Gerber Baby or Cool Whip Baby?

Many people have told me that Matthew looks like a "Gerber Baby". I must assume that this is a compliment since in the same conversation they usually tell me how cute he is. Obviously, I know about the baby food company and the all familiar logo. I heard that the baby was Humphrey Bogart but I discovered this was not true according to the Gerber Baby Story. All of this Gerber baby talk led me to nickname Matthew "Gerbie". Tony was very displeased with this nickname because he thinks it sounds too effeminate. I agree, but I sometimes call him Gerbie anyway just to get a reaction out of my husband. Last night Matthew discovered that he really likes to play with our "redneck tupperware". We think that we might be able to call the Kraft company in order to make Matthew the Cool Whip Baby.

The Mingler

The photos will tell you the story of the past few weeks for Matthew: He is walking, socializing (at his friend Collin's 1st Birthday Party), and drooling a LOT. Somehow we also convinced him to wear a hat. It is probably to honor Collin. On Monday he also enjoyed a visit to his Grandma's workplace at the bank and he met her friends and modelled his Crocks (plastic shoes). Oh yeah, and he is stealing balloons again.

Little Force of Nature

Dad here. Matthew ended up staying home today (instead of only for the morning) after Maria's lunch plans fell through. Needless to say, he was everywhere in the house today, leaving behind a damage path. "How do you know?" you might ask, "You were 50 miles away @ NASA!". I can see that from the path of destruction he left behind. He left behind him a bigger mess than Tropical Storm Edouard did on our side of town last week. Just look at the before and after picture and judge for yourself.

before


after [too bad you cannot see that the bottom cupboards have been emptied or ransacked]


before


after (front view) -- doesn't look too bad!


after (side view) -- now we see the full extent of the carnage. :-)

Luckily, mommy was quick enough to catch him in the act of re-arranging my movie collection, in both photos and a movie...






I think that August 13, 2008 should go down in the history of the Varesic household as the day that "Hurricane Matthew" hit. :-)

Phelps Phan

Matthew and his daddy have been watching the 2008 Olympic swimming events taking place in Beijing. In case you have been living in a cave (or don't get a chance to watch much television because you have a 1 year old running around), Michael Phelps has won 5 gold medals at the time I am writing this blog. However, that is not why I am writing about him. I became an instant Phelps Phan when I saw him do Matthew's "hulk" while he and his teammates won the 400 meter relay. (See the last photo of this blog)

Matthew's First Texan Game Aug. 9, 2008

Matthew's Godfather/Unkie Jude gave us some tickets to the Texan's preseason game against the Denver Broncos on Saturday. When these tickets were first offered to us, I was skeptical. I didn't think that Matthew would sit still for a football game. We decided to attend the game knowing that a fussy Matthew might force us to leave soon after getting to the stadium. It might appear from the photos that he has been programmed to like football since Christmas.

We got to Reliant Stadium slightly after kick-off and got to our seats at 7:15PM. We rode up 3 escalators to get to our seats. I could tell that Matthew sensed the magnitude and the height of the arena. He was mesmerized by the sea of people all around him. I thought the experience might be overwhelming. At first he clung to me and did not want me to face him towards the game. I thought it was because he was scared but I later found out that the fans behind us were waving and smiling at him. We were in close quarters so I felt lucky to be sitting next to a very patient woman. Matthew kept trying to grab her hair and tap her on the arm to get her attention. She seemed to be okay with it.
Every time the Texans made a good play the audience roared. Matthew used his newly acquired clapping skills and this amused the fans behind us. They egged him on and he bounced up and down on my lap every time the crowd applauded. It seemed like Matthew made some new friends until he discovered that he could reach their $7 beers that were in a holder right behind my seat. Fortunately, the beer bottles were empty but he got some big laughs which encouraged him to continue to lunge toward the bottles. He lasted well into the last quarter before he started rubbing his eyes and showing signs that he was tired. It was 10PM (an hour past his usual bed time). Matthew's presence brought the Texan's good luck. The Texans beat the Broncos 19-16. He is now ready to watch an Astros game in September and maybe another football game this season. Don't worry, I will keep him away from the beer.

At the risk of looking like a bad Mom, I am adding a funny photo that shows Matthew's fascination with beer bottles. Since this photo was taken in February, Matthew's Uncle Jude featured it in his party invitation for his crawfish boil.

Eduoard and the Geekification of Tony 2.0

On Tuesday of this week Tony's company closed due to the predicted path of Tropical Storm Eduoard. During Monday preparations the media made it seem that it would be a hurricane by the time it hit landfall and many companies closed. It was convenient that Tony had the day off because daycare was closed too and I had two proposals due on Tuesday. So Tony and Matthew spent the day together weathering the "storm" which barely hit the West side of Houston. This is what Tony chose to do with Matthew:

Would you like to guess what they were watching? Perhaps you can tell from the TV screen or perhaps you know Tony. Of course they were watching Star Wars.

Jam Session with Unkie Jude

Last night Matthew's Unkie Jude came to visit. They opened the percussion set that Jude gave to Matthew as a baptism gift and they had their very first jam session. Jude is a guitar player and has always had trouble finding a drummer for his band, so he has a long term plan...train Matthew. Of course Matthew thinks that these musical instruments can always use a good munch.
As you can see from the video Matthew is certainly enjoying this new role as Ringo. He has come a long way since his fussy music critic days.

Almost Walking

There has been five instances of record where Matthew took a step and a half. This means that he takes one step and during his second step he plops to the floor to resort to his crawling. He has done it a couple of times for me. He did it for his Deda during his visit on Wednesday. He has also done it a couple of times at daycare. He hasn't walked to his daddy yet, but it is probably because every time he looks like he is about to, his dad runs to find the video camera and misses the moment. My guess is that he will be walking consistently by mid August. His daddy is reading my blog as I type this and said, "Don't forget to mention that he is doing 'squats'". This means that he stands up without support from a sitting position and then goes up and down several times, always with a toy in hand.

Here is Matthew in the swing that his Daddy attached to the tree in our back yard. (unrelated to this post but too cute not to include)