Appreciating the simple things....

And it is February. Yikers. As my little boy Kellan just woke up from sedation for an MRI to check his ears/hearing, I figured I really could use an update to my baby book blog! We know he has hearing loss in one ear, so his ENT, Dr. Martin wanted to do an MRI to see if there was anything we can do to help with his hearing or if the ear is damaged. Unfortunately, he had to be sedated since there is no way he would stay still. We should know what they find out within the week. Here he is right after he woke up.... such a strong, courageous boy...does anything and everything with a smile.

 

In other Kellan news, he started school at the Waukesha Early Learning Center. It is a 3k school for special needs kids. He goes Monday and Wednesday afternoons and so far has loved it. Complete with gym, music, library and riding the bus, he seems so much older to me than 3!

 

 

 

Kellan's Classmates :)

 

Waving bye...until he realized I was actually leaving.

 

We had a bout of sickness in our house, so he missed 3 days....yes, 2 weeks of sickness knocked him down :( But he is doing much better. He lost weight after not really eating that whole time and had a quick (8 hour) trip to Children's ER to get fluids. He was on the mend after the fluids, glad we took him in.

 

 

 

Below are the boys at their 3 year and 7 month check ups. I took them there myself, Brett was working. I was sweating by the end of it. Pretty sure Beckham ate about 3 inches of the table paper and Kellan threw about 4ft of it on the ground and laughed every time I bent over to pick it up. Kellan weighed in just over 27lbs, our little squishy weighed in at 21lbs 5oz. Beckham continues to hang out in the 97th percentile for height and weight. Kellan continues to stay on his own curve right around the 10th percentile. 

 

Other than that, doctor appointments have been pretty minimal which is a nice change. Kellan is going to try glasses again with a new prescription...waiting for those to come in. Kellan continues to see his speech and occupational therapists as an added bonus which is so great. He gets therapies while at school as well. Kellan continues to get closer and closer to talking, if he doesn't know the sign of something you ask him to say, he certainly tries to say it. He can definitely say words of things that are important to him...signing time, milk, more (most times used when we take our phones away from him...little bugger).

 

We had another amazing, successful Al's Run this year. We ended up raising over $12,000. Absolutely incredible. We got to celebrate Kellan's huge accomplishment of walking this year. Quite an emotional finish as we let him cross the finish line on his own two feet. We are very proud of this little boy and love when he proves us and the Doctors wrong!

 

 



In November, Brett and I vacationed in Mexico for a sales trip I qualified for. It was a really fun time, a nice little break from real life. I was able to hang out with 2 of my friends that work at Enterprise but live in Orlando and Atlanta that I've known for many years since working in Fleet.

 

Our view...ahhh.

In October, sadly my "little brother" Mikey Riesch lost his battle with esophageal cancer. I've never seen a more inspirational family than the Riesch's. I've loved them for years like my own family and watching them come together to celebrate Mikey's last few days here on earth and his first few days in heaven were awe inspiring. I find myself daydreaming some days and can't believe he is gone. I have never thought about heaven so much before.

 

Here is Mikey and I at my wedding in 2009. He added FUN to anything he did.

Here is Mikey just a few days before he passed away shaving his brother Bryon's hair. So happy I got to spend some time with him in his last few days.

I'm feeling like a bad mom as I can't truly capture what we've been up to since my last post in August. Busy. That's what we've been up to. Brett and I are navigating through having 2 kids, both working and weekends that fly by in the blink of an eye. We are so very fortunate for Beckham, a healthy baby....growing, eating, interacting and flourishing so wonderfully. Kellan has taught us to truly appreciate the simple things and the big milestones. They are coming easier for Beckham, but we appreciate them all the same as we know where we've been with Kellan.  

 

We are lucky to be surrounded by the best family, neighbors and friends anyone could ask for. Through the ups and downs of life, I've tried to keep perspective on what is important. I couldn't do any of it without Brett by my side...especially sleepless nights. I could go on forever, but will stop here and realize I need to update this more than every 5 months :/

 

 

Rocking a baby to sleep. Pure peacefulness.

Our little pudgie pie all dressed up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Bug Gets a Brother Bear

This "little" man is the biggest news we have to share since my last blog. I was induced the morning of my birthday, June 24th. After a fairly uneventful day with everything going just as planned, Beckham was born at 4:49 in the afternoon. 8lbs 12oz on his day of birth, only lost 6 ounces while in the hospital and hasn't looked back since. He earned the nickname "Bear" on our Daiker Family vacation because of some of his moods, however the kid eats like one too! At his 2 month appointment, Beckham weighed in at 14lbs 4oz, putting him right in the 80th percentile. A place about 70 spots off where Kellan likes to hang out :)

Kellan was slightly unsure of him at first, mostly just ignored him with an occasional lash out but I think he realizes now that Beckham is here to stay and he doesn't seem to mind. I love when I catch Kellan just looking at Beckham in the swing or bouncy seat. He's not so sure when his Dad makes him give Beckham a kiss, he likes to keep his distance but all in all, in was a much easier transition than I was anticipating.

Your Happiness Embracing Me

I look around and all I see
Is your happiness embracing me
Oh Lord I'd be lost
But for the grace of God

~Keith Urban

 

I was driving in the car the other day and heard one of my favorite old school songs, 'But for the grace of God' by Keith Urban. I sat and listened to the words, even though I could easily sing the whole song by heart and it hit me. Kellan and everything that comes with that little boy is my happiness. I sat thinking about how thankful I am for all the lessons he has taught us in his short 2.5 years since he was born. And I got so excited to think what this new baby will bring to our life and how he will affect Kellan's life.

 

It also made me reflect on two very important people in my life and struggles they are going through. One continues to be my best friend's little brother, Mikey. At 26 years old, he still is battling Stage 4 cancer. Why should anyone have to be dealing with that? And as many of you know, my Special Needs Mom friend, Sally, lost her sweet Lydia at the way too young age of 7 years old on Mother's Day. Mikey and Sally are two of the strongest individuals I've met in my life. Both faced with such unfair things, I only hope the grace of God will embrace them and carry them through the rough, rough days.

 

I realized the last time I updated was the beginning of March and wow am I excited to report some of the new things happening in our house! Probably the biggest and best, Kellan is a full fledged walker! Funny enough, I keep notes for my next blog and when I went back to look at what I wanted to write about this time, I had that he was taking steps....nope, not just steps. Walking! And he walks around and thinks he is SO cool. Most times with absolutely no destination in mind...he'll walk, turn around and walk right back to where he came from. I can only imagine the sense of freedom he feels. It happened so quickly, one day we could tell he was figuring it out and every single day after that he went further and further. Our next goal was to get him to stand on his own without holding on to something to pull himself up...something that sounds so easy, but Kellan's core needs some work still. We showed Kellan a few times what he needed to do and BAM, one day he figured it out and has it down. Amazing how quickly that brain of his works. If only his little body could keep up with his mind, we would be in really, really good shape. Not that we aren't already, but I know his capabilities are far more than what his body allows him to do.

 

He has quickly gained the nickname 'King Kong Kellan' and he is into everything and is rather destructive as he explores this big world in front of him! [Sorry Mom again for your lampshade :/ ]  

 

Since March, he has become my little prepster with his cute glasses and most days he wears them without a problem. He does take them off if he realizes he has them on, but for the most part I'm very proud of how he has grown to accept them. Unfortunately at our eye follow up last month, they didn't see the progress they wanted, so we are back to doing dialation drops 2 days a week to hopefully strengthen his weak eye even further.

 

We also had our GI follow up since our last post. He was on feeding tube watch for a month, he needed to gain 9 grams per day and the little chunker gained 19 grams per day! We will have one more weight check right before we go on our Daiker Family vacation in July, however I am confident he is gaining weight appropriately for his size. Adding vegetable oil to almost every meal will beef a little boy up :) The dairy allergy really limits the fats he can consume in a day, so adding the oil is an easy way to make his food more calorie dense.

 

His communication skills are really growing too! We counted his signs for his Speech Therapist and came up with over 50 that he knows. Pretty incredible and it feels like he learns a new one all the time. He now has a few words that he consistently says outloud...."Mow" [More], "Mil" [Milk], "Dat?" [What's that?] He continues to love looking at books and just recently requests us to read to him and he actually listens to the book! He still likes to rapidly turn the pages while he looks at a book himself, I like to think he's working on his fine motor skills at that point :)

 

In other news, Elmo has been replaced by Kellan's new love, Frozen. Words can't describe how much he loves that movie and the songs that come with it. It was a nice break from Elmo for a while, however, it is starting to get old. 

Here is Kellan relaxing while watching Frozen...

And a few minutes later, his relaxation gets deeper....but he isn't phased.

 

We just found out that after a short and successful stint in the toddler room at school, he will be moving up one more room in September. That next room you have to be 2 years old to move up to, so we are excited that he is making a quick transition and getting closer to his peers. His skills have certainly flourished in his current room...sleeps on a cot like a champ, eats at a table like a champ and I definitely attribute his walking skills to keep up with his friends as they race circles around him.

 

Only a few more days and baby Kleczewski #2 [Name yet to be determined] will be here. The anticipation of this birth is crazy this time, I don't remember it being like this with Kellan...not to mention the extreme swelling, sleeping fingers and hands and the fact that I can barely lift or snuggle Kellan anymore.....pretty excited to meet this little guy.

 

I had an ultrasound at 33 weeks to see how "big" this baby is....the words "chubby cheeks" and "77th percentile" were probably the sweetest words I could hear from the Ultrasound tech! 

 

Can't wait to see what a giant Kellan feels like compared to baby 2!

 

 

 

My Little Signing Musician

As I sit down to write this blog, I’m waiting in the airport to surprise my best friend Shay in Minneapolis. Coming from the person that hates surprises, I cannot believe I’ve kept this a secret for two months, pretty proud of myself! And surprising the person that hates surprises more than me and should have chosen detective as her career path, I’m pretty sure she has an inkling. J

We’ve had a busy few months, trying to give Kellan as many fun activities and “Kellan time” before baby #2 arrives. The unnamed baby…. that I’m losing the battle to name until HE is actually born. I wanted it that way for Kellan, but absolutely do not want to wait this time. The Mr. of the house feels differently. We have some names, but nothing we agree on. That may be a part of the problem. I don’t think Kellan truly understands that there is an actual baby in my stomach. Whenever I lift my shirt to show him the baby, he quickly pulls my shirt back down over my belly. Curious to see how his transition goes, I’m thinking we will see a different side of his laid back, super happy personality!

In other news, we are working so hard on getting that little bugger to walk. He is getting closer, but not quite there. Summer would be so much more fun if he could be on his two little feet. He definitely is gaining confidence in the process and moves if he is motivated. The other night at swim lessons,I had him propped up against a locker with all his winter gear on, I let him stand there for 5 seconds while I put my coat on. Before I knew it, he saw something he wanted on the bench a few feet away and took it upon himself to walk over there. He almost made it to the bench, but fell to the ground before he got there.

There’s a little boy in his infant class room, Levi, who is a little monkey. I’m pretty sure he has given Kellan lots of ideas of how to climb on things. The other day Brett was home alone with Kellan and went to the bathroom. Brett comes out and Kellan was nowhere to be found. He had moseyed upstairs into his room and was sitting reading books when Brett found him. I was so proud that he did that!

Here he is watching Elmo from atop our coffee table. I watched him maneuver his way up there and though it’s a little scary, I was super happy he did it. We can clearly see he is gaining muscle strength, which is finally coming out in the little laugh he has started. He’s always had a little happy squeal because his ab muscles weren’t strong enough to make a laugh. I don’t care if it is 11pm, if I do something to make him laugh, I can’t help but repeat it because the sound makes me SO HAPPY!

As of this coming week, Kellan will officially be in the toddler room. We are so very excited for this transition. Kellan will now sit at a table with all his friends during meal time instead of being the only kid in a high chair in the infant room while everyone else sat at a little table. Nap time is all together on cots, should be very interesting but I think will be very good for Kellan once he gets used to it. He never seems to sleep very long at daycare since kids are constantly going to bed and waking up in the nap room. The teachers seem to be normal and have their stuff together, should be good all-around for the little man.

A few random things….we’ve started with the potty, just love this picture.

I read an article saying you should introduce the potty before you really want to start potty training to hopefully avoid some stress. So we are pretty casual about it now, but I do feel like it makes him feel old!

His love for music and books continues to grow. We used to watch Elmo each day on the way to school. Since I couldn’t take much more Elmo, I decided to make a playlist for him of some of his favorite songs. He immediately wants the music on now when we get in the car and signs “more” in-between every song. He is an amazing signer when it comes to signs that coincide with a song. Itsy Bitsy Spider, Happy and You Know It, The Wheels on the Bus and Twinkle Twinkle are just a few that he will sign the whole song for. He also has a serious love for books. We are lucky to have some pretty awesome neighbors that have shared lots of books with us, his collection somehow keeps growing! He knows instantly if a book is upside down, which I feel is pretty smart for him. Even if he’s never seen the book before, he will immediately turn it right side up when he starts looking at it. He also thoroughly loves pointing at things in the book and has you say the words.

Kellan is now saying two words! “Yeah” which has been happening for a while and part of the word “Milk” which he always uses the sign at the same time. The little voice of his is so sweet. We have Kellan enrolled in swimming lessons as well as a Gymboree class. He definitely loves swim lessons, especially when they do the Hokey Pokey. Gymboree, a little tougher class for him. After a rough first go at the class in his age group, we moved him down two age groups to be with kids more developmentally equal. He enjoys being more of a spectator than anything, which I just have to learn to accept, though I would love for him to get up and crawl around on the things in the gym like all the other kids. He does what he wants, that’s for sure.

We realized after his second time at a bouncy place like Monkey Joe’s that there must be latex or something else he is allergic to in the material there. Poor little guy can’t catch a break with his allergies. Good thing there are a lot of indoor cool places to play, there was nothing like that when we were growing up!

We found out this week our little bug is going to try glasses to correct his one lazy eye. We aren’t sure how it is going to go, but we need to figure out something now while we still can correct his vision. To begin his second year of life, he weighed in at just under 23lbs, staying right on his own growth curve at the 5^th percentile mark. His long and lean legs that he gets from his Daddy get him in the 50^th percentile for height. He rocks skinny pants like no other!

We look forward to the next few months getting ready for baby #2 and watching Kellan grow and develop. I’m excited to see the strides he will make once the next boy is here and he can’t always have mom to be right there to help him. It will be really good for both of us. Stay tuned for who wins the name battle. Much love from the Kleczewski’s J

Promotion!

There has been a promotion in our house....and it isn't Brett or me. Kellan has been promoted to BIG Brother!! We are so very excited to be expecting our second baby, due June 28th, 2014.

 

2013 Christmas Card

Baby K #2 at 10 weeks!

Which means we have about 6 months to get Kellan over his fear of babies. I often envision the day the new baby is born, Kellan comes up to the hospital to visit us....pretty sure it won't be a picture perfect moment. And it will get progressively worse when he realizes the baby is coming home with us. Lots of playing "house" will be happening the next few months.

 

Kellan continues to learn, grow and amaze us each and every day. I was trying to count the number of signs he knows now and I couldn't come up with a number. He pulls new ones out all the time. It is very fun to be able to communicate with him considering his only word so far is still "YA" and he says that very selectively. By far, his favorite signs are 'hat' and 'phone.' Since my Dad, "Poppy" is always wearing a hat, Kellan has so lovingly nicknamed him 'hat' which is the sign he does instantly when he sees Poppy.

 

The fake phone is much more fun if he can have the real phone at the same time.

Most times, his signs are used in regards to something with Elmo....i.e. signs "on" and then points to the t.v. He loves singing and especially loves songs that have signs or hand motions to go along with them. Hickory Dickory Dock, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus and Twinkle Twinkle are some of his favorite.

In November, we took Kellan to the Kalahari in the Dells for a night. He absolutely loved it. The combination of Brett taking him down slides and him watching the other kids run and splash around meant pure heaven for Kellan. The weekend after that, Brett and I spent a weekend away in Door County to celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary. It was a very relaxing weekend. I was very early in the pregnancy, so constant nauseouness and extreme tiredness were the main parts of my day. Brett enjoyed drinking alone while I slept next to him...it was perfect and just what we needed! We ate breakfast at the White Gull Inn, simply amazing. Visited a place we both went to when we were kids, Pebble Beach, rented a movie and went out to dinner for awesome bbq. Perfect little weekend away.

We took Kellan to see Sesame Street live in the beginning of December. To say he loved it would be a huge understatement. He sat perfectly on our laps and I'm fairly certain he didn't even know we were there the entire show. When he gets excited, his body tenses up....he was tense for so long, he had beads of sweat on his nose. He was in heaven.

 

His love for Elmo has only intensified. We are working to ween off Elmo while eating, we know it isn't a good habit. Though, it is a great negotiating tool. Since Brett's new job, I've taken over the duty of dropping off and picking up Kellan from daycare. Kellan is not a morning person (much like his mom) so we often start talking about Elmo to make him happy in the morning. He knows my van has a dvd player in it, so I usually let him watch Elmo on the way to daycare. Yep, I totally used to judge moms having their kids watching tv in the mornings....now I'm one of them. So worth having him be happy for the 10 minute drive. Speaking of daycare duty, I don't like the job at all. Kellan is in a phase of becoming very sad when I set him down to leave. The biggest pouty lip you can imagine accompanied by clinging to my legs asking to come up. Heartbreaking.

Brett is loving his new job so far. The company is called Stafford-Smith out of Elkhorn and he is selling kitchen equipment to restaurants, hotels, resorts, and universities to name a few. The company has done kitchen equipment for Miller Park, Lambeau Field, and Potowatomi! Brett's main travel area will be Madison and Milwaukee. Hoping this is his "dream" career!

We are going to come up a little short of Kellan walking by his 2nd birthday, but we are so absolutely happy with his progress. No doubt he will be walking soon. Other progress we are happy with, he's been sleeping like a rockstar. Most nights all the way through! Simply amazing. He must sense that his mama really needs extra sleep these days!

We've had a slow few months with appointments outside of his 3 therapies a week. Based on recommendations from his current therapists, we are going to have Kellan evaluated for vision therapy. His PT feels with the strides he is making with signing and motor skills that he should be more advanced when it comes to playing with toys. He definitely can see better when things aren't real close to him. He rarely makes eye contact when he is close to you. His OT noticed that when food is on his tray, he more so feels around for it versus looks down and sees it. I'm hoping it is one of those appointments where we go to it and they say he is just fine. I say "one of those appointments", but when I think back, not sure we've had too many of those!

We got to visit Santa at his therapy clinic this week. Wasn't sure how he was going to react to Santa, but he did quite well. Unfortunately I forgot my camera chip, so the first few pictures that I took were the best, but those were not captured. Humph. Here is one that the staff took for us.

 

After visiting Santa, all the kids sat in a circle and sang songs. Kellan didn't want to sit in the circle, but he absolutely loved being an outsider watching all the kids sing. We then got to have a therapy session at the clinic later in the week which was very nice. Here's a picture of him playing with shaving cream in therapy. I was pretty impressed with him. Definitely a texture he wasn't sure about at first but got better as we played with it.

 

The Kleczewski family has a lot to be thankful for, can't believe that we are on the cusp of 2014. It should be a very exciting year for us. Starting the year celebrating our little bug's 2nd Birthday complete with Elmo everything followed by finding out if Kellan will have a new baby brother or sister! See you in 2014!

Turtle in a Half Shell

Where to begin....Kellan is flourishing like crazy and it is so.much.fun. I think I'm going to go bullet point style for this post just because he has a lot going on!

• Al's Run was a HUGE success. An awesome day, beautiful weather and the best family and friends there to support us. Simply amazing. We ended up raising just under $15,000!!!

Our inspiration!




Not all 112 team members made it in time for the picture, but that is still a big bunch of people!!

• Kellan got his first hair cut on September 7th in anticipation for his big T.V. debut and Al's Run. He instantly became a little boy!
• He is coming along with sign language. He has just started to realize he can sign what he wants or needs and we know what he is talking about. He has mastered water, eat, ears, nose, milk, phone and all of the signs to 'Wheels on the Bus.' He continues to say 'Ya' if you ask him a question. He uses it in the right context when he wants to say yes. Wish he could turn that 'Y' into a 'M' so I could hear MA!
• Kellan is crawling like crazy, loves to be chased and can move rather quickly if he knows he is being chased. He is also moving around like crazy holding on to anything and everything so that he can walk places.
• He loves going down slides...working on his core to actually have him sit down and go down, but for now going feet first on his belly is a grand ole time.
• He also LOVES books. The one thing he will sit for a very long time and play with. He first must take them all off the shelf. Once they are all removed, he sits in the heap of books paging through them. He will often hold one up and say "eh" which means, please read this to me :) His favorite has become Brown Bear Brown Bear or the Patty Cake book. One day he was reading alone while I was making his bed and I watched him do Patty Cake while paging through the book.....melted my heart.
• We've found a new place to play and it is amazing for low muscle tone kids. The trampoline park. He loves the foam pit. The opportunity to fall off the edge of something whenever he wants is his heaven.
• You can't even say the word E-L-M-O without him immediately pointing to the tv, ipad or our phones. Why the heck do kids like that guy so much!? He is obsessed.
• He recently had the flu for 6 days, 2 of which I had it too....longest 6 days I've had in awhile. Pretty sure Elmo was on more than it was off trying to get through those days.
• We've also formed a very bad habit of putting Elmo on when he eats. Getting him calories is way more important to me right now more than him watching T.V. Whatever it takes!
• Speaking of eating, he is officially off his $35 per can formula that would last 2-3 days. WOOT! He has moved to a soy based formula that offers the same amount of calories and smells like cake. Way better than the other stuff.
• With that, we also got him a new speech therapist, Linda. And we LOVE HER! She is way more aggressive on getting him to reach milestones and get eating and signing better, I needed her in my life! In the first week we had her, she had visited daycare and wrote an elaborate food plan for Kellan. She's also very energetic and fun which is right up Kellan's alley.
• We also started him in Occupational Therapy. We've realized he has some sensory issues. He doesn't like things that are wet. We are working to hopefully fix that before he gets too old and set in his ways. Come on Kellan!!! We've also started a brushing technique over his body that is supposed to aliven his senses and get him stronger and walking. Though our physical therapist wouldn't mind if he didn't walk quite yet. She is bound and determined to get his core stronger.
• We have also learned that even though he has bad hearing in one ear, he sure can hear lots. He has recently become sensitive to some noises like Grandma's house phone, Poppy's paper shredder and the teapot whistling. He looks in sheer terror and immediately wants to be held. Strange.
• Kellan is still in love with anything that has doors. Opening and shutting them and removing the contents of everything inside them. The other day I walked into the pantry where he was "playing" and he was standing there holding a jug of water! Talk about some muscles! DVD's, pots and pans, tupperware and cookie sheets are far more fun than any toys he has.
• Speaking of sheer terror, his dislike against babies smaller than him continues. He has now associated even a baby carseat and what it holds as scary. When meeting cousin Liam for the first time, they hadn't even put his carseat down and he clinged to one of us and started crying. He's slowly warming up to cousin Tanner. Over the weekend, we realized he really liked the picture of Tanner on the wall. I think it's just because he realized Tanner wasn't in the room and was happy with that.
• Daddy just got a new job, so he traveled to Michigan for 3 days. I'm not sure how single parents do it every day. I was ready for some reinforcement after two nights alone with him. We are very excited at the new opportunity.
• There have been talks of Kellan moving up to the next room at daycare. I'm nervous and excited for the transition. I think it will be good for him to be with older kids versus babies. He is now at least 6 months older than all of the kids in his room. Some kids his same age have moved up once already and are moving up to the next room soon which means he will be 2 rooms behind. Don't focus on those things Kelley. The new room will mean nap time on a cot, eating with a utensil and sitting at a table. Very hard to grasp that he is ready for any of those things but a main reason why I like the daycare. They push him to move on!

Well, there's our last several weeks in a nutshell. Looking forward to the rest of fall, dressing Kellan up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and the approaching Holidays. I sure do love this time of year! 



I Know Where To Start

There are 2 things making me feel so absoultely lucky this last month. One being Kellan and all of the things he learned in the last month. Of course I will go in depth with those things in the remaining parts of this blog. :) Two being the love and support we feel AGAIN as we approach Al's Run and Team Kellan for the second year in a row. I can't even explain the feeling of knowing how many people we have in and out of our lives that have shown up to support Kellan. I can't thank each one of you enough. We feel so absolutely blessed to have the people we do behind us in this crazy journey.

I re-read my last post which was just over a month ago and I am SO happy with the progress Kellan has made. Crazy the strides he has been taking lately! Since my last post, we have a crawler! He has figured out how to be on all fours, though he still sometimes reverts back to his army crawl. He also constantly pulls himself up on anything and everything...cupboards, ottoman, entertainment center, kitchen stools, screen door, our dresser, the list goes on and wow are we proud! He meanders around everywhere while holding something for stability. Kellan has also apparently learned how to climb stairs. Not sure where he picked it up, but he looked like an old pro over the weekend!

He's also like a sponge with learning new signs. He has learned how to say hat (one of his favorite objects), open, shoes, blows kisses, waves bye-bye, occasionally signs water and has made the sign for monkey once [Hey, it counts!]. We are still working on milk, but when he gets excited (if his bottle is in sight) he tenses up in excitement. I think he is probably signing milk but we can't really tell. When he wants to, we hear the sweet sounds of 'ma' and 'da' coming from his little mouth! We also swear he says 'ya' for yes when we ask him things.

Kellan absolutely loves singing....working now on the sign for music. Instead, his way of signing that he wants to sing a song is by doing the 'spider' in "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" or hands together for "Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee." My sister taught him the Bumble Bee song for the first time on our Daiker Family Vacation and it immediately excited him and he learned the signs that same day. He also loves Elmo. Pretty sure he actually said 'Elmo' the other day. We use the i-pad quite a bit in physical therapy (crazy, yes, but whatever works....kids nowadays :) ) and we always watch Elmo videos. Elmo's song, Elmo and Will.I.Am and Elmo and Bruno Mars are some of his favorites!

Speaking of Daiker Family Vacation, we had a great week. The weather was so-so, sunny on and off, slightly windy most days and overall not really swimming in the lake kind of warm. But, we still had so much fun. With the exception of the mornings when Kellan would decide to wake up for the day around 4am. This schedule was not conducive to Mom and Dad's night time habits around the bonfire but we made do. :) I really attribute Kellan being around all of his very active cousins for a week the push he needed to get crawling.

Kellan continues to be the sweetest little boy. You can just tell his heart is so big. I secretly love when he plays shy and snuggles up with me, but no matter how shy he acts, he usually always has a smile for everyone. There really isn't anything better than watching the reactions of people when Kellan goes in with a wide open mouth, tounge out kiss. Most people don't appreciate those 'kisses' as much as Brett and I do!

Thank you again to EVERYONE that has played a part in Al's Run this year. No words describe what we are feeling. The outpouring of support this year is incredible. SO looking forward to this weekend and celebrating Kellan's last year with some very special people in our lives. Family, neighbors and friends...where would we be with out each and everyone of you? Thank you from the very bottom of our hearts. Tune in Thursday night at 10pm on Channel 12 to watch our little bug in the spotlight. Anxious and excited to see the story they put together. It is our story, it is our life and we are so humbled to be in the spotlight for a few minutes for all of Milwaukee to see.

As I have always felt throughout this journey, lyrics of songs speak to me. As I was running the other day, planning out Al's Run in my head, not even able to fathom all of the people involved, a song came on and it spoke to me. After many months of working so hard to teach Kellan new things, I feel like our dedication to making his life as great as possible is finally starting to pay off. I remember my special needs moms giving me advice a few months back. They seemed like old pros with their kids and the things they needed in their life. I'm finally starting to feel that way. I do feel like I know where to start. So I leave you with my latest inspriational song lyric ~

"I can't tell where the journey will end, but I know where to start." Avicii