My baby is 2!

Last week Van turned 2!  I still can't believe it's been 2 years since I first got to meet him.

April 20th 2010                                                                       April 20th 2012

Van has been a bit slow to talk but it's starting to come along at a slightly quicker pace now. I'm guessing that might halt for a while since now he spends a lot of time with our nanny who only speaks French.  He's very much into the "me do it" phase, loves running up and down any and all ramps,  loves book time, loves splashing and making a mess during bath time, munches on dog food (ugh), want to do anything his brother is trying to... has a happy dance when we give him something he wants and loves being outside. He gets pretty peeved when Keenan gets to go walk the dog with his dad and he doesn't.  I don't think he's anywhere near wanting to be potty trained but then we haven't tried and our potty chair is not here yet.  We're hoping to some of our stuff this weekend but we're not holding our breaths on it. 

We kept it small for Van's birthday, part of me felt bad because we've always thrown big parties for Keenan.  We don't have our stuff and we still feel like we just got here played into our decision.  I also failed on his cake, nothing exciting.  It was a box cake with pre-made frosting.  We did have party horns though...

How many can I get in my mouth?

 Keenan and Atwege

 Van is NOT a camera hog in the least.  In fact he usually does anything he can to NOT take a nice picture.  He usually gives the half awake, blank look.  See below

 I tried tricking him by tickling him and snapping a picture.

 Here too, what you can't see is my hand tickling his knee.

 Keenan showing off his slice of cake.

 Van just wanted the frosting... he used the candles as a device to retrieve it.

 The frosting was a bigger hit than the cake... Van didn't want his.

 Our attempts at getting a family picture.  #1.  Van's eating frosting.

 #2  Keenan's being over dramatic and laughing hysterically oh and Van's still eating frosting

 #3.  Back to the blank half awake look mentioned before

 Present time!  Keenan was pretty sure he'd get to open up all the presents.  Van had other plans :)

 Keenan getting to help a little.

Ha ha, now dad gets to put the present together!

 Yay, all finished!  Van LOVED this.  He would get all excited and clap after the cars went down and make sure everyone else was clapping too.

Ugh, I need to get better about bringing my camera out with me.  Maybe I just need to leave it in my purse.  There's so much interesting and fun stuff that I've been seeing that I want pictures of to share;  from the markets, to the view from the top of Sidi Bou Said, The American Cemetary...  maybe I'll get better.

Keenan turns 3!

Can't believe it's been 3 years since I first got to meet Keenan. That night I was so exhausted but I couldn't stop looking at his adorable face... that and I had to keep checking that he was still breathing! So much has happened in those three years...lots of moves, traveling, meeting presidents...
For his birthday we had a party out in front of our house with neighbors and friends from the Embassy. Keenan was as always super excited about getting to eat cupcakes. All day long he would eye those cupcakes and ask if it was his birthday yet.

When his guest started arriving, Keenan was quicker than I and immediately started to open up his presents. I warned him several times that if he opened his presents and played with his new toys that he would have to share.

One such present was a HUGE hit with the boys, a remote control car. Here are the boys all huddled around the car, they were actually sharing fairly well.
I'm not sure if Mikey is showing some leg or scratching a bug bite, either way kind of funny.
and it's SAFE!
Keenan and his new toy
and cake time!

Michelle giving Van some love and my arms and back a rest from holding him.

Happy Birthday Bear!

This picture was taken quite awhile ago but I'm just now getting around to updating my blog soooo...

Keenan has never really been into his stuffed animals so I was surprised one night when he brought in his bear and sat him down at the table and announced it was Bear's birthday. Ok, I said and what do we need to do about Bear's birthday? Keenan was easy to please and only wanted to sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out birthday candles. So we song the song a dozen or two times, lighting the candle each time so Keenan could blow it out.

Although now that he's been to a few birthday parties he's pretty sure that he needs to eat birthday cake almost everyday and when ever we see a cake it's always "burday cake".

Brad Pitt look a like??

On Sunday we attended a birthday party for our friends baby, Ben, who just turned 1. The party was held at "Arizona BBQ", a restaurant here in Kyiv that we've never been too but, we will definitely have to go back. The reason? They have a nice attended play area with lots of toys, a slide, movies, playhouse...padded walls (for safety?). Keenan loved it! Plus, Eric and I were able to eat our food, talk amongst the adults all while being in the next room to where Keenan was. We were also able to see what was going on in that room on a big screen TV. Two of Ben's older cousins kept commenting on how Keenan looks like Brad Pitt.
While I do think Keenan is the cutest thing ever and Brad Pitt is a little bit on the attractive side I'm gonna say "no" on this. Keenan looks this his mama!

In the above picture Keenan did not want to put his jammies on, he wanted to play with his "autos" naked! And no, I couldn't find a similar picture of Brad doing the same thing.


When possible Keenan likes to run around naked. I keep finding his discarded diaper in one room, a puddle in another and a happy boy playing elsewhere.

1st Birthday Party!

We celebrated Keenan's first birthday today (one day early). I can't believe how the year has flown by and how everything has changed. Last year at this time we were still in Colorado getting ready to pack up our things. Mostly on this day a year ago I was wanting to get Keenan out of my belly!

I was sad that we couldn't celebrate with any family but we did invite a few friends over. While I was trying to decorate the cake I was wishing Gramma Pat was near. Her cakes always turn out so nice. I hadn't ever really tried my hand out with decorating. I kept it simple, nothing too exciting but it did make me want to take a cake decorating class.
We filled Keenan's crib with balloons then stuck him in it. He thought that was pretty cool.

Keenan was a bit grumpy when the guest first started to arrive. He only took a super short cat nap this afternoon and he needed much much more! Ever since he got sick with an ear and sinus infection last Tuesday he has been fighting his naps. Grrrr... I don't get nearly as much done around the house... or my blog for that matter with only one nap.

We got him a sit and spin Zebra which was a hit. Both him and Jack loved it! Keenan wasn't too interested in the opening of the gifts just yet. He did have fun playing with the gifts once they were open.

We received in the mail what we are assuming is a gift to Keenan but we don't know who it is from. There wasn't a name on the invoice. It's stackable measuring cups. He seems to like them, so thank you to whomever sent them.
By the time it was time for cake, the little guy was pretty tuckered out. He usually dives right into his food but this time he gingerly touched the frosting and decided that was good enough.