This afternoon we went to Christmas at Fenway, an annual event we haven't been able to attend until this year because we hadn't been lucky enough to win entry. But this year I got picked! Sadly, by the time our scheduled entrance time came around many events, like autographs with current and former players, were over, and others were winding down, but we still had some neat experiences and got some good photos.
With the three World Series trophies
Matt running up the ramp away from the crowds around the trophies
Posing with Wally, the Green Monster, and the Red Sox Christmas tree
The adults' favorite part was getting to take a few swings in the players' batting cage. Matt was too young, so he got to watch this time.
Checking out the batting cage
Katherine taking her swings
Matt sitting in the official Fenway chairs and watching Daddy
Jon taking his swings
Trying to figure out why the balls are going so fast and planning to replicate this new game of hitting balls with sticks
And he's ready to move on
Having a little one kept us from being able to spend a lot of time doing something like pick through the odds and ends in the yard sale (which had a wide variety of gear, from leftover merchandise and player photos to banners and media guides), but the family activities gave us more to do with all of the players gone. Case in point: the "trackless train":
Matt trying to make up his mind about trains
Whee! Trains are awesome!
Posing for photos with the mascot, Santa (photo to come soon...), and other Christmas characters were part of the attractions. Matt was OK with Wally, a little unsure about Santa, but definitely frightened of the Grinch.
Help!
Is that scary Grinch gone yet?
I tried to get one last photo with the Wally statue, but Matt was getting too tired and too anxious about having to face the Grinch again. So we headed home, and after a nap and some food all was well.
Between Halloween and Christmas, we preferred trick or treating at Fenway, Matt because there wasn't a Grinch and Jon and I because being able to walk around the field and sit in the dugouts was special. At this rate Matt is going to think we go to the ballpark to celebrate a holiday rather than to watch a game!
We cut down and set up our Christmas tree last night and trimmed it tonight. We have a small one this year, and we were very selective in our ornament selection (in other words, anything breakable isn't hanging on this year's tree). Our play yard is surrounding the tree in the hopes that someone won't pull on it and its decorations too much. Matt is still figuring out what he thinks of the whole thing.
He is very comfortable with walking and has picked up a little speed, although thankfully he's not yet running. He still has a bit of a wide-legged stance as he toddles around, as if he just got off of a horse, which is normal for his age. And he still shuffles his feet as he walks, although he's getting better at going around things on the floor rather than dribbling them all with him. In other words, his gait is still pretty amusing to watch.
Even though he's not really speaking much that's recognizably English, Matt's very expressive and often pretty good at communicating what he wants. He just added "Mama" to his vocabulary within the past couple of days. He also signs "more" (although, like many little kids, he primarily uses it to mean "I want something, probably food") and "all done," and he's working on "milk" (he signs it correctly but usually means "food / drink" in general rather than just "milk"). He waves "goodbye" consistently and every once in a while "hello," too. His new favorite thing is to hold his hands out and shrug while making quizzical noises, imitating the exaggerated gestures I have made when asking him questions. He's getting kind of cheeky with it: he has been known to nab something like a phone, throw it, and then seem to ask something akin to "Where did it go?" or "How did it get over there?" Oh boy...
Matt just finished up a massive growth spurt. That's the reason we were out shoe shopping for him last Saturday: his main pair of shoes barely fit on Saturday even though he had worn them comfortably just a couple of days before. He currently wears toddler size 6 wide, although we'll see how long that lasts. And his 18-month clothes are a little closer to being retired. The 18-month onesies are just about done, but fortunately his cute shirts have a little more life in them. He's finally growing into the length of the pants; that always seems to be just about the last thing he does.
Matt still eats pretty well, with the occasional bouts of pickiness. He feeds himself with a spoon, even if he still needs to refine his technique; will dunk something into a dip, although if you don't watch him he's quick on the double-dipping; and has had a successful try at feeding himself with a fork. He also sometimes tries to feed people the leftovers of whatever he's eating, every once in a while after he's sampled it himself. He does like to pretend to give people a drink from his play coffee pot, too.
Matt is definitely a busy little guy during his play, and he always insists on some reading time, too. He keeps me on my toes for sure!
November was a busy month for us. I've already posted about Matt's birthday, 12-month doctor visit, and Thanksgiving, so I'll recap some of our other exciting adventures from this past month and then share some more photos.
Most weeks we had a mix of play groups or dates and library story time. Towards the end of the month we tried out a couple of new to us programs, a tot play / story time and a musical program, at neighboring libraries, and it seems we now have a couple of additional options. Matt outgrew our Thursday morning play group, and that space's play group for older kids isn't at a good time for us, so it's nice to have something else to do in the cold winter months to come.
Trying out the "shaky eggs" (aka egg shakers) at our usual library story time
The weekend after Matt's birthday we decided to take a little day trip. We went up north of the city to an apple orchard where we ate warm apple cider donuts and checked out the farm animals. After a quick lunch in town we went out to the beach and walked along the sand for a bit, watching all of the people and dogs out and about.
Listening to the music
Sampling cider donuts
Trying to pat the bunny
Not that impressed with the tractor
Unsure about the chickens wandering around
Feeding the goats
Chasing off the geese
Walking on the beach
Playing in the sand
Always a favorite mode of transportation
More playing in the sand
On Veteran's Day one of my friends had the day off from work, so we met her at the local state park for a walk. Afterwards we played in the leaves.
Matt enjoys a good stick
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we met up with a friend near the nearby NFL football stadium to explore some things in that area. We took the nature trail around a cranberry bog, and then we checked out the giant fish tank in the Bass Pro shop. After our friends headed off, Matt and I finished some Thanksgiving food shopping at Trader Joe's and then hit the line for Santa (photo to come later).
Enjoying his new favorite food, clementines (The band-aid was just to keep him from scratching a little bit of rug burn he had from to a too late attempt to shift direction; he's all right and surprisingly left the band-aid alone.)
Look, a fish!
Trying to take it all in
The cleaning man rubbing the nose of the friendliest fish (whom he made "wave" its fin at Matt)
Matt and his buddy watching the diver
The weekend after Thanksgiving we made a little shopping excursion to some local business. We took Matt shoe shopping since he had outgrown the one pair we had. He didn't find trying on shoes anywhere near as interesting as playing with the wooden maze and staring at himself in the many mirrors. We also took him to the toy store, where he wanted to dump out the toys so he could play with the boxes they sat in instead.
Checking himself out at the shoe store
So, what else has Matt been up to? Well, he is continuing his efforts to make the cat like him.
Her preferred position is still just out of reach.
Matt is enjoying playing with blocks and similar toys, stacking them in towers or connecting the Mega Bloks (aka "baby Legos").
He is also playing with a farm set we're borrowing from some friends.
He has discovered he can push buttons and enjoys his new power.
Matt finds the patterns made by light, whether sunlight through the windows or light from a flashlight, to be fascinating.
He enjoys playing with boxes...
... whether that involves sitting in them...
... or wearing them on his feet as funny-shaped shoes.
He tries to steal the broom from me when I'm sweeping up the cheerios from under his chair.
My "helper"
Practicing for quidditch?
And fortunately the weather allowed for a few last chances to play in his sand box.
I'll end with a video taken one Saturday afternoon. This is just Matt being Matt.
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...
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!
