Snowy Day after Christmas

More recent Kjell photos

Kjell hanging out under the table at Gram and Grandbobby's house.








Kjell at the playground at our neighborhood school.








Kjell realized that he loves the slide. Daddy just held his hand and Kjell had the time of his life.

Kjell in November

Kjell at his second Ducks' game









With Uncle Jon








Uncle Jon and Raiza










Too sick to go to school, but not too sick to be cute.








Kjell's new thing last week was that he loved wearing multiple bibs. I think he is wearing 6 in this photo. Not sure why he is roaring like a lion with all the bibs on.







Jake may be hurt and they may be struggling, but Kjell still loves his Panthers.











Post Thanksgiving dinner. Kjell and Jamie with Kjell's buddy Jeffrey and Jeffrey's Daddy, Brian.






After Thanksgiving, with his buddy Jeffrey










With the Jude!

In OR, but still rooting for the Panthers

Kjell loves his Panthers.

Ducks at the Big House

The Wolverines of the University of Michigan were great hosts to the Oregon Ducks during week #2 of the college football season. Not only did they roll over and let the Ducks walk all over them, but most of the fans had left Michigan Stadium by the end of the third quarter, which left us with plenty of leg room. Go Ducks!

Kjell walks

Our son may be 14 1/2 months old, but until today, he wasn't a walker. That all started to change last night and officially changed in earnest today. See the video for footage of some of his first steps!

Visiting Great Grandma, Crouching Kjellybean Hidden "Nuuu", Lounging

Kjell is very busy now. You can see him crouching here. He also does a lot of walking around the furniture, and then needs to rest--in this case with a little CareBear circa 1984 or so.

The Busy Bean

The Blurs Called July and August

So, July and August have really gotten away from us. I can hardly believe that Jamie starts school to begin his MAT program next week and that I begin school inservice days the following Monday. We have meant to do a better job keeping this page updated. However, the move and settling in, as well as our many trips up and down Oregon's highways have kept us hopping and mostly away from real computer time.

Kjell has taken three steps, but no real repeat performances of that feat have occurred in the last two weeks. We did get to introduce Kjell to his Grandma Georgia. She is ninety now and recently moved to a foster care facility where she seems to be doing very well. She looked pretty in her favorite color the day that we saw her and even remembered Kjell's name during our conversation. Short term memory is her biggest struggle right now, but his "beautiful blue eyes" made quite an impression.

Kjell also is making some more sounds and noises. He is starting to mimic us much more. He makes quite a few animal noises, though sometimes he pretends that he has forgotten them. I think he just likes hearing Jamie and I moo and oink. We just finished up with two nice visits with Grandmas. Sara was here to give me time to work in my classroom. Many thanks, Gram! Then we went to Astoria to visit Grandma Judy where we enjoyed some seafood and the local farmers' market.

We're also mostly installed at our new place. We are accepting visitors. So, book your reservations soon. We miss all of our other coast friends and family. In our "free" time we've been exploring Salem a bit and becoming reaquainted with it. Kjell rode the carousel at the riverfront park and seemed to be wary of all those horses. He didn't cry exactly, but was very vigilant like he was with his first swimming lessons. His most recent lessons have demonstrated much more comfort with the water. However, the local pool is too cold. He prefers Gramma Sara's country club pool with it's almost bathlike water. We make do with what we've got in town, but sometimes we have to leave the pool early since our skinny little guy ends up with a blue quivering lip before the end of the half-hour.

Kjell Practices Standing

As of today, July 4th, Kjell can stand on his own. Admittedly, it's only for very brief stretches of time, but it's independent standing nonetheless. There's even video to prove it. I think it's funny that after a few seconds of standing, he starts wiggling around to celebrate his accomplishment. Of course, the wiggling knocks him over.

Kjellybeans in June

Some of our more ardent blog watchers (ahem...Auntie Anna...) have been asking, perhaps even needling, us for some more photos of The Bean. So, without too much further ado, here he is enjoying some of his more recent activities. He loved his airplane ride--yet another way that he takes after Daddy. He also has been getting a huge kick out of Grandbobby and his many tricks. These talents include the following(note this list is not by any means exhaustive): funny faces, guitar strumming and guitar lessons, fishy claps, exaggerated "Ohs" and magic carpet rides. The rest of us are a little bit of chopped liver right now, but we're trying to console ourselves with the fact that Kjell is getting pretty heavy to pack around. That's the price Grandbobby must pay for Kjell's adoration of him! I think he's okay with it. Kjell has also recently had several firsts. He took his first swimming lessons. These were met with a constant state of high alert and vigilance over his own safety (here he takes after Mama). Let's just say we won't be expecting him to take after Grandpa Nels with his great swimming prowess. He has just been really enjoying his time with his Oregon Grands. He loves the cows outside Gma Judy's house. He touches his stroller wheels on both the Pacific and Atlantic's shores in the course of one month's time. Not everybody can claim that! He was introduced to peanut butter sandwiches by Gramma Sara and can now safely enjoy monster cookies as well. Thank heavens for no peanut allergies so far....knock on wood...we feel bad for our dear friends who do have them, because boy is peanut butter good. Kjell has also been enjoying the bounty of Oregon's berry harvest. We've had sweet delicious strawberries, and now some raspberries and blackberries. He "helped" his gram and Mama make freezer jam too. He comprehends many basic sentences now. Unfortunately, he seems to also have some frustration at not being able to say more "real" words to us. This results in a fair amount of whining and grunting at times. We hope this will suffice for an update. I may try to put some more pictures up soon.

Let him eat cake!

June 1st, 2007 was a big day in the Peters family. On that day, we celebrated Kjell's FIRST BIRTHDAY! He had a big day. We started with our customary early morning wakeup (about 6:00 AM). We came downstairs at Gramma and Grandbobby's house and Kjell was most thrilled by his birthday balloon. He LOVES balloons. Once he got over the excitement of the balloon, he opened lovely cards and presents from all of his favorite family and friends. There were many favorites, including the stackable cups from Gray, Heather and his best gal-pal, Lucy. After he played and opened presents, Maija, Grandbobby and I all left Kjell in Gramma's capable hands, while we went up to Salem to try to find a house. We'd been up 5 times previously with little to no luck. Our luck turned on Kjell's birthday. We found a great house in West Salem that was right in our price range and had almost everything we were looking for (see photo in this post). We can't wait to start hosting our first visitors. Once we finished our house hunt, we headed back to Roseburg for Kjell's big night of birthday cake and ice cream. This was his second birthday cake. On Aprill 22nd, before we left North Carolina, Grandma Penny made a very cute Duck cake for our little man that he enjoyed, but without the normal mess that you expect from a first birthday. On Friday, he was much messier with his second cake. I've attached video of both below. I apologize for its length (almost 8 minutes), but he's just so cute, I have trouble editing out any of the fun! Cake #2, the messier one, starts at about the 3:45 mark on the video. Enjoy!