Baby's First Christmas

We spent Christmas with Josh's family, and we had a really great time with them. Josh's sister and husband were there as well, so we got to see our little niece, Chesney. Here's Sarah and I, holding each other's babies.

Isn't she a cutie? She's 4 months old, so that makes her and Matthew 5 months apart, almost to the day. Matthew enjoyed playing with his cousin, as you can see below :)

Matthew got lots of attention, and had lots of playmates, including Sammy...

...Grampa...

...and Aunt Beka.

And here's me, lovin' on little Chesney.

Grammy and Grampa both had their fun with the grandkids. I'm sure as the babies get older, it will harder and harder to get a pic of them both holding still on their grandparent's laps.

I love this picture, even though Matthew is so upset in it. He'd just woken up from a nap, and he's usually pretty clingy after sleeping. So when I put him down to take this pic, he immediately started bawling like I had left him forever and was never coming back. I love how Chesney's looking over at him, wondering what's wrong. It almost looks like she's got her hand on his leg, as if to say, hey bud, it's ok. Precious :)

We spent early Christmas morning at our apartment, where we opened the gifts we had for each other. Matthew didn't quite know what to make of the paper. We encouraged him to grab it and rip it, but he just kinda fingered it and left it alone.

He was a little more eager to touch tissue paper. Here he is opening some Disney plush characters we got for him.

And here he is with the loot he got from us. Well, the Little People Nativity set was sent from Gramma, and the puzzle was from Aunt Laura that he opened the night before. But the rest was from us. We decided not to get him too many things, since he's too young to remember, and he'd be getting a bunch from everyone else anyway. We got him some stacking/nesting blocks, a Cars book with a matching plush Lightning McQueen, and the Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto plushes I talked about.

I got Josh some shirts, books, and a usage monitor. You plug it in to an appliance, and it will tell you how much power it's using and how much it costs you a month. And I opened up a book, a cupcake courier, and a dress watch for church. Then we headed over to Mom and Dad's to open some more gifts. Laura and Hannah pictured below.

Donald and Sarah and Beka shared the couch for present-opening time.

Chesney got the cutest little baby doll.

We ended up feeding Matthew while we opened gifts, which worked out well, cause we just left him in the highchair, instead of juggling him between hands. At one point Laura brought Chesney over to say hi to him.

And a short video we took of Matthew in a box full of wrapping paper.

Josh and I got lots of neat gifts. Some of our favorites were our matching OSU sweatshirts; Josh enjoyed receiving two books that greatly influenced Ronald Reagan, and I liked the bracelet my father-in-law made for me. Oh yeah, we also loved getting part of the Willow Tree nativity set. I know what we'll be asking for next year ;)

Oh, we dressed Matthew in an outfit that his daddy wore for Christmas at 7 months old. What a ham!

And here's a Christmas outfit that Josh and his sisters all wore for Christmas. It's big on Chesney...

...but just a little snug on Matty :)

One of my favorite gifts that Matthew got--the cutest PJs ever!

And a nice family picture of the three of us. I'd say Merry Christmas, but it's a little late, so Happy New Year instead!

Vertigo

You ever have that dizzy feeling? And not just when you get off a spinning ride at an amusement park. It just hits you all of a sudden and sticks around for a while? That's me last night and today. We were watching It's a Wonderful Life (which we didn't finish, by the way), and when I got up to go to bed, I could barely keep my balance. And today I'm like that too. I feel dizzy if I move my head too fast. I'm not worried about it or anything, unless I'm carrying Matthew. It's just weird, that's all.

And in Matthew news, I think I got him sick. Yesterday was Sunday, and we go to church. Yesterday was also the coldest day we've had this season. I'm talking temperatures in the teens and dropping during the day. Not to mention a wind chill factor in the negatives. Just taking Matthew out to the car was too much, cause it made his top lip purple while we drove to church. And today is just as cold and I had to go grocery shopping. Anyway, the reason why I think Matthew might be sick is cause he's coughing today. Not alot, so he could just be choking on extra saliva. But if he does get a cold, I have nobody to blame but myself.

I guess I can't publish this post unless I have some pictures. Here's a recent favorite.

A Christmas card attempt that we didn't use. By the way, I apologize ahead of time to anyone who gets our card late. I ran out of address stickers, and I'm waiting for our new ones to arrive in the mail. Yes, I know I could use a pen and be done with it, but I'm too lazy for that ;)


And I thought you'd enjoy seeing a picture of Matthew from a year ago at this time.

Isn't he adorable? :)

Smile, Matthew

"Ok, Matthew, smile for Mommy."

Uh, not exactly what I had in mind.

"Give Mommy a nice smile, baby."

Ok, I think we're getting worse here.

Third time's a charm, they say. "Alright, Matthew, say cheese!"

Ugh, I give up.

And I also captured his cooperation on video. Enjoy!

Matthew Update and a Daddy Weekend

It's been a while since I've updated you all on Matthew. He's 8 months old already and just as cute as ever. But not always as sweet. He's still good-natured and all, but now that he's more aware of his surroundings and himself, he lets us know if he doesn't like something. He whines if I leave him alone for too long. He fusses if he's been playing with the remote and I take it away. And he does not like getting his diaper changed first thing in the morning.



Alongside the emotional backbone that's been developing, Matthew has been sitting up so much lately. It seemed to happen overnight. At first we would sit him up and he would arch his back or throw his head back to lay down, even if we were behind him and supporting him. But now he sits up to play with his toys, and he doesn't even need to support himself on his arms anymore. I'll see him lose balance and watch him teeter a little to stay upright, but of course it doesn't always work out that way :). For now he doesn't cry when he falls over.



Let's see, what else... oh yeah! Before our thanksgiving trip, I never told you guys that he turns the pages when we read him a story (I might have mentioned that in a thanksgiving post, though), and he also became a champion napper before we headed north. I'm not saying that it's a perfect nap day every day, but he has come a long way from crying for an hour and not napping and all that not-so-fun stuff. Now he practically begs me for a nap sometimes. We'll be playing, and he'll start to whine over nothing. He scratches his head or rubs his eyes when he gets tired, and I'll be right with him, yet he reaches for me to pick him up. But when I hold him he just squirms around and can't get comfortable. That's usually my cue and I'll lay him down. He'll cry at most 15 minutes, but most of the time it's just a few minutes before he's asleep, and he'll nap for an hour and a half. It's fabulous!!

At night he's been consistently sleeping for 9 hours, sometimes 10, but lately he's been sleeping for more like 10 or 11 hours, and that's wonderful too. He doesn't get up as early, so it gives me a chance to shower and eat breakfast before I have to feed him. And he's very talkative sometimes. He'll almost yell da-da-da-da, but then he's taken to whispering it too. He also says la-la, na-na, and I think I've heard an occasional ma in there. One of these days he'll say ma-ma, and I'm just gonna melt, I know it :)

Look at the predicament he got himself into in this picture! He was crying for this, but I had to get it on film before I rescued him. I know, I'm a bad mommy, but it was his own roly-poly fault :).


He is such a goofball. When we tell him to smile or say cheese, this is what we get sometimes. He scrunches up his nose and breathes deep and fast, as if he's trying to snort! Check out his top gums too. He was teething for a few days last week, and the right tooth is almost through. It might even break before the end of the week.


Look at him, all grown up and drinking the bottle by himself. Josh set him up with a Baby Einstein DVD, and he was chillin'. Speaking of Josh, he was a fabulous father this weekend. My boys did some father/son bonding because our church had a Christmas concert. And since I am in the choir, that meant a Saturday and Sunday afternoon rehearsal. They had a great time hanging out, and I don't think Matthew missed me very much, if at all. Which is fine by me! He also set up Matthew's new toy, called a sports champ center, or something like that. We registered for it way back when I was pregnant and had received it at one of my showers, but he wasn't old enough for it until now.

Here's a suit he got for Christmas. He looks so handsome all dressed up for church :)

And now prepare yourselves for a very funny picture....

Isn't that great?! He was sitting up in the pack 'n' play, but he fell over and didn't seem to mind that Josh grabbed the camera before he grabbed him.

And I'll close with a video. We were posing Matthew for our Christmas card picture, but this look didn't make the cut :).

Thanxgiving Trip Part Three

I took this picture leaning over my seat, and he was entertained with my empty water bottle for a while.

And once I got in the back seat with him, I took this video somewhere along the drive.


We stopped at Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat. He looks so cute all bundled up!

Uncle Doug came over the same night we arrived, and Matthew enjoyed checking out his shirt.

He met everyone else the next day. I didn't get a picture of him with everybody, but I did my best. Here he is with Josh's cousin Heather. Now would that make them second cousins, or once-removed cousins? Who knows :)

Waking up from a morning nap.

We told Matthew that he was with his Great Uncle Lyle, but Uncle Lyle claimed to be only an "ok" uncle :)

With Aunt Teri. Doesn't he look so big in this picture?

With Aunt Lori and giving me a nice smile. Since this was the last leg of our journey, he was more than ready to go home, which he displayed by being extra whiney and clingy to me. As long as I wasn't in the room, he was ok, but once he heard my voice, he would only want to be held by me.

Checking out cousin Chris' computer.

Haley goofing off with Josh.

Finally meeting Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma.

A little dark, but still a cute mother/daughter shot.

Haley entertaining Matthew before his bedtime.

And here's Matthew once again back at our apartment and quite happy about it.

Well, that concludes the pictures from our trip. Hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as we did taking them!