A Match Made in Heaven-Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend Tony and I enjoyed a much needed weekend to ourselves to go to a wedding in Austin. We had a nice relaxing time. Matthew's Grandma and Grandpa came over to watch Matthew. They brought their two golden retrievers, Belle and Sassy. Sassy is a child lover and stuck to Matthew most of the weekend enjoying any bit of attention she got from him. Matthew also discovered something he had in common with Belle. They both LOVE to play ball in the back yard. They could play for hours if we let them.





After a lot of running and ball playing in the back yard Matthew enjoyed some book time with Grandma.

A photo of us enjoying our baby-free weekend at the wedding of my high school friend, Bridgette and her husband Craig. Those are Collin's parents on the far right. We enjoyed talking about non-baby things...well at least for about 10% of the time.



On Memorial Day, Matthew played skeeball at Chuck E. Cheese. I decided that this will be a Daddy/Son activity. I got very bored watching Matthew take 30 minutes to roll five balls.



We also spent a good portion of our day goofing off in the house with our little buckethead.

Pictures are Worth a Thousand Blogs

Our little "drum hero": Matthew sits on my lap to play Rock Band, a birthday gift for Tony.


Sometimes we capture the exact expression we were going for. It doesn't matter that the photo is off center.


Matthew having fun playing soccer at a picnic with friends Danny and Jonathon.

Matthew thinks he won because he has the ball now.

See Sawing with my friend Barbie.

more development milestones

Dad here.

In addition to last Sunday being Mother's day, it was a big day for Matthew too. He showed us four skills that neither Maria or I have not seen before (which he must have been developing and perfecting at daycare):

1) recognizing block shapes: Matthew inherited a toy which has cutouts of 3 shapes on the lid. He successfully put square blocks through the square hole, circular blocks through the circular hole and triangular blocks through the triangular hole.
2) clapping to music: I played a Blues Clues DVD for him where the characters were clapping a rhythm and he followed along perfectly!
3) intentionally kicking a ball: He brought a soccer ball toward us and kicked it repeatedly. He must have kicked it at least a dozen times, screeching with happiness after each successful kick.
4) pushing a ball through a hoop: I held up the ring of a broken drum up towards Matthew, sticking my head through it, intending to playing peek-a-boo. Instead of playing peek-a-boo with me, he thought it would be funnier to pick up the soccer ball and push it through the hoop -- probably to smash daddy's nose. He found it so amusing that he did it about two dozen more times, screaming with delight with each time the ball went through.

So, this means that he will be either a croquet, soccer or a basketball player when he grows up. That is in addition to being an awesome drummer! :-)

feed me, Daddy... FEED ME!

Dad here.

Matthew did the cutest thing this morning. Something that I do not remember seeing him do before. After I fed him his usual weekend breakfast (consisting of Yo!Baby yogurt and instant oatmeal mixed with apple sauce), he sat in my lap and pointed to my breakfast, obviously wanting me to feed it to him. It was nothing to get excited about -- Cheerios with banana and blueberries -- but he wanted it anyway. I had to feed him about 10 spoon fulls and wait for him to get off of my lap before I could dig in.

I guess this is a genetic trait. His Aunt Andrea did this exact thing to Deda when she was about Matthew's age except she ate all of the meat off of his dinner plate... Give Matthew some time, eh?

Don't say the "B" Word

As of May 2nd, 3 days before Matthew's 20 month mark, Matthew was officially weaned. The process went very smoothly with one minor mishap. Tony gave Matthew a yogurt first thing in the morning to substitute for a breastfeeding. Matthew said, "MMMM" and then Tony said, "Now isn't that better than boobie?". Right after Tony said the "B Word", Matthew's bottom lip started to quiver and then he started to cry. Tony certainly learned not to use that word. Oh, did I forget to mention that I made a point to be out of the house as much as possible during his first couple of days with out the "B". I have gotten a chance to work out in the mornings--something I haven't been able to do since Matthew was born. Tony has been enjoying this extra bonding time with Matthew, giving him his baths, putting him to bed, and being the first one to attend to him in the morning. I have attached some photos of Matthew with his daddy at his happiest place on earth... at least for now. Gymboree!!