Our Family Blog: January 2015

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

The First Big Snowstorm of the Winter

We were snowed in today, courtesy of winter storm Juno. The snowfall is slowing, although the winds are still blowing. It's hard to say how much snow we got because of the winds, but there are some deep drifts out there, and a total of around 2 feet is probably a good guess.

The snow drift on the back deck almost reaches the top of Matt's head.

Jon stayed home from work, and Matt and I canceled any plans to go out. We did some cooking together to pass the time. Here is Matt helping to prepare some pizza dough:

Stirring the dough

Helping to flatten the dough

It's a tough life waiting out a snowstorm in this manner, but someone's gotta live it!

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Matt's First Time Sledding

We finally got enough snow this winter for a little play time in the yard. Matt got a chance to walk around, and then I took him for a little ride in a hand-me-down toddler sled we got.

He's still not too sure about snow. I couldn't convince him to play with it this time. He prefers to wear his penguin (or, as he calls it, "duck") snow suit and ride in the sled.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The Artist at Work

Jon just completed an artist's easel, made with walnut, a chalkboard, and a white board, for Matt. A roll of paper will allow for plenty of drawing, painting, etc. Early signs indicate it's a hit!

Drawing with chalk

Trying out the paper with some crayons

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Happy 14-Month Birthday, Matt!

Today Matt is 14 months old. Sadly, he was under the weather: he and I came down with a stomach bug at bedtime last night. It has been a while since Matt has been sick, but our luck ran out. After several hours we both turned the corner, thankfully. We were able to spend a quiet day at home today, and Matt spent most of the day napping. It looks like someone brought the bug to our play group on Friday morning; at least two other kids who were there came down with it at the same time. We're hoping Jon escapes this!

Snuggling on the couch for a nap

Anyway, Matt is a very active 14 month old. He is so very close to running. Combine that with an increased sense of self and an increased desire for independence, and he keeps us busy. Matt has definite opinions about things which book he wants to read when - and how many times in a row. He really likes to look at the Christmas tree, the lights we put up around the porch, and the Christmas cards I taped up to the back door. He's going to be very upset when we take those down, as we look at them multiple times a day.

Matt has added a couple of more words to his vocabulary, notably "duck." He seems to be trying to say "blue" and maybe even "red," too. Right now, however, he is obsessed with cats, dogs, and ducks; he points them out, whether they're real or in a picture. He's getting better at recognizing more specific types; he tries to group other birds in the same category as ducks, but sometimes he recognizes that they're too different to be duck. In fact, Matt has been very good at making connections lately; he'll match up a picture in a book to something he sees somewhere else or look for the cat or his stuffed dog if he has something in his hand that mentions cat or dog. He's also very interested in saying words. If he doesn't know or can't say the word for something else he'd like to point out, he uses "that" (well, it's more "dat").

We haven't measured how tall Matt is or how much he weighs recently, but as of the first of the month he is now wearing 24-month pajamas and 18-24 / 24-month shirts; he'll probably switch over to 24-month pants sooner rather than later.

Matt now has 14 teeth, with 2 more on their way. One of his bottom canines appeared just in time for Christmas, and the other one followed soon after. The upper canines aren't far behind.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

December Recap

I've already posted about some of our more exciting events in December, Christmas at Fenway, my sister's visit, and of course Christmas itself. But I want to share more about some other things we did in December as well as some other photos of Matt.

The first half of the month we had our usual visits to the Y play space, library story time, play groups, etc.

Made it through the tunnel!

Closer to Christmas we tried out a new to us play space, which we'll revisit during the cold weather. It's an indoor soccer pitch most of the time but a little kids' playground during the day.