Braden

This is my nephew Braden. He is my only nephew and only the 2nd grandchild so far. Isn't he just a doll. Melissa will be here next weekend we're hoping for a hair cut for this wild man who is not even 4 months old yet.


Hospital pic of the little guy!


About 1 month old on our family reunion road trip.


I love this one, wild hair, holding the monkey the binki half hanging out....such a cutie!

Big Boy Pants

So Keaton has always been very deliberate in his bowel movements even before he was a year old he'd stop whatever he was doing to take care of business and at about 18 months he took an interest in the toilet. So we got a little potty chair and started to remind him...but it wasn't really successful. Basically he tells me when he's about to go..."momma, i poop?" and I ask if he wants to go on the potty and sometimes he says no and runs away but other times he says YAY! He sits for a while but has never actually gone potty on the toilet.

When he turned 2 in August I bought some pull-ups that are supposed to feel cool when he wets, still no progress. In fact the other day he said he had to go, pulled down his "big boy pants" and sat on the potty (I was in the shower) and when he was done (or what he called done) got down flushed and walked away... I got out of the shower to a wet spot in the hallway.

Yesterday I bought some regular underwear, some people say that because they feel it right away and know they are wet and their legs are wet etc they don't want that to happen. So first he put them over his diaper. Then we sat on the toilet a while and then left the diaper off. I thought I'll just follow him around real close and if he starts to go I'll rush him to the toilet. Well about 10 minutes later he walked away for like one second and he says "uh oh, momma, poop" but what really happened is he peed all over the kitchen floor, big puddle. I took him to the potty but I was sure he had to be on empty.

It was almost bed time so the diaper went back on. A few minutes later he found another pair of underwear and so I told him to tell uncle Houston what he has... Keaton's response, "Look Houston, my hat."

I suppose "Boys will be boys!?!" but I didn't expect it this young. He is such a goof!

Also he's just recently started to pose for pictures, this is one of his picture smiles with the teeth showing and his head tilted.

Hot Teacher, Funny Kids

So I have a student, who is a bit different than most of the kids. She takes a while to explain things...for example she'll start with....well, you know I've been thinking about this in my head and well, you know, here is what I think the answer is...but it's said like one word at a time and very thoughtful like.

When she sneezes she will not let it rest until someone says bless you, and if I sneeze and she says bless you then she keeps saying it non-stop until I say thank you. Or if she picks something up that I dropped she reminds me over and over and tells me I need to say thank you.

So yesterday morning she was at the back of the line as we walked into the classroom and she kept calling me...Mrs. Semendoff...Mrs. Semendoff...Mrs. Semendoff several times but from a ways away, so finally I turned around and said What? Here is her histarical response....

Mrs. Semendoff...you look hot today, and not the sweaty kind.

Well if you really knew her you'd be on the ground laughing cuz she's just a little different and you never know what to expect. I'm just glad she hasn't yanked any permenent teeth out yet like when she was in 1st grade...just so she can get a tooth sticker (....sitting on the ground during calendar time...tied her shoe lace around it and yanked...big roots, blood everywhere)

Anyway, a little girl in my 2nd grade class think's I'm HOT! That should count for something...right?

Smarty Pants

I know, I know everyone thinks their kid is smart but sometimes Keaton just amazes me. So it started at like 16 months old. We sing songs a lot and I knew he was getting ready for nursery so we were singing nursery songs. He could sing I am a Child of God, Popcorn, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Snowman, Sunbeam and a few others like Old MacDonald or Wheels on the Bus. Now to lots of people that may sound normal, but all the times I've been in nursery the little ones never sing, the mostly cry or do nothing at all. Well in the end our nursery doesn't even sing. They just do the tape that has the movements. Good thing Keaton has a good mom to teach him songs. Now at 2 he aslo can sing Pioneer Children, Give Said the Little Stream, I Feel My Savior's Love and I'm Trying to be Like Jesus. If I had a video camera I'd love to share his sweet songs.

Also recently he's gotten so good at puzzles. Again, maybe lots of kids do this but we were at the library in the kids area and he was just doing so well. I was impressed.

For a little while now we've been going to the website www.starfall.com (Mostly Grandpa spends hours on the lap top with him) He loves to go to the ABC page and often will walk into the computer room and say "I want letters". Anyway each letter has a few pictures and activities that he practically has memorized. For example W has a wolf, which makes Keaton howl then it has people walking and as soon as the page turns he says walk. He can also find the letter that doesn't match, although it's always the same. So we've been wondering can he do this out of context or just on this site. So tonight I printed a page of letters in random order. I was so impressed he knew the names of about half the alphabet. We also found out a few he doesn't know at all like J. And sometimes he calls the N a Z, but that's an easy mistake.

My goodness, the kid just turned 2 last week. Today the alphabet...tomorrow the world.

Born to be Wild

So Keaton went for his first "joy ride" today. This morning grandpa was mowing the lawn first thing which is one of Keaton's favorite pass times. So Keaton got up and changed clothes and put on shoes etc. Then he was out back with grandpa. I saw him a few times, on grandpa's shoulders, holding granpa's hand, pushing the mower. Then he saw his new bike. So I could see him riding around the grass behind grandpa, very cute. Several minutes later, my dad came in and asked "Do you guys have Keaton?" The answer was NO! The gate was open because my dad had brought the mower from the back to the front and Keaton was not out front. My dad headed down the streen North, my mom went to the end of the cul-de-sac and I jumped in my car, just in case he got real far already. Well we found him pretty quickly, near the end of the street in the grass, he had gotten off his bike and was pushing it through the tall grass in the green belt. When my mom approached him he told her "No Grandma, go away!" He was really excited to be free.

I thought I had more pictures of him on the bike but I guess not, maybe it's on my phone, not the camera...anyway I'll add a pic later.

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEATON DEAR

So this year for Keaton's birthday we kept it pretty simple. First because he doesn't really know the difference and second because we really don't have any friends to invite, but that's ok.
On the Sunday before his birthday we went over to Josh's apartment and he opened presents with Daddy. He got a book and a ball and a Thomas train set which he loves and plays with every day. Oh and he loves the card that sings.



Opening presents with dad


Playing with the Thomas the Train set


On Wedesday August 13th was Keaton's actual birthday. He had a doctor's appointment that day which was very traumatic, he didn't have shots or anything but maybe with all the hospital and doctor visits involved with his eye surgery he must have sensed what might happen. Anyway so Josh and I took him to Peter Piper Pizza and we had pizza and played games. Later that night (once Auntie Shalyn got off work) we had a little party at the house. Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Houston, Uncle Cooper, Auntie Shalyn and Mom were there. Keaton was so excited for his new toys he didn't eat any cake or ice cream.



Josh teased me saying that this is the backdrop for hundreds of family birthday party pictures. Oh well, we like our family birthday parties just fine. By the way, Keaton wanted hats, I think from watching Little Einsteins, "The Birthday Balloons" even the penguins wear hats in that episode. And when there isn't a hat he was also happy at the store to put cups on his head and call them hats.


Blowing out his number 2 candle. He liked this so much that after he blew it out he said "Again Again" so we lit it again. We were a little fearful, just this week he figured out how to really blow his nose and everytime he finds a napkin, tissue, even a t-shirt he was blowing his nose. We were relieved that when we said blow, nothing came out of his nose :)


Being silly eating his only bite of cake.


Quincy! He already has the Leo doll and this one was on clearance at Target for 2.58 so I figured why not. But I did not buy Annie or June, I don't think he needs to have girl dolls.


A puzzle from Cooper and Shalyn


Riding his new bike. I thought the 20 minute wait of Houston putting it together was nearly going to kill Keaton. Here he is riding through the kitchen.

Backgrounds

So I know lots of people already know this but in order to help my sister become a more trendy blogger, here is the link where I got my background. There are so many to choose from it's hard to decide. Right now they have some olympic and sports ones and back to school. When you go to the website you have to log-in but it's free. On the left hand side just click on the link to "free backgrounds" Now there are lots of other things there too like side bar "bling" that have quotes and scroll etc. and blog secrets but I haven't tried to play with any of that yet. For now I'm happy with my cute background and the pictures of my cute kid. Happy blogging.

http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/