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