The Unique and Not-So-Terrifying Pterodactyl Raspberry Beauty Queen

As of late, Josie has been on an absolute tear.

These days she's chowing on everything from mushed up green beans to mushed up.... well, who knows what some of that stuff is, but she loves it.

But more impressively, she has recently learned a new bag of tricks.

First, crawling... but with the added twist of sounding like a wounded pterodactyl.



Next, the raspberries. My Grandpap made sure he taught me this one when I was a kid, and it's a skill I find incredibly useful in my professional career to this day.



And finally, she seems to have mastered the beauty queen wave. But unfortunately for Josie, she won't be allowed to wear make-up or pierce her ears until she's 45, so pageants are off the table.



We're working on the incredibly hysterical "raspberries while waving" combo. We'll keep ya updated on our progress.

Spontaneous Photo Shoot

This weekend was Daddy weekend, aka Sandi works all weekend so it's up to Jon to make sure Josie survives until Sunday evening.

Well, this weekend we decided to have a little spontaneous photo shoot with the ole faithful - my Droid 2. (I'm holding out until iPhone5...)

Fortunately, my subject was exquisite.

Someday all this will be mine!

What in the hell was that?

And over here we have the dining room, the patio, and the living room with exposed brick.

Hey, look. Dad finally said something funny.

And the pièce de résistance....

It's pretty cool when your kid says her first word....

...it's cooler to get it on video.



Josie said Da-Da for the first time last night at her Nana's house while I was getting her ready for bed.

And again...



Sandi jokes that until she can say Mama, I've got baby duty.

Score!

He wasn't kidding.

My brother, who has his own 2+ year old, told me the following before Josie was born...

The hours may seem long at times, but the weeks and months fly by.

Well, after seven months, it is so incredibly true.

Now, like my brother, being a Dad kicks more ass than SEAL Team 6. But that doesn't mean there are times now and again where you wonder what in the heck you can do to help stop that little kid from crying. And it seems to last forever. It's challenging. It wears you out. But neither my brother nor I would trade it for anything.

But the weeks and the months? They go by fast. Like. Really fast.

So it's sort of amazing that today marks Josie's 7 month birthday.

She's got a little more hair than she had last month. A couple more pounds (believe it or not). And she is about a nanosecond from crawling all over God's green earth.

I've also heard from some of my old friends in DC that don't have kids. They wonder if I miss "the old life". Sure, it was tons of fun. But this... THIS is amazing.

I mean, what better way to start your morning than...



Seriously. EVERY morning is like that. Happiest kid ever.

Dad and Mom, too.

Green eggs and no ham

It's Lent.

Of course, that means no meat on Fridays for Catholics like us.

So building off that requirement and our discovery that today was Dr. Seuss' birthday, Sandi decided to get a little creative.

Here was dinner tonight.

And believe it or not, green eggs aren't half bad.

They could not, would not make me sad. They could not, would not make me mad.

All growns up...

Every parent wonders what their kid will look like when they grow older. Sure, the last thing you want are the years to quickly go by, but you can't help but be curious whether she'll look like Mom or Grandma. Like Pappy or Nana. As long as she doesn't look like the mailman...

So we did a little experiment. I'm not sure it worked.


That's Josie in one of her Mom's outfits. She looks quite professional, if I say so myself.

Your Moment of Cuteness...

I imagine this will be a running aspect of the Team Keeling blog.


And finally...

The monitor we use to listen and watch Josie has a fun little intercom that we've never really felt a need to try to utilize... until recently.

As our little kiddo becomes more and more aware, it's fun to play a little game and see what she does.

In this case she hears a voice coming from... somewhere ... and looks straight up at the Monitor and wonders how her Mother could fit into such a tiny, little box.



The kid is even ridiculously cute in infrared. Amazing.

The First Crawl: -2.8 feet; and other tales...

She's 6 and a half months old.

And until this evening she's been happy as a clam doing the Mission Impossible dance instead of attempting to crawl.

But tonight when we enticed her to take one small step for a very little girl, she promptly scooted nearly 3 feet...backwards. And of course, we enthusiastically applauded.

IN OTHER NEWS: Hide yo' kids.

Today Sandi relayed a story from daycare. Apparently our daughter has become particularly social as of late. But it doesn't seem that boundaries are her strong suit.

How do I know?

The small clump of baby hair in her fist and the little asian child screaming. Yep, while Josie was in her bumbo playing with another child, she discovered an urge to reach over to the other baby feeding next to her and remove several hairs from the kid's head. Cue screaming.

And I can't claim this to be true, but I can just picture Josie wildly laughing while doing her best to make it rain with hair follicles.

FINALLY: We stopped by my Mom's place this past Sunday and Josie's teething was in overdrive. Fortunately, Mom had the good sense to buy a toy specifically for teething and gave it to her after a good time spent in the freezer.

Think she liked it?

The First Keeling Plague

Every new family has their first firsts.

First Time Your Kid Smiles. First Time Rolling Over. First Road Trip.

Well, these past few days served as our First Plague.

Very early Thursday morning we caught the first signs of it when little Josie decided her late night meal would look far better on her pajamas.

Sandi called out of work and spent the day trying to take care of her as best she could, and we both took her to the Doctor late Thursday afternoon. Fortunately, the Doc told us it was very likely a light stomach bug that would soon pass.

And it did. For Josie.

Then it was Sandi's turn. Late Friday it hit her. Then the next morning it hit me. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty.

Since then the house has been seemingly firebombed by Sandi with cleaning products. If there is a germ alive in this place, it's probably cowering in a corner praying that the lady with cleaning supplies dangling off her belt doesn't come find him.

About mid-afternoon on Sunday I felt like my normal self again. That's when this picture was taken of Josie coming to check on dear old Dad.


I'm a vision, aren't I?

Fortunately, Josie is back to her old self -- loving herself a little too much in her toy mirror. Clearly, a chip off the old block.

And so it begins.

Today is Valentines Day.

And I guess we knew this would happen, but at 6 months?



That's Cooper on the left and Brice in the tux on the right.

Points for style, Brice.

And very bold, fellas.

I can't say I blame ya. I mean, look at this face. Already such a flirt.

I knew I'd have to get my "dating my daughter" speech ready eventually, but I never thought it would consist of "goo goo gah gah" as a way to communicate with her suitors.

Baby Toy Hybrids

Sometimes one bouncer or one toy isn't enough to keep a kid entertained.

In that case, I introduce to you, the Baby Toy Hybrid.

Take one bouncer and one ... whatever it is ... and watch your child go to town.



Just like in utero, Josie seems particularly into kicking the living daylights out of things. Remember that, fellas. Don't mess with Josie.

Show off.

While Josie is still doing her best impersonation of the vault scene with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible while trying to crawl, she seems to be just fine with standing.

Just one hand to balance? Show off.

In fact, thanks to her Dad's thighs she seems doomed to have inherited, we wouldn't be surprised to see her running laps in no time.

Mind = Blown

For Christmas, one of my best friends from college, Ian, sent me a couple CDs. Both were kid's CDs.

The first was They Might Be Giants. For those that know the band, their kid's CD is exactly what you'd expect. A little odd and a lot of fun.

But the other CD Ian sent was from someone called Caspar Babypants.

Now, I had never heard of him, and I still have no idea how well known his music is outside of Washington State, where Ian lives now.

But I absolutely love the CD. Tons of great original kids music, and some fun variations on the classics.

Now here's where the mindblowing begins.

With Josie on my lap, I decided to pull up a youtube of the band and see if they had any fun live versions of their songs. I found my favorite in one of the first search results.

(sidebar: This is now my favorite song of the moment. Moreso than anything out right now. A kid's song. Not some new song on CD101, or something I'd hear at the bar after playing kickball in DC. My favorite song is a kid song. Odd.)

So here is the video. See if you recognize the singer.



Figure it out?

Here's a big, fat hint.



Holy. Crap.

Yep, Caspar Babypants is the dude from The Presidents of the United States of America. Known for such all-time 90s doozies as Peaches, Kitty, and Lump.

Worlds collide.

Mind = Blown



Now, go buy his CD.

6 months go by fast.

Ok, so it's been awhile.

Forgive us. It's been a bit of a hectic 6 months with...ya know...having a baby and all.

Now that we seem to have the hang of things, we'll be trying to post a little more often about baby life and life in general.

And now, without any further adieu, I give you Josie's 6 month birthday pics, courtesy of her Dad's camera and Picasa.