4 Years old!!

Keenan was completely pumped about his birthday this year, and kept asking when it was. This was the first time EVER that my cake has turned out.  I'm was actually pretty excited about the superman cake, so was Keenan.  The frosting is a marshmallow fondant which basically translates into playdoh for adults, it rolls out about the same way.  

Of course the birthday boy was wearing his superman cape!  I cut out lots of superhero masks for the kids to decorate.

Van showing off his crinkle nose pose.

A look at the commotion.

Keenan was SUPER excited to see Sara, his extra special girl, show up.  He was so afraid she wouldn't get her invitation, no one was home when we tried to deliver it so we had to tape it to the outside entrance to her apartment.

Me looking serious about something and the little kids lining up for cake.

Tamar, Zoya, Ava and Keenan all wanting me to hurry up and pass out cake!

Our neighbor Talia was exhausted by all the commotion and Eric seemed a good place to take a rest.

Keenan hugging on Sara

Keenan and Sara hamming it up for the camera

Van was pretty quiet during the party... I think he found the cheetos bowl, this picture doesn't really show it but his face was covered in food and filth.

Cheese! Our neighbor Ava

Where's Keenan??

So yesterday I took Van and our new neighbor to do a little shopping and show her (the neighbor) a different grocery store and home depot like store.  I admit we were taking our time.  We were just getting everything in the car and Van in his carseat to leave when I got a text from Eric reminding me that he had a football game and he needed to leave NOW and yes he'd tried to call me a few times but I apparently didn't hear it.  Ooops, bad wife!  As soon as I got home Eric jumped in his car and left but there was NO sign of Keenan.  In fact the house was eerily quiet, I started to panic a little bit. Surely Eric would have told me if Keenan was with a neighbor or outside playing.  Keenan finally answered one of my worried "KEENAN!" calls with a little giggle and let me know he was upstairs in his room.  So I got Van settled in his room since he fell asleep on the ride home then went to go say hi to Keenan only there was no sign of him in his room... or upstairs for that matter.  Back to panic mode.  Where did I find him?  Keenan has been finding great amusement in hiding under his bed and being super quiet so I lifted his bed skirt and this is what I found.

Keenan...

I was walking Keenan home from school the other day trying to engage him in conversation...

Me:  Keenan, what did you do in school today
Keenan:  Uhm, I don't know
Me:  You don't know?  Did you color? Did you play outside....
Keenan:  I DON'T KNOW!
Me:  Really? Did you read books?  Did you play with cars?
Keenan: (grabbing my hand and pulling me to face him)  MOM, I know I love you but sometimes you NEED to stop talking!!

I couldn't help it, he looked so soooo serious, with his eyebrows all scrunched together... I busted out laughing.
I often tell him when he's frustrating me "Keenan I love you but you're really frustrating me right now so you need to go play somewhere else".  

Keenan and Sara

This is Sara, she is Keenan main girl.  We found out not too long ago that she lives in our neighborhood so today we went over to her house to play.

 

 I love the way Sara is looking at Keenan in this picture... he's trying to look macho.

 Keenan claiming his girl.

 I thought he was going to kiss her but he didn't.

Van got to come too, he enjoyed the swing.  Yes, I know his hat is folded up funny but it's a little big and kept getting in his eyes.

 Van laughed and made lots of joyful sounds, I think you can see his excitement in his face.

more pictures

Van showing off his two teeth.  Yesterday I noticed another bottom tooth had broken through and it looks like a top front tooth will be making its appearance soon.

Love LOVE my little boy!  He continues to be a happy child, lots of smiles, giggles, babbling and happy shrieks.  He, however, does still refuse to take a bottle no matter what's in it.  So for now our outings without Van are limited to about 4 hours.

 Van thinking Dad is pretty funny.

 My boys

Keenan helping Dad make Van laugh.

The other night Eric was trying to get Keenan ready for bed and Keenan was just being a pill.  Eric was getting impatient and asks him "What are you doing" to which Keenan replied "just F@ckin' around"
Hmmmm... I'm pretty sure he got that one from Eric!

Keenan is starting to pick on the Slovene pretty good.  Our babysitter the other night told us that he was understanding quite a bit.   Keenan can sing a song in Slovene as well, it's pretty cute.  We'll try and get it on video soon.

Van is almost 6 months old.  He's starting to lift his butt up during tummy time so I suspect it won't be much longer until he's mobile.  Right now he does a little scooting around on his tummy but nothing serious.  I suppose this means we need to get the baby gates up on the stairs.

Lake Bled with Gramma and Grampa

Bled Castle

Picking up my parents from the airport was a bit of a challenge since they didn't arrive when they were supposed to.  I was a bit miffed, I had checked to make sure their flights were all on time and even arrived at the airport a bit early after dropping Keenan off at his first day of school.  Van and I waited oh so patiently while all the other passengers filed past us.  I finally asked the "lost and found" also the "help" desk for well, help.  They informed me that all the passengers had exited and no, they can't tell me any information about passengers.  I argued that they were lost and that they were the lost and found department, they sent me to another desk to plead my case.    I must have argued better because the lady finally told me that they were coming in on the next flight.  So home we went... bummer I then had free time to clean my house, so much for the I've been too busy excuse.

Keenan's first day of pre-school went well I picked him up a little after lunch and he was all smiles. He was pretty excited  to pick up Gramma and Grampa from the airport and bring them to his home.  He immediately put Grampa to work playing with his train set and what not.  I'm not sure that my Dad knew what was in store for him, he then got to see and tour three castles in three days then later stay in one in Italy.

Bled Castle 

1st Castle, Lake Bled.  Getting there proved to be a little tricky, we headed out after picking Keenan up from school Van then started screaming.  We pulled over and let him eat, this made him happy for all of the next 1 mile.  We pulled over again, I then just switched seats and made my mom drive so I could be next to Van.    After we got to the town of Bled I took over driving, the GPS was doing the navigating... it failed us! We ended up driving on a walking path to which many dirty looks were thrown our way.  OOPS!  We finally made it to the castle, Yeah!  Can you tell that Eric usually does most, oh wait, ALL the driving??  Too bad he was at work.

Keenan fell asleep so Grampa got to carry him around for a while

Keenan was fascinated by the sword in the wine cellar

  After looking around the castle and enjoying the beautiful views we made our way down to the town and took a boat to the church on the island.  Van slept peacefully during this part, Keenan was anything but peaceful.

Gramma and Grampa on boat ride to the church

inside of church

ringing the bell

bell tower

Keenan can only be a tourist for so long... he'd already reached the "enough" point

trying to amuse himself

Keeping me busy

I'm still adjusting to life with two kids, they manage to keep me on my toes.  Thankfully Van likes to watch Keenan play so he gets to do a lot of tummy time in the living room by his big brother.  Keenan decided to read him a book.

I caught Keenan upstairs the other day in Van's room with my breast pump on his chest.  I asked him what he was doing, he explained to me that he was helping me get Van some milk because he's always so hungry.  We had a little conversation about mommies and milk but it didn't stop Keenan from pretending.  Here is is pretend breast pump...

Everytime I get the camera out to try and take a few pictures of Van... Keenan makes sure he's in the picture too.  I have to be quick if I want one of just Van

I know the pictures don't show it but Van really is a happy smiley baby.  He greets me every morning and even in the middle of the night with big smiles.  He's quite the morning baby.  This morning we listened to Van talk away to himself with happy squeals for quite awhile before I went in to get him.  He's a very LOUD child, always grunting, shrieking, laughing... but mostly happy sounds!