Daily Life with Kemper: January 2009

Monday, January 19, 2009

Kemper Walking!

Trying videos for the first time - sorry they're so grainy looking!

Walking across the living room floor

Kemper walking into the bathroom after hearing James start running his bath water.

Being silly in the bath - it cracks me up when he turns on the water and can't figure out how it happened.

James had a 4-day this weekend so we decided to head to Garmisch with six other couples (and 2 other babies under 15 months!) for some skiing. It's a BEAUTIFUL little town that is a very popular vacation spot for Americans because there is an Armed Forces Recreation Center Resort located there. We rented 2 German apartments and while we were rather cramped for space, we made do and had a great time!

The three couples with kids took turns on "Baby Duty" while the others went skiing. James and I took the morning shift on Saturday morning and 15 minutes after everyone left, we had all 3 babies napping (I even got a snooze) and aside from Kemper, Gavin and Blake napped for about 2 and a half hours! WOOHOO!! James and I had a pretty easy morning. That afternoon we headed up to the mountain where James attempted to teach me to ski. It was slow going, and my temper got the best of me a few times, but I eventually got the hang of it. It wasn't what I considered to be great fun, but I did enjoy myself. I took quite a few tumbles and stayed on the bunny slopes the entire time, but by day 2, I wasn't falling at all while skiing, only while trying to take the stupid rope lifts to the top of the hills.

Kemper really enjoyed being around Gavin and Blake. They played and taught each other cool new tricks. Kemper taught Gavin how to yell and Gavin and Blake taught Kemper how to WALK!!! How awesome is that! Within a day of being around the two walkers, Kemper was taking off across the room. He would much rather walk than crawl now, but crawling is still faster for him. I'll try to post some videos later of him walking.

Walking boy!

Sunrise on Saturday

Sunrise over the Alps

Beautiful!

The house we stayed in

James and I at a skiing competition

The German Alps

Kemper helping us pack to come home

The tiny room the three of us shared - I can't tell you how many times we hit our heads.

Gavin

Kemper - trying to stay warm!

Our house

James with Kemper, Gavin and Blake on morning Baby Duty.

Random pictures

The following shows what happens when Daddy works late and Mommy has to cook dinner with a grumpy baby who screams bloody murder when contained. Let loose in the kitchen (obviously with supervision) he ransacks the cabinets and wreaks havok. But, he had fun and was relatively happy. And mommy got dinner cooked. :)

Who, me?!

This picture cracks me up - with his buddy, Ruger

So happy!

Lots of posts....

Well, I've been slacking on my posts but with good reason - we just got back from a long weekend in Garmisch. We headed up Friday with 6 other couples (and 2 other babies!) and spend the weekend skiing and just enjoying the beautiful area in the German Alps. I'll post more about that later today (well, tonight actually). But for now....Kemper's 9 month pictures!!! Unfortunately, James and I slacked off in December and we don't have an 8 month picture, but from the looks of these, the monthly pictures may be a thing of the past.

Not a happy baby to be pulled away from playing for this picture

Giving a half-hearted smile to Daddy

Thursday, January 8, 2009

9 months old!!!

Time sure does fly - Kemper was 9 months old on Tuesday!!!

He had his 9 month well baby appointment yesterday and got rave reviews from the doctor. He weighs 20lbs 9oz (75%) and is 29.6in (50%). The doctor was VERY impressed with Kemper's physical abilities (gross motor skills). She kept laughing saying that he was showing off for her. He crawled, pulled up on things, stood unassisted, cruised from object to object and walked with a little assistance from Mommy. She said that she would put his gross motor skills on the level with a 12 month old, not a 9 month old! YAY!!!

She gave the go ahead for cheese and yogurt as well as most everything else (within reason and of course nothing that would be a choking hazard) except whole milk. We have to wait until he's 12 months to give him whole milk. She also said she thinks that she feels a couple more teeth ready to pop through. This was a surprise considering he's not really shown any signs of teething lately. The 4 teeth that he already has are almost all the way in. His toothy grin is irresistible! (Speaking of the toothy grin, she said we should be brushing his teeth twice a day - oops! We give him his "toothbrush" every day and let him chew on it and will occasionally try to brush but he's pretty protective of his mouth - guess the toothbrushing battles will begin now!)

Uh oh - caught in the act! Kemper can open cabinets now.

Climbing under the coffee table - nothing is an obstacle for him.

There were no shots at this appointment (WHEW!) but he will get a few at his 12 month checkup. In keeping with his past visits to the doctor, he smiled and flirted with the nurses and giggled as the doctor examined him. Overall, I was extremely pleased with this doctor. Many of you probably know that I had my doubts about the health clinic here on base for many reasons. This doctor completely eased my fears. She spent 45 minutes with us and was in NO hurry. Dr. Fenton in Lynchburg never hurried us, but she NEVER spent that long with a single patient.

After we got home, Kemper was playing near his toy box and all of a sudden I heard his "help me!" cry so I went to investigate. He had walked behind the loveseat up against the glass doors and was stuck. Being the good mom that I am, I saved him - only after I grabbed the camera first! :-D

Friday, January 2, 2009

Whirlwind Christmas

Whew - what a whirlwind these past few weeks have been! We flew to VA on the 15th of December and ran around nonstop until we flew back to Germany on the 30th. It was so great getting to see family and friends and to celebrate Kemper's 1st Christmas with everyone!

Kemper is an EXCELLENT traveler - James and I are so lucky that he's such an adaptable baby and so happy! He did great on the flights into the States. Of course, as we board, we got the looks of dread from most of the passengers around us but as we were deplaning in Detroit, SO many people complimented us on what a good baby we have. We were lucky enough to get the bulkhead row of seats and after the flight attendant convinced our neighbor to take a different seat on an empty row, we had the row to ourselves. Kemper crawled around at our feet and actually slept in a little nest we built him with pillows and blankets for about 3 hours. He did AMAZING! Same on the flight back even though we were dealing with a very spoiled (thanks grandparents) baby who was used to basically getting whatever he wanted or getting to do whatever he wanted. We made it back and are working on getting him back onto European time (and working on unspoiling him a little!).

Meme and Pops found that Kemper is quite a handful to have around the house and that he likes to get into EVERYTHING! His favorite thing at Meme and Pops's house was crawling up and down their hallway and being "chased" around the couch. He got to spend the night with Grandma Rita and Grandpa Phil when James and I headed to Roanoke to finish up our shopping and spend some time with Allen and Tori. We did a lot of shopping (Christmas and just making up for the lack of shopping in Germany), eating out, and running around trying to see everyone we possibly could. There are many people we didn't get to see or only got to see for a few minutes and we're sorry for that! We hope you understand and know that we do our best to see everyone but with the holidays and family gatherings, it's never an easy task.

Kemper met Santa for the first time and while he didn't seem to dislike him, you could tell that he was obviously not amused that we sat him on this strange man's lap. He met Santa again at my church and, due to lack of nap, was REALLY not amused.

We got together with the Hayes/Zimmermann group on Christmas Eve at Rita and Phil's. Kemper did great and REALLY enjoyed playing with his Uncle Allen. He was not all that excited about opening presents but would always pull the tissue paper or a small piece of wrapping paper off and that was all he wanted of the unwrapping. We had to keep a pacifier in his mouth throughout present opening due to his frequent attempts at eating the small pieces of tissue/wrapping paper. We decided to forego taking Kemper to Midnight Mass with us and left him with Meme and Pops to sleep.

He was up bright and early to see what Santa brought him but crashed about 20 minutes later while we were opening gifts with Meme and Pops. After his nap, he was good to go through breakfast and presents at Great Grandma Peggy's. That night, we headed to SML to see his cousins and have Christmas dinner with them. We didn't get to see Nehemiah and new cousin Macie but did get to see Keira and Karlee. Kemper enjoyed playing with Karlee's table and watching Buddy and Raya (the doggies). He also got to meet his new cousin Maggie the night after Christmas. Maggie was asleep when Kemper met her but he was very intrigued by her in her carseat. He's really beginning to notice other babies - when we're in the stores or at a restaurant, if another baby is nearby, he really takes notice.

We were definitely sad to leave but know that we're that much closer to moving home from Germany for good. We should be back in the States by July (YAY!) in time for Auntie Ash's wedding (YAY YAY YAY Congratulations Ashley and Brian!!!!).

Enjoy the pictures, there are a TON of them but it's so hard to pick which ones to post when the subject is just so darn cute!