Matthew's 2nd Christmas

We had an excellent Christmas this year. We had everyone over on Christmas Eve for dinner, and then the snow started to fall! It continued throughout the night. We actually got stuck pulling out of the driveway on our way to church Christmas morning. Luckily, we made it just in time! We came back home and opened presents, and then went over to my parents' house after Matty's nap. He received many nice presents, and his favorites were of course the trucks & tractors!

Step By Step

Exciting news just in time for Christmas! Matty has been a pro at pulling himself up and cruising around furniture, holding on to walls, etc for awhile now. He has also taken a few timid steps if we hold a toy out in front of him. Yesterday morning, he woke up more determined than ever to take some serious steps. I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom and noticed that he was standing up and walking towards me. He took a few steps, touched his hands to the ground, stood back up and took more steps. This went on for the entire length of the bathroom! Then, later in the day, he walked from the front door through the entire front entrance hall. What a big boy! I think that he is gaining more confidence each day. We are so blessed that our former little peanut has turned into such a big boy and has finally decided to take real steps right before Christmas! We are very very proud of our little guy! Here he is pushing some of his toys around. His favorites are his red car and his tractors. He makes the best "vrooom" sound too...so cute!

Appetizer Party

We went over to Ashlei's house tonight for an appetizer party. Matty had fun playing with the dogs...Barbie, Winston, and Stan. He also took a few steps in the kitchen to show off! Unfortunately, we had to leave before our Seattle cousins arrived, because it was way past Matty's bed time. But we had a great time anyways!

Pre-Christmas Activities

Matty helped with the gingerbread house...well, he was more interested in playing with the toppings! Here are the pics, as well as a picture of his gingerbread house from last year.

My Seattle cousins are in town this week, so I was able to meet the majority of the Sisel family for dinner at Jack Stack. Unfortunately, it was a late dinner, so Jeremy stayed behind to put Matty to bed. It was really great to catch up with everyone!

Happy Boy

Matty sported his new bowling shirt today! He was pretty happy about it...also, my Mom bought him a new puppy hat to wear for these cold winter days!

Hectic Week

Jeremy has been in Jamaica all week for work, but things definitely didn't slow down here! For starters, temps have been in the single digits with wind chills below zero. Tuesday afternoon started off with Matty stuffing too many cheese squares into his mouth at the same time, causing a fountain throwup all over his toy room. It was really gross, all over the carpet, wall, his clothes and shoes and several toys. Then, light snow moved in later that evening. At least he enjoyed watching the snow fall for a little while! Wednesday, I took him over to my grandma's house so that I could walk the dog. I noticed that the car was very slow to start on the way home...I just chalked it up to the extreme cold temps. This morning, I packed us all up to go over to my Mom's so that I could walk the dog once again, but alas, the car wouldn't start. I tried several times but no luck. I called the dealership who told me to call roadside assistance. The guy made it here within the hour to jump start the car, which was great. In the meantime, I had to have my Mom come over here and on the walk, Stan's back foot froze, so he started hopping around on 3 legs. Yikes! I was afraid that the car wouldn't start again, so I called the dealership back and said that I was bringing the car in even though they had no appointments open today. They weren't too happy with me there, but gave me a loaner car (a very nice new one I must admit). I then had to come back here to find Matty's old carseat, somehow hook it up, get him from my Mom's...and then of course he was cranky because it was naptime! I'm still waiting for the dealership to call me back to come and get my car, but I'm afraid that it won't be until rush hour. Anyhow, this week has been nuts! Here are some pics from today...Matty looking out at the snow...hope it melts soon!

Winter's Here

Cold, drizzly, yuck...winter is here...back to being cooped up in the house. Everything seems a bit harder in the winter...taking the dog outside, Matty's dry skin, bundling him up in layers whenever we go anywhere. Matty is enjoying the Christmas trees and looking outside at all of the lights, so he obviously doesn't mind too much about being inside all of the time. Yesterday, we attempted to take his picture for Christmas cards. I took over 80 pictures and finally got a couple of decent ones. Here is one that didn't make the cut:

Weekend Pics

Matty has been keeping us very busy! He is constantly opening cabinets, pulling sweaters off the shelves in my closet, opening drawers, crawling everywhere...he is quite the busy body! His favorite words are Mama, Dada, Papa, Nana...he likes to push his little trucks and cars around and make a brrrrrm sound...and he recently started following directions. For example, if I tell him to go and get a book or to go and play the piano, he will accomplish both tasks. We took him out to eat on Saturday night and he had fun eating mashed potatoes and playing with straws. He also had fun today at my parents' house playing with everyone...he even enjoyed eating artichoke bars! I found a neat software program that creates photo montages...here is my first attempt...enjoy!

Great Weekend

Jeremy and I decided to venture out on Black Friday to buy some Christmas presents. We started at Toys R Us, and got some neat toys for Matty. The store wasn't too crowded by the time we got there. We also stopped at Kohl's, which wasn't too bad either. We went to our favorite BBQ place for dinner, and Matty ate some of our food. I'm so thankful that he's doing better with textures and trying new foods! Saturday was the annual Border War between MU and KU at Arrowhead Stadium. I have attended the game the past 2 years, but this year, we had a bunch of my family over to watch. I had to leave right before halftime to play the piano at church, but MU won with a field goal as time ran out! Yea! Matty enjoyed hanging out with everyone but isn't into watching tv yet...

Sunday, I witnessed our little guy taking 2 steps! Even though he prefers crawling right now, we're so happy that he is making an attempt to walk on his own! He's a pro at pulling up & cruising but is a bit timid to walk on his own...so this was a nice 'first step' towards walking!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving today! We went over to my parents' house and had a great time. Matty laughed with his Great Grandma Flo, visited with his Great Grandma & Grandpa Sisel, played horsey with his Great Uncle Richie, played with Great Aunt Claudia & my parents, and enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner at the dining room table with everyone!

Here is a pic of Matty from last Thanksgiving. He was in much better spirits this year!

Jeremy's B-Day Weekend

We had a nice weekend for Jeremy's birthday. On Friday night, we had some of my family members over for an appetizer party. Matty had a great time playing with everyone! Saturday, we had a nice afternoon watching football. Mizzou got another win...yeah! That evening, we went to our usual birthday restaurant, Garozzo's. This time, Matty was able to join us. He ate a bunch of bread and butter and was very well behaved. As an added bonus, we saw our favorite NICU doc there, Dr. S. What a great surprise! He helped Matty out so much early on, we will be forever grateful. Sunday, we went to the Chiefs/Steelers game with Ash & Charles. The seats were amazing, right on the 50 yard line, lower level. The game was close the entire time, but the Chiefs ended up winning in OT. Even though our loyalties were split, I just hoped that the game would be competitive, which it was! Here are some pics from the week...

One of my all-time favorite movies is 'A Christmas Story'. The famous scene where the mom dresses Randy in his snowsuit (where he's so bundled that he can't put his arms down) is hilarious! When I take Matty jogging with me, I always think of that scene!

Football Fun

We have had a busy weekend watching lots of football! Yesterday, MU beat up on KSU and Pitt beat Notre Dame. Then, we took Matty to a local BBQ restaurant for dinner, and he had so much fun. He even ate some of the meat from my sandwich and some little pieces of french fries. He is slowly but surely getting better at eating chunky food. Today, he wore his new Steelers suit, but unfortunately they didn't win. We are now watching the Chiefs battle it out with the Raiders. Thank goodness for football on cold rainy weekends such as this one!

Forward Facing

Matty has not enjoyed his rear facing infant car seat this past year, to say the least...the motion of going backwards has caused numerous carsick events. His weight is so close to 20 lbs that we bought him a new forward facing Britax carseat, which he loves! He enjoys watching me drive and there has not been one instance of reflux or carsickness. Our week was pretty quiet. Matty's PAT friend Amy visited on Monday, and he had a nice visit with her. He played out in the leaves with his next door neighbor friend Matthew. His buddy was born 2 weeks before him (at full term), so there is still quite a size difference between the guys. Hopefully they will grow up being good friends! The weather has been so great that we have been able to go on several runs and walks. Today is in the mid 70's! Crazy. Here are a couple of pics from the week...enjoy!

Matthew's 2nd Halloween

Make a Smilebox slideshow

'Tis the Season...

...yikes, it's already that time of year again. Matty had his first Synagis shot for the new season today. He weighed in at 19 lbs 2 oz and had to receive the shot in 2 doses due to his higher weight, and also received a tetanus shot too. Yuck, 3 shots for the little guy. He knew what was going to happen as soon as he went down the hall to the scale. He cried while the doc was checking him out, and especially when the nurse came in with the bandaids and shots. I had to unfortunately hold his arms down while she administered the 3 shots, which made me feel terrible. The doc informed me that he is due for a bunch of shots next time...another Synagis, a 2nd flu shot, HIB, and the infamous MMR. I want to break the MMR up into 3, but supposedly his doc's office puts them all into 1. So, I am going to do some research and find somewhere that will break it up into 3. We also went for a jog together this morning. Matty wore his snowsuit and he resembled Randy in the movie 'A Christmas Story'. Pretty funny! We had a nice weekend also...we went to my sister's house for an appetizer party on Saturday with her husband and my brother. It was a lot of fun! Ash always makes such yummy food. Matty enjoyed playing with their 2 dogs...the larger one (Barbie) really caught his attention. Ash, Erik & Charles gave me a candle and a pretty bracelet for my BDay. Very thoughtful! Here are some pics from today.

Pumpkin Patch & Lake Afternoon