Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was the first big holiday Matt celebrated for the second time. But this was the first Thanksgiving where he was able to participate in any meaningful way. In fact, he wanted to be involved in as much of the preparations as possible.

Someone got himself removed from making the ginger snap crust for excessive sampling of the ginger snaps.

Helping to stir the cornbread

Trying his hand at using the whisk

Stirring is hard work!

Gotta go rescue the pie from the oven! (No, we didn't actually let him anywhere near the oven. But he observed us putting on the oven mitts and quickly decided he needed to try them on for himself.)

Licking the bowl from the homemade marshmallows seems to have been a hit

Matt sampled pretty much everything from the meal. His favorite things were turkey, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and above all pie. Although he loves dried cranberries, he wasn't really into the cranberry sauce; I think the flavor of the cloves was a little too odd for him.

We hosted two friends of Jon whose original plans had fallen through. Matt, as is usual with him, took a little bit to warm up to them, but once he came out of his shell he turned on the charm and put on a show. He behaved overall very well. (He did try to steal some game pieces during our interlude between dinner and pie, though.) Being on his home turf helped make the past day and a half less overwhelming, although I think we'll all enjoy a quiet day tomorrow.

Stay tuned for a November wrap-up post in a few days...

Matt's 12-month well visit & a blog update

A quick post following Matt's 12-month doctor visit yesterday.

He is very healthy and right on target for his milestones, as we know. He measured 32 inches long and weighed in at 24 pounds 10 ounces, although he was a bit squirmy on the scale so that may be a little low. The last of his first year molars showed up just in time for the doctor to count officially twelve teeth (four upper, four lower, and four molars). So far he seems to be feeling pretty well, if a bit sleepy, following his recent round of vaccinations and the blood test. Let's hope that continues!

A couple of milestones to mention: Matt has started stacking blocks. He got up to about 5 or 6 the other day before the tower fell over. (He'd still rather go through cabinets, drawers, and laundry baskets, though, and he's very interested in finding new places to store things.) He's also working on his next pair of words. So far he has been saying kitty and cat as well as Dada / Daddy. He now seems to want to say dog and stick, too. (No, no hints of Mama.)

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A quick announcement: I'm going to switch to posting monthly now that Matt is a little bigger and a lot more active. I'll still post for holidays and pop in every so often with posts for milestones, other achievements, or special events.

Thank you for reading along so far. It's been a pleasure to share our adventures with you!

Matt's birthday

I already posted for Matt's birthday, but I wanted to share some photos from Matt's big day.

After breakfast, Matt's Grandma read him a couple of books. He then waited in the car with his grandparents while I voted and picked up our library passes. Then we went to the zoo!

Matt got to get up close and personal with lemurs, gorillas, and more.

The lion, of course, was sleeping.

Saying hello to the ostrich

Walking on his own through the bird exhibits

Chasing down some peacocks

We had a picnic lunch in the park before returning home to wait for Jon so we could celebrate.

While we were waiting, Matt stole my cookies.

And the birthday boy requested as many laps in his Batmobile as possible.

Birthday decorations

After a dinner of meatballs in chunky tomato sauce with rainbow bow tie pasta, it was time for cake and ice cream.

Studying the cake

Checking out the candle

Feeling a bit overwhelmed

Poking at his piece of cake

Time to open presents yet?

Ripping off the wrapping paper

Unpacking the boxes

Reading one of his new books

Helping Jon assemble his new ride on toy

Talk about a busy day!

Happy 1-Year Birthday, Matt!

Today is Matt's 1st birthday.

Getting a taste of cake and ice cream (homemade by Jon)

Happy birthday to Matt!

Week 52

This will be a fairly short post because I've already shared some of our most exciting events from last week and because Matt had a cold that limited our activities, especially during the start of the week. In fact, we didn't do anything until Tuesday afternoon, when we went to do a study at the children's hospital in the city. Matt is apparently the first participant who wanted to go through their drawers (checking out the contents of all available cabinets and drawers has been a favorite activity). But he did cooperate long enough to complete the study.

Matt the test subject

Afterwards we met up with Jon for a quick lunch and a little outdoor time at a local park.

Matt is never one to pass up a sand box

Wednesday was our special Halloween-edition library story time, and later that afternoon we met up with some friends at a local park to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. Thursday, before we went trick or treating at the ballpark, Matt sampled his first music class. He is enjoying "playing" the wooden sticks he got to take home as a souvenir. We had a quiet Halloween after our party that morning. The weather turned colder and more miserable this weekend, but fortunately Matt's grandparents were able to make it safely here, just in time for someone's birthday. I'll post more about that next week, but here's one goodie they brought Matt from one of his aunts:

Now appropriately attired!

Speaking of cars, Matt got his first look at our new family vehicle.

So far he doesn't seem too impressed, but once he realizes we'll all have a little more legroom and space in the trunk for his stuff I think he'll appreciate it more.

Here are a few more shots from the week:

Checking out the fall foliage

Bath time!

Choo choo coming through