Monkeys

Joy & Ava came over yesterday afternoon and joined us for a trip to the park. The kids are really learning to climb and hang from things--it's so fun to see what different things they do there from one week to the next. Ava made her first solo trip up the climbing wall. The best is to hear a triumphant, "I did it!!" at the top. And who wouldn't applaud that?

Matthew sharing Ava's pretzels...we brought a bag of snacks, but the birds decided they needed it more than Matt and pierced the bag with holes from their hungry beaks. And no, Ava's head is not on backwards. Joy turned her shirt around so she could slide unhindered from her Lightning McQueen screened t-shirt on her tummy. Prior to the switcheroo, we watched Matt sail down the slide and Ava get stuck, trying to inch her way down. Funny.

And here is Matt sitting on the turtle and watching Ava swing...patiently waiting for the other kid to vacate his swing so he can join her. Then, Matt made a dirty diaper and park time was brought to an abrupt halt.

Sounds Familiar

Right now, as Matt is in his room talking himself to sleep, I am reminded of how much of my own words come back to me through my little boy. He's in there saying, "grinder!!!" ever so loudly and giggling. Matt loves our coffeemaker--and he watches me clean it every morning. The other day I was being silly and saying grinder with a magnificently exaggerated rolled "r" while cleaning the coffee grinder, and Matthew could hardly catch a breath he was laughing so hard. Since then he's tried to repeat it but can't get the rolled "r" down. Some other phrases:

Me: "Uh-oh Matthew, you dropped a cracker." Matt: "Get it! I wanna eat it!" Me: "No buddy, it's on the ground now...we'll leave that one for the birds." Now if he drops something on the ground be it outside or at the grocery store he says. "that's for birds" ever so seriously. Then today I was cleaning out the fridge and tossing out some old items in the trash and again he said, "that's for birds." HA!

And now Matthew just answers himself because he already knows what my response is going to be. Matthew: "Where's Moses? He's around." or "Where's Daddy? He's comin'." or "Lay down or Mommy spank you." or "See Mike's truck? See it when we get to our street." (Mike is our neighbor across the street, and Matt is obsessed with keeping track of the comings and goings of Mike's truck...and he always seems to ask about it while we're driving around) or another "Where's Daddy? Daddy work at Wal-geens." or "Try Mommy's make-up? That's for girls..." Those are some of my favorites. I definitely have to be careful what I say around the boy now. Because I'll certainly hear it again later!

The Hose

This is Matthew being the ham that he is. That evening he thought it was fun to use his Thomas blanket as a slide; he slid down on his belly head first from the chair, climbed back up and did it countless more times. Goofball.

I think I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again...Matt LOVES the hose. He asks to water the "pwants" everyday. Lately, he really enjoys playing with the spray nozzle and seeing what each different setting does. And spraying anything in the way. The best is when he points it directly at himself only inches from his face and then much to his surprise gets a cold blast of water all down his front.

Matthew has been all about his daddy lately, too. He's been waking up from his nap saying, "I wanna hold Daddy." Steven has been working in the yard a lot this week and so Matt has loved getting to help daddy put plants in the ground and play with shovels and dirt. Matthew was also very excited yesterday when we went to visit Steven at work. He was thrilled to see his daddy's truck in the parking lot and then exclaimed as we walked in "I go see Daddy!!! Give him big hugs! Daddy workin'!" He was so loud I asked Steven if he could hear us when we walked in.

We came home and guess who wanted to play with guess what right away. And we got more bubbles for his bubble gun so he had a big time outside.

This morning we did some shopping. I got some candles. Matt played with them for a solid 30 minutes until he came and told me he had broken one. This after I had explicitly asked him to be gentle and not to break them. Outlandish rules for a 2 year old, huh? He had indeed cracked one of them so I had to put them away. Tears to follow, but the prospect of lunch cheered him up. Notice the Walgreens basketball hoop on the window in the background...oh the privilege of being the child of a Walgreens pharmacist!!! Cheap swag. But the boy loves it.

Sniff, sniff. Slurp, slurp.

Saturday was pretty much the perfect day. Steven was off work, YAY! It was a beautiful day...AND I got to have Hula Hut for lunch and my first snow-cone of the season that afternoon. Dude. My head nearly exploded too when I got up to the snow-cone stand and discovered they had several new flavors. Decisions, decisions. I'm a freak for the things; Matt enjoyed them vicariously in the womb for my entire pregnancy. So, it was no wonder when we got home that he basically snatched my cup from me and polished off the remains. He was very determined to get every last drop.

He's also suffered some nasty allergies the past few days hence the raw, red nose and watery eyes. Another one of Matt's favorite pastimes: playing with the stereo. This particular time he found it fun to eject the cd player and then push it back in. Over and over and over.

Sunday after church the Moran girls came over to play. Sarah was out of town visiting a friend, and Bryan was very nervous about having to do the girls' hair for church. I was impressed--there were both bows and clips in appropriate places so I thought he did a great job! After Bryan left and had to report back to church for a big concert type service that night we took all the kids down to the park. Notice how tall Caroline is getting. And to top that, a little girl came up to me while we were there and said, "hey, I'm taller than you and I'm only in the 1st grade!!" Sheesh.

Matthew also decided that day that he was able to climb all the way to the top of the climbing wall all by himself and then slide down the big slide totally unassisted. In the past few weeks he's definitely gotten good at the climbing wall and all I've had to give him is a boost, and then he usually wants me to slide down with him. The kid's getting brave.

And I'll leave you with the best Steven face from the whole weekend. He's gonna love this.

Take it Off!

So, today while "helping" his daddy with a project Matthew managed to pinch his finger and draw a tad bit of blood. Through cries Steven told him that he needed to clean it to which Matt responded with a big "no!!" They emerged from the bathroom and Matt was saying, "No...take it off! Dis, no!! Take it off!" all through tears streaming down his face. He really didn't like the band-aid being there. Normally, Matt takes accidents very well and doesn't cry for long, but I think the drama of this one with the blood and the band-aid made him kick into overdrive. He calmed down enough to eat lunch but treated his entire left hand as completely inoperable. Usually he likes to remove the wrapper from his string cheese all by himself but today after fighting with it with one hand he let me help him. I couldn't help but laugh at him because he held that hand all funny the whole day. We did eventually take the band-aid off so the tiny cut could breathe and it was like I had released prison shackles or something...he immediately commenced to using that hand and all its fingers. So funny.

Later, after his nap we got his big Lego blocks out to build a tower. I couldn't quite get two of the pieces to go together and in my frustration I said, "what's the deal?" Naturally, Matthew thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. And so "what's the deal" became his phrase of the afternoon. My little comedian. I've got to start keeping my mouth shut.

Visitors

Matthew was more than pleasantly surprised when he woke up Sunday morning to find baby Diego in his house. Sara and her precious 3 month old son, Diego, drove in on Saturday evening after a stop in La Grange to cheer on Bret who was riding in the MS150. Matt chatted it up with Sara that morning and followed her around the whole time she was trying to get dressed. While Sara was showering, she placed Diego in Matt's crib and Steven put Matthew in charge of watching the baby. He stood there and talked to Diego and kept him company the whole time. It was adorable. We also got to see our friend, Chris, who was in town for his 5 yr. law school reunion.

Look at that bright-eyed boy!

After church, lunch, and a nap we spent some time outside in the beautiful weather. Matt mowed, ate a plethora of pecans, and gathered sticks in the yard with Grandma.

That evening we went down to Jovita's on S. 1st to watch The Sheeps play an awesome set & cheer on our favorite bassist, Zach. Matthew got to stay at home and play with his grandparents, but there were tons of little kids at the show gettin' their groove on. The kiddie dance floor was a site to behold. I think The Sheeps have a larger fan base than they originally thought.

Steven & Tim in the old man back section.

Ava dancing and gazing at her daddy. It was a nice weekend. We loved getting to see old friends and grooving to some sweet tunes.

These Two

Seriously, I can't stop laughing at this picture. First, there's Matt's face. Then you look at Ava. Ha! And her hand on his belly. Ah, it's too much for me! They look like a little old couple. Except very short.

Let the games begin

We enjoyed the gorgeous weather this weekend. Although this early heat wave makes me a little nervous as to what we have to look forward to in the summer months...lots of sno-cones and A/C I guess. We spent our Saturday afternoon and evening over at the Rener's watching the kids play in the dirt and with the hose. It was the first time this year we've broken out the swimsuit. Let me just say I'm pleased as punch that Matt's swimsuit from last year still fits him! At least for the time being it does, anyway. As those chubby little legs lengthen though he'll be sporting more of an 80's style short short look at which point I will invest in a new pair. I think Matt enjoyed being topless for the afternoon. And the boy LOVES playing with the hose. Especially if he gets to hold it.

Matt & Ava trying to drink from the shower of water overhead.

After church and a big nap on Sunday, we decided to have a family car washing. I taught Matt that he needed to dip his brush/sponge into the soapy water and then scrub the car. He thought that was hilarious. He'd shout a two-syllable country twang "dip!!!" and thrust his sponge into the suds and then slap it onto the car and swish it around. That entertained him for awhile and then he remembered that he wanted some snacks. Seriously, the boy snacks all day long. But, Steven gave Matt the honor of holding the hose and spraying off the car so that reeled him right back in.
And this is really adorable. My dear husband who is still driving his same truck he drove in high school is still supporting those fightin' indians. Go JHS!

Ma-Moo

Matthew has a new friend. A few days ago he spotted the small stuffed cow up on a shelf in his room that was given to him while we were still in the hospital days after his birth by our friends John & Alicia. He wanted to hold it. Later that evening Tim & Pam joined us for dinner and Pam asked Matt if the cow was Ma-Moo. Naturally, Matthew thought this was hilarious and spent the rest of the evening howling in laughter as his daddy animated Ma-Moo in this creepy, high-pitched sort of voice. Everyday since Matthew has played with that cow and has very definitely decided that its name is Ma-Moo. He gives the cow kisses, makes it go night-night, shows it to Moses, and other really funny behaviors that he might be embarrassed of later one day.

Our highlight of the week was going to see Jimmy Eat World in concert on Tues. night in San Antonio with Zach & Joy. Matthew got to spend the night with his Aunt Sarah & Uncle Bryan and cousins while we were away. He keeps talking about Mary Claire and about riding in Aunt Sarah's car. I know he had a great time. And Steven & I just felt old standing there amongst teenie-boppers...but the show was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kind of funny how I don't remember other concerts I've been to in the past being that loud...

I'll leave you with another sleeping Matthew picture. Dipping into his 3rd hour of an afternoon nap I decided to wake him. Everytime I have to wake him up like that I take the opportunity to snap a picture. We look forward to Steven not having to work this weekend and having no plans whatsoever!!!