9 Months

The Holiday Season

The Christmas decorations are going up and I am eager to help. Whether its rearranging the low lying ornaments on the tree after tasting each one, or making sure there is enough water in the tree stand by sticking my hand in it, I'm ready to assist wherever needed. 

Gotta love Pottery Barn mass production so my stocking matches the old ones

We shopped for a tree Sun. and didn't even have to get out of the car. There was only one extra tall tree left in GJ so it made the decision easy

Not sure when mom is going to be brave enough to start putting gifts under the tree. She is lucky this year because she won't need to put name tags on them. I can tear the paper off each one for her. 

Dad put lights on the trees in front of our house so I will try to get pictures of that for the next post. There are a few "Griswald" houses in our neighborhood I will get to see. One had to use a crane to put the giant star up. Its quite impressive.

Today I am 9 months old. I'm sure my height and weight have not changed much in 2 weeks so we will stick with 16# and 24.5". I'm saving dad money because with a 30#,32" limit on my infant seat, I may be able to use it till kindergarten. I'm walking very well with my block cart but not quite ready to go it alone yet.

In my 0-3 month size pants everyone says I look like a computerized special effect of the walking baby

Mom's idea of buying 6-12 mo. dresses that will last all winter (and next)

I got to meet my 4 month old friend, Kate Rapiejko, for the first time this weekend at the Hogeston baby shower. Kerri and Cody are having twin girls soon so we will be quite the foursome. Can't wait.

I was trying to figure out why they were stealing my carseat and in the confusion I may have attacked her. Sorry Kate. She will get me back I'm sure because she will likely be bigger and taller than me by next month. At least I will be faster for a bit longer so I can run.

Food is going well. I will eat anything and everything they give me, even brussel sprouts. And my two teeth are helping me eat the yummy spinach snacks shaped like cherrios. We have finally found a combination of reflux meds that are working really well. I am sleeping for 3-4 hours straight and laying down instead of sitting up doubled over. Mom is looking more well rested too which is definitely a good thing. 

I am making funny hand gestures and so far no one knows what they mean. Any ideas?

I currently have a 2 word vocabulary. Bah, and Rah. Impressive, I know.

And finally, my bedhead photo of the week. Thanks Hayley

Cheers,

alexa

On the move

Here is what I have been up to.

Here I am Tuesday...

I'm very fast

Here I am helping mom with dishes on Weds

And here I am today (Thursday)

why crawl when you can walk up

I use the wires to help me. Just my height. Great design mom! And I can now fit my first pair of 3-6 month pants! Woo Hoo

So that is what I have been up to. I can now push my blocks in the cart but I haven't taken the unassisted first step. Its coming any day. And in exactly half the time it took Brandon. This house is so un-baby-proofed, who could resist the temptation to walk a little early and take advantage. Word on the street is that mom is researching baby gates right now. Big bummer. Good thing I can still have fun throwing her big decorative rocks from the planter onto the slate tiles. Wait till I'm tall enough to hit the window. 

Last weekend was our first of many trips to Telluride. Our condo is right in town so we got to enjoy the warm weather and take lots of walks. Here I am at the base of the ski slope seeing Drew off

Don't let the pic fool you. There is not much snow here yet

Very toasty in my stroller sleeping bag

So needless to say, blog updates will be very sporatic.  The easy life of babies who can't move or throw temper tantrums is over. Now, while mom is cleaning the floor because I still have reflux, I can run away and find new things to play with. Football season is in the final stretch of the regular season. With any luck I will get to watch Peyton all the way to Feb. 

Cheers!

alexa

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving 2012

Anyone with a facebook account knows about the recent posts of people listing things they are thankful for over a 30 day period. That seems long and drawn out and, well, who has that kind of time? So I am going to dedicate this post to that mission because I do think it is important to reflect a lot more than we all do. I will first share a funny thing I heard on the radio before our trip. Black Friday, the day people go out and risk being trampled to death to save a few dollars on much needed electronics, comes just 24 hours after we spend the day giving thanks for everything we have. Interesting timing. But hey, I'm all for a little materialism sometimes. Especially after a week of realizing that my parents are very stingy in the toy department. Good thing Emily, Walker and Jude introduced me to some fantastic toys that are out there. I can't wait for this Santa guy to visit the house (through the front door because mom gave our fireplace away). So here it goes.

I am thankful for...

1. My Family 

I am one of the lucky babies who have 3 parents. I am most thankful to my birthmom, Angelina, who made the most selfless decision anyone could make. She wanted me to have more than she could provide at that time so she chose a family with cool parents that I would fit into perfectly. While I didn't get a chance to review the other candidates, I think she made a great choice. However, I may retract that statement when I'm 16. I hear parents go downhill and get unreasonable when they have teenagers. I also have amazing siblings who are happy to see me every morning. They actually fight over who gets to take me out of my crib when I wake up from naps. So far, being the youngest by 11 years is the best thing ever. 

This is a dry ice bubble I made with Drew and Brandon

The 7am (5am MST)  Turkey Trot w/cousin Lindsey

Over Thanksgiving I got to meet more of my extended family. We drove the RV to Indiana and Chicago and had a blast. I still need to meet my cousins in KS and I think I have them talked into coming for Christmas. Here are some of my extended family pics from last week.

All the Keller grandkids

Hanging out w/ uncle Phil

Hayley's 16th bday on Thanksgiving

Wait till next time when we can do a 3-way braid

Visiting the Gees in Chicago

My "other brother" Connor Braeger

2. Modern medicine

We knew that I fit into this family perfectly when my routine metabolic screen unexpectedly came back abnormal and my heart had some problems all by the age of 2 weeks.  We live in a great community for medicine and also have our resources from Indianapolis so finding good health care will never be a problem. I saw Dr. Schaefer and Dr. Escobar while I was in Indianapolis. We made some changes to try to get my reflux under better control. I no longer vomit like I used to but I am up most of the night trying to find a position to sleep in. Here is my current fav. My stomach feels best when I'm doubled over. And as soon as I tip over, about once an hour, I make sure to wake up mom so she can prop me back up. And that is why we spent the night away from dad last night!

Dr. Escobar is keeping me on my carnitine for at least 6 more months to see if it helps with my height which is officially 24.5". They have this contraption that measures length more accurately so that is why I lost .2" this month. Hopefully I will start to catch up with the other kids on the 1st percentile soon so that we don't have to add endocrinology to our list of specialists. Developmentally I continue to look great so no concerns there. My new skills are crawling very fast and standing for long periods of time whenever I find something I can pull up on. Its not too surprising that I'm the family's youngest stander since I've got physics on my side. Gotta love a low center of gravity. I'm like a paperweight!

How often do you see the binky leach attached at the chest and touching the ground!

3. Our Friends

Mom did an absolutely pathetic job of getting pictures of all the friends I saw on our trip. We spent our first night in Indy at the Kersey's house which happens be the house we lived in before Colorado. How cool is that? Thanks to the Krogers for dinner and the Kersey's for hosting at the last minute. We also spent time with the Bullock's, the Ashley's, the Pierle's, Teresa, and the Schaefers (another missed photo op with Jude). We parked the RV at the Schulte's for 3 nights and mom actually got a picture there.

stealing Tom's pretzel

stealing Gina's clementine

4. For everything that didn't get its own paragraph and picture

To live in a free country, in a beautiful state, where my dad enjoys stable employment, surrounded by great friends and neighbors, as we put the RV away for winter and get ready for Christmas and ski season in Telluride...I am thankful.

alexa

Delayed

I am back. I will update asap.

Did you know there are parts of Indiana with no internet?

No high speed land lines.

No Verizon internet on your phone.



...Just sayin'

8 Months Old

I am three quarters of a year old and I am mobile!!! Here is a quick recap of my 7 month accomplishments.

15lbs 7 oz (lost a little this week from food issues but still good)
24.7"
crawling
pulling up to stand
my first 2 teeth (bottom center) are starting to come in 
I do. not. sleep. well.


I have a video which proves two things. #1- My crawling is getting faster and #2- Cooper is scared of me. So here it is. Mom is not very discreet with the camera so I gave her a nice cheesy smile at the end of the clip just to remind her how cute I am.

We had our first snow of the season last night. Brandon was able to go out and take part in the greenbelt snowball fight. I had no boots so I had to stay inside. The snow is almost all melted which gives mom time to get some appropriate winter gear in time for the next storm. We also need the nice weather to last another 2 weeks so that we don't have any problems getting to Indiana and back in the RV. After that it is officially ski season so bring it on. We will be spending most weekends in Telluride, assuming I can tolerate the high altitude better than I did last ski season when I was on oxygen. 

We leave Friday for our midwest RV trek. We will be in Indiana for Thanksgiving and then hopefully we will hit Chicago on the way home. The RV does not do snow which means that we will have to go the long way home in the event of bad weather. Nothing like going from northern Indiana to Colorado via Texas. 

The next two Sundays we will be traveling so I will update this blog when I can but likely not on schedule. 

Go Peyton. What a great year to be the Bronco's newest fan.

alexa

Halloween 2012

My first halloween was a success. The weather was perfect and mom and dad were both so excited to take me trick or treating that they hired my 15 year old neighbor to hand out candy (because who wants to live in the lame house with the lights off). I learned a few of our family traditions too. I guess for the first halloween, you only get to choose your own costume if you can talk. And while I am a pretty good writer, my spoken vocabulary to this point consists of "eeeeee" and  "ah-boo". What that means is that like my 3 brothers, I was wearing the Smith/Schulte/Keller costume that made its debut 31 years ago. Apparently Hayley chose to be a bunny instead. And if you know Hayley you will not be surprised that 1) she was talking by her first birthday and 2) she refused to wear the leopard costume. The second tradition is that after we choose a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, we get to tell dad how to carve it. I figured if I was dressing up as a big cat, my pumpkin should be a big cat too. So here we are

Mom knew I would want to be in the carrier while we walked around the neighborhood so she decided to put the carrier in costume too. And just like the pumpkin carving, she comes up with the idea and dad figures out the best way to make it happen. 

Not sure what the point of trick or treating is because from what I can tell, I go to the door and do all the work and they eat all the candy. Just wait till next year when I have teeth and eat the Reece's and leave them with Dots. After getting the candy, the kids all trade. Our house had the big kid trade and the Haftels had the little kid trade. This picture is like "where's waldo" because my costume matches the rug from a distance

So all in all, it was a great night. The costume officially made it through all willing Kellers. Next year the sky's the limit.

I am crawling/scooting/rolling a little faster now. Mom tried to video the action but once again my inches per minute pace which is currently about 2 inches in 1.5 minutes does not make the cut for allowable video footage. Mom and dad made this necessary rule because they claim to have approximately 25 minutes of video taken before Michael actually crawled to the binky 3 inches away. Maybe next week it will make the blog.

Food wise things are going better. We met with my local doctor and decided that since my weight is okay, nutrition is probably not the cause of my height woes and we can press on despite the reflux. At 24.7" I continue to be under the first percentile on the World Health chart and the bigger shock is that I am 2 inches shorter than tiny Brandon was at the same age. The good news is that I am getting the most out of the 0-3 month clothes that still fit. Since genetics doesn't play into height for a few more years we will blame the carnitine deficiency for a little while longer. The vomiting did improve when we cut down on the cereal. I do much better with smashed up pears and avocado. I will eat just about anything you can put on a spoon. 

My biggest weakness to date is my ability to sleep at night. Mom says I am still on a newborn sleep schedule and its causing her to double up on the anti aging creams. When we first learned of my fatty acid disorder mom was dreading the thought of having to set an alarm to feed me every 4 hours. Well she should be thanking me because I wake up to have her check her watch every 1-2 hours so no alarm is necessary!

And that about sums up the week and my current development. 

Did everyone watch the Broncos????

Cheers

alexa

Fall

Fall is here. While we have to deal with summer temps of 105 and winter temps of -15, we do get the most beautiful fall colors around. It doesn't take much to make a great size leaf pile for me. I tasted the leaves too. Just because they look nice, doesn't mean they taste any better than other times of the year. 

Also with fall, comes Halloween. I got to take my first trip to the pumpkin patch. The family rule is that you can only get a pumpkin as big as you can carry to the wagon. I filed an appeal and won. Big pumpkins are cool and I plan to appeal next year as well. Luckily, my parents are suckers so it was really quite easy.

The weather is supposed to be nice on Wednesday and dad traded his call shift- thank you Phil, so he can take me trick or treating. Can't wait to show everyone my costume. Or perhaps you have seen it many times before because everyone but Hayley has worn it before me. 

Finally, we all know fall at the Keller house means- all football, all the time. And with Peyton Manning following us to Colorado, life is even better.  Dad's birthday was  2 weeks ago so I bought him something I was sure he would love

Apparently he needed a bigger size. Good thing I know someone who can wear it

Last night I couldn't update because I was busy watching Peyton prove that he is not scared of a bounty program. In order to get invited to the Qualls party, I had to wear my Saints cheerleading uniform. But it brought Peyton such good luck, I kept it on the entire game!

Michael celebrated his 18th birthday the day after dad's. I helped with the candles

He had some cool sparkler candles on there that I proceeded to break before mom had a chance to light them. They really looked dangerous so I laid them on the cake instead. He can thank me later.

After a 3 month break, I am finally starting to make some progress in moving a few inches across the floor. I'm not super motivated because staying in one spot playing with toys is just fine with me but I could tell mom was getting stressed about what the developmental doctor would say when I go back in 3 weeks and nothing had changed since August. So between pushing forward with my toes and rolling, its progress. We'll take it. Mom also got brave and started solid food again. I love it as much as I did last month but it sure doesn't stay down well.  But while its messy and doesn't make too many people want to hold me, vomiting is something I am very good at and doesn't bother me one bit. I also got to taste apples in the "choking proof" net. It was okay but after about 3 minutes I was done with it

next time I hope I get to participate in the funnel cake party

And that concludes the week in review.

GO PEYTON! GO BRONCOS!!!

alexa