Chasing Matthew

Yesterday was Steven's usual day off, and we had a wonderful time just being together as a family. After Matt's 3 hour siesta (which really puts a dent in the day, by the way...but I can't complain!) we made a run to Terra Toys to take a look around. Steven began our tour of the store by holding Matthew as he repeatedly begged to get down while frantically pointing to things and trying to dive out of his daddy's arms. Steven held firm for several minutes until Matt spotted a basket full of balls of varying size and color that he demanded to get his hands on . By then I had purchased the items I needed to, and Steven gave me the "tag you're it" routine; so I trailed Matthew as he dashed from one fascinating toy to the next. He played with the train set for a couple minutes, but then really focused his efforts on the baskets of balls again. He threw the larger ones across the aisle one by one and then returned them individually all the while chanting, "back, baaaaack." He then decided to dump out the basket of smaller balls and then fetch them all. Again. And again. He probably did it 5 times before I threw in the towel and hoisted his complaining, thrashing body into my arms while signaling to Steven that we were done.

As a reward for his behavior (Ha!!! honestly, though, he did pretty well considering it's a toy store and he didn't understand why he couldn't just stay and play with all the fun stuff) we headed straight to the sno cone stand. Oh, sweet bliss. Matthew immediately recognized the cups full of colorful, sugary goodness and began his "a bieeee" routine. I will say that it was not nearly as dramatic nor frantic as our last experience driving home from the stand.

Today Matthew napped for over 3 hours (I was just about to go in and wake him up), and it led to one of the funniest cases of nap hair I've seen to date. He must have had his head wedged between the bumpers because it was sticking up and swirled looking in places. We visited Steven at work today because he left his wallet at home. I wondered if Steven could hear us when we walked in because Matt was shouting, "Da-da! Da-da?" And then he got distraced by the balloons. He loved the toy aisle and then the summer sale aisle. Once he refused to hold my hand and started doing the bend at the waist refusal gig, I decided we were done. I looked back and saw Steven giggling as he watched Matt happily running down the aisle and jibber-jabbering as we made our exit. This afternoon I spent my time chasing Matthew around the house with the jingle-bell bug (you know, from the Bee-Bop band!) as he crazily stumbled around hardly able to breathe through all his laughter, and watching him show a framed picture of his cousin Audrey his nesting blocks. He talks to her picture multiple times a day, it's quite comical. He's a happy boy, this Matt Jones.