A Jazzy Christmas

So we're still catching up on some video we took back in December. In this video we went to our favorite coffee shop on a Sunday evening for a special holiday jazz concert. It was pretty cool. As I love music you can see me bopping my head and "dancing". But the real star in this video is the cool boy that was sitting in front of us. Check him out!

Pickle Eater

So Mama took this video back on Dec 13th, and while it's not very "action packed" I'm looking pretty cute eating my pickle and kicking my legs sitting on a "big people" chair. I also make a few nice "sour pickle" faces that will make you laugh. Enjoy!

And here are some photos too:

Christmas Morning (pt 1)

Well, it's finally here...part 1 of the Christmas morning video. Papa got up early that morning and went to take care of the 3 chihuahuas that we are dog sitting for. Mama tried to keep me upstairs in bed til my usual 9:30 wake up time, but somehow I knew that at 8:15 we should wake up and get downstairs. So we went downstairs and Mama put me down to be greeted by Bongo and Jack like I am every morning...but alas! What was that over there on a shelf at my eye level, but a pile of colorfully wrapped packages! Hmmm, I better investigate! So, at full speed I headed straight for them. Papa was not home yet, so Mama needed to intervene and get me to the kitchen and FAST! So we ate some breakfast and finally Papa came home. Of course, then we needed to wait for Papa to set up his video camera and Mama to get her camera ready...I was just about ready to pop! But finally it was time to get at those packages.

Some of the super fun presents that you'll see in this video are my boing, boing hammer, my lil tykes pda, and my musical turtles! I helped Mama and Papa open most of their presents too, but Papa got to open a super "special" present from Santa...wait til you see what it is!

The Children's Museum - I'm Not Too Little!

While Papa is working really hard at making the "big" video from Christmas day, me and Mama thought we'd show you a little bit of our trip to the Children's Museum. It was our friend Finn's 3rd birthday and it was between snow storms the Saturday before Christmas.

Mama had been thinking for a long time that I was too little for the Children's Museum and that I wouldn't have any fun. But now that I'm a big one year old, boy, was she ever wrong! She took so many videos of me that she's going to have to put them on the blog in little bits. But we thought that you might like to see a little sneak preview while you're all waiting for the video from Christmas.

So first a little video, then some photos...as usual, I'm terribly adorable!

Here I am really fascinated by the fish in the fish tank.


And then there was this place where I could splash in the water and play with some boats and stuff.

Then, Papa and I got to "drive" some kind of pretend truck thing. You can see me here talking on the CB radio. My handle is "little buddy".

Here I am with Finn's big brother Calvin. He's 5. We were flying a make believe space ship.

And here I am driving a Seattle Metro bus.

Merry Christmas!

As usual Mama and Papa took video...and lots of it! But for now, here are a couple photo "teasers" from our Christmas morning.

Here I am with my new "boing, boing" hammer...it makes some really funny noises that make me giggle really hard. Thanks Uncle Matt, Aunt Sylvia, and cousin Eva!

Hey Mama, check this funny thing out!

Here's one of our little stack of presents from Santa and family. We don't have a chimney so Mama had to hang our stockings next to the window for Santa to fill.

Here I am in Papa's new frying pan...it's quite a fun vehicle on the carpet in the living room!

I was telling Mama all about how smooth the ride in the frying pan was.

And here, I am just looking absolutely adorable in my new Christmas jammies!

Snow Days Continued

So, as you all probably know, the snow is still here in Seattle and this is very, very strange. Here is a bit of a compilation of video of a walk we took (on Friday) into the Fremont neighborhood (next one over from ours) to mail off some Christmas packages to our family in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas. The walk was pretty icy (you can see our sled actually travelling on its own for a bit in the video) but I was so warm and comfy riding in my carrier on Mama that I actually napped a lot of the way.

On the way there, we stopped to pay our respects to the Fremont Troll who was all bedecked for the holidays. Mama decided she would help him look even more festive. The troll is a Seattle icon. We also saw our neighbor, Jen, and her dog...ran into her at the grocery store, also stocking up on supplies.

Papa also included some video of the big kids sledding down at Gas Works Park, which is just two blocks from where we live and INCREDIBLY popular when it snows and you'll see why!

MORE and MORE SNOW!!!

Here's just a few pics from our snow adventures today...there are videos to come, just don't have the time to post them at the moment, but couldn't wait to share a little bit!

The camera was on some funky setting, but the pic, especially me & that smile of mine, turned out pretty darn cute, so Mama couldn't resist posting.

Here's one on the normal setting:

Here I am in our big plastic bin/sled, heading off to the grocery store for supplies.


Here's a picture of Papa pulling the sled full of groceries in the Winter Wonderland that is Seattle today. Mama was singing "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow" to me while we walked!

Here's some cute ones of me and my pinky little nose and cheeks after we got back from our snowy adventure to the store.

Belated Birthday

So last Thursday, late in the day, Mama & I were just hanging out in the living room, when Papa showed up with that day's mail. In his hand was a little brown paper wrapped box. Somehow I just knew it was for me. I immediately got a big grin on my face and started giggling. Papa handed it to Mama and I headed straight for it and started patting it knowingly. Sure enough, it was a belated birthday present from my Aunt Diane, Uncle Rick and cousins Ben & Evan. We had alot of fun opening it...just watch:

In case you couldn't tell what the gift was, they were crayons that are designed for little hands like the ones I have and a drawing pad. First thing I did was clink them together which was fun, then I started trying to chew on the crayon part. Papa had just said that he thought I might be a little too young for them still and what did I do??? I put the crayon to the paper and made my first fabulous scribble. Mama started crying. She's silly that way. She's been excited about me and crayons for a long time now. Of course, as soon as I was done making a couple marks on the paper, not only did the crayons go back in my mouth, but I started gnawing on the drawing pad too...so, I'm still allowed to use both, Mama & Papa just need to be close by when I do.

So here it is, my very first "drawing". The more "perfect" looking scribbles are Mama's when she was showing me what to do with the crayons. But mine is the really fabulous blue one that kind of goes off the page at the top. Pretty nice huh? Mama is so proud!

SNOW DAY IN SEATTLE!!!

So when we woke up this morning there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground!!! That's pretty weird for Seattle! And now it's 3 in the afternoon and the snow is still falling. Not really hard but enough to cover up your tracks and make it all pretty again.

After letting the doggies out in their pen where they romped and jumped and ran around like crazy in the snow, Mama fed me some breakfast then got me bundled up to check out the snow for the first time in my life. We headed down the street to Gas Works Park where there were tons of kids (young and old) sledding and sliding and playing like crazy on the big hill down there. Mama was only able to take this one video and a couple of photos though because her camera battery ran out...oh well, you'll just have to imagine all the people at the park!

Mama was having a hard time getting us both in the picture and both looking at the same time.

She finally got me to look up into the snow and she got this cute shot of me.

At the Playground

So the weather has gotten a bit chilly for Seattle in December and I've actually had the opportunity to wear my winter coat quite a few times. But with the cold, we're actually seeing some sunshine too, so Mama, Papa and I went to play at the playground the other day. Sunshine is kind of rare out here, especially in the winter, so we try to take advantage of it's presence as much as possible.

There was this cool rocking horse thingy that I played on for a while (and being blue, it just looked fabulous with my eyes!) and then I climbed some stairs on this wooden jungle gym and ended up going down the slide! Boy was I ever having fun! I even learned to push myself down the slide myself (of course Papa was very close by the whole time and Mama was just a step away from him, camera in hand, of course).

Here I am peeking cutely out from underneath my hood.

Concentrating on some kids in the distance...I love watching other kids!

Waving at the mamarazzi!

Having a blast with Papa at the slide!

Pretzel Eater

Here's a video of me, hanging out with Mama & Papa while they were watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" the other night. I'm just eating pretzels, but in my "college" sweater with my rosy cheeks, Mama just couldn't take the camera off me! She's kind of silly sometimes.

Mama gave me the end of a bag of mini pretzels to snack on and be entertained by. If there was any more than just a few crumbs left I would have been sure to dump them all over the floor (much to the thrill of Bongo & Jack). Well, having my own bag of snacks was just FABULOUS! See how much fun I have. Oh the little things in life bring so much joy!

Kieran in a Box

So lately I've been learning about taking things out...like toys out of the box, or folded laundry out of the basket, etc. Well, on this particular occasion, after I took all the toys out of this container, I thought it would be fun to get "in" to the container myself. And though it's just the size of a shoe box, I totally fit.

Then, I got "out" of the box and put the empty bottle "in" the box...and banged it around a little bit for good measure.

Then I looked to Mama, with one of my new big boy expressions, and gave her a sly smile for the camera.

Kieran's FIRST STEPS

Before Mama goes any further, she wanted to report that I, Kieran Cormac Schelly Slavin, actually took my first 3 steps two nights ago, Tuesday night. Unfortunately, neither Mama nor Papa had their cameras ready, so you'll just have to take their word for it. I was holding onto the baby gate between the kitchen and the living room, I turned to face Papa who was sitting on the floor in the living room, I let go of the baby gate and took 3 very careful, and wobbly, small, little steps til I was able to grab hold of Papa. Mama and Papa thought this was pretty cool.

I do a lot of standing on my own these days, not moving, but not holding on to anything either. I like to get into a squatting position too and just balance there for a while.

Mama and Papa think I'll be really walking soon. But Mama keeps teasing that she's going to keep tickling me behind my knees so that I stay a "baby" a little bit longer...crawling everywhere instead of walking.

Mama and Papa promise to try to capture me doing some of my standing/balancing/first steps...unfortunately I make it very difficult every time they pull out their cameras, I immediately get down on my knees and head at full speed towards them.

Kieran and the Ladies

So, as you might imagine, I'm pretty popular with the ladies. Recently Mama took some photos of me with a couple of my favorite girls.

Here I am with my friend Viviana. She's a much older girl, she's 5! She had been trying to hold me and snuggle with me all night long (she really likes babies and big toddler boys like myself). Eventually, I kind of thought it was fun getting a big hug like that from such a pretty and fun girl. So then Viviana and I posed for Mama...we're pretty good posers don't you think?



The next day I found myself at the Mosaic Coffeehouse with my usual girlfriend Mia. We've just really gotten into waving at each other and holding hands. It makes our mamas all silly and giddy when we do it...it's pretty funny. Mia and I have lots of fun together.

Kieran does Calvin Klein

So Mama took these pictures of me one night when I was just hanging out playing my piano. (As you can see, I like to have my bench upside down beside me when I play... it helps with my creative process.)

I guess because my pants were falling down and I kept stepping on the heel of them and they came down even further, it reminded her of some advertising campaign for blue jeans back in the 80s or 90s or something. I'm not really sure what she was talking about, but she thought you all might get a kick out of them.

Also, you may or may not be able to see but if you look up close on my face I've got what Mama called a 5 oclock shadow of sweet potatos from dinner that night, plus some other assorted smudges and dirt. That seemed to make Mama laugh even more...the idea of the sophisticated Calvin Klein model all covered in food!

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Finally...THE PRESENTS!

So, I actually got to open my presents before the singing and the cake, but it took us a little longer to put together the video to post on the blog...I send a big thank you out to everyone who gave me a present and to all my friends who came to my first birthday celebration. An extra big thank you goes to my Grandma Shirley, PaPa, Aunt Debra, Bryan, John, GranSmoky, Opa, and Uncle Silly Mark for remembering my birthday and sending gifts from afar!

Papa got a little fancy with this video (practicing for momNpoparazzi) - hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed opening my presents! YAY!!!


Here are some of my friends that came to my party.
Miss Mia (Ellie's in the background with Mama)

Here I am "opening a present" from Ollie and Viviana, but I'm actually just totally fascinated with Viviana's beads. (In the background is our friend Oz and Ollie & Viviana's Mama, Jen).

Here I am playing with Oz, Quinn, and Mia.

Here's Quinn checking out my cool lion ride. His Mama, Amy, is in the background.


And THEN, my big birthday present came out. Thank you to all of my grandparents for making this birthday present possible! I LOVE IT! Watch and see how much!


Here's a few still shots of me and my new piano.

I was born to play!

Rock n Roll!

Love this little bench!

Happy 1st Birthday to ME! (Part 2)

So here's a little bit more video from Papa's camera. It's the birthday song again, but there's more to this one...blowing out the candles and eating cake too! (The lighting, sound, and general quality is better too - AND we had time to edit it too! )

Happy 1st Birthday to ME!

So, yesterday was my BIRTHDAY! I didn't really know what that meant most of the day. Mama kept singing to me and getting big smiles on her face. Papa kept talking to me about it. But I still didn't get it...until...the people started showing up...and they had presents! And then there was a cake and everybody sang the birthday song to me! And then we played with all my new toys and books! All of us, grown ups and kids alike! YAY! How much fun is that! Mama says I have to wait a whole year to have another birthday again, but she said (with a twinkle in her eye and a grin on her face) that something called Christmas is coming really soon and it's almost as fun as a birthday...sometimes BETTER! WOW! I'm not sure I believe it!

Here I am sitting in front of the birthday cake Mama made for me. She used a chocolate cake recipe that GranSmoky got from her Mama, my great Grandma Frances. Our friend Lindsay let Mama borrow a pan that was in the shape of a giant cupcake - that was pretty cool. You can see me in this picture, all my friends are singing to me and I'm contemplating whether they are in tune or not...they were!

Mama took a little bit of the cake and made a special little "K" cake for me to eat after everybody was done singing and Mama helped me blow out the candles...and I did eat it! (We have really cute video of all of this, but it is on Papa's camera and we need his help to get it on the blog.)

Here's an unedited video of all my friends singing to me (from Mama's camera). It's not the greatest video, but boy was is fun to have all those people singing, and the cake had candles on it and they were on fire! That was really cool!

There's lots more to come! Keep checking back!