Merry Christmas

Taking his Christmas nap

About every 3rd person at the grocery store told us how cute he was with his Santa hat on. 

OK mom, enough with the hat!

Blowing Christmas raspberries

Well we survived Christmas here with none of our animals ingesting the ornaments on the tree.  Keagan only ate some of the Christmas paper but we were able to rescue most of it.  We got to spend Christmas eve with John and his children Jen and Donovan. It was great to have a  family across the street as Jeff had to do 2 emergency surgeries and didn't get home until about 8 pm that day.  Grandma and Grandpa Hanson are coming out on the 31st as Keagan is getting baptised on Jan 1, 2012.  We figured it would be a great way to start the new year. But, back to Christmas. We went to the grocery store to pick some things up and we made so many people happy for Christmas. Keagan was wearing his Santa hat and enjoying all the attention.  We were even told he should ring the bell for the Salvation Army so they could make a lot of money! At home, Keagan enjoyed all of his new Christmas toys.  My only fear is that he will want to unwrap presents and get new toys all the time. We have so many right now, I think I could put some away until next month, re-wrap them and have christmas every month if we need to.  But, I am telling you the kid is smart.  He seems to know all of his toys and needs to spend time with all of them.  I am not sure I can fool him!

Here he is with some of his new toys

We gave up trying to get his to stop playing with his toys to take a picture
Here he is enjoying the quarters he got from Great Grandma

Our Christmas present from Keagan is increasing mobility.  It is amazing in the last 2 weeks how much he likes to run around. Even 2 days ago seemed so quiet compared to now.  He just reaches for our fingertips when he wants to stand up or when he wants to walk.  If he is near something he can hold onto while standing he doesn't need us, but I am not sure he will be so dependent on us once 2012 hits next week!  It is truly amazing having Keagan in our lives.  He is the best Christmas present we could have ever asked for.

Christmas 2011

Climbing Mount Mommy before I got my presents

Climbing Mount Mommy

He needs just a little help from mom.  Blowing raspberries any time of the day is great too!

Keagan has found his climbing legs since we got home from Wisconsin.  He may not have figured out how to crawl forward yet - although backwards can be a very fast gait- but Keagan has mastered the art of  going from sitting to standing with minimal help.  He even is "walking" on our finger tips.  Right now one of his favorite games is to have mommy lay on the floor and he just climbs on me.  Thus the title climbing mount mommy.   This game is only surpassed at the present moment by peek-a-boo.  And believe me we can find so many ways to play peek-a-boo.  Yesterday we got about a foot of snow and our neighbor was over plowing the driveway with the tractor.  When John got close enough to the garage we couldn't see him.  Then he appeared with a whole bunch of snow in his tractor.  It is amazing the ways we can have fun with just a dissapearing tractor and laying on the floor together. 

Not only does he get to practice standing, he gets to pound on the table too!

"Cruising" the furniture

Have Toys...Will Travel

We tackled one of the last forms of transportation last week....the airplane.  I will admit I was a little nervous for the big flight, but our friends at Story-time which takes place at Parker library assured us that it would not be a problem and they were right.  As long as we had toys we were golden. 

His name was added to the ticket so we were all accounted for!

Getting ready for our first flight!

We got to the airport with plenty of time to get checked in with no hassles.  It was amazing that now that I have a baby and more stuff than I have ever traveled with before, I finally did not get stopped for the random search.  Go figure!!  I stopped and got a bite to eat and we were all set to get on the plane, except the airline  couldn't find it.  To make a long story short, we had almost a 2 hour delay. Luckily I brought along blankets for him to sit on and toys for him to play with.  Many people were so nice and offered to make room for us in the airport, but we decided to go with the floor.  Keagan and I played so hard he fell asleep 10 minutes before  the flight took off and was out the whole way.  What an awesome flight! 

You have teeth Grandpa...When will I get them?

Keagan's favorite nap location: Great-Grandma Charline's lap

Grandma Diane feeding me some pear sauce.  I love to eat when she feeds me!

Then on to visit the family.   Grandma and Grandpa were great and were all prepared to pick us and our loads of luggage up at the airport.  We spent 5 days visiting with family and most of the Peterson clan stopped by to say hi.  Robbie and Jami along with their 2 kids Cooper and Lillian drove down to see us Fri-Sun and Aunt Donna and Ron stopped by Sun-Mon while we stayed with Great-Grandma Charline.  Keagan had so much fun playing with everyone, he had problems napping.  He just didn't want to miss out on any of the excitement.  I think he wishes we lived closer to his followers as we like to call them:) 

Opening his first X-mas present from Great Grandma: The bag was as much fun as the neat outfit inside!

Having fun in Wisonsin with all of my toys!

Keagan turned 7 months old while we were visitng and we always get our naked picture!

Practicing reverse crawling with Great-Grandma.  He is getting so close to moving forward:)

Our return flight was as non-eventful as our flight out.  Except this time he was awake for take off and landing..  He slept most of the time we were at cruising altitude so I could watch some "free" tv.  "Uncle" John was there to pick us up at the airport and Keagan was so excited he remembered he had a home.  When he saw his dog, his cat and his toys he was soooooo excited.  Those wings were just flapping so hard.  (Moving his arms up and down is his way of saying he is excited - and we have decided to call it wing flapping)  He seemed so proud to have realized that this was his home.  But there was one thing missing...his daddy.  Jeff was still at work when we got home and Keagan just refused to take a nap.  He knew that he was missing something. The smile on his face could have lit the whole house when he saw his daddy.  It was fun visiting our family, but there really is no place like home :)

He's got wheels!

Keagan is always amazing us with his new abilities.  One of his latest accomplishments is working the walker.  I am not sure why I felt the need to bring up the walker one evening while I was trying to make dinner, but Keagan sure appreciated it.  He loves having his own set of wheels to motor - or well honestly slide backward - around the kitchen.  He is in that stage where touching everything is amazing.  He moves from the fridge to the dishwasher, the cabinets to the kitchen chair.  This can keep him entertained for hours.  And now he can chase after the elusive orange cat that just won't let him pet her. 

First it was the saucer in July...

Then came the jumperoo in August...

Now its on to the walker in November!

Things we are Thankful For!

Enjoying his applesauce with vigor on Thanksgiving day!

We had a great holiday weekend here.  Our first thanksgiving was a wonderfully warm day that was extremely relaxing.  It was in the 60s here so we started out by taking a family hike with Hannah.  We have a new method of transportation for Keagan the heavier he becomes.  The back pack is very secure and is much nicer to my lower back. 

Then our dinner was excellent as we our neighbor John smoked the turkey and did the mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans and gravy.  We brought salad, cranberries, fruit salad and the pies.  So our part of the dinner was very easy.  Keagan was absolutely wonderful and didn't say a word the whole entire evening.  Granted we did take him for a car ride a few hours before the dinner so he had an extra special good nap in place.  John's son - Donovan was also there and has offered his services as baby whisperer in the future as Keagan seemed espeicially entralled with Donovan.  It seemed like he wanted to show off what a good baby he can be! 

Enjoying the Thanksgiving Turkey with John

Mom, Dad, John and Donovan in the back

Oveall the best thing about Thanksgiving was all that we have to be thankful for...

• being parents and loving every minute (yes even the bad ones!)
• living in such a wonderful place where we have our horses with us
• having fantastic friends like John that make every day special
• loving our parents that took the time to raise us well
• all of our 4-legged kids whom are all healthy as I write this :)
• of course last but not least... the most wonderful non-adopted Chinese child ( i have had 3 people in the last week tell me how wonderful I was to have adopted a child from China) 

Rocky Mountain Poopie!

Yesterday we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park to see the amazing wildlife.  We have taken Keagan to Yellowstone but we hadn't been up to RMNP since he was born.  I figured we wouldn't get skunked.  Usually we see hundreds of elk.  Sometimes we see other creatures like the mule deer, black squirrels and even once we saw the Big Horn Sheep.  It was just the mommies and a few older babies last year.  Jeff and I have been trying to see the daddy sheep for over 10 years and although Jeff has been successful a few times, the only place I have seen the big horns is at the zoo. That all changed yesterday after Keagan had a massive poopie.  It was running down the front of his pants so we knew that we needed to find a visitor center so we could try and wipe his bottom down.  It was a massive poopie and it changed our plans.  Once we were finished with the visitor center/gift shop there were about 25 big horn sheep in the parking lot!  Including at least 3 daddies with the huge horns.  They were eating the salt on the parking lot used to help melt the ice.  So we finally reached our goal of seeing big horn sheep and even got our picture of this momentous occasion.  I guess the reason we never saw them before is that we didn't have a child who changed the course of our lives!

Look at the sheep mommy!

Yeah we saw the big horm sheep!

Dancing Shoes

Last weekend we went to probably one of our last garage sales of the year.  I love going to garage sales to find awesome baby clothes.  As I well know, they grow so quickly and at times they don't wear clothes all that many times before they are too tight.  Keagan really didn't wear much if any of his 3-6 month clothing.  This summer was very hot and so he ran around in his diaper and birthday suit most of the time.  When it was time to put clothes on, they were too tight and I had to break out the 6 month clothing.  But, I digress....at this last garage sale where I was looking for winter 9 month clothing when I stumbled upon some size 2M stride rite little leather shoes.  We got them for a dollar and they retail for about $40.  I wasn't really sure he needed shoes, but the moment I put them on his little feet he started dancing.  He loves to have his shoes on as they are a toy attached to his body.  When he tries to crawl he has traction and when he goes in the jumper he can jump even higher than before.  I for one am in love with the tiny shoes and just looking at them makes me happy.  Here's to all the things about babies that bring a smile to your face!

I like to play with my shoes at any time.  It helps to have a built in toy!

OK - so maybe the shoes don't always capture his attention.
The huge fish at Bass Pro Shop with "honorary grandpa" John (our neighbot and part time babysitter of all the Yu kids) sometimes keeps his attention away from those shoes!

Happy half birthday!

It was Keagan's half birthday and his daddy's 33rd birthday yesterday. We celebrated by visiting dad at work in between emergencies and spending some time with the camera.  I love taking pictures of my little guy and thank goodness that we have a digital camera.  I think I would go broke if I printed all the pictures I took.  Yesterday I think I took over 150 pictures so if there seems like a lot posted today, you should see our picture archives. 

I still can't believe how fast he is growing up and how things change so suddenly.  I mean all the sudden he is sitting up playing with his toys.  He reaches out and falls over which brings many dragon tears (dragon tears because this is the chinese year of the dragon).  He is getting so independent but at the same time we are struggling with seperation anxiety - with mommy only.  It is the worst at night so if anyone has suggestions I am open to try anything:) 

The stats:
17lbs 14oz
25.75 inches
6-9 month clothing
Size 2 Stride rite dancing shoes
Loys of giggles and laughs
Stevie Wonder Dance moves
Pear baby food is his favorite so far - NOT banana!



And now it's time to stop taking pictures mom!  But when he makes faces like this it is hard to stop!