Kelby was helping KayLynn fold laundry in other words pulling out every piece and trying to put it on.  I added pictures of the funny new way to wear a bra. I sure hope this fashion does not catch on.

God Bless

Kirk

It's one of those questions. I loved it when somebody would ask. I would just love to talk about it. That was then, now I'm starting to cringe when I hear it and I still have a long way to go. It looks like it is going to be a long summer. 

The back deck is starting to look like a deck once again. It is all Composite wood and sliver free. It is so nice to be able to walk on it barefoot without worrying about getting slivers or ripping your foot open by a protruding nail. I still have a lot of work to do on it. This is just one of the three decks I’m building on to the house I have not even started on the other two decks yet. The railing is only competed on one side so we have to watch Kelby like a hawk.  He has no fear of height and constantly runs straight for the edge. Letting Kelby play on the deck now is a real workout for us. It turned out to be a big big big project that is taking much longer then I had hoped. Not the kind of thing a guy can knock out in a couple of weekends, ha.  I don’t really get much time to work on it. During the week I’m lucky if I get an hour a day while Kelby is taking a nap. Most of that time is spent just getting out the tools, and putting away the tools. When the weekend comes and it seems there is always something else that has to be done or places we need to go.  I never realized how many holiday weekends we have but it seems like almost every weekend since I started this it has been some holiday, with holiday get-togethers and festivities, and that means no work gets done. Oh well slow progress is better then no progress.

I added a new picture album with before till now pictures and a couple of Kelby in his new pool. The inflatable turtle has water spraying out of the back of his head. That is why Kelby has his mouth on it, he is trying to drink it as it comes out.

God Bless

Kirk

For a long time we could not figure out why Kelby calls our little dog Kramer, kiye.  He calls our big dog (Comet) down. He started calling Comet down ever since my mom came to visit.  Mom is not a real dog lover and poor Comet being the big loving dog he is tries even harder to get affection from anyone that shy’s away from him. The only words mom says to Comet is “down”, “get away” so it is easy to figure out how Kelby thinks that is Comets name.  Kramer does not bark much but he is a cry baby (literally sounds like a baby crying really loud) whenever he is not allowed to be with us.  When we go to the store and Kramer has to stay in the car he starts crying really loud and people give us “a look” and we know they are thinking that we locked a baby in the car and are just going to leave him while we go into the store. Of course we tell (yell at) Kramer to be quiet. When we let Kramer out to go potty if we are not right at the door to let him back in when he is done he starts crying and of course we yell "quiet Kramer".  So I just figured out that Kelby isn’t calling Kramer kiye what he is calling him is quiet but is just not pronouncing the T sound at the end.  Kelby has started calling me Kirk. He says Kirk and I say I’m daddy and he laughs and says Kirk.  He is a funny little guy.

God Bless

Kirk

Entry by Kay Lynn

Ever since Kelby has been a baby we have had this big, huge inflatable duck that a baby can sit in to take a bath.  Kind of like a big duck that you would sit on in a pool.  You squeeze the beak and it goes "quack quack quack quack".  Anyway, it has always been in the guest bathroom shower and lately, every time we pass the bathroom or Kelby goes into the bathroom, he says "quack, quack".  Memorial Weekend we flew to Reno to visit Kirk's brother and girlfriend.  We arrive at Kirk's brother's place, the first thing Kelby does is run into the bathroom, pulls back the shower curtain and says "quack, quack" looking for the duck.  It's a given, every shower has a duck, right? 

Anyway, while in Reno, we took at day trip up to Lake Tahoe.  We parked the car to get out and take a little hike, when a couple on a two seater bicycle pull up right next to my car door ( I am in the back seat with Kelby).  They are sitting right outside my door so I can't open it, they are adjusting their seats, helmets, etc. taking their sweet old time…They are both dressed up in their spandex bike, yuppie gear, all matching in this bright (duck) yellow…yellow pants, yellow jackets, yellow helmets, yellow gloves etc. I am sitting there waiting patiently for them to get going so Kelby and I can get out.  The window is open a crack, Kelby looks over and sees them and says really loud "quack, quack"......more pictures from Reno and Lake Tahoe. 

I added some new pictures of mothers day and the slow going progress on the deck.  Grandma was visiting and spoiling Kelby like Grandmas do for two weeks while I got some work done on the deck.  As you can see I still have work to do.  You can also see Kelby's new hair cut.  I think it is cute.

God Bless

Kirk 

Kelby is back to his normal happy fun loving self.  He has not been sick for a full week now (I hope I didn’t just jinks it) and was not sick at all this weekend the first full weekend since January.  In the last week he gained back the 2 lbs that he lost plus some. He now weighs 27.5 lbs, last week he was down to 24 lbs.

On Saturday I gave Kelby his second haircut. Last time he sat pretty still while I cut his hair, but not this time. It was like trying to give a wild cat a haircut. It is just a good thing he does not have sharp claws or I would have bleed to death. KayLynn thinks I cut it too short. I think it looks cute. He looks just like a handsome little boy.

God Bless

Kirk  

 

 Kelby is finally feeling good again.  Last week was hell. He continued to be sick for the rest of the week and on Thursday I took him back to the clinic to see the Doctor this time he suggested I take Kelby to the hospital and have him admitted for dehydration therapy. I was so tired from lack of sleep I didn’t even feel safe driving Kelby to the clinic let alone to the hospital 35mls away.  I asked the doctor how long the procedure would take because I had not slept in 24hrs and had to go back to work in 5 hours. He told me that he would call ahead and they would be ready for us so that we would be in and out in @ 30min. Even with only taking 30 minutes with drive time it would be at least 2 hours so that only left me with 3 hours left to get a nap before going to work. Luckily for me I decided to drop Kelby off at KayLynn’s work and let her take him in to the hospital. The doctor said in and out in 30min what a bunch of crap! KayLynn was there for 5 hours and had to wait in the ER waiting room most of that time(with a lot of scary looking people) and Kelby crying the whole time, while I am at home too worried to sleep calling KayLynn’s cell phone every 15 min to see if they got in yet.

 

The next day Kelby looked a lot better and was not throwing up anymore so getting his fluids replenished was worth the (unnecessary) trouble it took.  As of today the diarrhea is gone and he is eating lots. He has some making up to do as he lost two pounds last week. The doctors determined that he had the flu. When we called the daycare they said a lot of the other kids were out with the flu also. Humm, go figure.

 

We took Kramer to the groomers (Petsmart) today and when I told Kelby where we were going he went and got Kramer’s leash and tried to put it on him. I helped him and he walked Kramer out to the car. When we got to Petsmart Kelby held the leash with one hand and my hand with the other walking through the parking lot and into the store. It was absolutely the cutest thing ever. Everyone in the store was pointing and saying “look at that” “isn’t that cute”.  Then when it was time for Kelby to give Kramer to the groomer he hugged Kramer around the neck and kissed him on top of the head before he would let the groomer take him. That right there makes it all worth it.

 

Now the big dilemma. Friday is coming up again do we throw him back to the wolfs or keep him home in a sterile bubble?

 

God Bless

Kirk

 

I get home from work @ 7:00am and like usual so tired I can hardly stand up. I had to use the toilet, when I flushed it, it didn’t flush, it was plugged up, and came within a second of overflowing before I franticly get the valve shut off.  Kelby was awake so that meant no nap for me.  That was the start of my day and it went down hill from there.

Kelby was still sick but looked better then the day before so I figured that was a good thing.  After giving Kelby some milk he started crying and wanted to be held, shortly after I picked him up I felt wetness on my arm (not good) diarrhea was running down his leg and my arm.  I got us both all cleaned up and he was still crying and would go into meltdown if I set him down.  I tried giving him something to eat but he would not eat anything but was drinking milk and water so I figured at least he was getting liquids. Then while I was holding him he was looking right at me still crying and vomited like a fire hose right in my face.  He soaked the whole front side of both me and him head to toe with really bad sour milk smelling vomit.  At our house when there is vomit on the floor Kramer our dog freaks out and starts running around in circles which includes running thru the vomit making little vomit tracks all over the house. I dripping puke while holding Kelby who is screaming (and still a potential vomit bomb) catch and throw Kramer outside. I strip both of us down and hose Kelby off in the laundry room sink and throw all the cloths in the washing machine then move on to cleaning the floor. I clean the floor the best I can with Kelby crying trying to get me to hold him while I’m trying to keep him from stepping in the mess, by now Kramer is tired of being outside and is crying /screaming (Kramer sounds just like a screaming baby when he crys) wanting in. Dealing with all this in addition to having almost zero sleep was, to say the least, a bit mind frazzling.

Now the cloths are in the wash, most of the big chunks are cleaned up, we all have on fresh cloths, Kelby has stopped crying and things are calming down a bit. I call the Doctor and see if we can get an appointment to see him and there is an opening in an hour.  For the next hour Kelby is looking better and is even playing a little bit and drinking milk and water and not throwing it up.  We get to the Clinic and by now Kelby looks perfectly fine.  He is laughing and playing with the toys in the waiting room. When we see the doctor Kelby looks like a perfectly healthy little boy.  I was thinking that last weeks ear infection had flared up again but the doctor looked in his ears and said they look great no signs of infection they were all cleared up.  I guess that is good but what is wrong with him then if not the ears?  The doctor said he looks perfectly fine maybe he just had an upset stomach.  I explained that he has been sick for 4 months now with a whole list of different things and that he has been sick since Saturday night with whatever it is he has now.  He told me that kids get sick a lot especially after starting daycare or school and it just takes awhile for there immune system to build up. So there is nothing to worry about.  He did look perfectly fine right then, so I’m sure the doctor thinks I am a nut job or a very over worried first time parent.  Other then finding out that he does not have an ear infection the doctor visit was a complete waste and I was made to look like a fool.

Right now would be a great time to say that is the end of the story and all is well. Not so. We got home and Kelby was asleep so I put him in his bed for a nap and I had time to finish the clean up and unclog the toilet and get a few things done outside. When Kelby woke up from his nap he was cranky again. I figured that he must be hungry so I fed him some yogurt figuring that would be good for his stomach. He ate some but not a lot and he drank some Pedialyte.  Now the crying started again and in half an hour he was vomiting again and a whole new mess and another load of cloths to wash. The holding, crying, vomiting, and clean up cycle continued until he went to bed.  Luckily for me KayLynn took off work a little early and got home a little after 5:00pm and I was able to get to bed @ 5:30pm.  When I got up at 9:30pm to go back to work Kelby was sleeping soundly and KayLynn was already in bed. Maybe I’m just jealous but that just does not seem fair.  I can’t wait to see what tomorrow (or today or whatever it is) will bring.

 When working this weird shift I start work one day and go home the next and tomorrow is already today and I never know if I’m coming or going.

 

God Bless

Kirk

I think I am starting to sound like a broken record, Kelby is sick again, Kelby is sick, Kelby is sick, Kelby is sick. Kelby has been basically sick for over 4 months now.  From the day he started going to daycare he has had one thing after the other.  He gets sick for about 5 days he is well for two days and then sick again.  He goes to daycare on Friday and by Saturday night he is sick and then starts feeling better around Thursday and on Friday the cycle starts all over again. I can not remember a weekend that he has not been sick. I think we are going to go completely and absolutely crazy.

Last week it was an Ear Infection along with Oral Thrush the Doctor put him on antibiotics and some other medication for the thrush.  He started getting better after about the third day of taking the meds. Now this Saturday night he got sick again this time vomiting all over the place that lasted thru Sunday.  I think the ear infection has come back along with the oral thrush. Yesterday/Monday he was not throwing up any more but has Diarrhea really bad.  I can’t wait to see what today will bring.  It is so frustrating. We were so proud that he was never sick. He went his whole first year without being sick at all and from his first birthday on he has been nothing but sick. Sick sick sick. I just want to scream. I know it won’t help but I nothing else seems to help either.

I think we are going to wear out our washing machine. We may have to get another large garbage can just for all the dirty diapers. Are kids all this sick all the time or are we just lucky?

God Bless

Kirk

 

 We decided that the time had come to replace the deck.  Every spring I have to pound down hundreds of nails that work their way up. The surface is full of splinters just waiting to happen.  We paint it and two weeks later it looks like it needs to be painted again. We also always wanted to have a small deck off of the master bedroom and the front porch is looking pretty battered also.  We wanted to get it all done at once and be done with it.  We started out thinking that I just don’t have the time to do it myself.  I called three different contractors to give me estimates.  For the back deck alone the estimates all came in at @ $32,000!!!!!  Granted it is a big deck and I want it done in composite decking so I don’t have to continue to be a slave to it, but, come on 35K.  The grand total after adding the small deck and front porch, get this 45,000 dollars!!!  I am obviously in the wrong line of work.

So I will now have to find the time to do it myself. Since the local schools had spring break last week we was able to have our good friends daughter come over to baby-sit while I tore the old deck down. 

What a long week it was. I got home from work (job) at 7am luckily on a couple of days Kelby was still sleeping so I got @ a hour rest before the baby sitter got there at 9am. Then I worked on the deck until 4 or 4:30pm.  Then I stumbled off to bed so I could wake up at 9:30pm and get ready for work (job) again. It has been a very long busy week.

Now I have the deck completely torn down and discarded boards laying all over the place. I have no idea when I’ll get another chance to work on it.

 

Kelby spent a lot of time watching me work from the patio door.  Now when he walks up to the door and looks out at the mess that used to be a deck he says, “Uh ohw”. I have to say that about sums’ it up.

 

God Bless

Kirk

I added a few pictures from Easter day.  Need to write more but I have no time.

God Bless

Kirk

 

Kelby had a 102 temp on Saturday and then on Sunday went up to105. We gave him sponge baths every three hours all through the night to keep his temp down. On Monday morning and afternoon we thought that the fever had broken, his temp was back to normal. Then that night he had a temp of 102 again. The doctor say’s he has pneumonia in one lung.  He has now been sick for 43 days straight starting with a stomach flu that turned into diarrhea that turned into a cold that almost went away then came back and now has turned into pneumonia.  The doctor has prescribed antibiotics. I hate to use them with all the over use of them causing all these new super bugs but at this point what can we do.  This is getting so tiring for us, I can only imagine how sick of being sick Kelby is feeling. It is a good thing that I work this sleepless shift so that at least one of us can always be at home with him without taking time off work.  If it wasn’t for that we would both already be completely out of vacation and sick leave for the rest of the year.  

 

 Ok, I admit that I’ve always thought Valentines Day was just another Hallmark Holliday.  Maybe I’m just a cheap stick in the mud, but what is the deal with this day.  The Friday before the big Holliday the early learning center where Kelby is at on Fridays sent him home with a list of all of the toddlers names in his class so that he could get them all valentines cards.  What the heck is up with that?  For one thing he is only one years old and I doubt if he is in any serous romantic relationships that would require a Valentines Day card, second he is there on Fridays and Valentines day was on Thursday.  I figure they must be sending the list home with everyone and since he is not going to be there on V day that it does not concern us.  Wrong.  On Friday the 15^th when I pick him up he has a bag full of cards and candy from his classmates.  All of the cards have hand written notes inside and some of the cards are really nice hand made cards.  Now all the kids in his class are younger then two years old so the kids did not write in the cards themselves (most, if not all, can’t read yet) and definitely did not make the cards.  So who was this all for? Kelby could care less about cards as he just tries to eat them and the candy he didn’t eat.  Obviously everybody else must have way more time then I do because I surely don’t have the time to put together Valentine card and candy packets for 20+ kids.  As much as I think the whole Holliday is a crock, and, at that blown out of proportion, I still feel guilty that we didn’t get cards for his classmates.  I’m pretty sure that the whole purpose of Valentines day was to mess with men and now it has gone to the next level to mess with all parents.  I’m sure the day is near when we will all be treated equal and everyone can have the same opportunity to feel inadequate by the card, candy, and flower retailers.

 

God Bless

Kirk      

Ok I finally got the video thing working.  Thanks Jane McHowat for your help.  The problem now is almost all of my videos are too long.  I was able to find two that were short but they are not the best.  I have to take some new short videos or figure out how to shorten some of the ones I have.  Right now Kelby is sick again so it is not the best time for videoing.  

We decided that when Kelby turned a year old we would start him in an early learning/day care center one day a week.  Mostly we want him to learn how to interact, share, and play with others at an early age.  Well unfortunately the interacting part includes the sharing of every sickness bug around.  His first day was the Friday before his birthday.  Three days later the day after his birthday he was sick with a stomach flu that turned into a cold.  The cough from that cold never went completely away and now he has another cold.  He only had about two very minor colds in his whole first year.  His second year he has been sick the entire first month. I’m hoping that all this getting sick will build up his immune system and he will become stronger from it.  It is so hard to see him sick.  What can we do?  Put him in a sterilized bubble?  Hopfully he gets better soon and I can get some new (short) video footage to add.

 

God Bless

Kirk

What I remember about my Grandpa

 

When I was growing up we would go visit our Grandparents every weekend usually Sunday afternoon or evening.  Grandma would cook some of the most wonderful food.  Then we would go out and watch Grampa milk the cows and feed the cats. They always had a lot of barn cats and I would like to look for kittens in the hay loft.  After that we would play cards, or, I should say the adults would play cards and us kids would watch and listen to the conversations.  Grampa would tell stories about when he was growing up and I was always very interested in Grampa’s stories. Too bad that it was so long ago and I was so young that I can only remember bits and pieces of those stories.  If I could go back in time I would tape record some of those card game conversations.  I’ll bet I could write a history book just by writing down all the stories Grampa told.

 

When I was a little older I would spend a week or more every summer at Grandpa and Grandma’s house.  That was always a highlight of the summer.  I was Grandpa’s helper.  One time I helped him build an addition on to their house that became their living room.  Of course looking back I don’t really think I was much help but Grampa made me feel like it could not have been built if it wasn’t for me helping.  Other times I would help cut, rake, and bail hay.  The raking is the only part that I really helped on and even that Grampa could have done by himself.  Grampa drove the tractor and I would ride behind on the dump rake and pull the lever to dump the hay in a straight row so it could be later picked up and bailed by the bailer.  In the cutting and bailing part I would ride on the fender of the tractor and jump off to move rocks or sticks out of the way and run and jump back on the tractor.  Yes! I jumped off the moving tractor and moved stuff out of the way from the running machinery and ran to catch back up and jumped back on the moving tractor (without even wearing a helmet ha ha).  Grampa paid me for all my help so I felt like I had a very important job. If it was hunting season Grampa would bring along the shotgun and he would shot pheasants and prairie chickens from the tractor or from inside the pickup while driving out to the field (yes it was legal to do that).  Sometimes when Grampa had things to do, that I couldn’t help with, he would let me take his Red Rider BB gun and go out hunting in the field or into the tree grove and I shoot gophers or sparrows.  I remember Grampa always woke up and started working before the sun came up.  I would always try to wake up as early as he did but every time I got up he was already up and out in the barn milking the cows. Grandma always came out and helped milk the cows and would take in some fresh warm milk that we would have with our breakfast after the milking was done.   

 

There was always lots of work to be done but Grampa always took the time to take me fishing.  Sometimes after the evening milking he would throw his old flat bottomed John boat into the back of the pickup and take me fishing at the Leola Dam.  We would not have much time but the lake wasn’t very far away and Grampa would drive fast.  Back then Grampa always drove really fast on the gravel roads and Granma would not like it.  She used to say that she can tell it is him coming down the road because the dust would be flying a mile high. We always caught some fish even if sometimes they were too small to clean. Nothing ever went to waste and the fish we caught that were too small they got fed to the cats. They never had enough money to buy boughten cat food so they were fed all the table scraps and the fish cleaning scraps. 

 

Grampa built every thing they had himself.  Grampa was a man of many trades.  He was a carpenter, electrician, cabinet maker, farmer and toy maker.  He even built the church in town and I’ll bet he didn’t take any pay for doing it. They surely could have used the money as that is one and only thing that they never had a lot of.  They had ten children three boys and seven girls and that’s a lot of mouths to feed. Thinking back I bet that is why they started milking cows. They grew and raised almost all the food they needed right there on the farm.  They always had a giant garden that was big enough to feed the family fresh vegetables in the summer and canned enough to last through the winter and they had all the fresh milk they needed and sold the rest.

 

This was my Grampa as I remember. The facts might not 100% correct but they are 100% the truth as remembered by a boy, that’s now a man, that idolized his Grampa.

 

My Grampa was born in 1918 and he married my Grandma in 1940 until death do they part.  My Grampa died this last Sunday February 3^rd 2008.

 

I’ve heard people say that the good die young, well I guess those people never knew my Grampa.

 

God Bless

Kirk

 

We got a little dusting of snow last night. Kelby had a great time playing in it.  Too bad it is already all melted :-(.  I added some pictures of Kelby and the dogs playing in it.

 

Kirk

It’s all Momma now.

 

Kelby is one year old.  His new word is momma, and only momma, he will not say dad da anymore.  I say dadda, he says momma and laughs. I say “can you say dadda” he smiles starts to say daaa then smiles again and says momma and laughs. He knows he’s messing with me, I guess this is payback for him saying dadda first, ha.  Kelby is also walking now, he took his first steps before Christmas and has been adding steps ever since.  He can now walk completely across any room in the house.  He still crawls when he needs to get somewhere fast and man can he crawl fast.

 

We had a birthday party for him last week Saturday. Kelby got lots of new toys for his birthday and he ate lots of cake.  That night all the cake came back out. He thru up all over the wall, the crib, the floor and anything else close to where he was in the crib.  We were just sick also, asking ourselves how could we let him eat all that cake, it was our fault that he was sick, how could we be so stupid, exedra, exedra.  The next day it turned to diarrhea (that has lasted all week). KayLynn got sick on Monday night throwing up and was sick for three days (so maybe it was not the cake and we can stop kicking ourselves now).  On Wednesday he started coughing and having a runny nose and a temp (on top of still having diarrhea).  The poor little guy looked so miserable I just wanted to cry for him.  He was taking it way better then me.  I have never in my life seen such a happy miserable sick little kid.  So he has diarrhea, diaper rash, terrible cough, snot constantly pouring out of his nose, red eyes, a fever and still a smile on his face. Though he did not have much energy and mostly he just wanted to cuddle.  Today was the first day in over a week that he has been getting better, not as much diarrhea, less coughing, and has gotten his energy back (knock on wood).

 

Since I didn’t post anything about Christmas I’ll do some catch up here.  We went to visit our families in South Dakota for Christmas.  We had a wonderful time seeing family and Kelby got to meet a lot of his relatives for the first time.  My mom learned how fast Kelby can move.  Kelby was able to break almost all her casserole dishes under her watch.  Kelby was also able to remove all the ornaments from the bottom two feet of the Christmas tree even though he was under constant surveillance.  At KayLynn’s dads house he was only able to break one potted plant.  KayLynn’s dad calls Kelby the energizer bunny and I have to agree the name sure does fit.

 

KayLynn had Christmas planned out completely.  She had it planned for what days we spent where and what clothes we were to wear for each event.  We bought Kelby a snow suit so Kelby could play in the snow.  Kelby had elf pajamas for Christmas Eve night and a Santa outfit for Christmas day.  We all had our best Sunday go to meetin clothes freshly pressed for the Christmas mass.  But nothing ever goes as planned and we all wore the same cloths every day.  Not by choice of course.  The airline lost our luggage until the day before we came back home.  So the only thing we got out of spending a week packing our luggage was we got to lug it though the airport to the luggage check in both ways.  We also got the pleasure of speaking to Frontier Airlines customer dis-service at least two times a day eight days out of our ten day vacation.  Is it just me, or do all the people who works in customer service seem to be getting stupider, lazier, and most of the time just out right rude?  Next time we fly (if we fly) I think we are sending our luggage FedEx.  I would have said UPS but they just lost a package of ours last week and I was privileged to speak with there geniuses in customer service.

 

Complaining aside it was still the best Christmas ever.  We are so blessed to have a child this Christmas and as it was his first Christmas it was our first Christmas to share with our first and only child.  Nothing could have messed that up.  

 

God Bless

Kirk

 P.S. Samantha Joy, I’m praying for you that you can come home with your family soon

 

If there is anyone still checking? I know, I know, it has been a long time since I've posted.  Sorry. 

 

Kelby is now eight and a half months old and is growing so fast. Now he is crawling, climbing, and trying to walk. I should say he is now constantly cruising for trouble.  He can get from one room into the next before you can say where did Kelby go?  If you open a cabinet or closet that you don’t want him into he is in it before you can get what you wanted out and close the door. He is also climbing up on anything he can.  He can also read minds!  Really I’m serious. If you look around the room and think to yourself “I sure hope he does not try to get at that, pull on that, open that, or climb up on that” what ever it is you think of, he will go directly there and try to do that what you were thinking you didn’t want him to do.  Today (before I could say where did Kelby go) he had climbed up on the upright vacuum cleaner and knocked it over onto himself.  Luckily he just got a small bump on the forehead which I’m sure will turn into another black and blue mark. KayLynn is worried that when she takes him in for his checkup that the doctor will think we are beating him or something with all the bumps and bruises he is getting. I think it is normal for him to get a couple bumps and bruises while he is learning to crawl, stand, and walk.  Isn’t it?  How would he learn how to walk if you don’t let him stand?  Maybe I have to much USMC no pain no gain mentality.

 

Kelby is also eating and eating and eating. He has two bottom teeth and one upper tooth and does a good job chewing his food.  He loves cheerios, baby crackers, animal crackers, whole cooked peas, beans, and mostly any food at all.  He even likes spinach now. He will easily eat three jars of baby food in one sitting in under five minutes.  It is so cute he sits there with his mouth wide open looking like a baby bird.  If I don’t get the next spoonful in his mouth fast enough he gets really mad.  I can hardly spoon the food in fast enough.  I timed it, feeding him a full bowl of oatmeal takes only five minutes. We say "he is a good eater".  I say that I hope he does not get to be over 400 lbs and we are still saying “oh he is such a good eater”.  Then of course all that growing, crawling and climbing burns up a lot of energy. Kelby is also very good at shareing.  I give him cheerios in his walker and Kramer (our little dog) follows him all over because Kelby gives Kramer two cheerios for every one that he eats himself.  He also eats half of his cookies and gives the other half to Kramer then of course wants another cookie. We may have to put Kramer on a diet before to long.

 

Two weeks ago Kelby’s Grandpa and Grandma came to visit so I got a break from full time daycare duty for a week. Grandma was more than willing to take over Kelby care. It is salmon fishing season here so it was a great time for a break.  Dad and I went fishing almost every day.  When we started the fishing was great but the catching part was not really working out, only one salmon in two days.  Then by chance while salmon fishing Dad hooked onto something big.  He fought it for over an hour and we were just hoping we could get a look at it before it broke the (12 lb test) fishing line.  The fish finally tired out and we not only got to see what it was but actually caught it.  A 57 inch 50 + lb white Sturgeon.  We figured that it was just a fluke that he caught it until he hooked into another one.  I had to reel that one in because the legal daily limit is one (I think the physical limit is one also).  This one like the first took over an hour to tire out and bring in.  This one was 63 inches long.  Unfortunately there is a size limit on how big the fish can be and it cannot be over 60 inches long to keep.  It was really hard to throw it back after working that hard to bring it in.  The next day we went right back to the same spot (we wasn’t salmon fishing anymore Ha).  We caught a 47 inch and a 59.5 inch Sturgeon.  The big one we measured at 59 inches and we hoped we had measured correctly as it is really hard to get a good measurement on a slippery, tough, fighting, thrashing and jumping fish. When we pulled into the boat dock we really, really hoped that we measured correctly because the game warden was there checking.  The game warden had a much easier time measuring it, dead and not jumping all over the place.  That measurement came out at 59.5. Talk about cutting it close. The next day was time for Grandma and Grandpa to head for home.  I think Kelby was wearing Grandma out, ha ha. Thank you Mom for watching Kelby. It was awesome to get what I think of as a once in a lifetime great father and son fishing (and catching) experience.

 

I added some pictures of Kelby climbing and some pictures of us with the big fish.

 

God Bless

Kirk