Friday, June 27, 2008

And a new Movie

Photos, photos, photos...

Cooperstown - SPAC DMB


Kaleb: Day 491


Maudsley with Jeny


The Noonans Head South


Strawberry Picking

Sick and Tired

I know it has been ten days since I last posted, but I have an excuse I am sick and tired. I caught a cold from Jennifer at some point over the weekend and have been working extra long hours at work lately. Combine that with a couple Dave Matthews concert and you have a really tired Keegan.

On Saturday I met Kate, Amy, and Mark for a ride to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. We got there in a relatively short time and spent a relaxed afternoon in the museum and eating in a local restaurant. Next we got in the car and drove to Schenectady where we checked in to the hotel before driving up to Saratoga Springs for the Dave Matthews Band concert. The show was unbelievable, Mark and I had balcony seats which were really good and unique for Amphitheater type venues. After the show it was back to the hotel and then back home on Sunday morning.

Kaleb has been doing great and continues to learn new words, he has mastered the sign for shoe and can now say "Buh-Bye", "Boo-Boo", and more. He spent Saturday with Jamison and Megan. It was there last time up visiting us since they will be moving to North Carolina. Jennifer and Kaleb actually went down to Newton today to help see them off. Its very sad to see them go. Jamison has been Kaleb's closest friend and I think they were finally getting to the point where they would interact with each other.

On Tuesday, Jennifer had her last day at school and then afterwards met me in Andover. We went down to the Comcast Center for another Dave Matthews Band concert. It was a very long drive, only made longer by the insane rainstorms we passed through, the traffic and some annoying woman who rear ended me in the traffic. The car was okay, but I got her information just in case, despite her questioning the need to pull over. We made it to the concert about an hour before the band took the stage and met up with Rich for a little while. The show was alright, our seats were really far back and right in front of a major walkway. The walkway was good because you got to do a lot of people watching, but bad because it was so distracting.

I have all sorts of photos to review and upload so I am going to stop for now.

Later gator,
Keeg

Monday, June 16, 2008

Kaleb's Development

I think over the last several entries I have failed to really touch upon Kaleb's milestones. As you know and can tell he now walks and is getting better at it everyday, well except when he tries to look up and walk at the same time. He is getting much better on the stairs and has been extremely stable while going up and down with and without help. He has even been starting to climb things besides, for instance tonight he climbed up on a kitchen chair and then up on to the table. Ten minutes later he was in the living room, put his leg up on my computer bag and then onto the dining room table bench and finally up on to the table.

Outside of the major movement category he recently learned how to use a recorder and a kazoo. His hand eye coordination is greatly improved, he can now put the tops on bottles and also connected the wii remote with the nunchuk. He now eats with his hands and also drinks water from water bottle with ease. Tonight we got some bathtub crayons and he was drawing all over the inside of the tub and even better he cleaned it up and scrubbed the walls to make it disappear.

Communication-wise he has been awesome. As of this morning he knew the signs for Up, Bunny, All Done, Drink, Out, Hot, Bird and Airplane. As for spoken words, he has mastered All Done, Up, Mama, Dada, That, Duck and Yep. He also knows several animal sounds like Sheep, Elephant, Cat, Lion, Dog, Duck and Horse. So as you can see he is doing very well. Of course there are many other amazing things going on with him, but I seem unable to document them right now, plus they aren't really easy to document. The most important thing has been how much easier life has become with his newfound communication skills. It makes life so much easier now that he can answer our questions and let us know what he really wants.

Okay that is all for now.

Keeg

Sunday, June 15, 2008

New York City

New York City


We went to New York City yesterday to visit Auntie M. I have uploaded the photos and plan to make a movie in the next bit of time.

Keeg

Friday, June 13, 2008

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Grass and ScooperBowl

We just got back from the ScooperBowl and Kaleb is now running around the house like a crazy man. Unfortunately it was an event I planned so only one person, Andy, showed up besides Jennifer, Kaleb and I. We still had a great time, but I wish more people could have gone. I didn't try for any records tonight and ended up only eating around ten cups of ice cream. I did take photos, but haven't put them on the computer yet.

The other thing I want to mention is that the grass I planted a week and a half ago is sprouting like crazy. It popped up all of a sudden on Saturday morning and everyday has grown by leaps and bounds. I was reminded of this when I pulled into the driveway tonight and it looked like we had one complete lawn. I know it will be a while before I have to mow, but I am so excited about it. The best part is that our neighbors re-did their lawn a week before me and they only have spotty bits of grass. Nice!!!

Keeg

Monday, June 9, 2008

Lilli's First Birthday

Kaleb went to his friend Lilli's first birthday on Sunday. We all had a great time, especially Kaleb when it came time to eat the cupcakes.

Lilli's First Birthday


In other news....it is hot in the Boston area. We officially had a heat wave today and it is going to continue tomorrow. Luckily it was a bit cooler in Merrimac, I am thinking it is because of a nice cool east wind. At one point I swear I could actually smell the ocean. Either way it is now pretty cool here (lower 80's) and all of the windows are open. Tomorrow I will be back at work so hopefully there won't be any problem with being hot.

Finally, today was another big Apple announcement, but just to make it interesting I didn't read about the announcement via some poorly updated web site's blog. I am trying to actually learn about the news via the actual keynote address. So it has been really hard for me since it takes them an extra long time to post it. I also haven't been able to go to my usual web sites for fear that I may spoil the news. I will update this as soon as I have the scoop.

Keeg

EDIT: I just finished watching the two hour keynote presentation from the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference and after rambling on about stuff I already knew about they finally announced the new iPhone 3G. It will basically be a little bit thicker than the current iPhone, but will be able to access a higher speed data network AND it will also have GPS. Yep you got it right now you will be able to do directions and mapping in real time. Nice!!!!!! It goes on sale July 11th, right in the middle of our vacation. I think it is now time to upgrade, even though the next phone will probably be pretty bad ass and have some sort of video chat capabilities. I figure if I buy the 8GB model it is only $199 and has as much space as my current iPod Touch.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Light's Out

Last night Jennifer and I had a date night in Newburyport. We met my friend Victor and his wife at Agave in Newburyport for dinner. I had a delicious glass of wine and we had some queso fundido, which made for a yummy meal.

Afterwards we wandered around for a little while because we needed to pass some time away while we waited for Jeff Touhy's show at the Grog. We got a table at the Grog and watched the soundcheck. Jeff showed up and hung out at our table while the opening band played. Halfway through their first set the power went out. The band made some quick adjustments and moved off the stage and onto the dance floor and continued to play. They had all acoustic instruments including a stand up bass, so it worked out really well. Jeff went on a half hour later with his bandmate and they borrowed some acoustic guitars from the previous band and played a few songs. Unfortunately the power outage caused the Grog to shut down and the show was stopped after only three songs. It was a really cool vibe and we both enjoyed the shortened show.

Keeg

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Dentist Visit

Today I went to the dentist for the first time in a few years (well if you don't count yesterday's scheduling mishap). It was my first time at this particular dentist in Newburyport, so I was slightly nervous not knowing what to expect. I met the hygienist and went in to start with some X-Rays. The first couple went well, but then she needed to get for the front of my mouth and my gag reflex kicked in. I ended up trying it a few times and on the third try I threw up a little in my mouth. Awesome start!!! Once that was complete she called in somebody to record the recession of my gums for each tooth. She quickly went through each test yelling out numbers between 2 and 6, the entire time I was trying to figure out what the number represented and figured it out correctly thanks to a poster on the wall. I would say the average was around 3 or 4 which is okay, but not great. At one point she came to a tooth and sighed for a second before scoring the tooth an 8.

After the exam she told me that I would need to return a couple more times to do really intense gum scraping to help remove some of the tartar. However, I couldn't do that until after my root canal and wisdom teeth are removed. More details on that later.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Canoe Trip

I know its been ages since a post, but at least on the photo front I have run into a snag. My account at Picasa is full and now I have to decide whether I want to pay to add storage or switch to another service. I will probably just upgrade since I love google so much. Anyway here are some photos from the recent Agawam River canoe trip.

Agawam River Trip 2008


This weekend we stayed home most of the time with the occasional trips here and there. We have been working really hard in the yard trying to figure everything out. Most recently I seeded part of the lawn and Jennifer planted more flowers in the garden. Kaleb has been doing well and is getting more and more personality every single day. Luckily he still isn't at the point of having too much personality i.e. temper tantrums. Although you can see it coming around the bend.

Apparently I have to go take a shower now so I have to go.

Keeg