Mystery of the Missing Bongo

Anyone who knows Matthew knows how much he loves his toy Monkey Bongo. He loves all of his stuffed animals but Bongo is his favorite by far. Bongo has been through a lot with Matthew.

• He was the animal Matthew picked to be with him before and after his two ear tube surgeries.
  
• When Matthew was first introduced to his hearing aids, we would pretend to put them on Bongo first and then Matthew would be willing to put them on.
  
• Bongo has been a part of most of his speech therapy sessions and now he accompanies Matthew to preschool in a school district two towns away.
  
• When Matthew wasn't talking much he would still always have a word for Bongo.
  
• When Matthew was being potty trained he would let us know when he felt the urge by saying that Bongo poo pood the potty.
  
• Matthew sleeps with Bongo every night and says, "I love you, Bongo" all the time.

On Tuesday of last week Bongo went missing. We discovered this on Wednesday and we retraced Matthew's steps. We contacted his preschool, the bus operators, and daycare. Through my faulty detective work I assumed Bongo had been lost at daycare. We had the poor teachers at daycare comb the whole facility looking for a toy monkey. (Yes, the toy IS that important to Matthew). Tony even put together a missing poster displayed prominently at the front desk at daycare. After three days of searching for Bongo and nights of Matthew waking up crying at 3AM we decided to give him a replica of Bongo. Friday Matthew was introduced to the new Bongo. We were afraid Matthew would reject the new Bongo but he picked him up immediately and called him new "Shiny Shiny Bongo".

We thought this would be the end to the story but on Monday a child at school with a backpack very similar to Matthew's brought "old" Bongo back to school. Matthew was happy about this and his teacher said that he had both "new" Bongo and "old" Bongo kiss each other. All's well that ends well. I will even have a collection of funny emails from Matthew's godfather Unkie Jude (no relation to Monkey Jude) about reasons that Bongo went missing. Hopefully, some day when Matthew is old enough to understand Sopranos or The Godfather references he will get a big kick out of them.

Jake Stats: 9 Month Well Baby Exam

Jakie Jakes had his 9 month Well Baby exam today. He is looking "perfect" according to the doctor. Height: 29 1/4 inches (82%)
Weight: 22 lbs 3 ounces (76%)
Head Circumference: 18 1/2 inches
I tried to find Matthew's stats for 9 months but did not seem to record them on this blog. I probably shouldn't be comparing my two boys anyway but sometimes I like to have a point of reference. All is great with Jacob he is even less congested and breathing a lot better.

He is still a chrome dome but now has the added nickname of, "Speedy". His daddy gave him that name because he crawls very quickly.

When I was looking for Matthew's 9 months stats I came across the "Reverse Indian" again. I knew this blog was a great way to keep records. Matthew did the Reverse Indian for about two weeks and never again. I am glad we got it on video.

Gonna Walk No Matter What!

Jacob's care provider has reported to us that Jacob wants to walk so much he is taking any opportunity to pull himself into a standing position. He will grab anything to help him in this pursuit. As of late he has been grabbing the ponytails of 2 year old girls to pull himself up. Jacob is the only boy in a home daycare of 4 girls. They all adore him and had to be informed that Jacob is not a doll he is a real baby. Jacob loves the attention. However, I am not sure what the girls think after the ponytail pullings
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Moody Gardens visit

Dad here. On Saturday, January 8th, all four us spent the day in Galveston. First, we went to have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. After lunch, Matthew thought the visit was over and wanted to go home. We knew better than to give in to the whims of a three year old. Instead we continued with our plans to go to Moody Gardens.

There, Matthew saw his first movie in a theater. Both parents decided beforehand to see how Matthew would react to seeing a movie on a big screen. We chose to test him on an IMAX movie since they are about half the running time of an average kid movie. Also, daddy had to be prepared to leave the theater if Matthew chose to do so or if he got scared by what he saw on the screen. With that said, that day, daddy and Matthew saw Ultimate Wave Tahiti in 3D. Too bad I did not take my camera into the theater so I could take a picture of Matthew wearing the 3-D glasses. He looked so cute with the 3-D glasses which must have been 10 sizes too big on him. Matthew flinched only once (that I saw) when big stingray was swimming toward us and banked at the last second -- typical IMAX effect but his first experience of something almost crashing into him. He did not get scared at all by the big waves as they were breaking right over us.

After the 3-D movie, we went into the aquarium. There, Matthew and Jacob experienced the Moody Garden's famous aquarium tunnel. Dad took lots of video footage of fish, both big and small, swimming overhead. He even got video of a big shark approaching the camera and swimming overhead -- just look at all those teeth! I could not help myself and I had to tickle the shark's belly.


The highlight, at least in my option, was when he saw the penguins, swimming underwater. Matthew said the cutest thing:


Matthew just recently seen the movie and the way he made the connection just floored me. As you can tell by me reaction, he came up with it on the spot -- and in no way was not coached what to say before the camera started rolling!

Space Center Houston visit

Last week, while daddy took some time off from work and Matthew's school was closed for Christmas, we decided to visit Space Center Houston. At the entrance, there were two jets which follow the Space Shuttle upon re-entry from space to the landing site.

Also, there was a shell of the new Orion capsule which will, in a few years, take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

As soon as we got inside, Matthew saw this MONSTER play structure and just had to climb it! It must be at least 5 stories tall.

After he got his fill of climbing and playing in the ball pit, we went exploring the rest of the center. First, he visited the space shuttle cockpit.

It is built to scale with the first level being the crew compartment and the cockpit located on the second level. Here is Matthew in front of the cockpit. Still do not know why he had this grin on his face while I was taking pictures (he was grinning in all three)...

To the side of the shuttle exhibit was an actual space shuttle engine. Of course I had to get a picture of Matthew standing in front of it. Cool but not as impressive at the Saturn V engine but that came later on the day...

Factoid: If the space shuttle engine could propel a stream of water, at full throttle the stream of water would go up for 38 miles! Amazing.

Next, he visited a gallery with all sorts of space suits.

He got bored of the space suits and other memorabilia at the gallery rather quickly (I have to keep remind myself that he's only three!), so he spent another half hour climbing. He eventually found the Legos castle exhibit (sorry, no picture of that).

After spending about 3 hours inside Space Center Houston, we left to visit the rocket park at Johnson Space Center. There we saw the famous Saturn V rocket which would have gone into space if the Apollo 18 mission was not canceled. A building has been built around it about 3 years ago to preserve this piece of history -- the last of its kind. Here are a few pictures to give you a sense of the size of this monster 360 foot long rocket.

Take a look at the bottom first stage rocket. Each one of the first stage engines produces over 1.5 million pounds of thrust; all five have for a combined total of 7.6 million pounds of thrust! WOW! All that lift capability was necessary to carry men and equipment to the moon.

To give you a sense of size of each of these rocket engines, here is a picture of us in front of the exhaust shroud.

Here is a picture I found on Wikipedia of all five engines of the first stage. Cool, eh?

Outside, there were a Mercury rocket as well as an experimental Gemini rocket.

Before leaving NASA for a late lunch, we visited the longhorn cattle ranch at JSC. This may be the first time Matthew has seen longhorn cattle and no this was not due to any planning on behalf of his Aggie mommy. While there, he kept saying "Do not drop Bongo", a reference to an earlier trip to the zoo where grandpa dropped Bongo into the elephant exhibit -- see here.

A trip to NASA would not be complete without a visit to the McDonald's strategically located within 100 yards from NASA. This is Matthew's first visit to this intricate McDonald's playground. You can only imagine how many times he went into this toddler-sized habitrail!!!

!$%# Matthew Says!

Matthew frequently comes up with new things to say to amuse or upset us. Here are a few memorable lines:

• Ornaminutes: Matthew hung these on the tree. He called them ornaminutes. Tony and I thought that was so cute that we called them ornaminutes too. Soon after that he corrected us: "They're ornaments Mama".
• Shirt is Broken: Lately, when Matthew doesn't want to do something he says it is broken. For instance when Tony tried to put a clean shirt on Matthew he would say, "NO, SHIRT IS BROKEN!" of course bedtime's broken, Mama's kisses are broken, school is broken.. you name it, if Matthew doesn't like it at the moment it is Broken.
• Daddy's fixed: On the other hand.. if something is no longer "broken" or if it is appealing to Matthew again then it is "fixed". When he is no longer mad at daddy for making him go to bed.. Daddy's fixed. I told him that Paxil, Domino, and Angel (the cat) are the only ones in the house who are fixed but he didn't get it.
• Jacob's on the Naughty List: Matthew does not like Jacob reaching for his toys. He is not too fond of the concept of sharing right now. Of course this is because Jacob is crawling and reaching for everything in sight. Matthew told us that "Jacob is on the Naughty List". This was the week before Christmas.

Naughty List? No way!

• Not Yours Jacob!: Of course Matthew repeated this to Jacob constantly over the Christmas vacation. First born possessiveness.
• Tooted!!!: Matthew loves to say that he "tooted" or Daddy "tooted". However, he also likes to say "Tooted!" as an exclamation of delight. We always know he is happy when he says, "TOOTED!"
  
• Go back to bed Mama!: Lately, when I try to be a part of Tony and Matthew's bedtime or wake up ritual, Matthew let's me know that this is Daddy/Matthew time. He tells me, "Go back to bed Mama". I don't know whether to get my feelings hurt or whether I should take this time to get some rest. Too bad he doesn't arrange my "rest time" with Jacob.
• Bongo poo pood: This has been Matthew's ongoing saying since September 2010. Matthew's toy monkey Bongo appears to have little control of his bowels because he poo poos everything. A few things: Bongo poo pood Mrs. Beard's class. Bongo poo pood the October. Bongo poo pood Mama's computer. Bongo poo pood the bedtime. (Have you noticed the recurring trend with Matthew and Bedtime?)
• Chrome Dome: I must admit. I was the first one to refer to my bald baby as a chrome dome but Matthew latched on to this. He now refers to all babies as chrome domes.
  The cutest little Chrome Dome :)
  

Tooted! Mattew seems to be enjoying this more than the chrome dome.