Shozu test post.

I am testing out a new way to post to my LJ.

Vacation in Maine

Maine Vacation Part One

Here is the first bunch of photos from our vacation in Maine. We are currently staying on Westport Island which is about fifteen minutes south of Wiscasset. The weather so far has been gorgeous, although a little bit hot today. We have done a little exploring and today visited our favorite village in Maine, Camden. Kaleb slept all the way there, which was perfect. We got there earlier than expected, so we went to the library amphitheater to let Kaleb run around a bit. Next we went to the water's edge so Kaleb could see the ducks before eating lunch at the Camden Deli. We did most of our usual stuff and had a lovely time. I really like Camden and wish we could have spent more time there going out to eat, hiking and other various activities we didn't have time for today.

Kaleb has been great on vacation and despite the giant change of living in a different house has been pretty much on his regular sleep schedule. You can see how being in a new place has helped stimulate his brain and he has really stepped up his walking and signing. He actually runs around now and has been walking up the dock and hilly backyard. The list of words and signs he now can pull from is extraordinary. He is such a smart little guy and is always wandering around exploring something new.

Tomorrow we are going to the beach, which should be a nice change of pace. Oh yeah and I have also been working on a computer program to resolve issues I have been having with iPhoto and iMovie. Apple was really great with the new iMovie and gives you the opportunity to access movies from your iPhoto library, but you can only view movies in your default iPhoto library, which is problematic if you archive your library on a separate disk. So I wrote a java application this week that shows you all of the events in your iPhoto library with movies and lets you copy them directly to your iMovie Events directory. It still has some UI issues, but overall works well so far. I even packaged it into a Mac OS X application package so it looks just like a standard Mac program. This is probably only exciting to me, but I just had to blog about it.

Keegan

Pre-Vacation Photos

We are currently on vacation in Maine, but thankfully have interweb up here. So here are some photos from the week prior to our vacation.

Kaleb: Day 500

Seacoast Mothers Pool Party

Fourth of July

Gunnie's House

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

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