Baby Sings The Blues

Dan is a big fan of the blues. Whenever Keira and him are driving around, instead of playing children's songs, he plays the blues in his car. She bops along to the music and really gets into it!

He has a really funny story where many many years ago when he was just discovering the blues, he was in a bar in Maine and this amazing guy was playing on stage. After the show, the man was sitting at a table with some fellow musicians. Dan approached him to tell him how much he enjoyed the show, which the guy was very happy to hear. They chatted for a bit and Dan told him that he was amazing and he really should think about doing it full time because of how great he was. The guy laughed and thanked Dan for his kindness. It wasn't until a few years later that he realized that he was giving career advice to B.B. King. Obviously he was already doing just fine without it, huh? LOL

Dan has always wanted to play an instrument and I tried to teach him piano once. He was doing really well, but his busy schedule was keeping him from getting practice. One day, Keira and I were at the mall and I saw an instruction CD for learning to play the harmonica. I thought it would be a perfect instrument since he could mess around with it while he was working on other things since a harmonica is so compact and easy to bring with you. That was a while ago and he hasn't had the time to mess around with it.

Keira found it the other day and wanted to know what it was. I took it and blew into it for a second and that was all it took! She was having a BLAST playing it and next thing I knew, she was singing the blues. She sounded great! She would play the harmonica, then stop and sing "Mommy Mommy Mommy!" Play again, then stop and sing "Daddy Daddy Daddy!" Play again, then stop and sing "Keira Keira Keira!" We were laughing and having such a good time! She wouldn't do it on video, but she did allow me to take a picture of her doing it, so here she is! The next blues phenomenon!

More Summer Movies and Father's Day!

We've had a great start of the weekend so far! Keira and I went to UTC to go meet Uncle Rod for lunch at Red Robin. He said that he didn't even know that they existed up until a couple of years ago. I'd never even been to one all the years they have been around. I'll tell you, I've been missing out. The food was great and what is not to love about bottomless french fries, huh? WOO HOO! :D

We're celebrating an early Father's Day today since Dan has to work tomorrow. We started the day out taking Keira to see Kung Fu Panda this morning and she did GREAT! Yay us! :) There were some scenes that were a little intense for her and she started to get a little antsy the last 15 minutes or so, but all in all, she did fantastic! It was pretty early in the morning, so there weren't alot of people which was good. The people that were there all had kids, so that way if she started to get a little freaked out, it would be ok. I LOVED it. It was so well done and there was just enough funny stuff with Jack Black to keep the parents amused. I laughed out loud several times through the movie and I think that you all will love it as well.

Dan and I also snuck away to see Indiana Jones this past week as well. It was great to see Harrison Ford back as Indy again, but I have to be honest... I didn't like it as anywhere near as much as the other ones. It was good, but I think that Dan and I have gotten to analyze things and situations too much in our older age LOL. We were just too perplexed about why anyone would take the skull in the first place...but hey....that is just us :)

I WAS excited to see the Happening at first when it was announced, but it's not getting that great of reviews. That could mean nothing, since the critics seem to hate M. Night, but we'll see. I can't wait to see The Mummy 3, but that definitely is going to be one that Dan and I will have to sneak away for. No WAY Keira would be able to watch that!

A wonderful Happy Early Father's Day to all of you great Dads out there! Have fun!

Why???

Like all children growing and learning what they can and can't say, it all started with "NO!" Her answer for everything was "NO!"...even if she really meant "YES!".

"Keira, do you want to have apple juice?"
"NO!" ...as she is reaching for the sippy cup of apple juice

See? She still says NO alot, but now she is saying it when she actually means it more than anything.

After the "Mommy...watch THIS!" stage, (she does still want me to watch everything that she does, but it's at least changed from her saying it 20 times for each separate activity lol) on to the next stage... What's THIS/THAT???

She wanted to know EVERYTHING...What's this Mommy? a leaf! What's THIS Mommy? Grass! Mommy, What's THIS? a Tree. Mommy...what's THAT? a leaf! Everything!!! It was great though because that was the stage where she really increased her vocabulary and it grows everyday. As a matter of fact, even though it's been going on for a while now, I just noticed the other day that Keira and I were spending most of the day having full conversations now. Granted, the average person walking into the room may not understand everything that we are talking about, but I definitely understand her enough to really have conversations now--usually breaking into song somewhere in between!

Now for the next stage! It was a couple of weeks ago that it really started...the WHY's. Almost everything you say nowadays has a "WHY?" attached to the end. I do answer her and I sometimes find myself doing it subconsciously now...but I'll be honest...many of the answers are "Because I said so!" LOL

She now counts up to about 15 and sings her ABCs all the time and is really starting to recognize numbers, colors and letters. She repeats things so much really trying to catch on with what it all means. I love all of the progressions and stages that she goes through and watching her grow and learn so much. She is such a little sponge right now and really does pick up EVERYTHING around her. I've always heard that this is a really fun stage in her life and now I know why! I can't wait to see what's next!

Uncle Eric and Auntie Kelley

Eric Dukat and Dan's sister Laura married several years ago and ever since, the Dukats and the Currys have kind of blended into one big happy family. That includes sisters, fathers..the whole family! Eric's sister Kelley lives here in San Diego, so when Eric came out for work (he's in the military) both of them were able to come up for a visit! Dan went to pick up Eric at the train station and Kelley drove up separately after work. When Dan and Eric walked through the door, Keira looked at him kind of funny for a second, then walked over to the picture of the Curry family from Christine's wedding. Since most of our family is all over the place, we try to show Keira pictures so that she will recognize everyone. Dan has been introducing all of his family through Christine's wedding picture. Well, she looked at the picture and recognized Uncle Eric but was looking back and forth kind of confused. We then realized what the problem was. Eric had grown out a moustache since then! It was pretty funny how she did that though. Dan said that she was checking out the approved list of people that she can play with before interacting with him LOL
Here he is with his new moustache. Ok,it probably isn't that new....but we haven't seen him for a while, so it's new to us!
Here is Auntie Kelley! Kelley does alot of volunteer work with animals in shelters. She adopted a beautiful white shephard named Kita that she takes on road trips with her. They recently went to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah for a visit. In case you aren't familiar with Best Friends, it is a no kill animal sanctuary for animals that have been abandoned, mistreated and left behind. It is a wonderful organization that I actually donate to through work.
We all decided to go out to dinner and first headed to The Armenian Cafe in Carlsbad. It was closed! After that, we headed over to Azafran in Oceanside. It's a great little place on Coast Highway that has great Cuban food and if you go at JUST the right time, they have a band that plays Cuban music. Here is Keira looking like a little adult trying to keep up with the conversation. It was great seeing Eric and Kelley again! Hopefully we'll get to see them really soon!