At last we have been able to enjoy some spring weather! Matt loves spending time outside in our big yard. We passed a good deal of today outside, playing in the sandbox and on the swing set, running around the yard, helping do a little clean up after the winter, and watching the birds flying to and from the feeder as well as the planes flying overhead.
Matt also got the chance to meet a toad (or frog, as he calls it) up close and personal after Jon found one in the yard. Although he loves animals, he is hesitant to touch them when he comes face to face with them in real life.
Earlier this week I taught Matt how to climb up the ladder on his swing set. After one pass he has been able to climb up all by himself (although we spot him). Here he goes up the ladder.
And here he goes down his slide. We've tried out a few of the slides in the local playgrounds, and Matt seems to prefer the one at home best.
No busy day could be complete without a chance to splash in some puddles, especially with a stick in hand. Matt will be disappointed when the last of the snow disappears because then there will not be a steady supply of puddles for him to stomp around in.
If you notice Matt's shirt, it says "One if by land, two if by sea." Today is the anniversary of Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, so Matt is, of course, appropriately dressed. Here is he humoring me by posing with his teddy bear.
We participated in a quick study this morning at our alma mater. Since we were in the area, I wanted to stop by to see a few items on display at the Museum of Fine Arts. Matt hasn't really been to an art museum, so I thought I'd show him around a little bit. He did overall very well for his first outing to a museum like that. As I suspected, it was at times an overwhelming experience, but we were able to find some works of art, usually of animals, that he enjoyed looking at.
Examining Paul Revere's Liberty Bowl and the John Singleton Copley portrait of Paul Revere
Matt's favorite work: John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark
Matt told me he wanted to see the shark again and again. The larger scale, strong contrast between light and dark, and of course the sea creatures definitely make this one stand out.
In the Mesoamerican gallery, looking at the bat and jaguar on the Maya urn
In the Native American gallery, pointing out a contemporary piece with a raven holding the moon
In a special exhibit of model cars, planes, and trains
In the Egyptian galleries, checking out the effigies of people and cows from a burial
Right after this we looked at some mummified animals, which he found funny.
Not as excited as I was by seeing my favorite lion in the museum
Looking at the dogs on the classical Greek krater depicting Aktaion
Not interested in meeting two Roman emperors I researched extensively in my studies
Unimpressed with the portrait of Augustus, the first Roman emperor
I know this is a day late, but Matt was feeling a little under the weather yesterday.
Matt is one busy 17 month old, even when a bit sick. He keeps growing in all sorts of ways. He weighs 26 pounds by now and probably has grown a little bit in length. I've switched him over to 2T shirts, although he's still wearing 24-month pants.
One of the neat things that Matt is now doing is imaginative play. Over the past few weeks he's started to pretend to eat his play food and offers food to (pretend to) eat to us or his dolls and stuffed animals. But within the past week he has started to do more. The other day I turned around to see him signing "sleepy." I asked him if he was ready for bed, but then I realized he was telling me his dinosaurs were sleepy, so he had tucked them into a blanket.
Matt has started to communicate a lot more, too. The last month his language capacity has increased dramatically, and he understands more and more every week. New words he says include two, three, go, balloon (or "boon"), owl (he says "oh"), book (which comes out as "tooka"), bug, catch, throw, cookie (which is more "ccccook" - he picked up this word very quickly!), and kick. He also says "oh oh" for monkey and "caw" for crow. Words with a "k" sound are especially appealing for him; "tickle" and "turkey" remain some of his favorite words. Where Matt's communication has really grown leaps and bounds, however, is in signing. He is learning signs as fast as I can learn them to teach them to him; he'll add a couple a day. In addition to the signs he knew before, including his favorite "more," he can now sign one and two; baby, Daddy, and Mommy; hungry, eat, and cracker; up; bath, wash hands, and swim; water, moon, star, tree, and sand; socks, shoes, shirt, pants, hat, and diaper; phone, book, ball, and robot; boat, car / drive, train, truck / bus, and we're working on plane; dog, fish, bird, pig, butterfly, frog, crab, mouse, spider, cat, turtle, elephant, tiger, bunny rabbit, dolphin, whale, and zebra; and love, want, and again.
Matt continues to love reading (we are making heavy use of our library card!), playing in sand, splashing in puddles, dumping things out and occasionally picking them back up, poking things with sticks, playing with balloons, anything to do with the moon, and most of all anything with animals, including sea creatures. He has also discovered kicking balls and hitting balls off tees this month, and he is working throwing and (thinking about catching) balls more.
We wish you a happy Easter. We will have a quiet one here, as Matt is a little under the weather after coming down with some kind of minor bug yesterday. He is better today, but we'll still have a relaxing day at home with lots of snuggling and reading.
I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and review our March events. It was a bit of a wacky month, with all sorts of things going on. We managed to keep ourselves occupied while we waited for the warmer temperatures to return and the snow to melt.
I've already posted about our St. Patrick's Day and our trip to the zoo, but we had one other big outing. The weekend before last we took a family trip to the library, then visited a local Asian market before eating lunch at a sushi restaurant. We finished off our excursion with some time in the pet store next door. One of the guinea pigs was quite disappointed not to be heading home with Matt, but Matt wasn't as interested in them as in some of the other creatures, especially the fish.
Checking out the restaurant and its fish decor
Diving into his plate (not sure about the sushi, but the ginger chicken, edamame, and chocolate cake were big hits)
Most of our weeks weren't nearly as exciting. We had a few play groups, some formal, some informal. With some friends we attempted to go to one of the playgrounds in town, but it was still a little snowy to use that day. Instead we let the little ones run around the shoveled path and watch the dogs being walked.
We got good use out of our 10-visit pass to a local indoor play space.
During this visit Matt had the whole place to himself for a good 15-20 minutes.
He's still unclear on the concept of being a goalie.
Matt is much more interested in slides these days.
Doing a little rearranging
As much as he loves his Cozy Coupe-turned-Batmobile at home, Matt can't help but wish it also had eyes.
First time swinging a baseball bat - looks like he enjoys it!
Goal?
Trying out the hula hoop (without much success)
We also got a lot of use out of our children's museum membership, sometimes going twice a week to check out different events or presentations.
Superman dares to stick his finger in the mouth of the T Rex
(As you can tell, the dinosaur room is a must visit every time we go.)
Doctoring the baby dolls
Driving on the moon
And of course we went to the library. Matt has discovered the fish tank, so we have to go early and stay a little longer to make sure we have time to watch the fish at least twice, play with the toys and puzzles, pick out books, and of course participate in story time.
Matt reading through our museum pass options from the library
Matt is an avid reader, and we spend a significant part of each day reading books.
Adding just a few more to the pile of books to read right now
Reading his new magazine in his car seat
He couldn't wait, so he went ahead and started reading without me.
Reading on his own over in the corner
We also spend some portion of each day looking for the cat, who sometimes is more willing to play along than others.
Found her!
There she is!
Here are some of Matt's other activities around the house:
Matt still uses the easel Jon made for him.
He likes climbing all over his large teddy bear.
He'll talk to his reflection in the mirror.
He often prefers to come up with his own ways to use whatever he finds around the house (here he is either using Jon's computer mouse as a phone or reenacting Scotty's "Hello, computer" scene from Star Trek IV).
Sometimes he actually plays with his toys, although dumping them out (and occasionally putting them back in their container) are his favorite games.
Every once in a while he'll clean (or at least pretend to).
Fun with flashlights
Making silly faces
All of that activity can be just enough to wear him out!
