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 5th percentile mark. His long and
lean legs that he gets from his Daddy get him in the 50th 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 