K E K O C

New photos of the kids on the photos page for our family overseas.

Not getting much of an opportunity to post here anymore, as when I get the chance, I usually pontificate at another of my sites. While I'm here though, I'll update Michaels progress. He is now walking, and has been doing reasonably well since a day after his 1st birthday. He'd taken several steps here and there, but he is now able to walk unaided navigate ie turn, stop etc without having to sit down or grab something.

Hope you like the photos.
posted by Vlado Kekoc at 9:39 PM

It has been months since I last blogged. This blog will attempt to record some of the milestones Michael has surpassed since the last blog.
I've got these written on a Post-It note and here goes the informations transfer.
13th October - Fell out of the pram, landing SMACK on his forhead on the hard floor of K-mart Airport West.
19th October - Stood with the aid of a coffee table ie lifted himself from a crawling/sitting position.
24th October - Walked around the coffee table
27th October - Stood for about 30 seconds, unassisted ie let go of coffee table
29th October - Stood up for about 30 seconds, unassisted from a sitting position ie didn't use coffee table etc to get to a standing position.

Something that this list has highlighted to me is how quickly one forgets the significance of such milestones.

More recently, ie Sunday 9th December, Michael clapped without being prompted. He has been clapping for a while but tended to hold Michele's or my hands and make us clap in a similar manner to how we were forcing him to clap.

There's a month worth of milestone missing between 29th of October and the 9th of December, but these will require some thought, or are lost forever.
posted by Vlado Kekoc at 7:33 PM

Today saw Michael lift himself to a standing position unaided for the first time. We were at Michele's parents place and Michael held on to a cardboard box and stood up, soon later he lost his balance and fell over.
posted by Vlado Kekoc at 9:04 PM

Michael crawled yesterday. Until now, he's been using his legs to push himself around but his arms hadn't helped his movement until yesterday. In the past, whenever he'd try to use his arms, he'd go into "sky dive mode" (ie pivoted on his stomach with his arms out straight this hands twirling/circling and legs up and kicking). Yesterday he coordinated his limbs and did his first commando crawl to get to the TV remote control.
posted by Vlado Kekoc at 10:42 AM

Played indoor cricket this evening and won my first ever "man of the match". I was told that I was entitled to a drink at the sports bar as a result. I ordered my drink and had the certificate taken away and RIPPED in half :( Had I know that I didn't get to keep the certificate, I wouldn't have taken the drink. Next time I'll know better.
posted by Vlado Kekoc at 9:51 PM

Michael's first word some time ago ie a couple of months ago, were "De Te" which is "where are you" in Ukrainian (basically the Ukrainian equivalent of "peek-a-boo". Some time ago he also said "Tato" ie dad in Ukrainian but it was more a case of him mimicing the sounds. Well, this morning he said "Tato" without being coaxed. Michele is now trying desperately to get him to say "Mummy". :)
posted by Vlado Kekoc at 11:50 AM

Michael's second tooth cut today (or maybe last night).
posted by Vlado Kekoc at 6:05 PM

Michael's third and fourth teeth have also cut through today. No wonder he's been crabbie lately, as crabbie as he get.

Just returned seven videos that I borrowed last week. They were

Mulan (for Tatiana) - Tatiana loved it and I didn't mind it

A Bugs Life (for Tatiana) - pretty average

Clerks - I liked it, Michele HATED it

Chasing Amy - I thought it was only OK, Michele liked it better than Clerks

Dogma - Both of us liked this

Monty Pythons Holy Grail - Good BUT not as good as I had expected :(

Pi - Excellent.

posted by Vlado Kekoc at 10:30 PM