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
