Great Weather

I can't believe how beautiful the weather is for July! Wow. It was only about 75 degrees today, and we enjoyed a couple of long walks as well as some playtime in the yard. Matty is enamored with bubbles, so we had plenty of those going in the front yard. Even Stan had a good time outside today!

Go Royals

Go Royals! Matty is supporting his team in his new cute outfit. He had a fun day...had a visit from his friends Blair, Lily, and Morgan. He really enjoyed showing off for them! What a little ham...!

Big Boy

This new little outfit makes Matty look so grown up! He is now 10 months old adjusted age.

Standing Tall

Matty is enjoying pulling up on all of his toys, especially the activity center. He opens and closes the book & laptop, plays on the keyboard, dials the phone, and spins the wheel in order to play the songs. Whereas Jeremy & I are getting a little bit tired of the same old songs, Matty thinks they are the best. He also continues to babble incessantly. I'm still waiting to hear him say 'Mama' sometime soon. Other than that, Jeremy had his knee surgery yesterday. He's up and around today, which is great.

4th of July

We have had a very nice 4th of July weekend. Last year, the 4th was definitely very tense in the NICU...there were docs and nurses in and out of his room all day...needless to say, we are so thankful to have our little guy here at home with us this year. We went out to dinner on Friday, and Matty decided that he didn't want to sit in his carrier and play with toys. So, we took turns holding him inbetween bites. On Saturday, Ronnie, Mary & Nana Flo stopped by with a new Mizzou basketball. Matty loves it of course! Then, we went over to my parents' house for a cookout. Matty fell asleep there, and so he wasn't able to see the fireworks display. Today, we took a nice long walk and have been chasing him all over the place. He crawled down a stair for the first time today, and he continues to pull himself up on different items. Here are the pics from this year:

And here is little Matty on the 5th of July last year. It is truly amazing to see how far he has come!!

Happy July

Wow, it's already July, I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by! We have had a pretty uneventful week. Matty caught a little nose cold somehow, so he has been pretty stuffed up. This means that he doesn't sleep good...for the past 2 nights, he has gotten up about every 20-30 minutes, until about 3am, when he finally gets into a decent sleep until about 6am. Yikes. Needless to say, I'm pretty tired. His nose is better today, but I'm not counting on a good night of sleep yet. Too bad we aren't allowed to give babies anything other than saline solution & suctioning when their noses are running! Other than that, he has been pulling up on stairs, toys, chairs, etc, which keeps us on our toes. His new favorite word is "ball". He repeats this multiple times in a row, pretty cute. Here he is today, getting pretty excited for his first 4th of July in the outside world! Stan, on the other hand, is not looking forward to the 4th. He is very scared of the sound of fireworks. I think that the 4th is tied with Halloween for Stan's least favorite holidays (he doesn't enjoy the doorbell ringing constantly either!)

Busy Times

Matty has been a busy boy. He has perfected his ball toss...he rolls the ball to us and then ceremoniously claps his hands and laughs. So cute!

Since he has such an overactive gag reflex when trying new table foods, we bought him a vibrating toothbrush, which he absolutely loves! We are supposed to place the toothbrush on his inner cheek, which teaches him to tolerate textures. He thinks its a toy of course...

We finally put his riding toys together, which he received for his birthday. Here he is on the giraffe...

We tried out his new cart cover, which my Mom sewed for him. He's on one of his favorite aisles at the baby store...and he continues to have fun on his rocking green frog. He recently started making the frog rock on his own. Of course he always looks to make sure that one of us is watching him while he does it. What a show-off! In other news (less exciting), we just changed his formula from Nutramigen to Gentle Ease. So far, so good, although he knew right away that the formula had a different taste. Hopefully this will be a good transition before he switches to whole milk.

Steppin' Up

Matty has been pulling himself up on different objects, but he really likes to go up the stairs. While he goes slowly, he knows exactly what to do to pull up to each step. Good thing that the baby gates keep him safe and sound while he is doing his speed crawling!

We have also been trying to stay cool during this extreme heat wave. Thank goodness for AC and for fun summer outfits to stay cool!

Father's Day

Father's Day was so much fun! Matty got his Daddy a new personalized Steelers jersey, which was a big hit! Then he got to spend the whole day with his Daddy too. We went to Ashlei & Charles' house for a yummy dinner. So much fun! Matty had fun playing with everyone and exploring around new areas. Happy Father's Day to Jeremy, Larry & Dave! We love you.

Team Pride

Jeremy's college (Grove City) sent Matty a t-shirt, and in return, we sent a picture of him wearing the shirt back to the college for their alumni magazine. Here is the winning pic!

And here he is sporting his baseball suit for his favorite team, the Royals. Hopefully they will start winning some more games!

Push Ups

Matty had a nice visit with his Parents as Teachers friend on Monday night. She brought a little block and had him push up on it, which he did great! He is demonstrating this skill in the 2nd pic below.











He still isn't liking the idea of "table food". I tried a few Cheerios today, which didn't go over well. He did enjoy a few tastes of a sugar cookie, but I think he still has an aversion to any food with texture. For example, last week I tried feeding him a stage 3 dinner...turkey with rice...he knew right away that there were rice chunks and started his gag reflex. Oh well, he is only 9 months adjusted age, and he can take his time with the big boy foods. On a side note, we found out today that Jeremy needs knee surgery soon...we want his knee back to normal very very soon! Hopefully the surgeon will be able to fit him in within the next few weeks.

Posing

We had a nice weekend. On Friday, Jeremy had a golf outing with his work friends, so Matty and I went out to dinner with my Mom, Dad & Grandma. He did pretty well until halfway through the meal...he grew really tired and fussy, so we made an early exit. Saturday, we went for a few walks around the neighborhood, and then out to dinner. This time, he did much better, and amused himself with his little toys. Sunday, I had to play the piano at church, so Matty spent a nice morning with his Dad. He has turned into a really quick crawler, and definitely wears us both out when we chase him all over. Sunday night we went to dinner at my parents' house, where he enjoyed watching all 4 of the pups run around. Here is a pic of him with one of his favorite toys, the yellow crab:

I was also able to get a shot of all 6 of his teeth. Here is our little poser!

Frog Friend

My Mom bought this really cute rocking frog and Matty loves riding on it!

Sunday in the Sun

On Sunday morning, we went out to the OP arboretum. Since we had been up since 6am, we were some of the first people there. We walked around the beautiful trails and fed Matty a picnic breakfast. What a fun place!

Then in the afternoon, we went out and bought a little pool for the backyard. Matty wore his new swim trunks and swim shirt, and took some little toys out to play. At first, he wasn't so sure about the water, but he quickly grew used to it and was splashing all around.

Fun Saturday

We woke up today to find 2 ducks in our front yard. Of course, Stan had to chase after them, but they were good sports.

Matty had a nice day. It is so fun dressing him in his new summer outfits. Blue is definitely his favorite color. He loves chasing after Stan...this causes Stan to bark, which causes Matty to laugh...very cute & funny!

He took a nice afternoon nap, so we took him out to dinner at Wil & Jenny's. The waitress brought him a 'sling' for his car seat to sit in. We sat in the bar and he enjoyed watching the baby who was sitting behind us.

Day at the Park

Today we went to the park with my Grandma. We played on the swings for a little while, then took a walk around the lake. It is a really pretty place, except for all of the bird doo everywhere! Stan even had a nice time. I love this weather, it isn't too hot to get out and enjoy ourselves. Some news...Matty cut 2 new teeth yesterday! (2 more on the top row). This makes a total of 6 teeth now. His nickname should be "jaws". He also has started grinding his teeth together, which gives me the heebie jeebies. I tell him "no" whenever he does it, and he seems to be doing it a little bit less today.

Summer is Here

We have been pretty busy since Matty's birthday. He has enjoyed playing with all of his new toys and wearing some of his new clothes! He had his 1 yr checkup last Thursday, and did great. He measured in at 15 lbs and 26 inches. He did have to have 3 shots (not fun)...one of them was the chicken pox shot. I didn't realize that this shot was given at such a young age. We went out to lunch with my Mom and Ashlei on Friday, and also went to a few shops. On Saturday, the three of us went out to a nice dinner. Matty enjoyed watching all of the people. We brought some cupcakes to the NICU on Sunday to celebrate Matty's birthday. We saw some of our favorite friends...Elizabeth, Heather, Julie, Jen, Valerie, Amy, Doug...hard to believe that Matty spent his first weekend there a year ago! Then, we went to my parents' house for dinner, yum! Here is Matty sitting outside on the back deck:

Today was pretty hot outside, so we tried out the new wagon in the shade. Thanks to Ashlei, Charles, Erik & Stephanie for such a fun new ride!