Catching up again...

Man this kid is growing fast.  In a matter of two weeks he went from just tall enough to reach the lower edge of a light switch to turn it off, all the way to easily turning them on and off without stretching much.  He went up ~1.5"! 

We had some snow over the last few weeks, and Matt had a lot of fun getting out to play in it.

Driving in the snow can be tricky.

Monkey trying to climb the fence.

He also finally got his new wetsuit, so we no longer have to break out the shoehorn every time we take him swimming.

Ready for Sea World

How deep is that tub anyway?

Not much narrative for the rest of the pictures, just some cute ones from the last few weeks.

Art projects with Mommy.

Lunch at SushiMe with Auntie and Uncle.

Playing with trucks.

Self Portrait

Who's shoes ARE those?

Matt looks happy.  Chicken not so much...

Hanging out in the garage.

"Cinnamon rolls you say?"

Best toddler cleanup system EVER!

Working on some potty training.

Until next time,

Jake

Music

Matt has been getting into music a lot more lately, so Auntie made him a CD of children's songs.  I'm amazed at how fast he memorized parts of them.  This clip contains a little bit of "Pizza song", I think some "old mcdonald" and most of it is "the alligator song"  (I don't know the real names to any of them)

It your wondering why he sounds a little funny singing it, the singer on the version we have has a sort of a NY accent, and Matt copies it.


Singing from Virnig Family on Vimeo.


Jake

Catching up

Seems like sometimes life is to busy that time just gets away from you.  Here's a few photo's from the last month or so.  He's growing up fast!

Making Log Cabins from rice cripies

 We call this the "Muddy Park" for obvious reasons

It's getting deep!

Matt and this baby gorilla had some fun looking at each other, but I was of course to slow to get any good pictures of it.

Havin' fun at the zoo

Tackle Daddy

"What?"

I believe the quote was "Matthew's Loungin'"

We have the hardest time getting pictures of the eyes open lately.  Check out that hair getting wild!

Playing with the new marble drop

More eyes closed, but he got a haircut!

Looks like trouble!

Who?  Me?

More eyes closed...

I don't know!

Too much energy

Matt had way too much energy the other night after dinner, and needed to burn some off before bed.  I still can't edit HD video, so enjoy some raw footage!


Matt after Dinner from Virnig Family on Vimeo.

Jake

He's 2!

Last Saturday was Matt's 2nd birthday!

He is officially 2.  I know because the first response to EVERY question I ask is an immediate and emphatic "No"!  He's also learned that Pack N Play's only contain children who are undetermined (being 37" tall helps a little with the escape though).  He's also able to efficiently capture the cats (much to their dismay).

Friday Jamie's family came over to celebrate his birthday.

They got him the set of tools that Matt saw in a catalog and had been repeatedly asking for since before Christmas.

He was REALLY excited, and getting him to go to sleep and seperate from his tools was a little tricky.

Safety First!

We sang Happy Birthday and had some cake.  Grandpa Johnson helped Matt practice blowing out candles so that he could do it on his cake.

Happy B-Day Matt from Virnig Family on Vimeo.

Having some cake with Ann

 

Polished it off, then stole some of Jamie's.

The aftermath!

Saturday was his actual birthday and we just hung out as the family 3.  Of course the first thing that he needed to do in the morning was more working with the tools.

Matt and I went up to Maltby Cafe and picked up a giant cinnamon roll for breakfast.  Those things are massive!  Then we headed out for the park to try and work off some of that sugar.

Mole hills provide some excellent digging dirt.

A little stream across the path to wash off the dirt.

Sunday was Matt's big party at the Children's Museum.  I have to give a ton of credit to Jamie, she worked really hard to make Matt's 2nd birthday fun and memorable, and she really pulled it off, all the kids had a blast.

Playing with Balloons

Balloons are more interesting than cake and candles.

Launching ping pong balls with Uncle Ryan.

Yeah Auntie, this looks safe...

All in all it was a great weekend and most importantly Matt got to share it with his friends and family.  Thanks everybody who helped make it special for him!

Jake

Swimming with Water Wings!

Auntie Elicia has been taking Matt swimming in the hotel pool about once a week for a few months now.  Last night Auntie deemed Matt ready for Phase II of swimming, Independence.  She hooked him up with some sweet water wings and some other floaties for the pool.  Thanks Auntie!

Coincidentally I had brought the video camera to the pool!  The first part of the video is right after he got in and was getting warmed up, the end is just before we got out.  He did about an hour total in the pool, kicking like a madman the whole time.

My favorite (of course) is that when asked if he wants to go SCUBA diving he instantly switches to laying flat and doing a frog kick rather than the vertical bicycle kick.  Enjoy.


Water Wings! from Virnig Family on Vimeo.

Christmas and New Years!

Christmas eve we had dinner with the group that I've been getting together with since I was a little kid, plus a lot of extras that we've all picked up or grown over the years. Matt had a good time with everybody and would up kind of crashing, but it was good to see everyone.

Matt and Felix working on a duet.

The boys playing with trucks.

"I wonder if I'm fast enough to snatch that?"

Christmas day I was pretty lazy with the camera and didn't take many pictures, but Matt had a great time all day long.

After Christmas we took a day or two to recuperate and headed for the Cabin in Cle Elum where the Virnig/Rogers clan was waiting and two extras were headed, my Aunt Tina and Cousin Isaac.  Matt had a good time playing with everybody in the snow, sledding, throwing snowballs, and most importantly for Matt, riding snowmobiles.

What a clown.

Isaac, headed down the hill.

Need to working on steering Isaac!

Matt's ready to go!

"What's this?"

"I think I like it!"

"Yep, I like it!"

Matt's new snow outfit.

As Tina said, "The glasses make the outfit."

Exploring GranDan's bear cave.

Matt and Isaac playing in the other "bear cave", Isaac's tent/bedroom.

Going "sledding" with Auntie.  No need for a sled when you have slick pants.

Pretty sure those glasses are older than you Isaac.

For New Years we had a fire outside and made S'mores.   First thing though was to dig out the fire pit.

A perfect Matt sized shovel!

 

Auntie and Uncle warming up by the fire.

Matt and Isaac just chillin'.

Can't be New Years without noisemakers.

Non of us made it to midnight, but we had a great evening just hanging out playing games and talking.  

Hope everybody had a great Christmas and New year, and  wishing you a terrific 2011.