perfect mix of humor and action. Of course this installment didn't disappoint and I left satisfied. Once back home I ended up working for most of the evening, but the good news is that I made some great progress.

This morning I spent some of the morning with Kaleb, before walking up to True Grounds for breakfast. I enjoyed a scone and a nice mocha while doing some more work. I took another short break from work and went for a walk with the family. I then did some more work before we piled in to the car and went up to Winchester Hospital for a little reunion. We really had a great time there. I have been helping out with a google group for parents in the Special Care Nursery, which will hopefully get some use soon.

Its getting late so I am going to close this up now. Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary, which certainly caps off a crazy year. In honor of the day we are going to dinner in the North End at Bricco. We are both very excited to eat some amazing food.

Keeg

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Hot Summer Days



The summer has finally arrived and we have been forced to live in the bedroom, because it is the only air conditioned room in the house. Kaleb has been doing okay and the heat hasn't bothered him too much. I think he actually likes it because he gets to just wear a diaper. Sunday was a quiet day, we met Cara and Jeff for breakfast and then walked down to Harvard Square to relax at JFK Park. Rich came over and met us at the park and we went and got some ice cream. We came back home and that was the end of our quiet weekend.

Keeg

EDIT: Google has come up with another amazing feature to Picasa photos. You can now link photos to locations on a map and then view photos on the map and all sorts of cool things. If you want to check it out click the link to view the album and there are a couple places where you can view the photos on a map.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Sunny Saturday



Not much to report, since my last entry. Kaleb went in for his four month check up and the doctor says he is doing really well. He weight 10lbs and 12 ounces and was 22 3/4 inches long. So he is really progressing well. He also had some more vaccinations which he didn't really enjoy too much. He also was extra sleepy and not himself the day afterwards, which was tough including the evening following the shots when he just screamed for about twenty minutes.

Yesterday Jennifer had to work again so I brought Kaleb up to Amesbury so my mom could watch him while I worked. He slept almost the entire time and didn't wake up until 11:45AM. I ended up leaving around lunch time and went to a espresso/wine bar in downtown Amesbury. I loved it and can't wait to go back once we move up to Merrimac. It is a place called J. Bucks and is located in the building that used to be the railroad station. The place is huge and was perfect, now I just have to hope they don't go out of business.

Today we didn't do much besides walk out to Alewife so Jennifer could go shopping for something to wear to a bachelorette party tonight. It was a real Boston party with stops at some of the hipper clubs in the city. I think it is great that she is getting out there and taking some time for herself, it is a huge part of staying sane and keeping touch with yourself.

Okay, I think Kaleb just woke up so I have to go check on him.

Have a great weekend everybody!!!
Keeg

EDIT: I almost forgot, Kaleb touched his feet with his hands for the first time. I included the photo, but it is a little fuzzy, sorry about that.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Please Stop Teething Me



After the super buy weekend we thought Kaleb's fussing was just because he was tired, but we are beginning to think more and more that he is now teething. We aren't certain, but he is definitely touching his mouth more often and has been chewing on his pacifier more often than he has been sucking it. Apparently it isn't unheard of for a baby to be teething at four months. Luckily he has to go in for his four month appointment tomorrow so we should know for sure. Its been two months since his last appointment and he is almost twice as big as he was then. We are looking forward to finally getting answers to questions we have been curious about for weeks now, such as cradle cap, teething, the flatness of the back of his head, the pace of his overall development (cognitive and physical) and the recent green poo.

The other big thing happening tomorrow is my longest stint flying solo with the little man. Jennifer has to go to school two day this week, tomorrow I am on duty and Friday my mom will be watching him. I am a bit nervous about the milk situation, because he hasn't consistently eaten from a bottle yet and if he doesn't take it tomorrow it will be a long, loud day. He took one from me tonight though without much trouble, so hopefully it will go well.

Kaleb continues to perfect his hand eye coordination. Today he hit his beach ball for the first time and also swung at a couple other toys. Its amazing how in the last few days he has gained even more personality. He is looking around more than ever and really enjoys going outside and checking out the sights, actually taking him outside is like magic, because it really calms him down. Okay its getting late and I have a long day ahead of me, so I am going to bed now.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

My First Father's Day



My first father's day was super busy and involved lots of driving, but it was wonderful. I woke up bright and early as usual and got a couple lovely cards from Kaleb and Jennifer along with some great framed photos. I then tried to get back to sleep, but by the time I was back in dreamland it was time to get up and get going. We were in the car by 9:45 and at AppleBee's in Sturbridge by 11. We had a lovely dinner with the Riebe's and hung out for a couple hours before going to Old Navy. It wasn't a very successful visit, but Kaleb did get his first pair of shoes.

We got back in the car, this time accompanied by Auntie M and drove up to Amesbury. The Amesbury agenda included a Father's day dinner at my dad's, a pit stop at Hodgies and a quick visit to see my mom. All went well, I could type some details in, but I really want to watch tv with my wife right now so you are going to have to imagine how it all went. The one thing I have to point out is that Kaleb was exhausted for the entire day, which really effected his demeanor. He was really fussy and not on his best behavior, but Jennifer and I fully take the blame for that problem, since over the past few days we have dragged him all over god's green earth.

Finally, today I put Kaleb in the pool for the first time. It was really just some basic testing of his tolerance of the pool since it all occurred from the steps, but I did lower him into the pool. He was a bit unsure at first, but once he was wet he was pretty cool with it. I am thinking on Friday I may just have to jump in and get him in a little more.

Keeg

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Another Big Day for the Little Man



I made it an early day at work yesterday and Jennifer, Kaleb and I went for lunch at the Grand Prix cafe. We then came home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. However, Kaleb did make some more progress with objects. Today he was in his pack and play and was swatting at a dangling toy. He batted it around for a good ten minutes. It is the first time he has ever swung at something on purpose. He was so very excited and kicked his legs like crazy. We are both very proud of his progress.



Today we went to the Fells for a brief hike, before meeting Megan, Jamie and Jamison for an afternoon at the Charles RiverFest. Here are the photos:

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Poop in my pants I did



While looking through some of the photos today we noticed a slight resemblance between Kaleb and Yoda. Kaleb recently lost some of his hair and the hair that remains on the top is relatively sparse and coarse, just like Yoda. He also has ears that are a bit pointy like Yoda and his cradle cap also looks a lot like the top of Yoda's head. I suppose you should judge for yourself though.



Today was another milestone of sorts, when Kaleb became the Lord of the Rings. Jennifer bought him some rings (links) to play with and yesterday he kind of grabbed on to them, but today he not only grabbed on, but flung them around a little bit. It is the first time he has ever held on to something and tossed it back and forth. He almost moved it towards his mouth, but stopped at the last minute. Here is some video of that for you to see.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Dirty Diaper



Not much news to report this morning. Kaleb was nursing and as usual was pooping away at the same time. All of a sudden Jennifer goes "ewww" and starts looking at her hand. My first reaction was to grab the camera and take a picture and then since I had volunteered to change him pre giant poop explosion I took him over to get changed. I think the hardest part about it was trying to change him without getting poo all over the changing table. After a lot of struggling with Kaleb and tipping him on his side I successfully removed the nightgown and then got the diaper off without one drop of poo on the changing table. I really have come a long way with diaper changes over the last three and a half months.


Here are a couple videos.

Kaleb Howling


Kaleb Swinging at the Bunny

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Some Photos


Another busy weekend was had by the Sands family of Somerville. On Friday we all went up to Newburyport while I had my stitches removed. Once back in Somerville we went to see a Jose Mateo Ballet performance. Kaleb was fantastic, I put him in the Baby Bjorn right before the show and walked him around until he fell asleep and then he slept through the entire show. He did wake up at one point when the applause was extremely loud, but immediately fell back to sleep.

On Saturday we all slept very late and stayed home for most of the day. In the afternoon we started to get ready for Lan and John's wedding. Auntie M came over to babysit Kaleb while we were at the wedding. We did our best to tucker him out before we left with a nice warm bath followed by a feeding. Apparently he slept for quite a while after we left, but once he woke up he wasn't having anything to do with the bottle and then screamed for a good half hour. Fortunately for Auntie M he passed out, but not before he pooed all over her, so much that she had to change. When we finally made it home at around 11:15 he was still asleep and was ready to eat. The wedding itself was really great, we are very thankful that Mes was able to take care of Kaleb so we could enjoy ourselves especially because we knew he was in good hands.



If you can't tell from the photos the wedding was really amazing. Lan looked beautiful in her dress and John looked so happy. The meal was great, the band was top notch and all of the venues were second to none.

Today we spent most of the day at home. I worked alot, but did take a break now and then to play the wii or to catch a breath of fresh air. We had Cara and Jeff over to play with our new game Mario Party 8. We battled up until the end, but luck was not on our side and we lost by three stars.

Keeg

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Scooper Bowl 2007



I got an email from Melissa wondering if Kaleb, Jennifer and I wanted to meet her at the Scooper Bowl. I finally got a hold of Jennifer late in the afternoon, because she was at mommy/baby yoga and then shopping at the worst Target store around. We decided that ice cream would make for a perfect dinner. I came home a little early and we made our way into the city around 5:00. It was a bit chilly downtown, but it didn't stop me from breaking my previous record of ice cream cups. Today I downed 16 cups of ice cream total and that was even considering the fact that Ben & Jerry's had some random non-chocolate based ice cream flavors. Not only did I break my record, but Kaleb also got to attend his first Scooper Bowl. We were kind enough to give him a few tastes of the yummy drippings at the bottom of our empty cups. He seemed to enjoy the few drips we gave him which is very encouraging.

Kaleb was also weighed again at yoga class and with his onesie on he weighed 10 pounds and 6 ounces. He seems to continue to gain a half pound a week. He is growing by leaps and bounds. The other big change with him is his recent babblings. Tonight we made wolf noises to him and he kept making similar noises back to us. It was really funny to watch him move his lips and then belt out a loud howl.

Keeg

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Brief Update



Not much to report. LiveJournal is finally working again so I was able to post the full entry from the weekend (see below). Last night we once again put Kaleb down in his bassinet at nine to get him more used to going to bed early, so far so good. This morning we gave him a bath to help clean him up after he had poo all the way up his back. He didn't seem to care and actually got a kick out of me showing him the messy onesie.

I came home a bit early from work to spend time with him and we had a great evening. We went for a couple walks, the second walk started out slowly, because we kept stopping and chatting with people. It gave Kaleb a chance to really go crazy though, he was jabbering so much and kicking his legs. It was hilarious, I will be adding a video to this post later.

EDIT:


I just updated KeegSands.com so it will display the actual livejournal because there was a problem with some of the photos and slideshows not showing up. So in the future just go to Keegsands.com

Keeg

100,000 Miles

The weekend started off a bit early because I decided to take Friday off. We ended up sleeping in until around ten, which is crazy late, but once up we moved quickly and were in Portland by one. The goal of the trip was to first of all get out of Boston and away from work, but also to pick up some Dave's Insanity Salsa. I know it seems silly, but it is the hottest I have ever had and it can't be bought anywhere else that I know of besides the internet. We went to Le Reux found the salsa and then went for lunch at the Crooked Mile cafe, our typical lunchtime destination when in Portland. We shopped around for a little while, before returning to the car. Once we were underway I called Jennie and we met her for ice cream in Wells. We caught up with her for quite a while and then continued towards Amesbury. We stopped in at my moms while Kaleb ate and then made it back home.

Saturday I woke up bright and early, well at least early for me nowadays. I had to get up because it was the annual Agawam River Canoe trip. I picked up a mocha and made my way over to the Back Bay to get Amy. We made it down in record time and met up with everybody else. The logistics of the trip had been worked out before we got there, but all the components were still in transit. Once everything was in place we set out after the first cranberry bog, which helped cut out a lot of the bushwhacking. It was a very humid day, but there was a nice wind to balance it and kept it cool. I was partnered up with Amy and while we did struggle a bit, due to my terrible driving skills, we did make it in one piece. I did manage to fall in at one portage, but luckily all of my stuff was on dry land at the time. The highlight of the trip wasn't my fall though it was when Kelly managed to get the kayak stuck sideways in the rapids and then capsized sending her thirty feet down stream. She was alright, but I have to say it was crazy to watch. We emptied the water out of her kayak and all continued on our merry way to Wareham harbor. It was another great trip, I can't wait until next year.




Today required another early morning and I was in worse shape than yesterday. We needed to go down to Connecticut for Kaleb's postponed baby shower. He was supposed to have one in Connecticut, but since he came early it was never able to happen. It turned out okay because now everybody got to attend a meet Kaleb party instead, which I think everybody benefits from. There were a ton of people there, so I won't bother naming everybody. A fun time was had by all especially after they all indulged in some apparently strong margaritas care of sir. Kaleb as expected was passed all round and he handled it fairly well, although somewhere near the end he started to get fussy. We ended up settling him down and he slept until right before we had to leave, so we were able to feed him and he made it home without waking up. All in all a fantastic week, with lots of activity and not much sleep. Thank god the work week is about to start. Oh yeah and on the way there I passed the 100,000 mile mark on my odometer. Not bad for only having the car for 4 1/2 years.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

10 Pounder???

I am a bit late on updating this information, so bear with me. On Monday Jennifer and Kaleb went to baby/mommy yoga, and at some point in the day had access to a scale. Since it has been over a month since he was last weighed, she of course couldn't resist and plopped our little man onto it for a weigh in. The results showed he now weighs in around 9lbs 14oz and is now about 22 1/2 inches long. Assuming one ounce a day, he is now probably right at 10 pounds. So he is now almost three times his lowest weight of 3lbs 6oz. He sure is growing up fast.

Okay now I need to get ready for breakfast with Kate and then back to work for another long day, thankfully I have tomorrow off though. Hopefully we will be driving up to Portland tomorrow, assuming the weather isn't going to be too bad.

Keeg

Monday, May 28, 2007

The 100th Day



Today the 100th day since Kaleb was born. Its hard to believe so many days have since that crazy day back in February. We didn't really do anything special for the day, it was a weird day because of the weather forecast, which originally predicted rain for the day. It rained a little, but then it was sunny and then cloudy and then sunny and then clear. I had to do a lot of work so I was in most of the day, but we did get out for a couple hours and ate lunch at Panera. We also went for an evening walk over to Andy's house to visit with him for a little while. On the way home we stopped by Auntie M's for a couple minutes and now we are home.

Oh yeah one more thing...last night we were sound asleep and then all of a sudden Kaleb lets out a squeal, not a cry but a squeal. Jennifer and I were both startled awake and looked over at him. He was jabbering away over there, and after a closer look he was wide awake. Once the lights were on we could see that he was just having a grand old time entertaining himself, talking, kicking and swinging his arms. It was hilarious, but made sense since he had slept most of the day before.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Busy Days in Boston


Here is an entry sandwiched in between two slideshows. Yesterday, Jennifer and Kaleb took a little play date trip into the city with Jamison and Megan. Despite the heat he was okay and didn't seem to mind being hot for a change. They spent most of the day down at the Public Garden just hanging out having a grand old time. Meanwhile, I left a busy work day and drove an hour up to Newburyport for a doctor's appointment. You see a few weeks ago I cut a mole on my neck and slowly it got bigger and bigger. I think it was somehow filling with blood, and that is why it just kept growing. Anyway, it got a little too big for my tastes and I decided to go see a plastic surgeon to have it removed, per my mother's recommendation. Once at the office the doctor took a look at it and kind of did a double take. Luckily they were able to make room in the schedule to remove it and within a half hour, I was under the knife. I warned both the nurse and doctor that I tend to be a bit squeamish when it comes to this sort of thing and they said they figured based on my reaction during the examination. I didn't end up having any problems, thankfully the nurse let me hold her hand through the hardest part. Twenty minutes or so later and I was all stitched up with four stitches, but more importantly mole free. I hopped back in the car and drove to Amesbury to visit my mom before returning to work at around four o'clock.

When I finally got home after work I was glad to see that a new toy for Kaleb had arrived from our friends Liz and Brett, the Bebe Pod. I think it is one of the only things I helped register for and when I saw that somebody had grabbed it for us I was so excited. Basically the Bebe Pod is a hard foam plastic seat that babies can sit in even when they aren't able to sit up. It has a curved back and a piece that sticks up in the front to hold him in, very much like the old sit'n'spin toys from the eighties. Here is a photo of the Bebe Pod:

Here is a photo of a Sit'N'Spin:

So the first thing I did when I got home was to put Kaleb into the Bebe Pod. He fit in perfectly, but his neck muscles don't really have the stamina for him to sit in there for extended periods of time. You will see in some of the photos how he slowly leans over to one side. Since he doesn't like tummy time, which is a good way for his neck to get stronger, this will be the perfect neck strengthening activity.

Last night we went to John Joyce's 30th birthday party at the Cellar in Cambridge. I had never been there before, but it was a really cool restaurant with a great ambiance and some really amazing food. My two favorites were the tater tots, which should really be called fried mashed potato balls and the chicken flatbread pizza. Yummy!! Kaleb was very well behaved and pretty much slept the entire time, which was good considering the hot weather.

Today we all slowly woke up and hung around the house in the morning. I did a little work, but realized I left my power supply at work so had to drive in at noon to pick it up. Once back at home I noticed that the annual EarthFest concert was going on and we decided to go check it out. So around 1:30 we got our act together and took Kaleb to his first live music concert. We got to hear Mat Kearney and KT Tunstall. I have downloaded a ton of KT's songs and really think she is great artist. We also walked around EarthFest and picked up some free food, like yogurt, juice and granola, although there didn't seem to be as much stuff as last year.

Now we are at home sitting on the couch. Kaleb is squeaky clean thanks to his bath, which went smoother than ever. He actually smiled a lot, so I had to break out the camera and ended up adding the second slideshow to this posting.

Oh yeah one more thing, Ben came over tonight and we were telling him a Kaleb story that I am not sure I ever documented, but wanted to make sure I wrote it down. A couple months ago right after he came home, we were supposed to give him vitamins via an eyedropper. So after he was finished eating we took the eyedropper and put it in his mouth, squeezed it and he immediately spit it right back at us. He continued to spit it out for a couple minutes, before we put him down in his bouncy seat. Once he was in the bouncy seat he didn't make a noise and kept his mouth locked shut for a half an hour, he was noticeably angry with us. The worst part about it though was that he ended up getting the vitamin stuff all over him and smelled like a Flinstone's vitamin for the next two days, until we gave him another bath.


Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Just Another Slideshow



While I am posting I just wanted to give you more information about the embedded slideshow above. If you click the lower right corner you will be given access to a link that will bring you to the old style photo gallery. There is the possibility that when you click on it your browser will try to block the pop up, to prevent this you can either hold the ctrl key when clicking on a Windows machine or hold the fn key when clicking on a mac.

If you still have trouble viewing the regular gallery let me know.
Keeg

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Kaleb Talking It Up












Kaleb Talking It Up
"Kaleb Talking It Up" on Google Video
A two minute long video of Kaleb chatting or at least babbling, taken at 1:30 in the morning. Isn't it nice to have no concept of day or night.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Quick Post

I found two great websites this morning. The first is SpotStory, where you can write a story about a specific spot and upload photos so people can share there favorite spots. The second is a.spacebetween.us, it is a site for finding a location halfway between two locations. So if you lived in Merrimac and wanted to meet halfway with people from Southbury for coffee it would recommend Sturbridge Coffee Roasters. I think I remember talking with somebody about this idea a year or so ago, its good to see that somebody has gone out and done it.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Long Time No Blog

Kaleb: Day 90



Kaleb: Day 93


Scottie and April's Wedding


I got a ton of grief from my dad for not updating the photos since Wednesday, so now you get three whole albums with all sorts of photos. Of course I have an excuse for my neglect of the site, we have been busy with new house stuff. On Friday, we signed the purchase and sales agreement and also submitted our mortgage application. Now we are officially moving into new territory and if all goes well, we will be closing at the end of July. It was very anti-climactic, but I am sure once the house is actually ours I will barely be able to contain myself.

Now for the Kaleb news. He continues to be extremely well behaved, and we are so grateful for that fact. On Friday, he slept through the signing, and then went to the mall with his mom and his grandmother. On Saturday, we didn't do much of anything, I mostly spent the day trying to get through the TiVo. Developmentally Kaleb has changed a little bit. He continues to follow things with his eyes, but now with a little more focus. He is more aware of Jennifer and I so he smiles a little more often and at definitively different times than when he is pooing. I guess the most recent change would be a possible grabbing reflex, we are not sure though. We were sitting on the couch and playing with his stuffed lamb and he seemed to be reaching for it. Later on we put him in the playpen and ran the mobile, again he swung his hands in the direction of the bunny, but it could just have been chance. He is slowly becoming more aware of his hands and hopefully in the next few weeks he will know exactly what those things are flailing around in front of his face.

Today we stayed in for most of the day, until the afternoon when we hopped in the car and drove to Natick. Jennifer's former dance students had a performance, so we went and checked it out. It marked Kaleb's first live performance, as always he was very good and was quiet through the entire show. I did have to walk around holding him, but not because he was being crazy loud. After the show he got to eat and the car and we headed back home, on the way we did do some Keegan stuff, like buy a 1/2 Terra Byte hard drive for storing all of Kaleb's movies and photos. I think that should last us until he is at least two.

Okay time to get going.

Keeg

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Guy Smiley



Mr. Kaleb has been sleeping alot lately, but when he isn't sleeping he has been very active. He has been smiling more than ever and also doing more talking. Its so great to see him learn and grow. Last night we went out for a walk and for most of it kept him reclined as usual just up from completely reclined. About halfway through the walk we realized he was awake and put his seat up a little more so he could see better and he was so excited. Once we started going again he was looking around at things like crazy, we then went into the supermarket and he was in heaven. All of the bright lights and bright colors had him mesmerized and we just kept kicking his feet and swinging his arms around. Finally when we got to the check out I came around the stroller and poke my head in front of him to say hi and he had an ear to ear grin. It just blew me away that he recognized me and not only that, he also smiled. I continued to be amazed by him everyday.

Here is a video of him smiling at his new lamb.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Over the Connecticut River and Through the Woods to Grandmother's House We Go

Weekend in CT


Kaleb added Connecticut to his list of states visited over the weekend, when we went to the Riebe's house. He was so good all weekend, he slept most of the time, including the car ride up and back. It was nice to get out of the house for a change and to spend the night in the suburbs, having somebody else watch the baby so we could sleep late was also nice. I finally managed to finish the Christmas DVD and also added two more slideshows to the original series of two. Next up is a podcast, which I haven't been able to get to, but I am sure will be worth the wait.

We also received the home inspection over the weekend and were very pessimistic about the house. So today we arranged for Jon to go over and check it out for himself. I decided to leave work early, picked up Jennifer and Kaleb and we all went up to check out the house too. After a double check of all the items in the house inspection report it turned out that things weren't as bad as they themed and wouldn't require as much work as we originally thought. There are still a couple things left to take care of, including an estimate for fixes to the roof and a search for some building permits. Hopefully if all goes well we will be signing the purchase and sales agreement on Friday. Once that is done we are good to go, well once we get the mortgage squared away.

I have a really busy week ahead at work, but I think I will make it through unscathed. Work has been crazy lately, I did a ton of work this weekend on a demo, which will be taking place tomorrow. Hopefully all will go well.

Keeg

Saturday, May 12, 2007

My 30th Birthday

30th Birthday


Well today was my thirtieth birthday and I have to say it turned out great. It didn't start out so well, because I was up late working last night, so I got to see May 11th arrive. However, after sleeping for a bit the day started off on a much higher note. Jennifer got me a new Apple Airport Extreme router, so we will have a faster network at home, will be able to print from anywhere in the house and also be able to hook a hard drive up to it so we can ease the strain on the laptop itself. Kaleb also gave me some presents, two books that I can read to him when he is more appreciative of books. After opening my presents I got to lay with Kaleb while Jennifer showered and got ready for the big home inspection. It was really nice just sitting in bed with my son on my birthday and thinking that 30 years ago I was smaller than him.

Unfortunately, Jennifer and Kaleb had to take off relatively early so I was left at home alone. Since we were having a party in the evening I decided to do some cleaning and two hours later the house was in great shape and ready for guests. I rolled off to work for and had a relatively uneventful day, which I have no complaints about.

After work I went to the store in search of a nunchuk controller for the Wii in case somebody wanted to do some two player boxing. I finally returned home, only to turn around and head back out to the store to get ice cream for the party. I came back home, stuck the ice cream in the freezer and got ready for the big party.

The guests slowly arrived and before long we had a smorgasboard of food and everybody was having a grand time. After eating a while we turned on the Wii and several games of tennis, bowling and golf were had before the main event of two player boxing. All was going well except, Kaleb was super fussy, partly because he was hot, but mostly because he was tired from his long day, long week for that matter. Besides the fact that Jennifer wasn't able to enjoy the party everything went really well. It was so nice to have my friends over just hanging out and having a good time. It wasn't the craziest party ever and it didn't involve a lot of bells and whistles, but I enjoyed it all the same.

So now here I sit in a house that is nearly returned to its original state, recounting one of those major birthday milestones. Of course it really hasn't sunk in that I am now thirty years old, it is hard to believe that ten years have passed since I returned home from my sophomore year of college and celebrated my 20th birthday. Actually what is harder for me to believe is just how much my life has changed and how many experiences, good and bad, I have had over the last ten years. I have learned so much about myself and really became my true self.

The last five years though were probably where most of the change occurred. I went through small changes like making new friends and going out in the city and traveled by plan for the first time in fifteen years. Next I began a quest to climb all of the 4000 footers in New England, then I got a ski house and finally started dating again. I then bought my first new car, went on my first online date (which was complete disaster), and went for my first ski trip out west. I slowly began to expand my horizons more and more with each passing month, finally I passed one major milestone and moved out of my mom's house and lived by myself. It was tough living alone way out in Salem, but it taught me how to live alone and helped me experience a bit more of the real world. Next up was my first trip to New York City to attend the largest Dave Matthews Band concert ever in the middle of Central Park (just plain amazing). The next winter was spent skiing again and strengthening friendships that I had made over the previous two years.

Once spring began, I bailed on the annual ski trip in favor of a once in a lifetime trip to Europe. It was truly a sign that I had made great progress, because when I was 25 if you had asked me if I would ever go to Europe you would have recieved a resounding "No way". I did go and I grew up a whole bunch on the trip, I learned to be even more independent and learned about the beauty and uniqueness that existed elsewhere in the world.

Once I was back in the good ol' US of A I returned to the online dating scene and while I went on many dates, I wasn't exactly successful, but it did help me learn what I was looking for and also helped make me much more comfortable while on dates. I also decided it was time for me to move in closer to the city, because I really enjoyed city life and all the things it had to offer. Within minutes of signing my lease to live in Somerville, I met Jennifer for our first date. My life was once again changed forever after meeting her and starting a relationship with her. She helped me continue my personal growth spurt and helped to show me what true love was all about. We had so many wonderful experiences and my life was forever changed for the better.

Things progressed very well and before long we moved in together, another huge step and proof that my growing had not stopped. By the time fall came around again we started to talk about marriage and right before winter started I had popped the question. At the time I remember thinking how crazy the year had been and how I didn't know how I would possibly top it, little did I know what I was in store for over the next 17 months. 2005 ended quietly and 2006 began without much fanfare. We started the somewhat stressful process of planning a wedding, but given our relatively quick decision making, we didn't have much trouble.

Last May I turned 29 and began what looks to possibly be the craziest most amazing year of my life. We had the perfect wedding in front of friends and family in July, spent an unforgettable two weeks in some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen in all my life and upon returning home learned that we were going to have a baby. It was insane in a matter of a few weeks I went from being a plain old fiance to a husband to an expecting father. It was all a bit overwhelming at first, but I didn't think I could be any happier (boy was I wrong). The pregnancy went along quickly and every week we would read about Three's development learning what body parts had been created and a comparison of its size versus various household items.

The new year came and went and Jennifer's belly continued to grow. Then once we got to February the two most stressful weeks of my life began, when Jennifer showed signs of pre-term labor. It was really hard not knowing what was going to happen and wondering if the baby would be okay. Finally, the single greatest moment of my existence happened on February 17th, when Kaleb was born healthy, small, but healthy. It was just an unbelievable experience that I will never forget, although I might remember it better if I had brought my camera with me. Unfortunately we weren't out of the woods yet, we had a healthy baby, but he needed to stay in the hospital and we visited him everyday. I think this was probably the most difficult experience I have ever had, going in to the hospital everyday to see Kaleb all hooked up to machines and with beeping all around and then having to leave to return home every night. Well eventually he got bigger and we were able to take him home.

Which brings us to today the first day of my 30th year. I can safely say that I think it is safe to say I am happier right now than I ever have been or at least that I can remember. I have the most amazing wife in the entire world, who understands me, supports me, makes me laugh, is truly the greatest mother in the world and most importantly loves me with all of her heart. I have a son who is just the cutest litlte thing in the whole world, a teeny person who makes me smile constantly despite the fact that he can barely control his own smiles, a boy who has been through so much difficulty, but passed through it all to become a normal healthy baby. I don't think I could have wished for my life to turn out better than it is right at this moment. I certainly didn't think at 25 that I would ever get here, but somehow through all the odd twists of fate, and random occurrences I seemed to have done very well.

As you can tell from the long drawn out ramblings above I am getting tired, not to mention the fact that I am in my thirties and just can't stay up as late as I used to back in my twenties. I just want to thank all of you out there who have helped me grow so much and have helped me to the state of sheer bliss I am in today starting my third decade on this wonderful planet. Here's to many happy returns of the day!!

Keegan

New House: Merrimac