My weekend with Matthew

Dad here. Maria was invited to spend a “spa-getaway” weekend with her best friend (and matron of honor) Barb that Carl (Barb's husband) organized for Barb's birthday – When Maria mentioned that she would like to spend her first night away from Matthew I was quick to offer to watch Matthew by myself...it had nothing to do with her threatening to make me sleep with the cat for the next year!

That left Matthew's feeding, diaper changing, entertainment, i.e. all responsibilities to me, and any family member that I thought I needed help from, though I did not ask help from any of them. I know that I was up for the challenge! Matthew is a lot more stable on his feet then a month ago and his "monkey walk" is almost gone. By monkey walk, I mean that he looked like a chimpanzee, walking with his hands lifted above his head for balance. He definitely knows where he wants to go and loves to charge my legs when I play “goalie” to block him from going somewhere.

His latest thing is to dunk everything he can get his hands on into the dog's water bowl. He also likes this game: getting a hold of the TV, cable box and/or DVD player remotes and walking away from me at top speed, laughing with every step. At this rate, I will not be able to keep up with him in a few years. Keeping the remotes from getting drool-soaked (or dunked in the aforementioned water bowl) and ruined, not to mention wrestling them from his vice grip hands, is a full time job.

We had a great time without mommy. The only downside was that Matthew did not want to drink any of the milk that mommy pumped for him and left in the fridge. I offered him apple juice or bottled baby water more than once but he did not want any of them, so I had to switch tactics. I started feeding him food that had a higher content of liquids: apple sauce. He absolutely loves apple sauce! I made sure that he had at least one apple sauce serving per meal and received no complaints. He got enough hydration; the proof was all the wet diapers. That made daddy happy too.

Saturday night, we had a long session of drumming with the drum kit that his godfather gave him as a Baptism present. He must have been inspired by the Taiko Japanese Drummers we saw the night before at the Miller Outdoor Theater. I called our hour-long jam session the "Caucasian Drummers", which Maria later re-christened "Crustacean Drummers". Hee hee. Unfortunately, the fun times had to end when Matthew walked off with the drumstick and managed to squirrel it away somewhere -- it has yet to found.

I convinced him to take two naps on Saturday, but managed to get only one nap on Sunday. On Sunday, we ended up going to Katy Mills Mall before joining mom, Barb, Carl, Johnathan and Daniel for dinner. He was getting sick of the house as much as I was since we did not get out of the house on Saturday – not even a stroll. We lost the opportunity to go for a stroll while I was waiting for him to nap Saturday morning. I thought that he would take a nap before 9:30 am so I let him keep playing, and walking, and playing and walking until he fell asleep at 11:30 am. By the time he woke up, it was 1:00 pm and 85 humid degrees outside; it was below 70 degrees at 9:30 am when I was thinking about taking him on the stroll.

I made sure that I did not make the same mistake on Sunday. I took him and the doggies for a stroll at 7:30 am, shortly after feeding him breakfast -- daddy had two cups of coffee. It was a crisp morning with a temp of 65 degrees. To prove that he was in a good mood, he sang. Mommy said that he's sang once or twice last week but I heave not heard him sing until Sunday morning. He also sang a few times on the drive to dinner on Sunday night. I wish that I had the video camera (or even a tape recorder) to record it. It must have been something that he made up since I could not recognize the tune he was singing from any of the lullabies and baby songs he's been listening to.

We'll have to record him singing on video. Who knows, maybe he'll be the next American Idol. GASP! I CANNOT BELIEVE I JUST SAID THAT!!! :-)