A Late Afternoon in July

I just wanted to share a couple of great photos of Matt from late this afternoon.

Matt continues to help in the garden. He has been eagerly anticipating being able to pick the tomatoes, and finally today two were ripe enough.

The tomatoes disappeared rapidly. Just like last year, many of the tomatoes may not make it as far as the house!

Then a sudden rain shower hit.

Sitting on our front porch, waiting for the rain to pass so we can get back to catching bugs.

A Short Trip to the Zoo on a Sunny Summer Day

According to the weather forecast, the next ten days will either be hot and sunny or humid and rainy - not the best for doing a lot of fun activities outside. Since yesterday's forecast was very nice, I decided to take Matt to a small zoo about half an hour away for a morning outing.

Matt really enjoyed watching the kangaroos, although he was disappointed when they stopped hopping.

Matt's favorite activity: feeding the goats...

... and the alpaca.

He found the lions uninteresting since they were, as usual, just lounging around or sleeping.

Ring-tailed lemurs

Cranes

Warty pigs

Watching the Amur leopard drink

Sloth bear

Matt also enjoyed watching the monkeys (and the meerkats, but I didn't get a good photo of them).

 

Posing with the monkey in the banana car

Matt's second favorite part: playing in the sandbox (and the accompanying tunnel, once a 2-year-old joined him)

Golden lion tamarins

Being bats

After we finished at the zoo, we went to the accompanying playground for a little bit.

Climbing up and checking out the faces on the bugs and sun

Sliding down his currently preferred way

Happy 4th of July!

A belated happy Independence Day!

Friday evening we went over to the house of someone I know for some food and fun. Matt had a great time running around in their backyard with all of the kids. We went home before the fireworks started so we could put him to bed. He was tired!

Sitting under the dome

Trying out the big kid trikes, bikes, and scooters

Yesterday we took a trip out to a local park at a place called Castle Island. It was a great way to spend July 4th.

First we stopped for some lunch.

Eating fried clams and fish & chips

Then we walked down to the water to watch the harbor and airport

Riding on Daddy's shoulders

Watching the boat traffic in the harbor

... including a big tugboat pushing a barge

Matt played for a few minutes in the playground, but it was very busy with a lot of older kids.

Mirror, mirror, on the playground wall, who's the silliest of them all?

Hello, down there!

Tunnels are fun!

We did a tour of the fort (appropriately named Fort Independence).

Walking around the interior with Daddy

Watching the boats from up on the ramparts

Taking a closer look

Coming through the bastion

After a quick ice cream break, we went back to watch the harbor traffic.

Watching a Coast Guard vessel sail by

And some tall ships.

One of the reasons Castle Island came highly recommended was its great view of planes coming into land at the airport. Matt's interest in airplanes has waned slightly over the past month, but even he sometimes found the chance to see planes so close up interesting.

And the park is right next to the city's port. We got to watch a crane move some containers around.

Matt's favorite part ended up being watching all of the boats, though. He got to see sailboats, motorboats, ferries, tugboats, barges, and yachts.

All in all, it was a successful family outing, and we'll definitely be back. We still have more of the park to explore, and next time we might bring swim suits and beach toys, too.

One final shot in the spirit of the day

Happy 20-Month Birthday, Matt!

Today Matt is 20 months old.

Matt chattering away to himself as he plays with his puzzles while I type up this post

Yesterday Matt got his first haircut when Jon trimmed his hair. Matt didn't like the towel covering up his arms and the buzzing sound of the trimmer, but he cooperated decently.

Before

During

After

At 20 months Matt continues to be active, talkative, curious, bright, easy going, cuddly, and goofy. He's perfectly happy with some shovels to play in water and/or sand, some cars or trucks or airplanes, sticks, bubbles, cardboard boxes, and of course books. His new favorite things are big trucks (diggers most of all), and he's thinking about getting into trains. That said, he continues to be a fan of dinosaurs and animals, mainly dogs, cats, frogs (and toads), turtles, and snakes as well as birds, fish, sharks, and bunny rabbits. Matt's crib still has a collection of stuffed animals, but he's not as concerned with them as he was before, and he's recently tried to take his trucks with us on car rides instead. Curious George is currently Matt's most recognized character. Luckily the library let us attend their Curious George event last month, and we read Curious George books a lot.

Matt is saying more and more recognizable words, although he still babbles when he feels he has something to say. He's starting to add second syllables back in, which is helpful as he puts more and more sounds to things he knows. He's now saying many of the words he used to sign, although he's sort of halfway to saying the full word as he halfway does the sign (and sometimes he does both to emphasize his point, like "More!"). And Matt will say, "Me!" when he sees himself in the mirror, although he refers to himself as "Baby."

This past month Matt really started to be able to recognize and identify colors. Right now he identifies most basic colors (pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white) correctly most of the time, and he's working on a few more (black, gray, and brown). He especially likes blue, although the jury's still out on whether he likes the color or the sound the word makes more.

Two is currently Matt's favorite number. He is working on counting to five, but most of the time he's happy to stop at two. He loves to count eyes and ears on people and animals. (The cat is not impressed he can count the number of ears she has.)

Matt is starting to get a little more interested in puzzles, which is good because we have a few! He still likes to play with the pieces rather than take the time to place them back. It's hard for him to focus on lining the pieces up with their slots when he's trying to talk about them, thinking about playing with the pieces instead of putting them back, and noticing the next piece to put in - plus whatever else is going on around him.

Matt underwent a pretty good growth spurt within the past couple of weeks. He has basically outgrown his size 6 shoes, even if his size 7s are a bit roomy yet. And some of his 2T shirts are getting rather short on him, while I no longer have to roll up his 24-month pants. Some of his 2T pants are still a bit loose in the waist on him, though. It's a good thing it's shorts weather so he can keep wearing his 24-month shorts since the length doesn't really matter with those!

June Recap

Well, we managed to survive June. It was a pretty busy month for all of us, so this may be a long post.

We went on some outings, especially during the first part of the month.

Rocking fish at an indoor play space (June began cool and cloudy. So, yes, that's Matt's in long sleeves and pants.)

Still just a little too short

Splashing in puddles in the parking lot

Watching the fish and frogs at the cranberry bog

Telling me about the flowers (water lilies) he saw

Examining a work by Dale Chihuly at the Museum of Fine Arts

Taking himself for a stroll down a quiet corridor at the Museum of Fine Arts

Visiting Daddy at a park near his work

At the library (our normal story time was on break, but there were a couple of special events to attend, and we went a few times to renew our book stash)

At the library's storybook walk (photo courtesy of the library)

At the library's Curious George birthday celebration (photo courtesy of the library)

We went strawberry picking with some friends.

Playing in the giant sandbox during our strawberry picking excursion

We went to a mini pool party at a friend's house. (Matt is the one on the right.)

We visited the children's museum several times. Matt finds more and more to do there each time we go.

Pushing the trains downhill

Playing with hand puppets

Driving the fire truck, dressed in a firefighting outfit

Posing with the elephant in the garden

We did go to playgrounds, although not quite as often as in May. Here's Matt playing peek-a-boo at one.

And talking to a friend at another.

And trying to climb up the slide to play with the rollers.

We also went to see the world's largest sculpture made with jewelry-quality jade, the Jade Buddha of Universal Peace, which was being exhibited in a nearby town. Matt was unimpressed. (The nearby playground was much more interesting, he thought.)

Of course, sometimes we stayed at home.

Climbing on a rock in the backyard

Pull me in the sled, please!

Playing with water, one of his favorite activities

Reading books

Trying out various ways to wear a hat

Snuggling with mama (He caught a stomach bug earlier in the month - luckily it was a short and mild one.)

 

Annoying the cat by putting toys on her

Matt has decided he likes swings after all, although he really only likes this style of swing, with the tall back, where he can recline and talk to the person pushing him.

Posing (He is increasingly telling me, "No, no," when I pull out a camera, though.)

Being silly on the lawn

Enjoying a baby-sized burrito

One of the things we enjoy most about our house is the yard and the nature we get to experience daily. Matt definitely agrees with us.

Helping to water with his new chameleon watering can

Watching the turtle we found at the bottom of our driveway

Checking out the bird that stunned itself (it would be OK)

Looking at the frogs and toads we've found

Taking a closer look at one of the newly bloomed lilies

I'll close with photos of Matt with one of his new favorite things: big trucks (especially diggers and dump trucks).

Watching dump trucks at a construction site

Driving a truck through some sand

Playing with his large collection of "dig digs" in the backyard