Category Archives: development

birthdays, development

One, Two

Leave a comment

Keana turned two. It came and went as quickly as just about everything else around here. She had three parties: one on Wednesday, March 22 with just Sarah and I, one with Sarah and Tia on her actual birthday (while I was teaching), and the big family extravaganza birthday on the following Saturday, March 24. I also snuck away from work to have lunch with my Ladies on her birthday since I couldn’t be there in the evening.

What I want to know is who coined the term “terrible twos”? Methinks it was someone from the school of “children should be seen and not heard” and someone who believed the domestication of the human animal was a very important step around the age of two. Keana speaks her mind and isn’t afraid to say “no!”. She’s learning to reason, argue, and persuade. She’s very sweet but tests her boundaries and the boundaries of those around her. When she hits the limits of those boundaries she takes note, pushes them more, tries a new approach, and learns. She remembers everything and recalls things from weeks ago when she sees an association. We see the fine line between discipline and restricting freedom and growth. Sarah and I are of the mind that there isn’t much flexibility with boundaries regarding Keana’s health and safety, but everything else is pretty much gray. It seems she needs us to let her have her gray areas and discover and define some things for herself. That’s one of the greatest joys lately is seeing her make these discoveries for herself. These discoveries used to be things like clapping or swinging her arms or opening and closing a box. Now that Keana’s two she’s discovering how to express herself in an effective way to others and she’s learning how to speak her mind. There’s nothing terrible about any of it. In fact, it’s teaching me I need to revisit my own domestication and socialization and rethink what’s important and what’s not while moving through the world.

development

All personality

Leave a comment

Every day we see Keana’s personality emerging more and more. She has such a great sense of humor and we find ourselves laughing at her little jokes all the time. Like when she’s sitting at dinner and singing, “Sausage, sausage,” or saying in a deep, growly voice, “MEAT!” The photo below from February means so much more when you know the context. Sarah said she wanted to get a photo of her, not saying anything about the stroller, but Keana went and got her stroller so she could pose with it. You’ll see that she came up with this hilarious pose. It somehow reminds me of those photos you see from the 1800s when photos were new, and people would pose with their prize possessions, like a clock or their favorite rifle or something. The best part is her face too. Very serious and very cognizant of the camera. Definitely one of my favorite photos of the month.

Keana continues to be a voracious reader and often entertains herself looking through her books, especially when we’re busy. She’s able to name the titles of her favorite books and says portions of the story when you flip from page to page. She’s got an amazing memory and continues to pick up on lyrics to songs we sing all the time. The latest trend has been singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” while brushing her teeth, and she chimes in on all the “echo” versus singing, “Like a light bulb!” and, “Ho, ho, ho!” and, “You’ll go down in history!”

We still visit the park across the street many times a week and she’s able to climb up the stairs of the play structure and go down the big slide all by herself. In fact she insists saying, “No Mama help!” Quite the little independent. She also seems to enjoy observing the other kids’ behavior at the park as much as playing on her own, and you can just see her little gears turning in her head. Tonight when we went to the park she was all about collecting wood chips and rocks to keep as little treasures and she even made sure that I had my own saying, “Papa have a rock too.”

This week Keana turns two and we can hardly believe it. She’s certainly not a baby any more and we’re excited and even a little in awe of her ever-emerging personality and independence.

development, trips

The girl can talk

Leave a comment

It is such a joy to hear Keana’s little voice! From the moment she opens her eyes in the morning to the moment she closes them to sleep, she is talkin’, askin’ questions, singin’, and makin’ noises. We absolutely love it. Sometimes we just lie awake in bed in the morning and listen to her talk and sing to her stuffed animals in her crib. The last couple of weeks she’s really been memorizing lyrics to her favorite songs. She’ll ask, “Mama sing it?” or “Papa sing it?” and smile and dance—but always listen—until she gets a piece of it then sings along. So far she’s learned part of the Sesame St. theme “Sunny Days” and the Dragon Tales theme, and she continues to get better on her “ABCs” and “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'”. Another popular phrase has been “Try it?” when we tell her something won’t work. It really makes me stop and realize how important it is for her to try just about everything on her own and reminds me of how much I liked to figure things out for myself, especially when adults told me how it would or wouldn’t work. I swear Keana teaches us just as much as we teach her.

Last Saturday we went to Pt. Reyes Station for biscuits and gravy at the Pine Cone Diner then headed out to the beach. Sarah and I really have Santa Cruz in the veins because we figured we’d just go over to HWY1 and pull over whenever we saw a good beach, like we used to do when we lived in Santa Cruz. Well, needless to say, up north on HWY1 is not like HWY1 near Santa Cruz. Eventually we found Bolinas (yeah, we’d never heard of it either). It’s kind of like a distilled version of Santa Cruz. Not a ton of tourists and crazies, and a lot of real northern CA beach bums and surfers. We had to run through the ocean near this retaining wall to reach a small patch of sand, so you could say easy beach access there was not. Keana had been talking about the ocean since we mentioned it Friday night saying “Ocean—get in there?”, so Sarah was determined to get our Girl to the beach. Keana loved just standing in the ocean waiting for each wave and didn’t flinch once. In fact, we had to yank her out on a couple surprise waves so she didn’t get totally soaked. She didn’t even mind the sand, though she still thought it was “messy”.

I remember when I was growing up I talked all the time, and now as an adult Sarah would definitely say that my verbosity has remained strong, especially late at night or when she’s trying to sleep. I remember too how adults responded to me when I talked and how that made me feel, and I want to always be sure Keana feels that she’s being heard, that what she says is respected, and to try and have patience with her as she expresses her thoughts out loud. I think if we encourage her voice through listening, she’ll learn to verbalize her thoughts better and even become a better listener in the process.

development

The future’s so bright

Leave a comment

Today we got a baby toilet. With her Scooby Doo action doll in tow, Keana, Sarah and I headed down to Target to take care of taking care of business. Keana’s been quite curious about things leaving the body lately so we figured it was time. She’s also been much more aware of her own situation so that was another good indicator. And get this: within 30 minutes of getting the little baby toilet out of the box, she peed in it. One giant step for baby, one tiny step for baby-kind.

We had the toilet in the living room, then in the kitchen, then in the bathroom—oh such fun. Whoever thought it would be so cool to take your toilet with you? Actually, now that I type that out, it does sound pretty cool, or at least really convenient.

In other news, she’s learning more lyrics to songs. In addition to singing along with ABCs she can also sing along to “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. In fact, the song of choice for walking downstairs for bed time is These Boots.

Keana’s also been having a lot of fun dressing up her Curious George and Big Bird in her other doll’s clothes. I came home one night this week and Monkey had a dress on, and, I must say, looked pretty darn good in it. And the blue dress on Big Bird really matched his feather-tones well. Today we put a pair of plaid shorts and a poodle dress on Monkey too which was a big hit.

As you can see her imagination is fully intact and growing every day. More and more she personifies her dolls/animals—feeding them, changing their diapers, helping them go the bathroom and dancing with them. It’s so fun to be reminded of how much fun being a kid was, and every time I play with her I think it’s time to back to that.

development

bABy Cs

Leave a comment

Keana started singing her ABCs last week. It’s really cute because she requests the song by saying “Baby Cs?” and continues to sing “Ba-by C D E…”. Not only that, but she also lip-syncs to the song and then finishes strong with “XYZ”.

This morning I also realized how big she’s getting when she refused to hold my hand walking down the sidewalk. As she walked she sang, “It’s a big world, it’s a big big world,” and truly it is for a little walking, singing baby out on the street. But every day I think the world gets smaller and smaller for little Miss Keana.

birthdays, development

Emerging independence

Leave a comment

Keana continues to show off her little personality. It was Sarah’s birthday on Friday and Keana sang along with “happy birthday mama” and proposed several toasts at our burgers and champagne lunch saying, “Cheers!” throughout the meal. It’s amazing to see her pick up on all these social protocols. They seem so complex for a little baby yet she learns them after only observing them once. I guess it really scares us on some level too to realize that it does only take her one time seeing something to imprint it on her brain. And it’s not just her copying us either. There’s a little bit of that, but time and again she’ll bust out with something that lets us know she’s learning everything right now and she knows what it means and when to use it.

Keana’s almost two now and she’s definitely exerting her independence. She’s able to communicate really well and has been forming longer, more complex sentences. This has made it much easier for us to understand what she wants and allows us to explain things better to her. That being said, the word “no” has become pretty popular too, but it hasn’t really been that frustrating for us. Most of the time it’s really okay for her to say “no” and for the other times we just have to explain the situation to her and she understands. Don’t get me wrong either, this girl is a spitfire, but if we treat her with respect by acknowledging her intelligence and capabilities, the outcome is generally good for all of us. After-all, isn’t that really what any of us wants? The need to be heard and respected seems to run deep in everyone and we see it emerging more and more in Keana every day.

development, family, holidays, trips

1500 mph and Accelerating

2 Comments

A friend of mine once said it’s amazing how fast time and money disappear once you have a baby. Sarah and I have found both to be true. But what better investment for time and money than the one they call Keana?

Halloween: There’s nothing scary about a baby. Wait, maybe I mean there’s nothing scarier than a baby? This baby crawling around our living room relies on us for everything. That’s scary. Just about everything she’s learning right now comes from us. That’s scary. When she pulls herself up on the furniture, then balances with one hand while reaching for something completely out of her reach all the while tottering on legs tingling with new muscle sensations. That’s scary. The fact that Keana will some day want to go to some Halloween party- instead of hanging out with us- with teenage boys that are surely stupider and more dangerous than I was when I was their age…that’s scary as hell! But on the surface…no…there’s nothing scary about a baby.

This year Keana was a little Giants player dressed up in her Giants outfit that Kacie gave her. Halloween night we carved pumpkins, made a music video to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, and passed out candy. Not much else you can do on Halloween with a baby that’s not very scary.

Visits: While Papa’s been visiting PA for work, Mama and Baby have had visitors and have been visiting on their own. In November Grandma Jennie came out for a couple days and Sarah and Keana went back to Fresno to visit Sarah’s high school friends Katrina, Mary, and Gina. They also visited with Grandpa Robert and Nana Cin and had blast with all parties in attendance, everywhere. Keana also had her first trip to the bar when we went down to Pescadero and visited with Auntie Sara, Sam, Jack, Sandy, Byron, Mollie, Leiban, and the whole Duarte’s gang. Grandma Linda was also up last week visiting and hopes to make it a semi-regular thing since she’s so close.

Thanksgiving: The real question this year is what DON’T we have to be thankful for? We shared Thanksgiving with family friends at Rhonda and Baptiste’s house in San Jose. Everyone who came to dinner had a customized crown to wear (which was required to eat), so beat that!

Eating: Keana has recently begun sampling the wondrous array of food items on this planet called “vegetables”. So far she’s tried sweet potato, squash, and avocado. She was skeptical at first, and even a little concerned, but has started to enjoy it. Her two front, bottom teeth are coming in nicely and they’re almost halfway up. She teethes pretty intensely at times, grimacing and munching down on many objects with fierce little baby force.

Sleeping: Keana is a great sleeper. She usually takes a couple naps a day and mostly sleeps through the night, waking occasionally to fill her tiny stomach. She has a few rough nights on and off which keep poor Mama- and sometimes Papa- from actually recovering from the busy days, but as a whole, she is a great little sleeper.

Mobility: Keana is now crawling at astonishing speeds. When motivated- for instance in pursuit of the cat- she can really make her way across the room quite quickly. She has also started pulling herself up on furniture and legs, and takes decent steps to advance her position. Keana’s also taking a liking to pointing at objects and where she wants to go. She’s been able to sign for milk and clap for a while, but now she also waves goodbye (and hello!). It’s really enough to make your heart melt; imagine little Keana, standing in her crib, waving goodbye as you’re heading out the door for work!

Christmas: It’s just around the corner and we’ve been busy making Keana’s first Christmas a great one. Last Saturday we went down the street and got a great tree and decorated it Monday night with Tia Iana. Uncle Peter called from Thailand, so in a way, he was there too. She loves playing with the tree and especially loves to point at and touch all the different ornaments. This weekend we’re going to Fresno for a Solstice Party at Nino and Mia’s and having early Christmas with Grandpa Robert and Nana Cin (and hopefully Great Grandma Bev too!). Then on the 20th is the Peterson family Christmas and we’re very excited about seeing Great Uncle Vic, Great Aunt Kristie, and second cousins McKenna, Cassidy, and Riley for the first time. THEN, on the 21st, is Great Grandma and Grandpa Peterson’s 50th wedding anniversary, so we’ll be in Los Altos for that. I think we’ll have our own 4th Annual Christmas Party on the 23rd, Christmas Eve mellow-styles on the 24th, and on the 25th, Grandma Jennie, Grandpa John, Grandma Linda, Grandpa Sam, Uncle Michael, and Tia Iana will be coming over to our house for Christmas Clamb Bake 2005. Soooo… if you want to spend time with us and you’re not on the list, sorry. Please call back soon for 2006 reservations.