Mr. Matthew

turns 3! What a blessing these three years have been.

May 2010

Christmas 2010

February 2011

 May 2011

August 2011

October 2011

April 2012

June 2012

October 2012

April 2013

All about Abby

This afternoon and evening was all about Abby as the boys spent the day and are spending the night at Grammy and Papa's, so I had Abby all to myself. After she awoke from a rather short nap we went shopping at the mall. Wow, it's a lot easier to maneuver around the mall with a single stroller rather than a double with Sam walking in front of me, stopping randomly. We didn't actually go shopping, we actually went "returning" as I just had a few items to return to some stores and didn't purchase anything. I just took my time and Abby didn't get antsy at all. I did do some browsing for clothes which Abby seemed to enjoy immensely. She insisted upon keeping her stroller within reaching distance of the clothing racks and shelves and would say "Touch this!" and point to clothing she wanted to touch, then I would move her stroller a little closer and she would finger the clothing gently. At one point I was holding up a shirt on a hanger and she said, "No, Mommy." So I put it back. Who can argue with a 1 year old's taste in clothing? I'm sure it's the first of many such statements I will be hearing from her about my clothing selections.

After we returned we read books which is probably Abby's favorite activity. Well, her favorite activity is sitting with Mommy, and reading at the same time is just icing on the cake. So as I was reading her a book we got from the library, I noticed that she would repeat every word I said. Now, the book has only one word per page, but I thought it was worth getting on video, so here you go. 

Lunch

Today our lunch consisted of 1) leftover tater tot casserole...with ketchup for those who prefer to separate out their tater tots; 2) cucumber and red pepper slices; 3) a few cheese puffs; 4) cheese slices and 5) milk. When the kids sat down for their lunch, this is what they all went for first: Abby grabbed a slice of cheese and a cheese puff in one hand and grabbed another cheese slice and cheese puff in the other hand. Sam grabbed a red pepper slice and then moved onto a cucumber slice. Matthew licked his ketchup off his plate and then asked for more.

At the end of the meal, this is what they had eaten: Abby ate four slices of cheese, four cheese puffs, one tater tot, a few bites of the meat/veggie part of the casserole, and a bite of cucumber and pepper. Matthew ate two "servings" of ketchup and two cheese puffs and one bite of cucumber. Sam ate two slices of cucumber and two slices of pepper and two cheese puffs.  Neither boy tried their casserole other than the one mandatory bite (which was minuscule in both cases).

Despite all this, they are still healthy, growing children.

And yesterday they had to take a bath together (Abby's been taking her own for the past few months as the bath is rather crowded with the three of them) as our bedtime routine got pushed back a bit yesterday. So here they are enjoying their bathing experience. At least Matthew has moved beyond the "huge-open-mouthed" smile.

Snow snow snow...No no no!

This would be the view from our sliding door. The yellow thing on the left is our baseball tee. I don't think we'll be playing baseball today.

 This would be the view from the front door.

And this would be our Chia-pet-like grill with a ruler sticking out of the snow. You can't see the "8". Gotta love Minnesota.

Bug incident

The other day we were at Ken and Cheri's church to attend a mom's Bible study that I've been attending for a couple of months. The moms (and any kids that want to be with their moms) sit at a table in the fellowship hall and the nursery is right next to where we meet. Usually the kids run around in the fellowship hall (and I mean that they run around and around and around, in circles around the tables) and come in and out of the nursery. Matthew sometimes joins in, but being more of an introvert, he often hangs out where there aren't a lot of kids (on my lap, when Abby isn't occupying it) or in the nursery when the other kids aren't occupying it). 

So he was in the nursery playing with Abby and 1 or 2 other kids when suddenly I heard him screaming and yelling and crying very seriously. I thought there was maybe a major injury because it sounded very serious. He came to the door of the nursery and walked over to me shaking to horribly that he hardly could walk. When he calmed down some (after a few minutes of just screaming) he muttered something about a bug on the slide. Hmmmm. So he apparently saw a bug that he was afraid--no afraid isn't sufficient--terrified of. I mean he was really terrified. I thought maybe it was one of those long, hairy, fast centipede things as I myself have been terrified of those before (never in front of the children though, so I don't know where his phobia came from). But he said it had some red on it. Hmmm.

He wouldn't let me put him down (he held his feet up when I tried to set him on the floor) and was still shaking after maybe 5 or 10 minutes. I knew that I had to do something or he would not go into the nursery for like a year or two. That kid has quite a memory and I knew such an incident with a bug would scar him for a considerable period of time. So I told he we were going to look for the bug. I thought we'd find nothing and I could assure him that it was gone. He clung to me. We walked into the nursery and I asked him to point out where he saw the bug. He pointed out the slide/climbing structure. I walked over to it and looked down. There was nothing. Hmmm. Then I saw it clinging to the interior wall of the climbing structure. A boxelder bug. Matthew confirmed it's identity as "THE BUG", then I leaned over, Matthew on one hip, and swatted it with my hand. Apparently it was only stunned by the hit as it fell to the floor but was still moving. So then I squashed it with my finger. My bare finger. I then grabbed a kleenex and wiped it up.

Wow, was I ever a hero. Matthew talked about my heroics all day, how I "killed the bug and it was dead". And I really did feel like a hero. Now Matthew can enter the nursery without fear (although Sam, Mr. Logical and Realistic, pointed out on the ride home that there could be other bugs...Be quiet, SAM!). The heroics of a mom. 

Belated pictures

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but I have taken a few so here's a round up of pictures from the past few weeks.

So here's Abby in her Easter dress after the Easter service in Iowa. I actually made it into a picture! And I made her Easter dress using fabric purchased at an antique store in Albert Lea on our February vacation to southern Minnesota/northern Iowa.

 The other night our entertainment was Sam getting dressed up and singing and dancing for us. I really don't know what he was singing. Sometimes he just makes noises and other times he makes up songs (Matthew makes up songs too, usually about cars). We had a fun evening of free entertainment. One of the things about becoming a parent is that you spend a lot less on entertainment out of the house as you live with entertainment constantly. Sometimes it's funny and sometimes not. At least you don't have to go to a theater and pay $15 for it.

And Matthew got dressed up too. Not really, he just put Blankie on his head and asked to have his picture taken. So there you go. 

Our entertainment on Friday was a robin that was sitting on the deck railing right outside our dining room window. It sat there all day and would fly at the window every few minutes. At first the kids and I thought it was cute (and it really provided a good hour of entertainment for the kids), but then I read on the internet that the robin was likely defending his territory and "attacking" his reflection in the window as if it was a rival. Not only was it attacking the window, but it was peeing and pooping all over the railing. It was (and still is) seriously gross.  Because we have all this fresh snow, the robin waste really stands out. Yuck. Fortunately, when it warms up a bit, Jason is planning to power wash the deck. So, I read that if you pull the shades it will probably stop and it did, then moved on to another window. So I had to pull that shade and so on. At least it provided free entertainment although I definitely don't want to see that show again.

Thing heard and seen

Abby has been copying words and phrases a lot lately. She will often repeat entire sentences and not only does she repeat statements right after they are said, but she will also just say it randomly at times. Her favorite lately is "Wipe my butt please!" Apparently she hears that a lot and the boys enjoy hearing her say it so they say it even more than when they actually need assistance in that area.

Sam suffered from some stomach/intestinal illness last week (Matthew and I had it too, but not quite as bad) and after entering the intestinal phase of the illness he had a lot of cramping and discomfort. He kept saying "My butt hurts!" and crying and unfortunately there was little I could do about it. After a few hours of his butt hurting, he eventually felt the need to "go" and when he started going, he said, "Mommy, it feels good to p**p! Ahhh." And then he continued to give me a play by play of what was going on in the bathroom. Over the next few days there was more of the same play by play. He'd tell me how his bottom felt, how it felt to "go", the state of his poo and so on. Such is the conversation in our house.

This is turning out to be a rather gross post (such is our life at times), but as far as things heard, Matthew threw quite a tantrum tonight. One like I have never seen before, only heard about. He was upset because I wouldn't go to the basement with him as it was bath time and we had to go upstairs rather than downstairs. So then came the tantrum. He laid down on the floor, started screaming and flailing his arms and legs about and hitting himself. It's the kind of tantrum that I wasn't sure really happened in real life, but I'd only imagined as my worst nightmare in Target or the grocery store. He didn't do it for too long as I told him that if he didn't stop it immediately he was going straight to bed...and he stopped the tantrum immediately. Now where did he learn that behavior? He's never witnessed it from Sam or on TV or anything. Is it innate? Anyway, he didn't take a nap today and apparently he really needed one cause he was rather crazy.