Pooh Balloons

This was so funny, it was hard for me to stop laughing so I could snap a picture. So, Matthew has been enjoying certain websites lately (namely Thomas the Train & Winnie the Pooh) thanks to a certain mother-in-law of mine (who is wonderful & I love her!!) and requests to view them multiple times a day. Actually, any time he walks by the computer he asks, or begs rather, to see either pictures of Ma-moo or Thomas or Pooh balloons. This afternoon I honored his request and sat here with him and looked at the Pooh site and did some of the games, although all he's really interested in is seeing the part where Pooh and his friends are just standing there with balloons waving at you. I finally just left it on that page and got up and left Matt standing there. He grinned and said, "I see Pooh balloons!!!" while pointing excitedly at the screen. I went about my business, and he stood there a minute and then I saw him toddle off. He came back from his room with his Pooh book (which strangely enough is a book I gave Steven when we were dating...that's another story) and propped it up on the computer desk. He went through all the pages of the book exclaiming, "I see Pooh!!" while pointing from the book to the computer screen where Pooh was still waving at him. I was dying. SO cute.

And then this is from yesterday after our visit to the grocery store. I had to buy some new spices, and since I was pretty sure Matt couldn't figure out how to open them I let him play with them. We had also polished off a half gallon of milk that morning. So he sprinkled spices in his milk jug and stacked cans and talked to himself and just had the best time while sitting in the kitchen as I put away the groceries. He then decided it would be a brilliant idea to take the whole operation over to the coffee table. One by one he transferred each item to the living room like a little one-person relay darting here and there. Hysterical. He continued his imaginative play until the cat came strolling along. Matt has really had some sharing issues with the cat lately, it's quite funny. And puzzling. Outraged that the cat was sniffing his milk jug he said, "no kitty!!!" and tried to push him off the table. This also happens whenever Matt is sitting down with a bowl of snacks or his milk and the cat walks by. Or when Moses picks a fight with Matt's birthday balloon (yes, that balloon is still clinging to life - best $2 I ever spent). He worries about what that cat is doing all the time. We know that he loves him though because he always asks to "brush kitty" first thing in the morning before Steven & I can hardly open our eyes.

Owee

Our weekend was nice. We did finally get our tree, and now it's all decorated after a late night search for white lights first at Lowe's (just multi-color, thankyouverymuch) and then Hobby Lobby. The latter of which was jam-packed right before closing and I stood in line for a good 20 minutes. Typical Hobby Lobby experience, am I right? But I got the darn lights. Next year I will not foolishly assume and have blind faith that the previous year's lights are all in functioning order after lying dormantly in storage bins all year. Ugh.

Joy's annual cookie party was a delightful bash as always where I snacked on way too much food and left little room for eating all those yummy cookies which I am now having to share with my husband. My favorite from the night? Something called a peppermint chocolate cheesecake bar; absolutely divine!

Today was quite a day. Tomorrow the Arc of TX is going to have a truck in the neighborhood, so I was inspired to clean out my remaining closets. I knew I had some good blankets and sheets to give away. Matt did a great job entertaining himself for the most part. He'd check on me and want to help occasionally, especially once I got the step ladder out. I kept my eye on him of course, and then I saw him push on the side that folds it up and down he went right with the ladder. Screaming ensued and I saw his little fingers wedged in the hinges. He then reinforced by saying, "Fingers!!! Hurt!" through his choking sobs. No broken finger bones nor even broken skin, but a scared little boy was what sat sulking in my lap. Poor baby. He got it together quickly after taking a look at himself in the mirror and examining his fingers over and over again. Yep, they're still there! Here's Matthew playing with "babies" in bed after he woke up from his nap.

This afternoon we went out in the backyard to get some fresh air--more like muggy warm air, but whatever. Wasn't it just cold yesterday? What happened?? Anyway...Matt had fun playing with the stereo, stuffing pecans in his mouth, and swinging. I took him for a ride in his wagon around the porch and he giggled the whole time. Naturally, he likes to go fast. I started taking the turns a little faster. He gripped onto the sides. And I knew it was going to happen. And it did. I went so fast I tumped my poor little child right out of the wagon and onto the concrete!! I'm a terrible mother, and I know "they" are coming to get me right now. His head was sacrificed and took the brunt of the fall, so he's got a good bump on there now. We looked at it in the mirror and the remainder of the night he wanted to see his "owee". But, his owee didn't prevent him from completing his marathon of running laps around the table all evening. Exhausted from his unusually traumatic day, he was in bed and asleep at 10 till 7:00. What will tomorrow hold?

Poor Little Lamb

This action packed week has flown by! Tuesday Joy & I paid a visit to Alicia and her two boys. Baby Ryan is SO cute and is obviously doing his best to maintain and enhance his chubby cheeks. I think Tyler was relieved to have some company, and Matt & Ava did a nice job of going through ALL of his many, many toys and books. This was the first time in many months though that Matt didn't go in to full-on crying hysterics when I held the baby. He didn't seem to care at all. I wonder what changed his mind?

Wednesday Joy and I had a marathon shopping day. Our sweet husbands watched the kids while we hit the streets trying to put a good dent in our Christmas shopping lists. And what shopping trip would be complete without running into John Hampton in the mall of all places in the middle of a work day? It was crazy. Joy & I had some great success and got a lot accomplished. I really have very little shopping left to do, hooray!!!

Wednesday was also Pam's 30-something birthday. She keeps saying that she's almost 40 which is totally untrue. Unless she really needs this many years to prep for that major milestone, I don't know! We had a lovely night at China Town with Tim, Pam, and the Reners. And it was my first time to try sushi! Unbelievable, no? Well, my husband was never excited to try it so somehow I never did either but have always wanted to. We sat at the bar and had some yummy appetizers and bevs and then transitioned to our table. Joy and Steven ended up sharing some Chinese while the rest of us enjoyed the sushi. Although, I will say that there at the end Steven got brave and tried some tuna and didn't even have to spit it in his napkin. I was so proud of him! We came back to our house where Joyce was watching our sleeping children and watched Pam open all her loot. I'm most envious of her genuine Fiestaware colander. You can only get those things on Ebay, and that's exactly how Joyce found it. It's awesome. It was an enjoyable evening, and I think we helped celebrate Pam's birthday in style.

Yesterday morning was the conclusion to my Bible study that's been meeting every week for the entire fall. It was a brunch with different speakers from the church, a share time, singing, and a re-enactment of the nativity scene by all the kids. I was told weeks prior that Matt was going to be a sheep and that he would be in the program too even though he's just barely 2. This was amusing to me. I was then told that we could invite anyone we wanted to join us on the day of the brunch. I told our family and friends and everyone wanted to come see Matt's sheep performance. So, Steven & I, Ken & Joyce, Pam, Zach & Joy all took up a table. When it was finally time for the children to file in I watched as all the parents and family members in attendance rose to their feet and jockeyed for position as a strange hush fell over the crowd and the kids took their spots. You can see that Matthew was labeled a lamb. I think it's hilarious that they slapped a piece of paper on their fronts. Matthew sat down quietly and sat still for a few seconds. His eyes scanned all around him and then he spotted our table with cameras flashing and adoring, excited smiles. He saw Zach & Joy and said, "Ava??" Ava was back in the child-care room still. Then it was, "Mommy??" His face began to wrinkle up and turn red as he sat there most likely wondering why a table full of his favorite people were just sitting there staring at him and not rushing over to get him. He was getting visibly upset, so one of the workers grabbed him and brought him over to me. He was to the point where he could hardly catch his breath he was so upset, so he sat in my lap sucking his thumb until he calmed down. The music part of the program began and I asked him if he wanted to get down and show us his dance moves and he quickly shook his head and said no. Once it was over he was whisked back to child-care quite unhappily. The sequence of events went down pretty much as I expected them to. I figured that once he spotted us he'd freak, and that is basically what happened. It was still fun to watch though. Maybe next year he'll be promoted to a donkey!

This afternoon Matt & I will be headed to HEB yet again, and then after Steven gets home we're going to finally get our Christmas tree!!! Yay!!! Can't wait to see how Matt reacts to the ornaments this year. Complete destruction I predict.

Keen Up

I love this. Matthew has become more and more of an imitator of what Steven & I (and strangers as well) say and do. It can be all at once hilarious and then scary...because it is a direct reflection of ourselves. It's unbelievable what he picks up on and how his little mind processes things. So this is a photo from yesterday just before lunch when I was running around doing I don't even remember what, and I saw Matt squeezing his arm in the small opening in the child-locked cabinet under the kitchen sink. He pulled out my dobie pad, and I almost went and snatched it but thought better of it and just watched him. He rubbed that scrubber on every square inch of cabinetry, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc. in that kitchen. I tried not to let him know I was watching because that usually ceases any of his imaginative play. He was happily talking to himself, and I heard the occasional sing-songy "keen-up!!" as he was busily cleaning the cabinetry. Once I ran over to take a picture of him he looked at me in anticipation of being chastised I could tell and he gripped harder to the scrubber. I just laughed at him and applauded his cleaning efforts.

He also has some noteworthy phrases as of late that leave me wondering where in the world he picked them up. Okay, some of them I know are from me. But still. It's funny. For example:

"oh goodness!", "hey dude!", "oh man", "oh no guys", "how 'bout" (that one he gets from me...I say that while rifling through his books making a bedtime reading selection), "that's so funny", "stop it!" (that he learned at the gym child care today...thanks, guys), etc. Little parrot.

And then there is one of my favorite times of year; yes I love the holidays of course...but I'm talking about that special time of year when Central Market sends out a coupon for free stuff. I love shopping there anyway, and it's so easy to spend the $40 or $50 they require to qualify for the product advertised on the coupon. Last year I got a very nice Wustof chef's knife (so did a few of you others out there I know!) and some cool salad tongs. And yesterday I just went and got my 3 piece paring knife set! Is it ridiculous that I get excited about "free" kitchen odds and ends? Probably so, but I just love the stuff. And a side note on that particular visit: I got some cashews in the bulk dept. because Matt loves them & I thought he could munch on them while we shopped. I sat the opened container in front of him and he happily munched. We rounded the corner to the dairy section after a few minutes and he laid eyes on the wall of milk. "Meeeyulk!!!" he shouted while twisting his body around so he could point to it and giggle while his sweeping arm sent the container of nuts tumbling to the floor. Ugh. Thankfully, it somehow landed on its bottom, and a bunch of them were in Matt's lap so I was able to salvage most of the nuts. But there I was picking up cashews off the floor of the grocery store while my son worried about all the stray nuts while still exclaiming about the milk, yogurt and coffee creamer in his view. It was an awesome afternoon.

Matthew Funny

Just look at that sweet little boy. Yesterday Matt & I came home from the gym to find Steven in the back yard fighting the on-going battle that is the Leaves. He raked and mulched and vacuumed the whole yard. Matt had fun crunching around in the leaves and posing for the camera. We used to have a tradition in his first year of life where we'd place Matt in front of the tree in the back yard and take his picture every month. Well, we haven't done that since he turned 1. And now that he's 2, this is Matt with his tree:

Matthew does lots of silly things that cracks himself up and he'll giggle & laugh and say, "Ma-moo funny!" Here he is attempting to throw his big ball...and you can probably guess that the ball went backward rather than forward. He loves to flop on top of that ball on his belly and roll around; always tumbling to the floor. He'll kind of bounce a little and then fall off, it's awesome.

And then there's Matt's latest infatuation with Lincoln Logs. We play with them multiple times a day and build lots of cool log cabins. Steven always works hard using all the pieces to make luxury log cabin structures and Matt just comes along and knocks it all down in peals of laughter. He's also enjoying hanging from his crib. He calls it "Ma-moo upside down!" and arches his back with his head tossed back. He thinks it's hilarious.

And then I like this one where he's eating a roll at Ava's party last week. Notice that he's stabbed the entire roll and is taking a large bite. Since Matthew recovered from his stomach bug he's been cramming in the food. The past couple mornings he's woken up saying, "Breakfast!!! Eat!" Normally he runs around a good hour before he's ready to eat in the morning. And now I can't get him to stop eating and begging me for food all day long. This after his 2 year check up at the doctor where we found out he's 33 lbs. (90th percentile!!) and 33 in. (25th percentile). He must be spurting again. As a result, we're headed back to the store today.

Celebrations

Matthew thoroughly enjoyed helping Ava celebrate her 2nd birthday. Ava's biggest and most emphatic request for her birthday was to go to Chuck E. Cheese, so we joined her there on Wed. afternoon. The kids were equally elated and overwhelmed at the sights, sounds and activities around them. Matt's favorite was skee-ball; he kept climbing on it trying to crawl his way up to the top. He liked throwing the balls too. He also liked the playscape that he was really too little for, but I crawled up in there with him. Sometimes it's good to be 4'8". Ava had great success and was awarded hundreds of tickets which landed her some cool prizes to take home. I loved that she wore her crown the whole time. And that she continued to wear it all throughout the weekend. Hilarious.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving over at the Rener's house with Bryan, Sarah and several other Rener-side family members. There were 2 turkeys (one fried, one roasted), numerous delicious sides, and desserts to complete the food coma. Matt slept through the meal, but enjoyed some turkey later that day. He also enjoyed playing with his cousins and all the other adults there. He ran around the yard, drew on the marker board with Ava, ransacked the play room, and put a good dent in Ava's stash of raisins. Sadly, the stomach bug was passed on to the Moran family and some of them were still recovering from it on Thursday. Mary Claire was wiped out. The rest of us watched football and later laughed at each other as we all attempted Guitar Hero.

Friday was Ava's birthday party! Matt loved all the balloons scattered on the floor and seeing what new toys Ava got. Ava enjoys playing games, so Joy headed up a few little kid games that they all could participate in. Matt didn't grasp the rules of duck, duck, goose and didn't understand that he needed to stay seated until deemed the goose...so, he mostly ran around the whole time. He did better with red light, green light though because he had Caroline holding his hand and helping him out. He had a delighted grin on his face the whole time. Ava got a cool new tent for her birthday, and all the kids had fun with it. That's going to provide hours and hours of entertainment. Happy Birthday Ava!!!

Yesterday we helped the Rener's eat some of their massive amount of leftovers and spent the afternoon playing Guitar Hero again. It's addictive, people! Joy's sweet mother and grandmother watched Matt & Ava for us that evening so we could enjoy some shopping at the Domain and a yummy dinner at Carino's. And now I've had so much food this week I feel like I'll never have the need to eat again. And I've got a date with the gym tomorrow. Currently, I'm watching my pitiful fantasy football team crumble under the pressure of the first round of playoffs and anticipating congratulating my foe, Zach. Better luck next year I guess.

The Greatest Loss

I don't even know what to say. And thinking about it just makes the pain sting even more, but I must share with you what I've witnessed this past week. On Wednesday my precious 2 year old niece, Audrey, was killed in a tragic accident involving a vehicle. I won't go into details as to how it happened because it makes me sick and it's unnecessary; just suffice to say that Wednesday was the longest, most terrible day I've yet experienced.

However, I have seen quite a beautiful thing throughout all this tragedy. The body of Christ has truly been at work, and I have witnessed His infinite love and compassion that surpasses all our understanding in the actions and words of His body of believers. I can't even describe to you the scene at Bryan & Sarah's house over the course of the week. People were flooding in and out, bringing armfuls of food, gifts for the girls, flowers & notes, and praying over Bryan & Sarah. It was incredible. And ALL the family on ALL sides gathered together. I've been so proud of both Bryan & Sarah and how they have handled their current circumstance with such grace. The Lord has truly been lifting them up and using them as a powerful witness of His glory. If I may share:

"As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn." Psalm 18:30-36

There's a site you can go to to see pictures of Audrey and her family and to sign a guest book and leave comments if you desire. http://www.mem.com/Story.aspx?ID=2142434

Audrey brightened our world. We always joked that she was going to be the clown of the family because she just smiled and laughed all the time and made everyone around her laugh. She always said the funniest things. And so loving. Sarah & I exercise out at the Quarries together and would put Matt & Audrey in childcare together; whenever I'd get done and come down to pick up Matt, Audrey would come running over to me and give me a huge hug and kiss even though I was a sweaty mess. She'd say, "Look Matthew! Tricia's here! I help you find your shoes, okay?" She and Matthew were very close, and Matt talked about her all the time. For the longest time he would call all three of the girls Audrey. Being the youngest of 3, Audrey was told what to do quite frequently by her sisters. But, Audrey was able to employ her mothering skills on Matt. She even attempted to pick him up one time that resulted in a big goose egg on Matt's noggin. That girl was a climber, too. I remember watching her in the church nursery and she scaled the changing table in seconds flat; I don't know if she was even 18 mos. then. Watching her sing and dance was a hoot, too. What a ham she was. We put her to bed one night at our house while Bryan & Sarah went out, and I laid beside her in bed until she fell asleep. She scooted over and snuggled up close to me clutching her little blanket and sucking her thumb. It was so sweet to listen as her body relaxed and she finally surrendered to slumber. As the Moran family was leaving Matt's birthday party last Saturday Audrey went around to everyone and gave us all hugs and kisses. She shouted, "good-bye everybody!!!" while waving frantically and being ushered out the door by her parents. That was our last image of her. Audrey Kate was a blessing to us and we'll miss her everyday.

I want to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers for Bryan & Sarah and our family. Thank you for your notes and cards, and thanks to those who travelled to Austin for the memorial service. It really means so much. Our family has been through so much, and the coming weeks and months are going to prove to be difficult so we covet your continued prayers.

So what has Matthew been up to? Well, he caught a nasty stomach bug that's been floating around. With classic timing, the vomiting began in the car of course. And it only continued. Steven detailed the car seat while I dodged more vomit and cleaned up my sobbing baby boy. He kept saying, "all done, all done! Yucky!" You could tell he was trying his hardest not to puke because he didn't like it. While still strapped in the car just after the expulsion he was saying, "wash hands, wash feet!" And we couldn't help but laugh. Steven is back at work today and I am still cleaning up messes. Hopefully Matt can make it through this nap without losing his lunch. Ugh. Here's Matt with his pedialyte popsicle.