Our Christmas this year was in stages. We had a Christmas dinner with Ann and the Johnson's the weekend before Christmas so that Ann could see Matt before flying out to Iowa.
Then on Christmas eve we met with the Johnsons again for dinner, then off to see the Chang/Dawson clan and Virnigs. We got up the next morning and went to church, then to Denny's for breakfast. Matthew loves pancake puppies (deep fried pancake batter, yeah, healthy right?) Then to Grandma and GranDan's to open presents.
Jamie and I did our Christmas with Matthew when we got home. While he likes some of the stuff we got him, I think the stuff he got from others he's liked best. I just made a slide show this time. Enjoy.
Yep, he's walking. He went from a few unsteady steps to walking halfway across the living room without thinking about it in around a week. It's hard to catch good video though, he has a tendency to still get frustrated and revert to the crawl. The first clip in the video was the night he first got it figured out.
He's become rather a chatterbox lately too. Jamie counted 24 "words" that he says last night. By far the most frequently heard words are Mama, Dada, and Cool, although Dada seems to be the generic phrase for me, needing a diaper change, or whatever else he doesn't have a word for. Jamie got out the little Sesame Street steering wheel that we've had for a while now, and he's been having a blast with it, it's apparently "Coooolll". (There is unfortunately no volume control).
He remains an excellent eater. Thanks to Isaac for customizing the lyrics to "Sittin' in my Highchair"
Chorus Sitting in my high chair, big chair, my chair,
Sitting in my high chair feeding the cat.
1. Bring on the cheddar, bring on the O's
All the food is stuck to my nose.
Gobble up the cheese and wait for more
Oh, the O's are all o'er the floor!
2. Bring on spaghetti, bits of bread,
There is sauce all o'er my head.
I'm so hungry that Daddy said,
"We can't get this baby fed!"
3. Bring on the runny applesauce
On my pants my sauce I lost
I'm so big, yet Momma said,
"Yes, we'll get this baby fed!"
4. I am full and now I'm done
Over hunger I have won
Now to my toy rack I will dash
To see my cardboard blocks go crash.
Jamie gave him 3/4 of a banana the other day. As you'll see banana is very popular. He did finish it, despite the fact that the camera battery died close to the end.
The other new favorite thing is pointing. At Mom, at the cats, at the toys, at the ceiling in general.
We went to the holiday lights display at the botanical gardens in Bellevue with Drew, Kate and Ben the other night. It was raining a little, but that helped with the crowds.
For the midwest family -
And more pointing.
It's been cold here for the lately, (not midwest cold, but in the teens) so Matt has been getting bundled a lot. Some days he tolerates it better than others.
I haven't forgotten about Ann's request for crawling video. He's not sure footed enough yet that he doesn't enjoy a good speed crawl around the living room. Enjoy.
I realize I'm fired as the baby blogger for not getting these up sooner. We've been turning the basement from nasty storage to baby playroom. Hopefully we'll be done with that soon and Matthew will have a bunch more room to play, which he's gonna need, since he's getting way more mobile.
Thursday we went to the Johnson's for thanksgiving.
Checking out the Christmas Cactus with Grandma.
Not sure the dogs knew what to think about Matthew
Matthew seems to love aquariums. Grandma helped him check out the Tetras.
The next day we met Paul, Linda and Ann at the tree farm so they could pick out a Christmas tree. Matthew had a good time checking out all the trees and found the backhoe especially impressive.
From there we headed to the cabin to meet up with the Virnig clan.
On Sunday we met up with the Chang/Dawson/Walters clans for a second thankgiving dinner. Matthew had a great time playing with the other kids. He and Felix had some fun.
It's a race!
Hi Felix!
Hanging with Ethan
Playing with Felix
Walking with GrandDan
Ouch! That's my hair!
Oohhh!
We tried to get some good pictures of all the kids, but that wasn't happening. Here's what we got.
We have discovered that Matthew loves cheese. Mainly cheddar, but it doesn't seem to be to important. I thought I was going to get mugged for my grilled cheese sandwich the other day.
Man can this kid eat. Some parents start a college fund, we're starting a food fund for when he hits 12. Zach and Sam better watch out, a contender to the title is on his way.
First, the Halloween photos. Matthew had an excellent halloween with a good assortment of costumes. For the evening went to Grandma and GranDan's with Auntie Elicia and Uncle Ryan for dinner.
His Bumble Bee outfit. This thing was warm, so the jacket didn't last long.
We also dressed him up as Linus, what better outfit for waiting for the Great Pumpkin?
The morning after, we still had the skeleton eating candy costume, so he got to wear it on Sunday .
Matthew has been enjoying anyone who will let him help open the mail.
He also has been helping with the dishes.
He's also been loving his new metal sippy cup.
Check out his baby seal impression!
He's also graduated from the baby bath to the big boy bath. Monday night we went to dinner, so it was late on the drive home. Matt got cranky since he was tired. I asked him if he was ready for tub time, all crying ceased, and all I heard the rest of the drive home was "Tuh-tuh?". He loves the tub.
He's got some rubber duckies and stuff that light up. The other night we turned out the lights in the bathroom and lit up the tub toys and Matt had a blast.
He took a little tumble down a single step in our living room and got a little baby shiner. I'm certain it won't be the last with as fast as this kid moves. It's not as bad as Jamie thinks, I had to circle it so you can see it in the pictures.
After about 4 months, he's FINALLY getting some more teeth. #7 is coming in nicely. (It's just to his left of the bottom 2 that have been there a while)
