Da Baby is Baptised!

Ella Grace Keller has been baptised and is now a child of god. So along with luckily looking like her mother she now has god on her side as well. Megan and I where very excited to see our good friends John and Jenny King had their daughter Madison baptised on the same day as well. It was awesome because Megan and I had no idea they where there, and it was only walking into church when we saw John's father that we realized what was going on. Johnny is the person that introduced Megan and I. John and Jenny also went to the same high school as Megan and along with them being good friends of ours, they had their wedding a week after ours at the same church. So needless to say everything was wonderful and it was great to see familiar faces. Megan and I decided to keep the whole baptism thing small due to the fact that we are both burnt out from the last few months and just could not bear the thought of having to do any more planning. In the past baptism's have been a big event in both of our families, so everyone please do not take offense. Ms. Ella will have many more grand events, and I guess we will just have to get a party tent our something for her first communion! Anyway it was a fun time and I am glad that Ella got to dress up for her baptism.

The growing Monster: Month 2
Well it has been 2 months now that we have had little Ms Ella Grace and things are really starting to change at a much more rapid pace now. Almost daily there is a new noise, face or mannerism that is forming. Today at work Megan called me because Ella was wooing as she called it. She was just making all kinds of noises in what seemed like an attempt to talk to Megan. Of course it was not her trying to talk, but she was trying to communicate in some way that her little minds seemed content with.
It has been great coming home and spending time with Ella at night over the last few weeks because she is actually up for extended periods of time now. I dont know if it because she is a little older now or because she has been eating alot more, but she just seems more energetic when awake. I can pinch her cheeks and play with her feet now to get a response out of her. She is also growing at a rapid pace and her clothes are starting not to fit very well. I was surprised that she has gained so much weight over the last few weeks, but we attribute that to Ella switching over to formula entirely. Ella's legs used to be long and thin and are now long and chunky and she has a double chin which is very cute.
Anyway I still really do not feel like I know anything more that I did a few months ago about being a Dad but I think I am doing a pretty good job of figuring things out. I try to be very attentive to Ella and to make her feel like she is important when she is awake and then when she goes to sleep I settle down. I try not to raise my voice around her because I realize I talk really loud all of the time so not to scare her. I also try to keep my frustration to a minimum with the baby, because after all she is just a baby and cannot control anything that is going on around her. So there it is month 2.....in a nutshell!

One of these things is not like the other.......

Ella Meets Nicki.
Ella had the chance to finally meet one of Megans best friends Nikki. Nikki lives in Philly so we do not get the chance to get together often, so when we all do get together we have a real good time. Megan Ella and Nikki all had fun this weekend and really enjoyed each others company. Here are some pictures of the weekend they all spent together.

Here are some really nice picures that Megan took of the small wonder now known as "Beaner".

Funny Picture of The Week.
Megan Keller and The Naked Cowboy everyone.........I think I will leave it at that!

Chunky Monkey Goes Naked!
Ella is getting really chubby and these are some pictures Megan took while I was feeding her the other day. Ella is starting to have alot of different facial expressions and make noises while she is eating. She was especially funny during this feeding.
It has been great the last couple of weeks seeing her grow so fast. It is amazing how much different she appears and acts just over the last 2 weeks. It is also surprising how much more alert she seems when she is awake. Megan has noticed that Ella is awake a bit more during the day now, which I am sure is due to the fact that she is getting older.

Ugh TYE-DYE

It appears as though Ella Beaner was captured by some hippies (Megan) and forced to wear Tye-Dye. As soon as she wakes up I will dispose of the clothing and we will pretend we never saw here in such dreadful attire, the memories could scar her for life.

Someone Can Hold Their Head UP!

I won't mention any names, but someone I know is getting awfully good at holding their head up. The picture may give it away!

Busy Days and Nights.... a Major Rant.

If anyone has been trying to get a hold of me lately I would like to apologize in advance for being hard to get a hold of. I have been trying to maintain a quite a hectic schedule lately. If working at Cycle Stop in the summer isn't busy enough I have been trying to put in some extra hours at Circuit City as well. Up until this point I thought that I have had rather good control over my tight schedule, but it has really been draining on me over the last week or two. So if Matt has been an agitated mood, you can blame on some people trying to test my patience over the last week.
As many of you know, Megan and I have a finished basement and want to get the downstairs recarpeted in some "up to date" carpet. So we called our local carpet shop, who's name I will leave out, to have an estimate done. Ok, easy enough, we schedule an appointment on Friday at 8:30 in the morning. Now not to seem like too much of a little bitch, but when you work 70 hours a week and stay up till 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning (Megan mostly works the real late shifts, God Bless her) waking up 45 minutes early to make sure you are all showered and ready to go when the carpet guy comes is a real big deal. So to make a long story short, at 8:30- no carpet guy, 9:00 no carpet guy and 9:15 no carpet guy, and Matt has to go to work now. So agitated I go to work, only to get some bogus story and a no phone call till 4:15 in the afternoon after Megan called the shop. So during the day luckily Megan was home and we could get our estimate done at the carpet guys leisure.
So is the only way to get some work done at your house now mean that you have to be doing some major renovation and throw so much money at someone that they can't refuse to come to the house and SHOW UP ON TIME! Ok,carpet guy rant DONE, I wont mention it again. But I do feel a bit better.
So after Friday's carpet adventures I travel to Cycle Stop bright and early Saturday morning to our shop which has no phones or computers because our building was struck by lightning on Thursday afternoon. No big deal though, because the phone guys we hired are supposed to be at the shop at 11:00 to install our new switch board for our phones and then program the system so at least we have our phones and paging system back. Well you guessed it, the phone guys didn't show up at 11:00, in fact they finally roll in at 10 minutes to 4 o'clock about 10 minutes before we close. Of course they walk in like they where just a little busy and it was no big deal they where 4 hours and 50 minutes late because they "got a little behind" . I would like to see how my boss Richard would respond if I came in to work 4 hours and 50 minutes late, because I was a "little behind". I can tell you what I think he would say, but I would like to keep this PG-13. As I explained above, the attitude now seems to be that no work is important unless it is big work. Anyway , these clowns think that we are going to hang out for a few hours while they get the new system up and running. I of course have to be to work at 5 and am supposed to meet Megan for a quick bite to eat at Pizzaria Uno's at 4:15. So after leaving the shop at 4:30, about 25 minutes after I wanted to leave to go meet Megan, I go to see my wife and daughter for a grand total of 8 minutes and then go to work at 5. At this point, I am so fed up with people and time that all I wanted to do was stab myself in the eye with a #2 pencil.
So the moral of the story is this, my life revolves around being on time. I am always early and stay late no matter what. I make sure when I tell someone that I am going to meet them at a certain time I am there ON TIME. So when people who are not on time mess with me meeting my scheduled events, it really pisses me off. So to the clowns that got under my skin this week, I hope that you all get athletes foot, and all your appointments are late for you this week. Maybe then you will and think about being on time from now on.
Rant complete.......I feel better now, and I threw in a picture of Ella as a thanks for reading this long, and she is really cute!

Ella And Her Crib Mobile

Ella has been starting to notice her crib mobile that we turn on in her crib. She does not seem to pay attention to the 3 fish very much but the larger purple octopus really catches her attention and she has started following it around above her. At first I didnt know if she actually was paying attention to the mobile, but after watching her for a while, I noticed that she could tell something was moving above her. It was only when the octopus was in her sight that she started following it around, most likely because it is a bit larger. It is a real joy to see her in the crib smiling at her new friends. Megan took some pictures of her today in her crib looking at her mobile. She is so silly. But that is why we decided to keep her.

Linux Adventures

I am proud to say that I have installed my first operating system in the Linux Enviroment in a very long time. I have installed the newest stable of Debian Linux 3.1. The latest stable version is 3.1 which has also been dubbed Sarge. Over the next few weeks I hope to become alot more familiar with the inner working of Linux again so that I can eventually make the full switch from Windows. I have decided to start using Linux again to start building my knowledge up now so I am prepared for the future of open source software . Stay tuned for what I am sure is going to be an exciting few months learning a whole new operating system. Below is the Link to Debains website if anyone is interested in learning more about Linux.

www.debian.org

My Quest for a Free Ipod

If you have a heart and a few moments, please help Matt in his long long stretched out quest to get a free ipod. With Scott Austin and his free Ipod and Mac-Mini as my rolemodel, I am still trying to get a free ipod. I have 2 people who have signed up and completed offers and I have finished my offer. So I need 3 more people to sign up using my link below and complete an offer. When I make it to the end of my long twisted road leading to my free Ipod I will be sure to post it here first. Wish me luck. -Matt

http://www.freeipods.com/?r=10689699

Funny Picture Of The Week.

Because we take a ton of pictures and alot of them are really funny, I am going to post my funny picture of the week each and every week. This picture may be a recent picture or something from the past. Since Megan is funny basically all of the time this should be a pretty exciting thing to do each and every week. I am already excited! Whooohoooo.........

My new nighttime companion.

As Megan well knows, I love to stay up late. For many years now I find some of my most relaxing times at night when everyone is in bed and I can sit and play video games for hours on end. Now I have a nighttime companion to join me in my late night adventures. My little Ella-Beaner likes to sit in her shaky chair and sleep while I am on the computer. I really am not the most quiet person in the world and it seems odd that she doesnt wake up alot and start to cry. I actually think that she may like being where I am just because she knows that someone is there to take care of her. I have actually considered putting her pack-n-play in our computer room once we get our new carpeting in (coming soon). I am sure our nighttime adventures will only get better once Ella becomes a little more active.

CHUNKY MONKEE!

Ella Beaner had a weigh in today and weighed a whopping 9 lbs and 8 oz. She has gained alot of weight the last few weeks and she is starting to get some chubby cheeks, legs, and arms. She shall now be called Chunky Monkee until further notice.

Ella's Crazy sleeping positions.

It seems as though my daughter has started sleeping in some very silly position which appear horribly uncomfortable to me. I first began to notice her strange sleeping positions soon after her arrival home but only really noticed just how odd and silly it seems. At night when she is sleeping really soundly she is usually on her back with her arms above her head. You would think that her arms would fall asleep and her back would hurt but she is always sound asleep and dreaming. Megan took a picture of Ella with her hands over her face sleeping which I thought was very cute. I can only imagine what kind of things I will see as Ella gets a little bigger and can move around a little more.

The All Star Game..........
Wasn't it better when there was steriods.....
Just a thought.......

The Keller's Matthew, Megan and Ella

Ella Bella Month One
Well after being a Dad for one month I can tell you that although I do not consider myself a pro just yet I think that I have come along way as to the ways of the world as it pertains to little people. There are so many things that I have learned I hardly know where to begin. But here are a few thoughts after my first month on the job.
Looking back over the last month with Ella, it has not only been the most challenging month of my life but it has been the most rewarding as well. The first few days at home where rather scary for me. I had a hard time letting Ella out of my sight much less getting any sleep. There was a short period upon getting home where I thought that Ella was going to stop breathing if I was not there to make sure she was breathing. Shortly after getting over my paranoia, Mr. Dad had to get used to handling a little and fragile baby girl which I soon realized was not only not going to fall apart every time that I held her or fed her. The most amazing thing to me is that she sleeps throughout the night almost every night. I have gotten at least 5 hours of sleep every night since she has been born. I was surprised that she isnt really fussy at all and she really seems to enjoy being in her crib with music on at night.
My only real regret thus-far is that I do not get to spend as much time at home with Megan and Ella as I would like. I know that my wife and child appreciate that I am away supporting our family but it would be nice if I could spend the first few months at home with my wife and daughter. Who knows maybe for the next one I will be able to take a few months off! I shall keep everyone posted as much as possible to the goings on of Ms. Ella

The Creation of a Blog.
Well after months of thinking about jumping off the bridge and creating a blog I have finally started out and am on my way to putting my crumbled thoughts in some form of hopefully understandable documentation. Upon thinking about why it has taken me so long to finally sit down and create a blog, I can only say that I fear I lack the proper grammatical talent necessary to seem more intelligent than my 1 month old daughter. Anyway I look forward to my new blog and am excited that I can finally have a place to vent my thoughts! Stay Tuned!

That is just a damn funny picture!
-Matt