20 Months (almost)

This kid sure loves to smile! He has such a great personality, just loves to goof off and have fun. We have been really active lately going to the zoo, sea world, the beach, parks, pools, etc. San Diego is such a great place to live, we have so many choices every day to get outside and have fun. 
We were able to have our first family campfire with the Bowens (Brandon's boss' family). Mark sure loved the smores! He also kept reminding us that the fire was "hot."
Brandon still has no fun when he is playing with Mark... as you can see? haha yeah right! These two are like peas in a pod. Mark runs to the door now when he hears Brandon coming home from work. 
He will get SOOO excited when Brandon lets him use his drill and screwdriver. And he is always telling me what daddy built or fixed, he is VERY PROUD! If you say something is broken he will say "I fix it, need screwviviver." 

Mark and I went up to the Spirit West Coast this past weekend to visit Grandpa & Grandma Keener while they were running their booth. He had a great time and even got Grandpa to take him to the Veggieland to play a bit. Mark has really impressed Grandma with how determined he is about playing with Papa (grandpa). He will not stop till he gets his way... and how can you turn him down? 
Mark loves cars. That is all he ever wants to play anymore. Brandon took him to Walmart and bought him a big fire truck. He was so excited to "show mommy." He loves to show each of us everything he finds interesting. 
I think he looks like Brandon's mini-me in this picture. 
Memorial day we had some friends over for a BBQ then we went to the Larson Grandparents for dinner and jacuzzi. Mark even convinced daddy to take him in the pool. He was not happy when he had to get out.

Mark is definitely growing up fast. I think he might be in the beginning stages of "terrible twos." 90% of the time Mark is happy and enjoying whatever we are doing... but that other 10% watch out. He is really starting to see what he can get away with and it is definitely NOT FUN trying to figure out how to handle every situation. I know I know it is ONLY THE BEGINNING! The joys of parenting right? He really is awesome, and being able to stay home with him is truly the best gift that Brandon could ever give me. 

Mark's Famous "Good Smiles"

Mark loves to smile for the camera! No matter what mood you are in, you can't help but smile when you see a grin like this one! All you have to tell him is to give "your good smile" and he will do this everytime! He is such an awesome kid!

Meet Mark's Friends!

Mark & Brayden
Gavin, Mark, Matt & Taylor
Isabella, Cambria, Mark, Justice, Gavin & Taylor
Nora & Mark
Mark, Spencer, Nora, Nolen & Ethan
Mark & Gavin
Eleanor & Mark
Mark & Lucy
Mark & Abigail
Mark & Nathaniel
Mark & Aaron
Mark, Aaron, (forgot name) & Taylor

Easter (I know it was 2 months ago...)

It is crazy to think that Easter was 2 months ago. Time is flying by! We are just having way to much fun! =) Mark was able to attend FOUR Easter egg hunts this year. He was "surprisingly" very interested in it. He would get very excited when he saw another egg. But once he opened one he wanted to open all of them. 
I think he found more than he was supposed to at our playgroup egg hunt! oops! =) He was on a roll!
These are his friends from our mommy & me class (and some are in our playgroup as well). Aaron, Gavin, Cambria, Taylor, Madison, Kayleen & Mark are all enjoying their goodies!
Grandpa Keener reading all the kids the REAL story of Easter. Jaden only lasted there about 1 minute! haha
He loves his bunny from his Larson grandparents!

Need a Smile?

Sea World

Sea World has become our favorite place to go to lately. Brandon and I have season passes now and I think we both forgot how much we love it. Mark seems to enjoy it a whole lot as well. Mark loves elmo! And the funny thing is that it is not because of Sesame Street on tv. We hardly ever have the tv on when he is moving around, unless I am too tired in the morning to move I will put a Baby Einstein on. He loves Elmo from all the books we have with him in it. He gets very excited when he saw Elmo, and Brandon and I were both surprised that he actually stood with Elmo w/o either of us near him. He has stranger anxiety...which is FINE with me!

One of our THREE trips we took last month. Mark and I were able to spend the afternoon with Sarah and her son Noah. This part of Sea World they get to touch the starfish. Mark just likes to splash the water and boy does he want to get IN the water. You can see me holding the back of his shirt so that he does not climb in. 

There is a HUGE play area for kids. We always hit this up last, because Mark will not want to do anything else one he sees the area. Kids can run around in the bathing suits and there are different areas that have water shooting out of holes in the ground. Mark would look down in the hole and then the water would shoot at his face. He thought it was funny. He really liked climbing on the big rope nets with dad. Brandon even took him up on the big fort and let him run around on all the bridges. 
He is actually very interested in all the attractions. He likes to pet the stingrays and the starfish. He really liked the penguin exhibit and the sharks. When we were in the saltwater aquarium, every window he went up to got a big "WOHHHH!" He always has to see the ducks and flamingos.


He is very good at repeating whatever animal we say he is looking at. But sometimes he is more interested in the tiny little fish that is swimming right by his face then the GIANT fish farther back in the water. 

18 Months

Mark is no longer a baby, he is such a little man! I have heard this is one of the best ages, and so far I am loving (almost) every minute of it. We have been having so much fun lately, being able to stay home with him has been such a great blessing and such a blast! Mark is enjoying his first 7-eleven slurpee in the above pictures. Needless to say he loved it! Mark is extremely talkative. Sometimes (especially in the car) he never stops talking, of course most of it I have no idea what he is saying. He loves pointing out things he sees while we are driving (like motorcycle, bicycle, bus, trolley, car, truck, semi, mailman). He says all those words very clearly as well. The first time he noticed the trolley, he was like "Momma Momma!! WOOOOOA!" We finally got him to count to three and now brandon is working on him to go all the way up to ten. He knows a lot of animals (elephant, tiger, lion, dog, cat, frog, bird, giraffe, monkey, flamingo, turtle etc)
Brandon and I took him to feed the ducks at Lake Murray a couple weeks ago. He would try and throw so far, and the bread would either land behind him or right at his feet. He even decided to eat some of the bread we were giving to the ducks.
Mark loves to visit his dad at work. He knows the parking lot before we even pull into it, and he HAS to point out that daddy's truck is there. He likes to give dad a hug first then he wants down and he likes to wander around the shop checking all the wood and tools out.

He is obsessed with tape measures now (measure as he says). He walks around the house and literally measures different things. Just the other day when we were at Brandon's work, I was holding him while he had the measure and he pulled it out, put it up to my chest and said "boobies!" It was quite hilarious!
Mark loves to be cozy with me. In the morning if we do not have to be anywhere, we will get a blanket and I will have my coffee and he will have his milk and we will sit together in our big leather chair and watch a baby einstein. It is probably one of my favorite times with him. Brandon got to enjoy a whole day with Mark on Saturday last week. I was under the weather and Brandon took care of Mark all day. They went grocery shopping, fed the ducks, went to an Easter egg hunt, went clothes shopping and saw the airplanes at Gillespie field. Brandon enjoyed every minute (except the TWO poopy diapers he had to change! haha) Oh and he loves to help either one of us cook in the kitchen. We have a stool for him to stand on and he will help us get dinner together.

Keener Family Picture Day

We had a Keener family picture day last December. I finally got the pictures to post and show everyone. The biggest smile we could get out of Mark that was was in the above picture. Every other picture he is completely straight faced, no expression. I told Brandon that Mark looks how Brandon feels. He is not a big fan of pictures in general, unless he can be a big goof ball.
From the left: Brittany, David, Jaden, Karalee, Ethan, Mom, Madison, Dad, Brandon, Mark, Me, & Shawn

And we all thought that Madison was going to be the difficult one that would not smile, but it was Mark. We even had to pick and choose which type of picture we would take because he ended up only wanting to be held by certain people at certain times. Now if you ask him to smile he was crunch up his nose and give you a BIG grin. He is the best...seriously it is not because I am bias. =)

17 Months

Just last night, Brandon and I are realizing that Mark is not a little baby anymore. As sad as that can be, since he is growing up so fast, he is quite an incredible kid. He is so easy to be with. We can take him anywhere and he is always so well behaved (I am hoping this never changes! haha) We always get compliments on how calm he is in restaurants and that there is hardly any food ever on the floor when he is done eating. 
Mark just LOVES outside. In fact, every morning after he gets his banana, he asks to go "play outside." Since he has become such an active boy, I have joined a playgroup that meets multiple times a week, plus a Mommy & Me class. He seems to really be enjoying all the different things we do each week. We will go to parks, playtown (enclosed area with lots of toys, forts, jumper), libraries for storytime, zoo, seaport village, balboa park for museums, or just over to friends homes to play in their playroom. 
Mark has become very independent. He is trying to cut his own toe nails here. He also does not like to hold our hands anymore when he is walking and most of the time refuses to walk in the direction you are trying to go. Once you pick him up he will start saying "Wa Wa Wa" (meaning walk walk walk of course). He has to turn the TV on when I put in a Baby Einstein for him, and he has even started telling me when I need to change his diaper (which i hear is a great step towards potty training). 

Brandon and I decided to take Mark to Yogurt Mill the other day. I do not think I need to tell you that he was quite a fan of the yogurt! =)

My sisters and I took all the kids to Seaport Village a couple weeks ago while Brandon and David (my brother in law) enjoyed a day of fishing. The three older kids all got balloons made for them. Mark and I have been taking Madison for a partial day, for the past couple weeks to join us on our play groups. Hopefully to give Karalee a small break from chasing her around the house. One time Mark started calling me "T" because Madison was. Every time he is with her, he wants to sit in a chair like she does, sit in the car like she does... you know all the big kid stuff! 
Brandon and I also took Mark to Seaport Village for a good ol' fashion family afternoon. Mark was having a great time running away from Dad. He loves listening to the music down there and just exploring the stores. Overall everything is great with our family. Brandon got a pay cut recently as the result of our dwindling economy, but we are still blessed to have the opportunity for me to stay home. We have made a few adjustments (mainly with our TV) that now requires us to spend more time together instead of in front of the tv...bummer...not really! =) We are happy, healthy, and warm at night! Thanks to my incredible husband and awesome son!  

Emergency Room

As my sister told me this morning, Brandon and I have officially been welcomed to parenthood! Sunday night just before Mark was going to go to bed, he was being his usual crazy/silly/funny self. He likes to attack Brandon will pulling of his chest hair, grabbing his facial skin and all the while doing his way of squealing very high pitched. We think he mistepped somewhere as he was about to attack Brandon, and he fell, hitting his head against the wall and coming down on top of a medal bracket to our cable cord. (Cox put some sort of medal bracket on our cable cord to hold the cable down against the wall instead of just sticking out). 

He slit his ear pretty bad during his fall. We decided it was going to be an ER trip to make sure everything was okay. After trying to locate the Childrens ER at Grossmont, asking a nurse at the regular ER at Grossmont, getting lost by her directions, then finding the Children's Urgent Care at Grossmont and them telling us it cannot be glued due to the location and they to not do stitches. We ended up at the Children's ER off the 805. (Since I had gone in the ER at Grossmont, and saw that every chair was practically taken (most of them being hispanic......I will leave it at that.....), we decided we would give the Children's ER a shot at being quicker. 
As minutes turned to hours and... hours turned to very irritated, tired and grumpy parents. We finally got seen and Mark had to get 2 stitches in his ear. He was a very happy kid until it turned to the 5th hour of our wait and it being almost midnight, he was definitely done for the day. They had to wrap him up like a burrito, strap him down and tape the straps b/c he was still getting loose. He kept saying "uh oh" while the doctor was stitching him, and of course mommy and daddy (oh crying/screaming of course). We got home a bit after 1am.
Needless to say, I do not think he even knows that Sunday evening really happened. He slept till 9am on Monday (poor dad had to get up for work at 6:30am). He was in a great mood all day today and I have yet to see him touch his ear. The stitches are supposed to dissolve so we do not have to go back. Hopefully we will not have to have too many of those late night ER visits, I am not sure how Brandon's sanity would hold up watching so many (possibly) illegals getting seen before us...okay I will not say any more. =)