It's Kellen's First Blog!!! BLOGTASTIC!

What kind of baby doesn't have a blog??? P'SHAW! Not MY baby! Seriously, people, have you MET me? Sure, I could be cleaning or doing something productive...but I happen to think this is VERY productive. It's a diary for Kellen. He just fascinates me (us) every day with the things he does, and I really would love to have them recorded for posterity and also allow everyone else to rejoice in his growth as well.

So, let's get this out of the way... I really am blessed beyond words to have the best husband and baby boy on the face of this earth. Sure, we have our days where we frustrated about stupid stuff, usually money-related, but I think we are on the right path in THAT respect now...thanks to my Aunt Ida. She sat down with me for hours last night and we worked on our finances. When Patrick came home from work, I gave him the wonderful news that we HAVE to go on a money diet. He was very agreeable, and I showed him the hard numbers in black and white. Fortunately, we can pay off bills in a short amount of time, say...a year...and be in an excellent position to buy a house (finally). Needless to say, having a baby is slightly more expensive than NOT having a baby. And we are in NO rush to ADD to that expense! I never say never, but neither of us see another offspring in the future at this point. I do want to see how I feel after Kellen turns one...that may ALL change!!

But, despite the money diet...I am about as blissfully happy as I've ever been. There's nothing like the love of a GOOD man and a CUTE baby! I still have single friends or friends without children, and I just want to say to them...it really is AWESOME!! Having a child is all that sappy stuff you usually hear; you just never get it until it happens to you. All of a sudden my life has the most meaning it's ever had. Hell, my life is BURSTING at the seams with so much meaning...I can't even define it. (What that means, I have no idea) I really have very little desire to go out to bars like I used to...the whole time I'm thinking of Kellen. Yes, I am THAT girl now. It's awesome! Thank you God!!

So, really, enough about me. Let's talk about booger-face. No, really, he is a booger-face...especially in the morning. Especially yesterday! That boy has a constant stream of clear snot coming out of his cute nose. He really has had the snots for a WHILE. Probably a good two months. The snot ebbs and flows, and currently it is in the *flow* state. I was able to put the snot sucker away for a bit, now we're gonna have to pull it out again. I really can't wait until all this congestion goes AWAY!! The big debate is whether it's allergies or colds. The nurse practitioner told me that it's probably a cold, since he's in daycare. I've been really thinking it seems like allergies. WHY do I think it's allergies? Well...Patrick and I both have hay fever and mild to moderate allergies. My skin, especially, tends to react allergically to certain lotions, soaps, tapes. It's annoying as hell. Kellen, himself, has had baby eczema since he was weeks old. I have to put Eucerin on his face and behind his ears and he scratches the HELL out of his face and ears to the point of drawing blood. Not pretty. I've also noticed that you can see a very faint rash all over his chest and back (in good lighting). I just changed to All liquid detergent (it was a lot cheaper) from Gain, so I wonder if that's the culprit. (???) I've been reading, if a baby has eczema, they are more likely to have allergies to other things. So, there's my rationale.

Bottom line, I don't want poor Kellen to suffer! For now, I'm just going to continue using the Eucerin cream...it seems to work miracles and clears up the eczema on his precious face.

Eating is the other big thing...I have started feeding him pureed vegetables from Gerber. He's had green beans, peas, and now we are on squash. He loves it all! The trick is feeding him without getting it EVERYWHERE. Aunt Ida noticed that it's much easier to keep him clean when you hold him in your lap and feed him. I usually feed him in the Bumbo chair, because it allows me mobility. But then he's grabbing the spoon to put into his mouth, and he's getting pureed goodness all over the place. His thing lately is also to grab the bottle to put into his mouth, and he also grabs cups and puts them in his mouth...CORRECTLY! He looks like a tiny baby drinking from an adult cup...it's hilarious! We were told it's time to get him a sippy cup to start playing with and learning to use. Yesterday he was fussy, so I put 2 oz of filtered water in his bottle and just gave it to him. He grabbed the bottle and put it into his mouth like a 2 year old. It was amazing! He's so smart!

The only thing, though, he's not babbling as much as I'd like. He still just says "Ahhh, ehhh..." or any vowel sounds. He doesn't do the "Mmmah mmah duh duh" thing. Every once in a great while he'll make a "mmm" or "ddd" sound. He DOES seem to like to make sounds with the spit in his mouth! And I just love listening to him while we're in the car. I'll turn the radio completely off so I can listen to him go "ooooh" and "ahhhh" in the back seat...Kellen singing to me is WAY better than any Imogen Heap song. (Even better than NIN...sorry Renee!!)

On the crawling/mobility front...yesterday we noticed that he can get himself up on all fours! But that's it. He rolls around, does his Superman impression (a lot), and gets on his hands and knees. I'm thinking he's REALLY close to crawling! YIKES!

So, that's about it for our first blog... Hopefully I won't go a month before posting again. It feels absolutely decadent to sit here and type while Patrick has Kellen out grocery shopping!!!