Just another day

We finally had a weekend that I needed - a down weekend - a weekend with no real plans and nothing we had to do. Given all the time we spend with Matthew, I often find myself wondering (sometimes longing) what we did with ourselves before children. When a grocery trip could be done in 40 minutes because you can divide and conquer and are not dealing with a child who wants in the cart, out of the cart, to push the cart, to be held, to touch everything in reach.

I feel bad that we don't get to see our friends as often any more, but I tell you, more often than not at 9pm on a Saturday, I am snoozing on the sofa. Where did all the energy that would let us play poker til 2 in the morning go?

Not that I am complaining...Matthew slept until 9am this morning, so the whole family got some much needed rest and I watched Matthew have more fun today than I've seen in a long time. He has this new "surprised" look when he's about to do something that he really likes. I am trying to catch it on film, but it's tough! He opens up his mouth wide and pulls his lips over his teeth - it is too funny. He'll do this if we're about to start a new activity - or even turning the page in his favorite book. It's too cute. We started a mini-membership at Gymboree today and I can guarantee that it will to totally worth the time. I can also venture to say that I have never seen Matthew so happy running from activity to activity. It will be a fun adventure for the next month.

On that note, this sleepy mommy is heading to bed.

Sinking revelations

There are so many moments in your life that change you forever - many you don't even realize. The day I met Marvin - I never would have thought 13 months later we'd be walking down the aisle, heck, he never even really did more than say hi that first meeting. Taking my job at Waggener Edstrom oh so many years ago ultimiately brought me here. Having a child of course is completely life altering, but I am talking about the realization that you have to change for the betterment of you and your family.

Matthew has been fighting eczema and we knew that he had some allergic reactions to eggs, so we took him to the allergist to confirm what he's allergic to. Come to find out it is almost everything - eggs, peanuts, treenuts and to lesser degrees soy and milk. Do you realize how much of these foods are in things you eat EVERYDAY? This was my ah-ha moment - our life will change. We can't do the simple and quick anymore.

For example, we can't go to Chic-fil-a anymore (our favorite restaurant right now for Matthew) - the only thing Matthew can eat is the fruit cup. Most things breaded are done so in an egg wash - that means chicken nuggests are out. So many of the pre-packaged foods contain soy and milk products. Wow - this could potentially be a serious lifestyle change.

Our other option is to continue to have him eat the foods in low doses - like a small amount of egg in the chicken nuggets or egg in a cake and handle the reaction. Right now it is manifesting itself as eczema. How far do we go?

I hate to think that he is "that kid" who can't eat anything and always has to have a special snack. I also dread going overboard and becoming some kind of neo-hippy eating only whole vegatables and grains. While there probably is some merit to that, my goodness, I hate to think I am going to spend all of my free time in the kitchen. I am sure we will work around it. Our allergist wants to watch Matthew as he thinks he will be a good candidate for desensitization, but we can't start that until he is 2.

I am hopeful this is something that he outgrows, but in the meantime, the outcome may be a healthier diet for all of us!

Talk Talk Talk

Matthew has been talking for a while - babbling all kinds of stuff as he tells us about his day. He is also showing an increased vocabulary, though he doesn't always tell us proactively what he wants, if you ask him, do you want Milk (and he is thirsty) he'll say milk! He will also point out sounds and noises - dog when he hears a dog barking or airplane when he hears one overhead.

This morning I swear Matthew said his first sentence!!! Marvin is working in a different job temporarily, requiring him to be out the door before Matthew (and often me) is up. Matthew loves his daddy and spends part of the morning going from room to room looking for da-da. We usually give daddy a call, but Matthew is generally too focused on the phone itself to understand daddy is trying to say good morning. We went through the same process this morning, but when it came time to say good-bye, Matthew said "Bye dada. Bye dada." I don't know if it is a real sentence or not, but I'll count it in my book

!

Staycation: Day 5

We broke a major rule of vacation today, we got up early. 5:30am to be exact. That that is really all that early in our normal everyday lives, but when you've been sleeping to 8am, that is big different. Today is the day that Matthew gets his tubes. I was dreading this more than his first procedure in March, but seeing as we can't seem to get over ear infections, it really is necessary.

We did the surgery at the hospital this time and Matthew was a trooper. He bared with us as we got him up early and drug him to a place that was totally unfamiliar. The cool thing about our surgery here is Matthew got a cute pair of PJs and his own school bus bags as a memento.




True to everything we'd been told, the procedure was super quick, but the anesthesia was a whole other story. Matthew did wonderful in March and I expected much the same this time around, but I couldn't have been more wrong. He work up in a very bad mood. He didn't want anything - didn't want to drink, didn't want to sit, didn't want to be held and didn't want down. After 30 minutes we were able to leave and we weren't even a block from the hospital when Matthew was back asleep. In fact, we all took a four hour nap when we got home. Yes - the whole family slept until 12:30pm. It was awesome! I don't remember the last time I slept that late.

The afternoon was fairly low key - Matthew and I went to the mall while daddy got his chance to relax and have "me-time." We did the normal mall stuff - carousel, play area, shop. It was great fun! I'm sad this has come to an end.

Staycation: Day 4

Today it was all about the museum - the Dallas Children's Museum to be exact. Wow did Matthew have fun. He was so into everything! We started the morning walking through the farm. He enjoyed petting all the animals and checking on them to make sure they were all ok in in their pens.

Matthew also got to harvest crops and collect eggs. This was really one of the highlights for Matthew as he just loves bags. The ability to carry around his food was so cool to him. He dropped the bag briefly to write the rocking horse, but quickly got the bag back, added a canteen and found yet another bag. Hmmmm - think we should get him a bag for Christmas.

From the farm, we went to play on the fire truck. Driving cars is a new interest for Matthew - I don't know if it is the fact that we've (mistakenly) allowed him in the front seat to "drive" our car on occasion. After a quick drive it was down the slide and off to the toddler backyard.

Here Matthew got to meet his new friend Lulu. Lulu was much more interested in him than Matthew in her, but he had fun. Matthew navigated "uneven tourain", built a tower and crawled through miniature houses. We even tried to get him to dress up like a frog with limited success.

After all this play we had to go grab lunch. Matthew chowed down on grilled cheese and blueberries. It was the first time we'd seen him really go after a sandwich. After lunch we pressed our luck and went back into the museum to do a few more things. We had to see the bubbles! While it wasn't what I expected, it was SO cool! We were able to get bubbles the size of beach balls created. Matthew was in total awe - and who wouldn't be whent he bubble is bigger than you!

After the bubbles, it was off to the creek. Matthew dawned a smock and played in the water with some pretty big kids, but that didn't detour him. He was right in there with his duck watching him float around the water table. The only thing we didn't get to do was dig for fossils, but at 2pm, Matthew was really getting tired. Hey, there is plenty to do next time!

Staycation: Day 3

What will today bring - bounce houses and splash pads! It was all about physical activity. In the morning we went to Pump It Up Jr, a bounce house for kids between the ages of 1-6. The best thing about when we went was it was limited to kids under the age of 3. Everyone there was Matthew's size. It was great! There as a slide, an obstacle course and bounce house. In addition, there were a variety of cars, trikes and push toys. This is what excited Matthew most. I think he would have been happy pushing those cars around all day long. With a little coaxing we got him to go down the slide with daddy and to race with us through the obstacle course. Matthew loves a good game of chance and it's even better when mommy and daddy are handicapped with bolsters to crawl around and holes to crawl through. As he got more comfortable, Matthew was doing things all on his own. He'd climb up to the top of the slide and go down all by himself. It was a great thing to see!






After a well deserved nap, it was off to a splash pad. We've tried this in the past, but the one we went to was a little too large and a little to crowded for Matthew to really enjoy. We found a few that are in neighborhoods in Frisco, not too far from our house. This was the perfect week to give them a try. We headed out today to one that was just 10 minutes from our house. As we were leaving, I noticed some storm clouds brewing, but shrugged it off. Sure enough it was sprinkling by the time we got to the park - and it dropped almost 10 degrees! As it turned out, the water was a little too cold to enjoy, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the playground!

Staycation: Day 2

Woo-hoo, we gave it a go and boy was it worth it. I was a little concerned that we were taking Matthew out while he was not 100%, but after we got going, you never would have known! Today we decided to head to the Fort Worth Zoo. I had heard great things about it and after doing some research, was really excited to make this our first adventure.



Matthew did sleep in a little, so we got there right at lunch time - for the animals that is. We hit the Primate habitats, but were disappointed that very few animals were out, so on to the next. We got to see the big animals from there - the elephants, giraffes, hippos and rhinos. Matthew was enthralled. He waved to all the animals he saw. It was so cute.




We were so impressed with the layout of the zoo. If you haven't been there - its well worth the adventure. Everything was so clean and there was a ton of shade. While it was close to 100 degrees out, it wasn't oppressively hot. We got to see tigers and even fed the birds. (Matthew was not too keen on that.) After a quick lunch it was into air conditioning - penguins, fish, and reptiles. Matthew's loved the exhibits where you could see under water and was quick to follow any of the animals that were swimming.




We rounded out a day with a visit to the old west where we got to play in a playscape and learn more about farm animals. By this time Matthew was long over due for a nap. We decided to walk back and take a quick spin by the primate habitat and I am so glad we did! We saw quite a few gorillas and even had a few close experiences in some of their "windows."





This was a great way to kick things off. We loved it and Matthew did too!

Staycation: Day 1

I wish we could say that we got off to a great start. First of all, we decided to stay around Dallas this year instead of venturing out of town. Matthew is still a bit young for a big vacation (in our opinion) and we are also trying to save some money to be able to attend a couple weddings out of state.

We have a weeks full of activities planned that take advantage of the area we live in, but found that Matthew was a bit off this morning. He hasn't been sleeping great and he just wasn't his normal happy self. When he didn't take his normal afternoon nap, we decided to head out to the doctor. We were right - something was wrong. Poor kid has yet another ear infection. Because we are getting tubes on Friday, Matthew is getting a high dose antibiotic. Hopefully he'll feel better so we can enjoy the time off

4th of July

4th of July to me is all about hot dogs, fireworks and parades - all american. Matthew is still young for the fireworks part, so we worked on bringing in as much as the other stuff as possible. We started with a Independence Day celebration at the Wiggly Play Center sponsored by MetroMoms. Because I am working I can't always do the things I want to do with this fun mommys group. But, I was off, so we headed out the the play center to meet Chad, Trisha and Carson and burn off some energy. Boy did we have fun! Matthew navigated the playscapes and slide down slides.





On July 4th, we started off at a parade with the Kolb and Joe families. Lots of kids means lots of fun! Matthew had a good time and was such a big boy sitting in his lawn chair for almost the entire parade. He got out toward the end to try to get candy just like all the other kids.






We spent the afternoon and Toby and Karen's celebrating with Family. Matthew had a blast in the pool and fun playing with all his big cousins. Though he didn't stay up long enough to see fireworks, mommy and daddy got to see them on the ride home. Maybe next year. :)

Backyard fun

With all the warm weather we've been having, you have to find a way to beat the heat. We have a baby pool that is now the right size for Matthew. (He didn't quite know what to think about it last year.) We filled it up, brought out some toys and wa-la, instant backyard water park!