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