Year One in Pictures- Part 1

I did it. I made it through my first year with flying colors and have graduated on to year two. Here is the year in pictures

March

Mom and I on the post partum unit when I was born. Aside from fitting her normal clothes, she looks as rough as the moms who just delivered

Made it home

Dad with the scary scab face from the bike crash

My favorite spot

April

First Easter

May

First Crawfish boil and first documented smile

Decide I love gray blankie

First family photo at Utah petroglyphs

June

Portland, Ore

First time to the beach

July

First long RV trip to CA

AUGUST

First pro bike race

Not sure how large a post blogger allows so I will break this into 2 parts.

Cheers!

alexa

Bring Spring

I am ready for spring. There were a couple of days at the beginning of Feb. that the snow melted and it warmed up enough to go on stroller rides and be outside. Those days seem long gone. Its been snowing on and off all week and just plain cold. So I am happy to welcome March. Before this one ends (in one hour since mom never posted this), here is a pic from my first Valentines Day in the outfit given to me by my holiday fashion designer, Traci Qualls

I am no longer content running around the living room and kitchen. The stairs have been gated off because I got so fast. So I have resorted to following mommy around with my arms up in the air in the "uppy" position until she finally gives in and holds me. Lets face it, when you are only tall enough to look at feet and calves, things get a little boring. Above 3' is where all the action is. So, I have regressed back to the famous "blue thing". I forgot how great the first 6 months of my life were when I spent all waking hours in it. Here is how I spend my days again.

I mean, what's not to love. I get to be held with my paci and blankie and see what's going on 24/7 and mom has two hands free so she can't blame me for not being able to finish a task in a timely manner. Win-win as far as I can see.

You can see that my left hand looks great. No scars were left when the blisters pealed.  Thank goodness babies heal much better than adults. 

Not much else to report this week. I have given up crawling and  I am a full time walker. While it sounds like I am talking up a storm, I still have no words that resemble any modern day languages. Looks like I will start that phase of my life in year 2, which starts in 2 weeks. Everyone says its sad how fast the first year went by. I say bring on the next one. This is starting to get really fun!

Our SD card reader broke so I can only post phone pics for this post. Better ones next time.

Dancing with my giraffe. I look tall but keep in mind this dress is sz 3-6 mo.

Gray blankie tasting as good as ever

holding my blankie over my head and drinking a bottle= talent

Cheers!

alexa

11 months old

Happy belated Fat Tuesday. I got gypped on the beads but I was sporting the festive onsie. My hand is in festive colors as well because I have a burn. I was helping Michael test the temperature of his hot tea and learned that the best way to do it is NOT by pouring it on yourself. I also learned that teenagers watching the Grammy's don't always make the best babysitters. So mom is making me wear this annoying bandage until the blisters are gone. 

Here are my current stats:

18.2 pounds
26.5 "
8 teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom)
word count- 0
favorite foods- waffles, bananas, sweet potatoes, pears, broccoli, carrots
not a fan of cherrios or the other puff snacks at the moment
not a fan of pureed food anymore. I like the real stuff



Mom and dad still say I'm a very easy baby. I am happy when I'm awake and I am still sleeping 4 hours at a time at night so it wasn't a fluke. I don't even mind my crib or my own room now. Just as long as someone delivers my food as scheduled throughout the night, I'm willing to continue with this arrangement. 

I am becoming a bigger helper every day. I am learning taxes and paperwork. Mom brought it to Telluride to work on during nap time. I found it in the suitcase and helped her organize it

I am learning where mom keeps things in the kitchen so I can make sure its all put back in the right place

Keeping the laptop clean is also a good idea. I thought I'd wash the keyboard cover

I even help when I'm at others' houses. I got to attend Dr. Cambray's baby shower and helped with the gifts. Charlotte's grandma even joined me under the table because it looked like so much fun

So just holler when you need some help around the house. I can come right over!

Happy Valentines Day

alexa

Active in Colorado

This is going to be one of those back to back post weeks. Mom had really good intentions of dictating my 10 month recap last weekend but once again, the execution just wasn't there. 

As you saw in my last video, I am a walker. I walk everywhere and I'm getting more balanced doing it. Here is another video of my improved skills. I haven't gotten to play on the tennis court yet, but they are letting me play with the balls in the lobby

In keeping with traditional Colorado winter activities, I am also a skier now...well at least a master of the magic carpet. "skier" may be a bit of an overstatement.  The conditions were less than ideal as it was dumping snow by the foot and quite chilly. But there were a couple breaks of better weather so I convinced mom to try it (the fact that she was too cheap to pay for the nursery helped my cause). Our main goal of the day was to get to watch one of Drew's races. They put the course in the middle of the mountain which meant spectators had the option to ski down or hike up (NOT!). So we chose the ski down option. As long as I look like a skier and not a baby in a backpack, I am allowed on the lift or gondola. So I got dressed and ready to go. Lift ticket and all.

We decided it would be best to start on the magic carpet to get the hang of things. I LOVED the moving belt that takes you to the top of the baby hill. My balance was better than moms and I was smiling the entire time

Next was the practice hill. The limiting factor here was plastic skis in powder. Not exactly the fat waisted rockers you normally see on a powder day. But I worked with what I had.

Here I am going down with Drew to get the hang of it

The final challenge was taking the gondola up the mountain and skiing to Drew's race course. I had a blast. Mom, not so much. She had to bend down so I could ski between her legs and said she had no idea how long that run was. We made it to the course but we were going to have to wait 40 racers to see Drew. It was cold and I was only having fun when I was actually moving. So we watched a few of his teammates and finished our run to the bottom. Mom wished she could video it because I was making a "weee" sound as we were going down. Hopefully this weekend will be much warmer so I can practice skiing independently. Mom said her muscles are too old to go down together again and I wouldn't let her take the breaks she desperately needed. Maybe I will work on dad. He is a softy.

Mom will post again in the next day or two with my 11 month old stats and some more pictures. 

Cheers!

alexa

I am upright

I am walking and I have beaten the Keller record by 2 months. Hayley held the top spot for 16 years by walking at 12 months. I blew it away by walking at 10 months. I have been testing it out for a couple weeks but now I'm getting pretty good at it. This is a video from a few days ago. Hopefully it works.

Aunt Angie and Jay came to visit last week. We saw Hayley perform in the Cinderella ballet on Friday and then headed to Telluride for the weekend. I hear Hayley and her friends were amazing in the show. I wouldn't know first hand because they didn't trust me to stay quiet so they made me stay home with Michael.  It was snowing like crazy in Telluride so I will have to wait a bit longer to try out my skis and my Paul Frank helmet. I'm sure I will kill it in the 2 feet of powder they have gotten this week. I missed this years X-games but perhaps Kate Rapiejko and I will be ready by next year.  

This picture of Angie and I was taken on Monday. The funny part is that she should have been teaching class in San Jose at this time. Every time she comes to visit, United Airlines decides she needs to spend more time with me and cancels her flight home. Its now happened 3 times. They obviously know (better than she does) how long she would like to stay. Jay got to spend his birthday with me. Here I am convincing him it was the best place to be.

Not sure if I mentioned it in my last post but we made some adjustments to my reflux meds and it is now completely controlled and guess what...I finally sleep! Since birth I have gotten up every 1-3 hours either to get comfortable or to eat. As of this week, I am consistently sleeping 3-4 hours straight. And would you like to know how I was rewarded...

I was booted from mom and dad's room! Not cool. Mom said she was too old to get out of bed every 1-2 hours with me. But she has no problem with every 4 so here I am on the other side of the house. 

Food continues to go great. I no longer need blended food. Just cut me up a pear or a waffle and I'm good to go. I have a hard time remembering to pace myself and try to stuff it all in like a squirrel but after a few more choking scares, I will figure it out. 

I have gotten 2.5 more teeth so I now have 4 on the bottom and 1.5 fangs. And the tooth grinding was short lived. Mom is happy because she said it was a pretty gross sound. 

No words yet but I "talk" up a storm in the car using my own language that slightly resemble Chinese. Now that the snow here is melting, hopefully mom can get better pictures using something other than her phone camera.

Since mom is typing for me right now and not at the pre game festivities in New Orleans with Mindy, it must not be a Broncos/Seahawks superbowl. Hope everyone enjoys the big game this week anyway. 

Cheers!

alexa

10 Months

Wow. 10 months already. Mom says I'm growing up too fast. Here are my current stats

17 pounds
25.5 inches
3 teeth- 2 bottom and 1 fang- my new trick is to grind my teeth (or tooth)!
no words yet but I now shake my head "no"

My record is 4 steps by myself but I still prefer my very awkward crawl. I'm fast and stealth-like. Here is a video mom took. Hopefully it will work on the blog. She likes how my left leg almost hits my left elbow. But notice how fast I got to my snacks!

I love to put everything I can find in my mouth and my favorite place to crawl is on the stairs so I am now being trailed by someone wherever I go. That can definitely get annoying when all I want is a little privacy to tear up a magazine and eat it in peace. Speaking of eating and food, I LOVE it all. I will eat anything and everything thrown my way. I can eat whole bananas, waffles, roasted pears, apples, squash, broccoli and mangos just to name a few. It is a little concerning that I have an insatiable appetite and my fat rolls clearly show it.  Besides all the food I eat, I also drink bottles every 2-4 hours day and night (much to mom's dismay). We aren't sure why I am so hungry but we are hoping its a growth spurt that will lead to added height, not just weight. We will see. 

my waffle

I have a great time with my two pets, Cooper the dog and Linus the ferret. Cooper is a bit like a grumpy old man who just wants to be left alone when he sleeps but Linus and I share toys. Here we are looking in the toybox

Here is Linus taking Sophie the giraffe back to his house

It has been crazy cold in Grand Junction this month. On a warm day we will hit a high in double digits. One morning last week it was -12 when H and M left for school. And that didn't even include the windchill. So I pretty much stay indoors. We are in Telluride this weekend where it is 40 degrees. We are in an inversion weather pattern so the valley is cold and the mountains are warm. Weird if you ask me. 

Health wise I am doing great. We checked carnitine levels last month and they are in the low normal range with my medicine so I will be on it at least until summer. There is still some hope I may come off when I'm older but it will not happen anytime soon.  My vomiting has been well controlled with the help of modern medicine too. I got my very first cold a couple weeks ago and did great. Nothing more than kleenex needed. No ear infection and no wheezing. Mom says that is a Keller first! There are lots of viruses going around right now so we are  laying low and being careful who I am around. Everyone would agree that sick babies are no fun. 

Aunt Angie and Jay come this Thursday. We will be back in Telluride next weekend and I may try out my new skis if it's still warm. I will sign off with a demo of my mad music skills...

Cheers!

alexa