Sisters!

Matt and I never really care about what gender child we get. Each time we are happy with boy or girl. There are so many benefits from what we see to each gender. When we were pregnant with Keegan, one of those many benefits of having a girl would be that MacKenzie would have a sister so close in age to her. I can admit that some part of me hoped that if I had a girl at some point that I would want another girl so there could be sisters. My sister and I did NOT get along very well as kids. For whatever reason it was just a fact, but now I rather enjoy my sister and look forward to the little time I do get to spend with her. This was huge in me hoping that at some point I might get to raise sisters. 

As siblings/sisters it is fun to watch them bond. It is fun to watch MacKenzie run after Keegan and say "No Keegan, give me a hug, give me a kiss!". It is fun to watch Keegan slyly take one of MacKenzie's toys, shriek with delight when she succeeds, then crawl or run away as fast as she can. It is fun to watch Keegan "help" Daddy give MacKenzie a bath by rubbing her back in the bathtub. It is fun to listen to the girls on the monitor as MacKenzie gives Keegan every single stuffed animal in their room while Keegan is trying to sleep in her crib.

They already fight and get mad at each other, they are already so different, but still I am so glad they have one another. I am so happy to be their Mommy and look forward to them both being Big Sisters to the new baby- Baby Raptor due this fall. 

Update on Keegan

Keegan,

So sorry for the delay, here is a very big update just for you!!!

You began walking right around Mommy's birthday when you were exactly 13 months old. I think it is funny that you are hitting milestones at almost the exact same time your sister did. We will think you are just behind or just ahead of her and then look back and you are exactly on track. You started walking with  pretty large gait to make sure you were strong and steady. It was so cute to see your thighs and ankle rolls help support you on your little flat feet. You have now progressed into a very good walker. You almost seem to jog sometimes and will definitely march and try to hop along with your sister. You are mastering the spin move when dancing right now and I think you are pleased that you can add this movement to your wild dance movements. You are definitely an active and ferocious baby...scratch that...tot! You like to play what we call "Up down". All evening long you want up the couch, down the couch, walk around the couch, sit on the floor, stand by the toy box, up the couch, down the couch...repeat. We really should not be surprised, you moved a ton in my belly and we loved watching all of your movement from the outside. Why should it be any different now that you are here in the wide open world? 

You are still a sleeper. If allowed you will sleep from 8:30 to 8:30 and from 12:30 to 5 or later and if it is raining it will be very hard to wake you up. You still sleep with your middle and ring finger firmly planted in your mouth. Some nights you suck on them so hard you get little blisters from your teeth at the base of your fingers. Mommy thinks it is funny because sometimes you either talk in your sleep or will wake up for a few minutes then go back to sleep on your own. Daddy sometimes gets tricked by this and will go get you up from your nap...we pay for that later on when you are super tired!

You are a good strong eater. You like many different kinds of food and are trying to master a spoon or a fork, but because your skill level cannot keep up with the rate at which you want to shovel food into your mouth, you usually just hold the utensil in one hand and use the other hand to grab handfuls to shove into your mouth. You will eat almost anything and are very observant of what other people have to eat in comparison to you. You will make it known (usually with a loud, banshee style screech) if you feel you are being wronged and not given your fair share. All the foods that you were showing an aversion to you will now eat with the exception of eggs (egg-ception). Those are still hit or miss for you, but you are not seeming to break out too much when you eat them which is a good sign.

There are so many things you love to do, walk around outside, play catch with the ball, get tickled by animals, read Touch and Feel books, swing in the swingset, and in general just watch what everyone else is doing. You love to investigate and observe everything. We like watching when something falls under the couch. You will crouch down as low as you can, look for it, and say "uh-oh" with pursed lips. 

Your vocabulary (both spoken and signed) is increasing tremendously. You will sign and say "please", "more", "dog", "cat", "book", "bird" and "ball". You will sign "thank you", "airplane", "bread", "cracker", "milk", "food", and "penguin". You make the sounds for many different animals like dog, cat, monkey, tiger, elephant, sheep, cow, and bird. You will point out door, floor, wall, fan, Mommy, Daddy, and MacKenzie. You also say your own version of all of those words and will also say "baby". Lately you have been pointing to your diaper in dismay and saying "poopoo" if you want us to change it. It is funny to watch what you pick up on from us and what you pick up on from your sister. Daddy and I both feel that we need to pour a lot of time into teaching you new words right now because you are drinking it all up. 

We are really loving spending time with you and getting to know you as your own unique individual. We cannot wait to see who you become over the next few weeks alone because you are changing so fast. We love you endlessly!

Mommy and Daddy

Update on Mac

MacKenzie,

As you may have noticed, the updates on you and your sister kind of flew out the window. Mommy got just a teeny tiny bit overwhelmed at some point over the past few months and one of the first things that suffered was updating the blog world (and you gals one day when you hopefully look back on this) about your progress. But here will be an update and I WILL do better, even if it is short little posts here and there!

Mac you are so stinking smart it is not even funny. We love teaching you all sorts of random facts because you soak it up like a sponge. And you seem to love knowing these things too, on the monitor in the morning, we hear you quizzing yourself on the knowledge that you know. You know Mommy and Daddy's names, our last name, what street we live on, what state we live in, who the leader of our country is, where he lives, and the name of his plane. You are doing great with identifying your lower case letters, you are starting to identify numbers, you know how to spell the first part of your name (M-A-C-K), and you will identify the most random things for us (mallard vs pekin duck, different types of trees, and many other things). We marvel at how quickly you catch on to things and how readily you perform for us in showing us your intelligence. Mommy really hopes to work a lot with you this summer and beyond to take advantage of how smart you are. Daddy likes to teach you spanish during bath time so you know several spanish words as well. We just might make you trilingual (ASL, Spanish, and English of course) before you know it!

Your eating and sleeping habits are good. We can tell when you are going through a big growth spurt because you will eat tons of food and if you aren't then you usually just have a few bites here and there and are full. You love all kinds of breakfast foods and we try to make sure you get a good breakfast so that it doesn't really matter what you eat for the rest of the day as long as we can get you to eat some fruit and veggies in the process. You love eggs and would eat two or three eggs for breakfast if we let you. You have a huge fondness for hot dogs and spaghetti (long noodles that you twirl as best you can) at the moment. You also really like salad with extra onions and will often times pick all of the onions out to eat those alone. If we have a sweet treat for dessert you are usually satisfied with a few bites so we try to encourage you to "listen" to your body the way you seem to naturally do. As far as sleeping goes you will usually sleep from 8:30 to 7:30 and in the morning will play in your room for an hour if we are able to let you. Your naps are hit and miss but you will go to your room around 1 and either sleep or play by yourself for 3 hours or so. 

You still love books and really like to read and re-read the Higlights magazine that MiMi and PawPaw got you the subscription to for Christmas. You also like your Sesame Street and Elmo books a lot. You will gladly sit and let us read anything to you, I wonder if you would let Daddy read his school books to you. You have been getting extra snuggly when reading lately as well. You will cuddle up and curl into our laps while looking intently on each page. Mommy has noticed that you are also content to sit near us or on our laps and just "hang out" more lately. You like to look around and simply talk about different things. It has been neat to just spend time getting to know what you are interested in. You love to play outside and go swimming. You also love to ride in Daddy's truck. KiKi was taking you somewhere one day and she said that as soon as she put you in the car you said, "Roll the windows down. Turn the music on. Go fast!" We think we might be in trouble years down the road. You love when Daddy accelerates the car or truck and think it's funny when we hit a "big bump" in the road. You also really love music, but you are funny about it. You do not like when Mommy or Daddy sings along to the radio, but do like when we sing without the radio. Your favorite songs for us to sing are "America the beautiful", "The Star Spangled Banner", the "Spirit song" which is what you call "The Spirit of Aggieland" and the "Aggie song" which is what you call the Aggie Fight Song. You also like Little Bunny Foo-foo and all the other typical kid songs too!

You are super helpful around the house and we try to remember to let you set the table and to clear your plate for dinner or other meals at the table. I think this summer we might have you "make your bed"- you don't sleep with a comforter so we might just have you fold your blankie and put your stuffed animal away and I think we can start getting you to do the silverware from the dishwasher to the drawer. You love to help us cook, especially stirring things, and you especially like when we "pop the eggs" which is what you call it when we crack the eggs. You have started "disciplining" your sister and will say "Oh my gosh (or God)" when she drops something...apparently you listen to Mommy really well. You will then tell her "No Keegan! That is naughty". You alternate between being sweet to her and bullying her around, but I know a good sister relationship is forming. You also say some of the sweetest things to us. One day you put one hand on either side of my face and said "Mama, I'm so proud of you", Mommy only choked up a little bit! 

I hope this serves as a pretty good update. We are so pleased with who you are and who you are becoming. We hope you continue to work hard so you can tell yourself "I did it!" which is something we hear often after your struggle. We love you more and more each day!

Mommy and Daddy

Carenet Walk for Life 2012

On April 14, MacKenzie, Keegan, and I will be walking in the Carenet Walk for Life. More accurately they will be strolling and I will be huffing and puffing to push them the two miles. We are walking on behalf of a great organization that provides love and on going support with Moms and Dads who are faced with unexpected pregnancies. The Organization gives some basic health services, counseling, classes, and resources regardless of making the decision to parent or the choice for adoption. I am so excited and honored to continue to Walk for life. I wish there were more organizations out there so people were able to feel this love and support in a difficult decision making time. If you would like to find out more, please follow this linkhttp://www.ministrysync.com/event/website/home/?e=3896 . You can also donate to our specific page by searching for my name. Thanks in advance!

Proof of Life- Not because we choose for it to be alive, but because it is alive!

MacKenzie

Keegan

Keegan Joy is a Year old!!!

Keegan,

365 days ago we were just meeting you. By about now we had probably just decided on your name and had just fed you for the first time. You were probably getting ready for your first bath (and you needed it, your little two week early body was covered in cheese-y vernix) and Mommy was probably laying, a little shocked, but so very happy at seeing your sweet face. I think Daddy was in a little bit of shock too as the realization that he had two daughters was starting to settle in. I remember looking at your sweet face and thinking how much you looked like MacKenzie (which I don't think now at all). I was so happy you were here with us. Your labor and delivery was amazing and I was so happy to stroke your soft skin, look at your fuzzy hair, and kiss your little lips. We feel we picked a very good name for you, Keegan Joy. You are definitely a little fierce one like your first name means, you have a shriek and a temper that rises from deep within you sometimes. However, you are such a joy and you make us so happy that any of your fierceness gets outweighed by how simply happy you make us. I feel so confident as a mommy after raising you for the past year, in fact, I feel more confident overall. I was so worried about doing everything "perfect" with MacKenzie and worrying about every little thing, with you I feel like I was able to relax and simply enjoy the person you are.

You have changed incredibly over the past year, but also over the past month. You crawl like you are racing to keep up with anyone and everyone, you will get mad if you aren't being picked up when you feel you deserve it, and you are getting closer and closer to walking on your own. You will take quick steps when we are holding your hands, but will only fall forward when we try to get you to walk on your own. You love to stand more and more and will go from sitting to standing without holding anything now. You are also bobbing and bouncing to music regardless of sitting or standing, which is not only cute, but also helps with balance and stability training. You also constantly try to climb and we often see you hiking your leg up to try and climb on furniture that isn't even remotely low enough for you to get up. We found out you can climb stairs though when we were at a friends house and turned around to find you half way up their stairs. We know it won't be too long before you are walking and running to keep up with your big sister.

You are learning more signs and words. Mommy wishes we had more time to teach you, but you catch on quickly. You sign more, milk, fan, and book. You will also say Mama, Dada, Buh (book) consistently. You will pant like a puppy dog when you see one or a picture of one, but also love other animals like cats, penguins, horses, and monkeys. You love to look at books with lots of bright pictures and animals. You will also "scratch" the book to see if it has texture or not. You have been very into pushing buttons on toys that make sound and like to get into electronics (toy or not). This has led to a lot of "no" on Mommy's part. Your Grammy Kiki got you your very own stuffed puppy dog for your birthday and you are already gaga over the puppy.

You love to eat and will eat anything we give you. You eat three meals a day (whatever we eat) and drink two bottles and two nursings a day. You are still not fond of bananas, but I did catch you eating the peel the other day. You love bread, tortillas, and any kind of meat or protein. You also really like strawberries and madarin oranges. Mommy tried to give you eggs the other day, but you got a slight iratation around the mouth so you may be allergic. Mommy will stop one of your nursings (replacing with a bottle) tomorrow, but you will continue to get night time nursing for a bit longer. No need to stop yet and Mommy likes the special time with you. You are usually taking two naps a day and sleeping for 10-12 hours at night.

I love that you are developing your own sense of humor and really enjoying observing things. You will find things that we say or do funny and will scrunch up your nose and face to laugh with us. You love flashing your two bottom teeth at us and you are slowly (and painfully from your screeching) getting those top two teeth ready to flash at us too.

Keegan, we love you so much and love the little person you are becoming. We cannot imagine life without you even though it seems like such a short time we started on this journey. We look forward to another year and many more after that being honored and humbled by your presence.

All of our love,
Mommy and Daddy

P.S. Few pictures, will post more soon!

What I wish I could tell...

There is a video going around titled "What I wish I could tell the 16 year old me". In it, several people talk about what they wish they could tell themselves at 16 and it ends specifically with cancer awareness. I have been thinking a lot about what I wish I could tell the 16 year old version of myself lately...

Relax. In some areas of your life you are stressing too much about doing it all and making sure that you are perfect. You may not be "perfect", but you are pretty darn good. You are healthy, you are brilliant, and you are a good person. So take a deep breath and enjoy yourself from time to time. The only people that matter think highly of you so take a few risks and be a teenager. When you go to dances...dance! When you meet new people, smile and initiate conversation. Yes, I know you are friendly and cordial, but take the first step and show some initiative!!! Ask to go out with friends sometimes too!

Work harder! I know this seems counterintuitive considering I just told you to relax, but above was about letting your hair down once in awhile. Working harder is about two specific areas-the classes you should probably be studying for and basketball. School comes really easy to you and that is great, but you are going to take AP Anatomy your senior year and while you breeze by with a B, you need to learn to study. Take this opportunity in high school to learn how to apply yourself in a class you don't really care all that much about. It will serve you well when you have to learn new things in college. As far as basketball goes, you are doing a great job on moves and actually playing. Push yourself in strength training and conditioning, I promise that you won't die! Your senior year you are going to want to quit...listen to your mom when she tells you no...she is right and it is good that you finish out the season. You WILL miss playing basketball one day!

It is ok that you never seem to catch the eye of any of the boys you like. It is even more ok that you won't be able to go to prom with either of the guys you want to take you. Very soon you will meet the man that changes your life. In fact, when you go to A & M, run as quickly as you can to meet him at your work so that your lives together can start sooner! He is so worth it. Your marriage has been a brilliant balance of tough times, hard work, and enjoyable and amazing memories. You both challenge each other and work side by side to make your relationship work. And he has made you happy beyond anything you could have ever imagined you deserved in raising your girls together. Sure, it would have been nice to "date" some of those high school boys, but your life is no less rich because it didn't happen. And since you don't end up with them anyways, don't stress about prom. Have a good time with your friends because that is what prom is supposed to be.

You will achieve you goal of being a high school history teacher. Yay for you! I hesitate to tell you that it might not be what you want when you get there. It has been great and rewarding, but really, really hard too. You are a really good teacher, but there are other jobs pulling at your heart later in life. I say, still go for it! I tell you this because I want you to know that it is ok if you don't have it all figured out right now. Coming from the 27 year old version of yourself, you still won't have it all figured out!!!

Keep being passionate! The issues you care about in high school are the same issues you will care about later in life. The interests you have in high school are the same interests too! You throw yourself so completely into things you care about and that is a good thing. People will even start looking to you for information about the things they know you care about and that is a really good feeling! You are smart at 16 and will be able to communicate that even better as you get older.

You are doing a great job with maintaining and putting yourself out their in friend and family relationships. Sometimes it doesn't seem like it is worth the effort, but it is. Keep working to build bridges with those you love, people will cross the bridges in time. Treasure the times spent at home on Saturday nights with your family, enjoy going to football games with friends, and delight in the time with classmates, teammates, and teachers at school. Some of these relationships will serve you well later in life.

Overall, 16 year old self, you are amazing. I am so glad to know where you are going because 27 is a pretty amazing place to be. Your life sort of turns out the way you want and sort of doesn't. But you are pretty blessed and you deserve good things!

Keegan at 11 months

Keegan,

Today you are 11 months. I am stunned that you will be a year in just a month. Your little face is such a core part of our little family that it is hard to remember a time you weren't with us, but at the same time, it feels like just yesterday you were kicking away happily in my belly.

This month has marked some big changes for you. You have advanced a lot on moving and scootching around the furniture, you hate sitting down for too long and would rather be standing with the assistance of anything. You are really close to standing up on your own and will let go and stand unassisted for a few seconds at a time (started that last week). You crawl like a little speed demon around the house and try desperately to keep up with MacKenzie who prefers to run away screaming "Nee-nan's coming, Nee-nan's coming". You also like to bounce and sway to music if it is on the radio, a toy, or t.v.. You are still hesitant to walk too much when we hold your little hands, but I don't know that it will be that much longer before you are pushing off on your own. You have also learned to throw your hands in the air and say "Aaaaaa" whenever we tell you to say Yay! You will sometimes clap when we say "clap, clap" and you will shake your head no when we tell you no. Mommy has even caught you shaking your head "no" when you know you are about to do something wrong! You have started signing a bit more by asking for milk, more, and it seems like you will sign yes and book. You also will wave Hello and Goodbye. You will verbalize Mama, Dada, and buh for book and will "pant" when we ask you what a doggy says (just like we taught MacKenzie to do). All of these are such fun new discoveries for you and for us.

You love to sit and read books and have started bringing them to us when you can find one small enough to drag along with your crawling. You especially love the "touch and feel" books and will touch pages that aren't touch and feel anyways to see if there are any textures. You like to play with balls and stuffed animals and anything that anyone older is playing with. You also love to be tickled and will crawl away from us shrieking, then collapse onto the floor while looking back at us like "Ok, it is time for you to tickle me now". You love to interact with all of us in different ways and Daddy and I think it is very cute that you love your big sissy so much. You love to give her kisses at night after prayer time.

You sleep a ton and are still taking two long naps (and sometimes a short evening "siesta") and sleeping 12 hours at night. Your sister frequently wakes you up in the morning by throwing all of the stuffed animals and sometimes books into your crib with you. You don't seem to mind too much as long as we come get you in a timely manner to feed you. You eat really well, but we have discovered that there are some odd foods you don't like. Specifically, you do not like bananas or raisins. I cannot blame you, but it is strange for a child not to like bananas. You are also very particular about what you DO like and if you see something that Mommy, Daddy, or MacKenzie are eating that you don't have you will shake with frustration and sqwawk until you do get some to eat. You eat like a pig and are taking three meals and 4-5 nursing sessions or bottles. Right now you still just have your bottom teeth, but you have been working on cutting the top two for quite some time now.

Keegan you are so charming and cute that we cannot help but squeeze you everytime we get the chance. We love you so much and cannot wait to see where this month takes us. Raising you is truly a joy to us.

All of our love,

Mommy and Daddy

Here are a few pictures, I will post more soon!

You really liked corn on the cob at Spring Creek BBQ

Your very first sprout!

Look at those eating skills!!!