Shade took his first steps a couple of days ago! He has been shy about walking because he fell down and hurt himself a couple of times, plus we selfishly wanted him to walk by himself at home first, so we only encouraged him to walk on the weekends. He has only taken one or two steps at a time, but today he took five steps without help, and we were lucky enough to get it on camera:
Shade also hit another major milestone during the Thanksgiving break (we are a little slow updating the blog because Kathy is busy with school and I'm just lazy). He got his very own toilette and went pee-pee in it the very next day!
A few days later when we were visiting my sister Colby in Chicago, he went poo-poo in the big boy potty!
Kathy is studying (she does a lot of that lately), so this is Kellen. Shade is now 13months old, and he is learning very quickly. He is getting better at communicating and can say a few words. His first words, in order, are: Dada, No, Mom, Dog, and Uh Oh. His first sentence was "Whip it, whip it good!".
He hasn't quite walked yet, but he is getting really close. He can stand up without holding on to anything, but he won't move his feet unless we hold his hands.
We had a lot of fun for Halloween. Shady was a tiger! He went trick-or-treating with his dad and got a lot of loot for his parents to eat.
I have been very distracted lately, blogging is low on my to-do list. We finally got the internet at home!!! It was getting too hard for me to do all my school stuff in Detroit and be able to leave at a reasonable hour... :P
I usually start posts on this thing and then post the pictures and videos later, especially when I had to do it at the library. So there are "new/published" posts about Shade's 11 month mark and 1st birthday located in earlier posts if anyone is interested!
This "accelerated" program has been a bit more hectic than I had anticipated. I usually end up having 2-4 tests each week (I had 6 this week, luckily 3 were online so I didn't have to study as much :P). I have already been to the hospital to help patients, that part is pretty cool. I am actually glad that I waited to do nursing school until now just because I have a lot more life experience (especially having been a surgical patient myself), so I can relate to the patients a lot better. Plus, already having a 4-year degree in health makes the whole process that much easier.
Of course one major downside to me going back to school is being away from my family so much, especially Shade after having been able to spend all day with him before. Now I am lucky to see Shade and Kellen for a couple of hours at night on the weekdays and even on the weekends when I am home, I can't spend a lot of time actually playing with them. I can't even imagine what it must be like for medical students... :P
Luckily, Shade LOVES the Beauchamps (I sometimes wonder if he would rather stay there than come home with us... :P). And Kellen has been amazing filling in as the primary caregiver at home as far as getting Shade up and off to daycare and often picking Shade up after work as well, AND making dinner almost every night :). I am so lucky to have Kellen, and that he is so supportive and helpful and willing to change ALL the poopy diapers!
So one side effect of Kellen being home more than me is that Shade sure has become a Daddy's Boy! I expected it to happen eventually, I just didn't think it would happen so fast!
See how happy Shade is to be with his dad?
Lately Shade has been falling asleep on Kellen without much warning. Perhaps we keep him up too late because neither of us get to see him very much. But Shade doesn't seem to fall asleep like this on me anymore... :P
Kellen and I went to the same high school. We had similar friends and even went to a dance together, but we never really socialized with each other.
Kellen went to Spain for 2 yrs and I left for Brazil for 1½ yrs about 2 months after he got back. We didn’t have our second date until after all that in December 2003.
We dated for awhile, then he asked me to marry him while hiking the Subway in Zion’s National Park (we highly recommend this hike). I said yes…the last several hours would have been very awkward otherwise :)
We lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for 3 yrs while finishing up school. Then Kellen got a job in finance at Ford that took us out to Michigan. We have lived here since 2007 and love it. Of course it helps to have such great friends around us. Kellen now works for Bosch.
We had our first baby in October 2008 – Shadrach (Shade) Earl Wilson. He is an awesome little kid, and we sure like him a lot. At least we have some family in Chicago that get to see him more than once a year.
I am starting Nursing school in fall 2009. It will help make my other degree stronger and make me a more valuable employee. Here’s to eternal schooling!
