Welcome to the Kelley Household

If you need anything, just look around. Very thoroughly. You might find it. Ever since John Dickson came around, things have been popping up in the strangest places. Sometimes John Dickson hides our things, and other times, its a little something I like to call mommy brain. Here is the latest sampling:

Cant find my cell phone? On top of the fridge. Now obviously I did this (Adam wasn't home). But why?

Doing laundry... whats that on top of the washing machine? Oh, why that's a pack of turkey. Again, this was me.

Still doing laundry... open the door, and find a big blob of brown mushy substance on top of the round opening. It's dog food. Not me.

Adam's truck was parked in our driveway for close to 2 weeks. The car keys were in the end table, which was also where I recently found my flip flop.

Tonight John Dickson crawled under the desk, opened the printer, and pulled out none other than the camera battery charger. In the printer. Thank goodness he retrieved it, or it could have been a VERY long time without that charger. I mean, who looks for missing things in their printer? Totally reminds me of Zoolander... "it's in the computer??" Ahh good times. On that note, one of John Dickson's pictures tonight from Picture People was a pretty darn good Blue Steel.

There was also a tiny brown sandal missing for a couple of months until Granna and Papa came to stay with John Dickson. I was pleasantly surprised to find that pair of shoes lined up neatly in the bottom of his closet. Would still love to know where on earth it came from... Currently missing are 2 white t shirts - one with a duck, and one with a giraffe. I have searched high and low, including unpacking 3 huge boxes of outgrown clothes to see if my absent mind maybe packed them away. No luck. We might need Granna and Papa to come back and work their magic.

Missing your big bouncy ball? Check the toilet.

Why are every one of my t shirts on the floor? Oh, because that drawer was better suited for socks, apparently.

These are just a few of the little things that make life with John Dickson so much fun. There is also something else you should know before coming to visit - in the Kelley household, when it rains, it pours... About 2 weeks ago, our dishwasher broke and started pouring water out into our kitchen. The next day, the faucet in our bathtub started acting up and we couldn't turn off the water. Now we can't even turn it on. And because these things come in 3s, now our hot water heater is broken. Yaaay water. I guess we should just be glad we have it.

Last but not least, John Dickson is the proud new owner of a new tooth! He now has 3 on bottom and 4 on top. I wish I had a picture to leave you with, but I told you about the charger, right?

15 1/2 months... and FINALLY talking!!

Yep, you read correctly. We were hesitant to announce the latest milestone, but after 3 days in a row of John Dickson's new words (plural!!), we are convinced. Little man's very first word(s)...

"All done"

We always knew he would go straight from no talking to complete sentences. All done is something we've been working with him on for 8 or 9 months, but we were trying to teach him the signs for it, not the words. While he never really did do the signs, he definitely understood what it meant and if he really was all done, up his arms would go, and if he was just taking a break, he would grab some food really quick and shove it in his mouth. Then out of the blue, those words popped out of his mouth after dinner on Friday, again after lunch on Saturday, and yet again after breakfast this morning. The first time he said it, I just heard this sweet little "all" and I started freaking out and saying "all done" several times, and then he repeated it 2 or 3 times. We figured since he didn't seem interested in "mama" or "dada" being his first words, that his first words would be food related, but I always figured it would be "more" or "nana" (for banana), or even "milk" or "juice"... but no... "all done." Go figure.

The other word we suspect John Dickson is saying is "shoes." THIS is not surprising. That boy has a shoe fettish. And he will bring you his shoes and turn around and scoot back to sit in your lap for you to put them on. He has also been saying "shoes" since about Friday, but we aren't 100% about that one, as "shoes" is a sound he makes a lot but has recently starting saying it particularly with shoes. "All done" is completely new.

Also in his vocabulary is "uh oh," but we really aren't ready to give him credit for that one yet, as he doesn't really say it at the appropriate times. Kind of like "mama" and "dada"... comes out of his mouth, but for no real reason. Hopefully those are coming soon though! I'm just glad he never cried "mama" when we had to start letting him cry himself to sleep, because I never would have survived that. And we would still be rocking him to sleep for an hour every night. Which brings me to my next topic...

We are so incredibly beyond lucky to have the sleeper we do! John Dickson starting sleeping through the night pretty early, and even when he was a newborn, he would frequently sleep 2 1/2 hours or so at a time. That doesn't sound like much, but when a newborn has to eat every 2 to 3 hours, and ours was almost always 3 hours, that extra hour makes a world of difference. Imagine the first 4 weeks with never getting more than 1 1/2 hours of consecutive sleep - that would be tough! Makes 2 1/2 sound pretty good... but I digress.

We always hate having to put John Dickson back in daycare, for obvious reasons, but one of the minor ones is his sleep patterns. When he doesn't have to get up in the morning, he frequently sleeps until 8:30. When he has to go to daycare, he has to get up between 7 and 7:30. So on the weekends, he gets up at the time he is use to. However, this time around, that little man sleeps in later than we do! Despite waking up at 7 all week, yesterday and today John Dickson slept in until 9:00. And we LOVE IT!!! Now if we could just get Ellie to sleep in...

John Dickson has started doing something else that is pretty cute... he is (sort of) blowing kisses. He puts his hands over his mouth and blows (without moving his hands away from his mouth). It's so sweet! He also does this clicking thing with his tongue, and if you do it to try to get him to mimic you, he smiles and closes his eyes like he really has to think about it, and then he gets to clicking.

Let's talk about my dear husband. When John Dickson was little little, I would always kiss him on the mouth, while Adam would refuse. At one point I think he even said "but he's a dude!" Well, well, well... now that John Dickson is actively giving kisses, Adam has changed his tune drastically. We love to kiss John Dickson goodnight, and when it is my turn to put him to bed, Adam lingers around just so he can make sure he gets that goodnight kiss. You may not know this, but Adam is tall. He has the unfair benefit of being able to lean over the crib and kiss John Dickson who is all tucked in and laying down. I, on the other hand, cannot. So the other day, I lowered the railing just to sneak in a kiss, and this is what Adam says to me... dead serious... "Hey, that's our thing! You can't steal it!" There are no words.

We have a lot more fun stories, but it's naptime, and the only time I have to clean the floors... so until next time, remember to watch The Bachelorette finale tomorrow night!!!!

Fun facts

I actually don't mind all that much when I have to go to the doctor, get my oil changed, or wait on a prescription. What I see is a great opportunity to sit by myself and read magazines that I would otherwise only see at maybe my sister's house. I'm mainly talking about Real Simple, and this post is piggy backed from the numbers page in every Real Simple. Some fun facts about our lives lately:

6: Paint samples I slapped up on the bathroom walls
3: Times now that I have seen the music video "Rockin' the Beer Gut"
25: Snake eggs my husband is currently extracting from a big fat dead snake (A day in the life...)
0: Days off I have left
15: Minutes John Dickson's tantrum lasted when I didn't get his banana cut up fast enough yesterday
4: Times we have been to the zoo in the past 4 weeks (Thanks Aunt Ash!)
2: Times we will have been to the zoo within 24 hours (Thanks Aunt Ash!)
57: Days until my sister ties the knot
3 again: Days until we find out if we will have a niece or nephew
11: Times I have run/walked 3 miles since I have been off
5: Number of Ks I want to run in October (anyone?)
60: Cookies I baked last night

Ok, that is maybe enough. Let's talk about how cute John Dickson is. The explosively happy running picture here is John Dickson spotting a steering wheel at the playground. The other pictures are John Dickson hanging out with our neighbor, Briley, who is 5. She adores John Dickson and he really likes her too. Briley is quick to stroke John Dickson on the arm and ask him what's wrong if he starts to fuss, and to try to make him feel better when she thinks he is upset (which is when he is actually going happy nuts). We had to pick up John Dickson from daycare today on our way to the zoo and Briley just kept saying that she couldn't wait to see John Dickson. TOO SWEET. Briley's grandma was talking to me about potty training and when Briley's first success was, and I asked how old she was... to which Briley responded that she was 9 weeks old. How funny are kids? Makes me excited for when John Dickson starts talking.

Proud moments

I have been so proud of both of my boys lately! As I sit here typing, I can hear Adam secretly watching Bobby Flay in the next room, and it makes me beam. He also used his handy man skills to install a new light fixture in our new bathroom. I thought about doing it myself, but remembered the warning I received from my dad after my last light installation attempt - "Good job, but never do that again." As soon as we get the mirror on the wall, I'll put up a picture or two. It's like a whole new room!

Moving on to the littlest Kelley... let me just tell you... that little boy LOVES him some Wipeout!!! He normally goes to bed around 7:30 or so, and almost always by 8, but tonight he didn't quite make it in there before Wipeout started. If you watch, then you know the first part is absolutely the funniest, and is the only part that includes the big balls. If you don't watch, well, shame on you! So we decided he could wait until the first commercial break. That little guy sat on the couch between the two of us, and did not so much as blink, I dont think, until the commercial break. It was so sweet, we decided to let him go to yet another commercial break, and still yet another. He would run around until the show came back on, and then resume his seat on the couch. And he also enjoyed talking to the contestants.

The littlest Kelley also surprised and pleased me tonight when he downed... wait for it... rutabagas! Im serious! I cooked up some mashed rutabagas, and John Dickson could not get enough. Adam and I love just about any vegetables, but we were not big fans of this. John Dickson was a different story!

John Dickson also decided to nix his nap at daycare today, and actually ran around the room waking up the other kids. This was what I expected 2 months ago, but it didn't happen until today. This was maybe not a proud moment.

If you read the stats about John Dickson's 15 month checkup, then you know that he is growing like a weed. What you maybe did not know is that his feet are growing like something that is... much faster than a weed. In March John Dickson wore a size 3. Now, in the first week of July, John Dickson is wearing a size 6. Check it out!





Obviously those are Adam's shoes, but his feet really have grown 3 sizes in 3 months. You should see him toddle around the house in his grown up shoes - he can really do it!

Pool pictures

Ok, so something about the way this blog seems to format itself has changed, and I have spent more time fighting with it than I have actually getting posts up. If anyone knows how to keep the blog but have it under a different umm... thing (whatever you would call it), let me know PLEASE. In the meantime, here are some pool pictures, sans captions. John Dickson did very well in the water, and neither loved nor hated it. Until he was done, and then he hated it :-) He hung out a little bit in his float, and he enjoyed playing with a little measuring cup. He tolerated his float, but not for long. Fortunately, the baby float was put to good use all day by Grumps. John Dickson definitely preferred pool Daddy to pool Mommy, which was actually fun for me to see. He especially liked playing his fun game of "fill the bird bath one cup full at a time." He had a great time swimming with Mimi and we are so grateful she let us use her pool for this fun milestone!

As promised... haircut uno

There is this place in Greenville called Snip-its that exclusively cuts kids hair. They have puzzles and movies while you wait, and then each chair has its own tv, bubbles, and a jar of treats. John Dickson's "stylist" was extra nice and let John Dickson have half her jar of animal crackers. Little man did really well during the whole haircut until the razor came out for the back of his neck. He really didn't like that... the bottom of the back is somewhat crooked, but its about as good as I could have hoped for with John Dickson. I was amazed he was as still as he was. But I don't have to tell you how much that little guy loves his food, and so the animal crackers worked like a charm. While we waited on Adam to get off work to attend the haircutting festivities, John Dickson and I went to Cleveland Park, and I thought this static hair picture was the perfect farewell to John Dickson's long locks.

The before:














The wait:
















The main event:



















The result:


Stylish, no?











The real result:



What a STUD!!!!

15 month checkup

As usual, I could not remember what time John Dickson's appointment with the pediatrician was today, and as usual, I waited until they opened (9:00) this morning to call and find out. And as usual, his appointment was at 9:20. And it is 30 minutes away. But once we got past that part, his visit went pretty well. Here are the highlights:

1. Weight 24 lbs 1 oz. (46th percentile)
2. Height 32 inches (77th percentile and officially more than half as tall as his mom)
3. Head - I dont know, but it was the 88th!!! We are definitely just a family of bobble heads. Bear included.
4. If John Dickson does not have some serious words by his next appointment in 3 months, he will be referred for a speech consultation.
5. There was a shot involved today, and this time it was done while John Dickson sat beside the sink playing with the running water. There was no screaming or tears. (Insert happy dance here)
6. John Dickson got some bad news. His pediatrician believes he is ready for, and recommends... dun dun dun... timeout. She suggested using the pack 'n play. John Dickson wants Granna and Papa to know he has loved his pack 'n play and thanks them for their generosity, but he respectfully requests that they take it back. And quickly. Dr Greene thinks timeout is a good solution to both biting and trying to retrieve the 409.
7. While I was talking to the doctor, John Dickson literally tried to pull my collar bones out. Literally. I don't know what he thought they were or what he was planning on doing with them...

And in other medical "news", John Dickson's toenail FINALLY fell off yesterday after 2 1/2 months. He has also been trying Zyrtec lately and it seems to be working very well for his ever runny nose, so it looks like he might keep that up.

I haven't forgotten about the pool pictures, but they aren't on this computer. Also stay tuned for first haircut pictures. It's going down this afternoon if that little man ever wakes up!

4th of July - Part II

Also at the end of the parade was a firetruck of which John Dickson got to sit up in. He wasn't overly thrilled about that... but that doesn't mean he won't be a fireman one day... check him out in the boots.


















After the parade, John Dickson took his first dip in the big pool! I promise those pictures are coming up next, but before they do, I have dinner to make and 2 hungry boys to feed!

4th of July - Part I

John Dickson
I am told on a regular basis that I could have spit that kid out of my mouth, a saying I have never understood... how exactly would that make a child look more like his mom than the uh, other way? ANYWAY... he has my eyes, my hair (type, not color), my mouth, my coloring, elements of my personality that some would call "temper and stubborness" (I know, its crazy talk), my big ole mouth, and it does appear he just might have some Propst stunted growth in him. There is no question who his mom is. How then, exactly, would one know for sure who his dad is? Other than the eye color and hair color, you would just have to see him eat, of course! I am proud to present (but not quite as proud as his Daddy), John Dickson with his very first ear of corn.
















And the finished product... keep in mind that this is only one side of it.
















We had a blast on the 4th. John Dickson got to participate in his very first parade! He brought up the tail end of the new whitehall parade. At the end of the parade he got to dig in to some Dunkin Donuts munchkins.









Remind you of anyone?

2 posts in 1 week!

You'll have to forgive the formatting for this post... It's blog (1), Amanda (0).

My old college roommate Leslie came to visit yesterday, along with my dear friend Jessica. We just hung out downtown and got some lunch. Jessica, as always, came armed with her latest find from Janie and Jack (my baby clothes obsession store). Adam and I have decided John Dickson is a terrible judge of character, as he gave Jessica a hard time this trip, and Leslie a hard time last time she came. And of course there was the LONG warming to process with my dad. He'll get there eventually, though. The best part of the whole visit was maybe the puppy John Dickson temporarily adopted. Leslie brought her little mixed breed that I wont attempt to spell. She is maybe 8 pounds? And John Dickson walked her on her leash all over the house and in the yard, instructing her to "come", which was more of an urgent "eh". That dog entertained him for about an hour, no kidding.

Skunk friend from last post:

Aaaand John Dickson playing with some mailing labels.