Things Remembered

 This is going to be a hard post for me, but I know I need to write it.  I know I will never forget the major things about Kellen... what a mama's boy he was, his silly faces, how big he would smile.  As time goes on though, I am so afraid that I might forget the little things.  Which is why I wanted to take some time to memorialize some of the little things that I remember now that with time may slip from my memory.
So let me introduce you to my sweet Kellen...

• He loved bath time.  And not even necessarily his own bath.  Once he was mobile, all I would have to do is turn on the bath water and he would come crawling as quick as he could to the bath.  My favorite thing was before he could pull himself up, he would crawl to the bath and just rock back and forth on all fours, banging his head against the bath each time until I picked him up and leaned him against the bath so he could see in.  He would put his hands under the running water and squeal with happiness.  Farrah would sometimes splash him (or pour water on him with her shovel if my head was turned away) but he never seemed to mind.  He just loved the water.  
• He loved to be outside.  Whenever my parents babysat him they would say how fussy he would be when I left because he was such a mamas boy and they quickly learned the only cure for his fussiness was either a bottle or going outside.  He would look at the trees, grass, flowers, whatever and just instantly calm down.  It was his happy place.  
• He always seemed like he didn't want to miss something important.  He wasn't a very good sleeper.  At 11 months he was still waking up a couple times a night.  His naps were sporadic.  Sometimes he'd nap for 20 minutes, sometimes if I was lucky it would be an hour or two, sometimes he would just boycott them all together.  I'm happy now that he spent so much time awake.  I'd gladly give up sleep to have that time with him.  
• He knew how to be sneaky.  He used to crawl towards somewhere he wasn't supposed to go like the bathroom or my office and when I'd call his name he would turn back towards me and give me this big toothy smile and then take off crawling as fast as he could to see if he could make it before I picked him up.  I hope I never lose that image of him.  
• He hated having his diaper changed.  Not because of the actual diaper change but because he didn't like to lay still.  He would instantly flip over as soon as I laid him down.  I would have to resort to singing crazy songs, making animal noises or something equally crazy to distract him long enough for a quick diaper change.  Then I usually had to try to pull his pants back up as he was crawling away because any crazy faces I made only distracted him long enough to do the diaper part.  
• He quickly learned how to tell when we arrived at our destination in the car.  In the beginning, he hated the car.  As time went on he got better about being in the car but it still wasn't his favorite thing.  But he learned that when I turned off the car that we had arrived at our destination so if he was fussy, as soon as I turned off the car he would stop fussing and start kicking his legs with excitement.  When I would get out of the car and open the door to get him he would have the biggest smile on his face.  Not sure if he was excited to get out of the car or see me... I'll just say it was me :)
• He was such a peanut... especially at the beginning.  I could write a whole post about his weight issues, in fact I think I did :)  He was so teeny tiny which was funny because he was 8 lbs 1 oz when he was born so it's not like he was a preemie or anything.  We later learned that his weight gaining issues were from a fun Acid Reflux issue which made him spit up all the time.  Around 6 months when he was doing the army crawl I had to literally change him about 7 times a day because he was spit up his entire meal then drag himself right through it.  We seemed to get it in check the last few months and he was starting to chunk out.  Nowhere near the level of chubbiness that his sister was at that age but chunkier nonetheless. 
• He loved "chasing his sister."  He obviously wasn't even walking yet, much less chasing after her but he absolutely loved to be held by mommy or daddy and have us chase after his sister.  That brought out the deep belly laughs in him.  He had a special relationship with his sister.  They were best buds.  Here's a video of me chasing them.  For some reason my new phone has had an issue with the sound on the camera so there isn't much sound to the video.  Maybe it was meant to be that way.  You don't need to hear the video to know how excited he was to play this game.  I will miss those handful of moments when all 4 of us were together, not distracted by anything and just playing together.  

 

• He loved animals.  My poor pets.  Kellen would always crawl right over to them and grab them. 
   
  My friend Carla made this photo collage of Kellen and our dog Jimmy Choo. He was so fascinated by him.  Jimmy tolerated him the best he could but he learned to run away when the baby got too close.  Smart dog.  
• His favorite "game" was to crawl over to our tv stand and pull down each dvd one by one, stare at it for a moment, then throw it on the floor and continue on with the next one.  I always wondered what was going on in that little brain of his.  He had mastered his concentrating face.  You could tell he was a deep thinker.

It's hard to imagine after listing these that I could possibly ever forget them.  I'd like to think that at 80 years old I'll be telling my grandkids about all the funny things their uncle Kellen did.  I sure hope that's the case.  But for now, I'll still write things down, reflect on the joy he brought us and thank God for these precious memories I have of him.