Dog Show.. not La La Show

On Sunday July 19, Tony and Matthew went to the dog show with Matthew's Grandma, Grandpa and Unkie Jude. Matthew enjoyed walking around the exhibit hall but he kept pointing out the "la las" (lights) out to his daddy. Tony said to him, "We are here to see the doggies. Show me the doggies". At that time Matthew started to say "doggie" everytime he saw a new one and there were plenty of them as you can see from the photos.

Trip to Delaware

On July 11th, Matthew, Tony and I flew to Delaware to attend my Aunt El and Uncle Bob's 50th wedding anniversary party. Matthew's grandma and grandpa flew up with us also. Matthew handled the flight very well. He sat on my lap or Tony's lap most of the way without incident. When we got to Wilmington, we saw several aunts, uncles, and cousins. Some relatives Matthew has met and some he met for the first time. He had a great time being greeted by so many friendly family members at the anniversary party and the next day at our cousin Stephen's restaurant by the golf course (see Matthew in the golf cart).

He also had fun playing at this piano in the hotel ballroom. He had never seen a piano before and he was fascinated. Good news for the piano (and the spectators): Matthew played the notes very gently. He didn't bang or pound. Of course he didn't play a melody but for a first time he did very well. Some spectators even asked if he had a tip jar.

Thank You Collin and Laura.. for Showing Us this Great Place

On Friday July 3rd, the first day of our three day holiday weekend, Matthew and I met Collin and his mom, Laura at a really cool water park/playground. The ironic thing was that the park is just a couple of miles away from our house. We never knew about it. The park has some refreshing water fountains for the kiddos to cool off in and the biggest playground I have seen in the area. Collin and Matthew played a lot, sometimes together and sometimes separately. This gave me time to catch up with my friend Laura. Here is the morning from Collin's perspective: http://ceholmes.blogspot.com/2009/07/matthew-and-more-water.html

We went back to the same park Saturday and Sunday to show Matthew's daddy the new "happy place". I think we will be going here regularly now.

Okay, I am sure you have seen many similar photos of Matthew to the one above. However, this park has a unique feature--a group of 5 suspended cones that slowly fill up with water and when any cone is completely filled up it dumps the water on the unsuspecting (or suspecting) victim below.

I spent much of my time throwing a ball into or underneath the cones to lure Matthew to stand underneath the cone. It worked a couple of times as you can see below.