A few things that happened this week

Josh was away on business for the first few days of this week, and Matthew definitely missed him. He kept asking about him, and on Sunday when I told him he was in an airplane, he pointed up the sky. And whenever he was crying, whether it was tantrum, tiredness, or pain, he would repeat Daddy's name over and over. Poor little thing. It was very pitiful, but very cute at the same time. Needless to say, he was very excited when he walked in the door on Wednesday.

A cute bunny hung out in our yard for about an hour on Tuesday, and Matthew was quite amused by him.

Matthew's been doing well these days. I bought him hightop sneakers from Wal-mart, and I've been taking him on walks outside since the weather's been nice. It seems he's been getting stronger and more stable, but it could just be my imagination. Or wishful thinking. Either way, he is definitely more interested in learning to walk on his own and trying little things here and there.

He's 19 months old now (and fyi, I am 35 weeks along), his personality is developing daily. He's discovering new ways to play with his toys, which means his imagination's at work. He likes to play quietly, like looking at books or driving his cars across the floor. But he also likes to get rowdy, more particularly when Josh is home. They've come up with a new game where Josh throws a blanket over Matthew's head and hides in the house. Then Matthew goes to find him, gets scared out of his pants, and loves every minute of it. I sit there and try to read a magazine, but honestly they are more entertaining than my articles.

He is obsessed with coloring and with trains. One morning after he has just woken up, he immediately asked to color, even before breakfast! And every night he asks to watch "choo-choo." We got tired of the one Thomas movie we have, so we went to Wal-mart and found some episodes compiled onto a DVD to give some variety and save our sanity. The neat thing is that it came with a Thomas to play with, and he loves that thing. It's gonna work out great, because I got him a basic wooden train set for Christmas (from Ikea), and Thomas will fit on it too. Plus Wal-mart had more DVD sets with other trains, like Percy and Gordon and James. I want to get him at least one more. Josh teases me that I'm spending a fortune on him for Christmas, but I am within budget so ppplllbbttt to him :)

Oh, the sweetest thing happened last night. Matthew fell and hit his head (not hard, but it was close to bedtime, so even something small deserves tears). Anyway, Josh was right by him and picked him up to console him, but Matthew turned around and pointed right at me and said "Momma!" in this dramatic sobby voice with tears streaming down his cheeks. And I just totally melted into a puddle of mommy love and pregnant hormones. I held him for a little bit and cried along with him cause I was just so moved. And Josh of course was laughing at me. He thought it was sweet too, but he just thought I was the funniest emotional mess at the time. And speaking of emotions, I was reading a story in Parents magazine today, and I started to get teary-eyed. I'm not overly emotional the whole time I'm pregnant, but it comes in spurts, I guess. I'll have a few days of crying over everything, and then I'm good for a while.

Back to Matthew, he's been weird about his naps lately. He used to be so good at falling asleep and not even crying about it. But yesterday he cried for a little while and then just talked to himself for a long time. He was content, so I didn't get him out. After about an hour and a half he was still awake, so I thought, ok, I'll go get him and his nap can be over. And right when I got up there he fell asleep. So I let him sleep for a hour, but then I woke him up, cause I didn't want him to sleep too much into the late afternoon or he might not go to bed well. And today, even as I write, he is up there screaming like it's the end of the world. He started off talking to himself, but now he's crying. I know he's tired, so I hope he gives in and doesn't keep himself awake.

Now that I've gotten all wordy on you, I think I will conclude. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!