Ok..so, technically, Kael’s first birthday isn’t until Tomorrow (the 16th), but we had his party yesterday…

And of course, he made a haul when it came to the goodies! When our lease is up, we’re going to have to move to a bigger apartment..not because we don’t like it where we are, or anything like that…but because Kael has got to much stuff!

He got a ton of Elmo stuff, more Little People, Clothes, Mega-Blocks, and pretty much anything a baby could want for his Birthday.

He finally got his first taste of cake.. we’ve been making him wait until his birthday to have any (Yes, I know..we’re such mean parents!). And compared to some of the 1st birthday babies I’ve seen eat in the last month.. he came out pretty clean (at least, his skin wasn’t dyed for 2 days like some babies). Of course..the big surprise, is that Kael made it a full year, with 2 parents who had no clue what they were doing when he showed up! If babies are like marriage, and the 1st year is the hardest..its all downhill from here!

After the last week…I think we’ll skip Kael’s birthday next year…its alot of work throwing a party for a 1 year old..

Video from the party is here . (Requires Quicktime (DUH!)) – Still working on getting all the still pictures into iPhoto so we can get them posted.. probably wait until we get some pictures from his ‘real’ birthday (and maybe his first haircut) on Monday/Tuesday before I upload those.

Kael has been cruising around while holding on to something for awhile now, with the occasional step by himself.

Yesterday and today, he really started taking off on his own. We caught some of it on tape, ran it through iMovie.. and its now up for public consumption. I suppose this means our relatively ‘calm’ days of Kael only being able to crawl from point A to point B (and everywhere else he decides to go) are gone…. On the plus side, since he can crawl much faster then he can walk (for now), he’s still more apt to crawl over, under, and through whatever gets in his way, then he is to walk around it.

Movie is here. if you don’t have QT, you won’t see anything.. click here to get it (free download from Apple)

Monday Kael started swim lessons

Granted..he’s not going to be an Olympic swimmer when he’s done with the 3 weeks of lessons..but, it does get him used to the water, and prevents him from being scared of it. The class he’s enrolled in is for kids from 6 months, to 3 years… which Janice and I both think is just to huge of an age grouping, especially since its strictly enforced.. so, if we keep taking Kael…by the time he’s 3, he’ll be really bored with the stuff they do in this class. Kael has fun.. his swim instructor is a woman, which of course, means that Kael starts showing off for her whenever she comes over to look and see how he’s doing..Which Janice was able to snap a picture of. The rest of them can be seen by looking at the Swim Lessons photo album from our homepage

Ok..so Memorial Day was Monday.. and I’m just now getting a chance to blog about it

Its been one of those weeks so far… oh well..

We took Kael to his first Memorial day BBQ on Sunday, and he had a blast. He was crawling around, getting into all kinds of trouble. The hit of the party, he had everyone paying attention to him, which is how he likes it. I think the highlight of the day, was watching Kael eat a rib:

He pretty much devoured the whole thing. Fortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot of BBQ sauce on the rib.. so he wasn’t a complete mess when he finished.

He’s had a pretty big week to…he’s started doing all kinds of new things this past week or so. We took him to the pool, to try and get him used to the water before his swim lessons in a few weeks.. I’ll post pictures of that tonight on the ‘normal’ homepage…he’s started opening and closing doors pretty regularly (guess its time to baby proof the doors), he’s pointing at things that he wants.. and generally just making us think he’s the smartest baby there is! (which of course…he is… right?)

Kael’s been able to stand while holding on to something for awhile now (pretty much since he started to crawl)

Yesterday though.. he started to stand all on his own. He’ll pull himself up on something (the couch, our legs, a wall, the dog.. whatevers handy) and then let go.. the longest that we’ve seen him standing by himself for, so far, has been about 10 seconds..

This morning, he stood up, and then applauded himself… right until he toppled over. I’m sure it won’t be to much longer now, before the little guy is standing all the time, and walking…

Kael turned 9 Months old Yesterday..

So today, Janice and I took him to the Dr.’s office for his 9 month checkup. Dr. G says he’s doing great, and called Kael a showoff… He is officially in excellent health….

After the Dr.’s office, we took him to the Zoo (Kael and I were going to take Janice for Mother’s Day..but apparently, everyone else in Denver had the same idea..so we went today). You can view the pictures of Kael’s trip to the Zoo here.

Here’s my most recent pick for ‘future embarrassment material’ to use when Kael starts dating…

As everyone knows, this past Sunday was Mother’s day

And obviously, in addition to it being Kael’s first Mother’s day, it was Janice’s first mother’s day as a Mother. To celebrate, Kael and I made breakfast. After breakfast, we were going to take Janice to the zoo, and spend most of the day there. However, apparently everyone in Denver had the same idea about taking their wife/mother/whoever to the zoo… because we drove in circles for almost an hour looking for a parking space before we gave up. Who would have thought that the zoo would be a popular Mother’s Day destination?

There comes a time in every kids life when he gets introduced to Star Wars

Granted, Kael’s already seen episodes I and II a few times (He has to wait till September to see the original trilogy.. I don’t want our VCR to munch my tapes.. and since its a Wal-Mart special.. it probably would). The other day, Kael apparently realized, he’s not alone in his bedroom….

But really, I’m not sure if trying to pull on a Jedi Master’s ear is the best way to introduce yourself to him…

Super K’s babbling has started to sound like real words..

Kael has been babbling for awhile now. But for the last week or so, it really sounds like he’s talking. For example, Sunday when we were dying Easter eggs. Janice and I were talking to him, and telling him what we were going to do. We said something along the lines of “Are you having fun?” and his response sounded like he said “I’m done”. Last night, I was talking to Janice on the phone, and Kael was babbling in the background. She handed the phone to him, and he said “Hi Dad”.

Granted.. we know he’s just making noise and putting sounds together…and he’s not really talking yet….but.. its funny how much his babbling sounds like real conversation and how much it sounds like he’s answering or talking correctly for whatevers going on!

Yesterday was Easter…and it was Kael’s first one

He got a basketful of goodies, along with a few toys. His face broke into a huge grin when he saw his pile of goodies. The pictures we took are available here . One of our favorite pictures from the day is this one:

Bunnicula!

All in all Super-K seems to have enjoyed his first Easter!