Germs

I feel like our house has an air of illness to it. With the weather being unusually warm yesterday and today we can actually open the windows and air this sick-house out. I think Matthew is finally starting to feel more like himself. I've concluded that he had some strain of the flu due to the several days of fever, congestion, lethargy and cough. So after days of holding him, yesterday he was up to playing a little and I think I saw him laugh and smile for the first time since Wed. We even got out of the house and went to the grocery store yesterday! Ah, fresh air. Matt went through his usual routine of pointing out all his favorite HEB items. I was happy to get some food in the house.

This is us the other day...Matthew had been awake for maybe an hour that morning. He sat in my lap and fell right to sleep. Crazy. Yep, he still insists on the footies. And I've been hanging out in my pj's a lot this week. In a not-so-fun turn of events, it appears that the virus has been passed on to me. Yay. I thought I was going to escape it, but it woke up with me yesterday morning. I am thankful, however, that God kept my health intact while Matt was sick. Maybe Steven will be spared. But then again, he's probably immune since he deals with pharmacy sick people germs all day everyday. We shall see. And now, the couch needs me to go lay on it.

HoldyouMommy

This is Matthew holding an empty box of frozen waffles and looking at pictures on the computer. He's been feeling a little, shall we say, under the weather lately. He had a fever off and on all day yesterday and again today. Couple that with a nose like a faucet, and you've got one pitiful & miserable little boy. Since Wed. was Steven's day off I took advantage and ran a few errands while Matt was napping. I came home to a completely silent house. On the couch was Steven with his sweaty, mouth-wide open, sleeping son on his chest. Poor Matthew could hardly get a breath he was so congested. It's unusual for Matt to not want to be in his bed. Steven said he woke up pretty mad at the world and wanted to sleep some more but not in his bed, so he agreed to lay down on the couch with Daddy. It really was cute. I told Steven later that night that I was jealous of the extra snuggles he got with Matt.

Someone was listening, because I got my fill today! Not really, but I sure did hold him more than I have in months & months. He had some energy this morning so I was encouraged that maybe he was going to feel better, but after his nap it was downhill from there. I think I've watched Matt's slideshow of pictures about 100 times, played all the online games that Curious George, Pooh, & Thomas the Train have to offer, read ALL of Matt's books in one sitting, visited everyone's blogs a few times a day, and even put in a Thomas the Train movie for Matt to watch. Anyone who knows Matt will know that he could care less about TV and will not sit still for anything that is displayed on the screen (unless it's him...and then he'll sit for a couple minutes). He actually sat through 10 min. of it this afternoon. I was amazed. He really just liked pointing out the names of all the trains.

Tonight after reading all his books while we were sitting on the couch I noticed that his eyes were slowly getting heavier and he could hardly keep them open. We put on his footies and I asked him if he was ready to go to bed. "Nope." Whimper, whimper. I laid on the couch with him and he was asleep in seconds. I cuddled with him for awhile and then tried to put him in bed. Cries. I went and got him and told him it was time to go to bed, and he said "Mommy...couch" and pointed in the direction of the living room. Ugh. I did finally get him back in bed, and let's hope he sleeps peacefully until morning.

And then here is Matt a couple days ago pulling his Thomas train. He carefully assembled all the parts and turned the music on and then gleefully pulled it along behind him while saying, "C'mere Thomas!!". It's quite a site.

Dinner Time

Some of you may have noticed that Matthew is back in the high chair. I was really looking forward to putting that thing in the attic and having my son eat at the table like a little gentleman, but the sport of pounding his fork and/or spoon on the table was leaving too much of a "distressed" look on my nice piece of furniture. So, not wanting any more fresh dimples on my table Matt has been demoted to the high chair. Maybe that's what he really wanted anyway because he's quite happy in it. He just looks so darn big in the thing now.

The Happy Birthday song is Matt's tune of choice lately, and you can hear him singing it at all times of the day. The best is in the morning when he first wakes up. He thinks of everyone he knows and sings them happy birthday. It's awesome. Last night in his high chair I gave him his yogurt and after saying hi to the blue puppy dog on the container he commenced to singing. "Hap-burk-gay deer yogurt...hap-burk-gay to you!!!" He then clutched the container with both hands and said, "blow out candle" and with a silly grin he pretended to extinguish a flame. Followed by a jubilant "Yay!!". What a show.

And then my boy asked for some broccoli. He's asked for it before but hasn't really been all that impressed by it. I put some steamed broccoli on his tray and he devoured it all and then asked for more. This after he had already eaten a large portion of green beans and several other foods. I couldn't believe it. I'm really writing this so that one day when he's refusing vegetables of all kinds I can look back and remember that one fine day that my toddler son asked me for more of the tiny green trees.

Caroline is 6!

It's hard to believe I have a 6 year old niece - Caroline's birthday is today, and we went over to her house last night to celebrate with her. At Caroline's request, Sarah made a fantastic spaghetti dinner that we all thoroughly enjoyed. I think Matthew was really too entertained by all that was going on around him at the kids' table to focus on eating, but I did see him chomp on some garlic bread and make "music" with his fork.

Zach & Joy with Atomic Betty:

Prior to dinner there was a little rockin' out, and Matt did his best to show his skills on the drums. After we ate Matthew found himself quite intrigued by the pink princess hair dryer, and he and Ava traded it back & forth for awhile. Meanwhile, in the kitchen a concert was underway. Joy, Sarah, & I remained at the dinner table to watch as Caroline & Mary Claire performed a high-energy version of "Fabulous" from High School Musical. They were so into it prancing here and there while clutching their little puppy dogs in their arms.

You've got to wonder how many other performances Bryan & Sarah will be seeing in their kitchen over the course of the next several years. So entertaining.

In lieu of cake (& also because she was getting to have cupcakes at school today) Caroline decided she wanted ice cream sandwiches. Yes! Now, I love me some cake, but an ice cream sandwich is nothing to frown about. Caroline blew out the candles in her ice cream and then devoured two of them before I could barely finish off one. Impressive. The kids ran off their sugar for awhile longer and then crashed. After gift opening & bedtime rituals the adults indulged in some American Idol and Rock Band. Aw yeah.

Hap-Burk-Gay Jah-shoo-ah!

Happy Birthday Joshua! Matt & I made the drive to Dallas on Friday afternoon to see the Brown family and watch little Josh celebrate his 1st birthday. Matthew was not exactly a pleasant companion in the car. He woke up after a short 30 min. nap and was pretty much thrashing in his car seat from then on. Couple that along with construction, lane closures, and Dallas traffic and you've got a winning combination! But glory be we arrived safely. Matthew was rather fascinated with Josh's bottle. He never had one so I think he was wondering what the heck Josh was doing. Josh was probably wondering why Matt was tugging on his thumb and dragging a blanket around.

Alison's house looked gorgeous after her many weeks of enduring kitchen and floor renovations. The birthday decor was adorable and every detail accounted for. Just prior to the guests arriving for the party Josh & Matt figured out how to open the cooler and fish for ice and also sampled the chip & cracker display that was out.

We had yummy mexican stack up, and the kids chomped on some mini corny dogs and mac & cheese. Alison decided it would be a good idea for Matt to help out with the gift opening. I'm glad she did because I don't think I could have held him off short of quarantining him to another room. Josh got loads of cool toys, and I could tell Chris & Al's eyes were glazing over as they wondered what on earth they were going to do with it all. Let's just say that Josh has a well stocked play room! We then moved on to singing happy birthday to Josh and sampling the awesome boot shaped cake that Alison made. I couldn't get Matthew his cupcake fast enough. Josh seemed to enjoy his own personal mini b'day cake. His little hands just kept shoveling it in.

That night and the next morning we watched the boys zoom around the house with two different walkers/push toys. Josh got a new cool one for his birthday, so he & Matt kept trading (or stealing from each other, really) back and forth. They made lap upon lap around that house at lightning speed. You wouldn't even believe how fast Josh can go with that thing; he was basically running and the kid just learned how to walk! I was dying watching him.Matthew is also in love with the Brown's dogs. He was very excited to see them again and repeated their names over and over again all weekend. Murphy! Jackson!

And then here is Matt riding the mechanical horse outside of the mexican restaurant we ate at for lunch yesterday. I think he had mixed feelings about it. We got in the car and he was asleep by the time I was on the freeway. He slept most of the way home which was such a relief to me! He needed it and so did I. We're happy to be home and look forward to a quiet week.

Run, Jump, Slide

This morning Matt & I joined Aunt Sarah, Mary Claire, Aunt Joy & Ava at RadiJazz. It's a haven for the 5 or so and under crowd and is full of slides, foam things to climb on, playhouses, a huge tunnel-filled playscape, balls, and a foam pit. I had never been. Matt was a big fan. There was plenty of room for him to run wild and throw balls and slide and make lots of noise. There was a steep hill on the way up to the lava foam pit that Matt had a hard time scaling in his socks.

Mary Claire thoroughly enjoyed the foam pit, and we got to watch her mommy do a cool flip into it! Matt liked the pit too, until he couldn't get back out of it.

The kids also enjoyed the playhouse that had shutters which acted as a pseudo drive-thru window where we could place our orders for lunch. Many tacos, hamburgers, and slices of pie were made. Yummy.

Matthew enjoyed fitting various balls into the canoe with him and then throwing them all out, and Ava played a good round of peek-a-boo with Sarah. So easily entertained these kids are!

And then here is Matthew driving to Target and Ava's house...or so he said he was. It was so much fun to see Matt run from one thing to the next and see what apparatus he was going for. For the most part he could have cared less where I was until he needed help getting up that hill or until he told me he needed his diaper changed. It was a great place to run around and exercise our children, and we will definitely be back some time.

After a couple hours and a few tummy rumbles we all headed to Wendy's for lunch. I could tell Matt was quickly crashing so we hurriedly ate and came home. He was saying, "Ma-moo's house...blanket, home." on the ride back to the house. He could barely tell his daddy night-night before crashing in his bed for a nap. That boy ought to sleep well.

On a side note, our friends Bret & Sara welcomed their second child into this world yesterday, and his name is Diego! Congratulations you guys! We can't wait to meet him. Matt & I are headed to Dallas this weekend to celebrate Joshua Brown's 1st birthday! I hope I can prevent Matt from opening Josh's present before we get there. He loves birthday parties.

Back to the Drawing Board

Foolish, foolish me. How naive of me to think that silly little plastic doorknob covers would thwart my persistent, determined and cute little boy. Matthew has repeatedly opened the door to the laundry room while tauntingly saying, "Hi Mommy! Bye Mommy!" And, "I see you!" He may as well be laughing at me and dismantling the plastic things altogether because I feel completely defeated. Nice try Mom, but you're going to have to do better. I'm gonna have to get creative now. I'm kind of shocked he hasn't really tried to remove the outlet covers or figure out how to open the cabinet locks yet. Oh the thrill of the forbidden and the excitement of getting mommy all worked up. But look at that sweet thing all balled up, sweaty, thumb-sucking and sleeping...he brings me such joy.

Footies

Since Matt got his footies from Aunt Sarah a few days ago, it's about all he wants to wear at night time now. I found another set on sale that I bought, so at least now we have 2 in rotation. He calls them his footies (pronounced foo as in food) and giggles whenever he gets to get zipped up into them. I made the mistake of cutting off the tag of his new pair of footies in front of him while he was sitting in his chair eating dinner. He about had a conniption because he wanted to try them on so bad. "I try on footies! No dinner, all done!" So, Matt was in his footies at 5:45 that night simply ecstatic.

Matthew is also fascinated with candles. Steven blames this on me. He's probably right. It stems from me offering him to smell a yummy scented candle while we're shopping somewhere. Now he asks to smell all the candles in the house multiple times a day. He really likes playing with them, too. Joy got a new one for Christmas and Matt played with it (removing & replacing the lid, turning it upside down, putting it on different surfaces, smelling it, etc..) until I had to pry it from his hands and return it to Joy. I found an old candle in a jar that the wick is buried in the wax, so I cleaned it and have now designated it as Matt's own candle. Hours of entertainment. The candle goes in every room with him now. Even in the tent.

So has Matt's behavior improved you ask? God is good - my sweet little boy has returned. Perhaps it had to do with lots of prayer or maybe the removal of all the Christmas decorations or my desparate reading of Dare to Discipline or the addition of doorknob covers on a few troublesome areas...but, he's showing me that he can indeed listen and obey and be sweet to me. He gave me several kisses this morning. SO cute.

I will add that I was bound and determined to avoid having doorknob covers in my house. I thought I would be able to teach my child and reprimand him enough to where I wouldn't have to resort to such child-protective measures. Let me just say that my world has changed. No longer can he play in the trash and hand me the kitty food or scale the potty and reach for the breakables. Matt deals with it very well. I feel victorious, and it feels good. I highly recommend them.

New Year, New Matt

Some switch has gone off in Matt's head lately. It's resulted in behavior that I don't normally see in my little boy. They say, "oh, he's 2..." and chalk it up to the usual antics of a busy 2 year old boy. I don't know. It's like he's trying to prove a point. Or win the toddler war. Or ensure that I never have another child. I've seen him repeatedly remove ornaments from the tree (and eat 2 of them...that's right, he was crunching on the glass) while looking at me gleefully and saying no, climb onto the potty and play with the breakables and the matches, unroll the toilet paper & empty the tissue box, put the river rocks from my candle plate in his mouth and laugh, miraculously set the alarm clock that jolted us awake early one morning, and climb onto a chair so he can reach my Christmas decor. That's to name a few. Never mind the heavy use of the word "no." I suppose I knew these days would come, but he had me fooled all this time that he was a sweet, obedient (for the most part) little boy. Yay discipline. Thankfully, there are still moments (like when he's sleeping - kidding!) when my heart hurts he's so cute.

We celebrated Joy's 30th birthday bash in high style over at her sister's house the other night. Joy looked fabulous as she kicked off her new decade of life. She'll hate me for this picture, but look at that cake all ablaze! Hold that hair back, girl!

New Year's Eve we spent the evening at the Rener's. Joy made some awesome food and we broke in her new blender with some tasty ritas. Sarah bought the kids all footie pajamas, so before they all went to bed we attempted to pose them for a picture. With no one wanting to sit or stand still, this is about the best I got. Hilarious. Stripes are so slimming for Matt. Then they all made crazy, stumbling laps around the house. Matt squealed like a girl, it was awesome.

The kids went night-night and the adults enjoyed rocking out. We even got Zach's dad to play the drums and the bass guitar! Impressive. Here's Matt from the other day trying to drum. Hope everyone had a great holiday season and Happy New Year to all!