Happy After Thanksgiving

Matthew had his first Thanksgivings and he really enjoyed them. We tried to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for him but he wasn't all that into the baby food turkey. I can't say that I blame him. He liked playing with the dogs at his Aunts house and spending time with all of his grandma's and grandpa's. It is so much fun to see him with them.

He is crawling now and he can get into all kinds of trouble. His favorite things to crawl to right now are the power cords, the Christmas tree and presents and his high chair which he loves pushing back and forth. He can also sit up on his own- usually this doesn't last too long though because he wants to crawl away. He seems happier now that he can crawl as it was very frustrating as he was trying to learn how.


His first tooth is coming in so that is cute to see too. I would put a picture up but it is hard to get him to open his mouth up for a picture. He likes to stick his tongue out now too. I don't know if it feels neat on his tooth or what.






We went and saw Santa already and Matthew wasn't scared at all. He just giggled as Santa bounced him on his knee.

Matthew's cute picture

We had some pictures taken of Matthew a few weeks ago. This is the only one that I have a copy of so far. It is probably the best one though.

Happy Halloween

Matthew had his first Halloween. He seemed to enjoy it- he dressed up as a Tiger and had his picture taken. It was somewhat uneventful for him but he sure loved being in his costume and playing with the pumpkins.

Our trip to the orchard

We started our day out today by trying to get some family pictures taken outside with the pretty fall leaves in the background. Matthew wasn't in the best mood but hopefully we got some good shots. We learned that Matthew isn't too fond of sitting with or by leaves. He was only happy when we were holding him or he was sitting on a blanket not just the ground.

Then we met up with Brad's family and went to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch. We had a nice time there and got some cute pictures of Matthew. He likes pumpkins more than leaves. He had a nice time playing with the dogs at Becca's too.


I will update everyone again after Matthew's Dr. appointment on Tuesday.

Raptor Release

This past weekend we went to the nature center and watched the Raptor Release. It was nice to see these majestic birds released back into the wild. It was a pretty nice day for it, kind of cloudy and a little cool. We got to see 4 birds released back into the wild and we also got to look at some Eagles and Owls up close. Matthew didn't really seem to care at all about it this year but we think that in years to come he will really like to see all of the big birds.

I can't believe Matthew is almost 6 months old already, the time sure goes by fast. He is starting to try to figure out how to crawl. He can get up on his hands and knees but then he doesn't seem to know where to go from there yet so he usually ends up going backwards and getting stuck on some piece of furniture.

We made most of his baby food from scratch (not as hard or time consuming as I thought it would be) and he seems to enjoy every type of fruit and vegetable we have given him so far. He is eating peas, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, peaches, pears, apples and bananas. He does a really good job eating and he has graduated to using his high chair. He holds his hands out to the side and opens his mouth when he is ready for another bite- I love spending this time with him, he seems so sophisticated and grown up. The other day I was eating a hamburger sitting by him and he kept opening his mouth when I would bring it to my mouth. I don't think he is ready for a hamburger yet though as he doesn't have any teeth yet.

Matthew's 4 month check-up

Matthew had his 4 month check-up Tuesday. He is growing so fast. He now weighs 16 lbs. 8 oz. Which is 77% for his age. He is 26 1/2 inches long (92%). Which is 33% weight to length for his age. He got his second big round of shots and he seemed to do alright afterwards. He still got a slight fever this time but not as bad as the last time.



Wednesday night Matthew was able to try peas for the first time (we have been feeding rice cereal for a couple weeks now). He seemed to like the peas ok. We have some funny pictures of his face all full of the green peas. I will have to post them later because my image editing software isn't working right now and I can't rotate the image.




He is getting more and more smiley. It is fun to play with him and watch his cute expressions. We will hopefully post again soon.

It's been awhile

Sorry that it has been so long since I have posted. We have been busy with me being back to work and getting ready for vacation. Now that we are back I should hopefully have more time to update everyone on our happenings.

Matthew went on his first vacation with us up North this year. It was a great time we were able to hang out with my mom and dad, my grandma and grandpa and my brother and sister-in-law for the week. Matthew loved all the attention! He went out in the boat with us quite a few times and he seemed to like that as well. He had his feet in the sand and in the lake as well. I think he wanted to eat the sand. He liked kicking in the lake more than in the sand.

On the way home he had his first taste of Dairy Queen and his first chance to try to eat from a spoon. He seemed to like it after the initial awkwardness of the spoon and the ice cream being cold.

That is all the time I have for now hopefully I will blog again soon.

Back to work

On Monday I went back to work. It was hard to drop him off at daycare but once I got to work the day was okay as far as missing Matthew was concerned. I know that his daycare mommy will take good care of him and he will have a great time playing with her 4 children. She loves babies and enjoys having him around. I have had the last 2 days off to hang out with him again so that has been nice. I am not sure yet how it is going to go when I work the next 3 days in a row. Brad gets to be Mr. Mom on Friday and Saturday while I am at work.

This is a picture of Matthew with Kris (his daycare mommy) on his first day there.

rolling over update

Well, Matthew has been rolling over pretty consistently since my last post. It is so cute to watch him. Once he gets on his tummy he plays for a little while and lifts his head off the floor pretty good to look around and then he decided it isn't really how he wanted to be laying. Then he has to cry to get us to come and flip him back over again because he hasn't figured that one out yet.

Rolling over practice

Matthew is working hard on his rolling over to see if he is able to do it again. He almost gets all the way over in this video I took of him today.

Big day yesterday

We had a big day yesterday. Matthew was able to go to Brad's work and meet some of his co-workers. Then we went shopping for a little while and he had his first pictures taken. It went really well. I didn't expect to get a smile but we got a huge smile for his first picture.



After having his pictures taken we came home and while he was laying on the couch next to me he rolled over. He had been trying pretty hard all day and finally he just went all the way over. It is so neat to experience all of his firsts and imagine how he envisions his new world. We love him to pieces and can't imagine our world without him. He brightens every day for us and everyone that he meets. I can't wait for all of you to be able to meet him.

Matthew got his shots today

Today we had Matthews 8 week check up and everything looks good. He is a growing boy! He is in the 80th percentile for his weight and 90th percentile for his length. Maybe he is going to be a tall boy. He got his first round of shots today. He cried at first and then he took a nice long nap after that. So far it doesn't really seem to be bothering him at all. I think it might have hurt his Mommy and Daddy more than it hurt him. I almost cried to hear him and know that they were "hurting" my baby. I know he will get hurt many more times but I am not sure I will ever get used to it. He did get two pretty cool fluorescent bandages from the whole thing though. The next scheduled appointment happens at 4 months.

After his Dr. visit we stopped at a couple thrift sales and bought him tons of new clothes so hopefully he will think that is exciting. You can find such nice baby clothes at sales for such a great deal. You just have to be very careful about examining them for stains. But as babies they wear them for such a short amount of time the outfits still look (and sometimes are) brand new.

-Erin

Watch me grow!

Still getting used to this

I was trying to put the slideshow in the left hand column so it wasn't so in your face but I can't seem to figure it out. It just won't work for me. I have so many pictures to post it is crazy. I wanted to add a couple slideshows one from the hospital and a new one with more current pictures of Matthew. I will keep playing with it I guess. Also, I can't figure out how to delete the other one. Oh well.



I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Ours was quite busy but we had a great time. Matthew had what I am calling his first smile at himself in the mirror over the weekend. He has also switched from sleeping in his bassinet to sleeping in his crib.




Another Matthew "first" this past week was that he found his thumb by mistake and sucked on it for a little while. He is growing up so fast! I am trying not to think about going back to work but it is coming so quickly.



Hope everyone is having a good start to their summer. I can't wait to share more pictures with you when I figure out how to work the slideshow feature properly.

-Erin

Pictures of Matthew from the hospital

Welcome to our blog!

First, I would like to give credit to my Sister-in-Law Timille and friend Trisha for inspiring me to start this blog. I had been thinking about it before but seeing theirs made me excited to make one. Hopefully, Matthew will let me spend time to work on it. I thought it would be a great way for family and friends to keep up with the changes that we go through as Matthew grows up.

I feel like he is already growing out of control. I already miss the days when he was a brand new baby. At the same time I am excited that he has figured out night and day now and he is starting to sleep 6 hours at a time at night when he wants to. Those first few nights were pretty rough. Especially not being able to go to sleep until 6 in the morning our second night in the hospital.

He seems to maybe be starting to figure out how to smile. We have to work pretty hard for it but he will occasionally smile at us and we don't think it is just gas. He isn't really into his toys yet but we try to get him to play every day. He has so many that when he does understand what they are he should be the happiest boy in the world. Thanks everyone for all of the wonderful gifts.

Both sets of Grandparents are totally in love with Matthew and it is fun to see them get to spend time with him too. It is hard for me to give him up though, I don't know how I am going to be able to go back to work. I am already dreading the day and it is almost 6 weeks away yet.

I will write more later, I want to try to get some pictures posted as well.

Thanks for checking out the new blog!
-Erin