Getting ready!

Matthew is very excited for the new baby. We talk about him or her all the time. He likes to lift my shirt and kiss and hug my belly. He even shares toys (he puts the toy to my belly and says "here baby"). He gets SO excited to see other little babies. He's been very sweet - so far. We'll see what actually happens once the baby comes and changes his little world.

Earlier this week we started pulling out some of our baby supplies - the swing, pack n play, etc. Matthew has been taking the baby doll he got for his birthday and "practicing" what to do with the baby. Here are some pictures of him being a good big brother.

Here he is pushing the baby in the swing (only occasionally wanting to give it an underdog!)

Practicing feeding the baby...

And I even caught him teaching the baby about the letter "d". I heard him from the other side of the room saying "D, door, dada, dog dog". He was using a card with the letter D to show the baby. It was the most precious thing!

However, like all 2-year-olds, he isn't perfect. Here are some of our more "teachable" moments we had this week. H e had to take his own turn in the swing and drinking the bottle. Maybe now he got his curiosity out and is done with such behavior ;)

And the Celebration Continues!

Saturday night we had Matthew's birthday party. There were moments during the day where I doubted that all the work was worth it because he would never remember the party anyway. But the evening proved to be a wonderful time to have several young families together, celebrating Matthew's 2 years. Matthew still enjoys talking about the evening and remembering who was there that night. He loves to talk about all of his friends. When we talk about the party, he always asks for "more". So, looking back on the day, and having recovered from the exhaustion of getting everything done, I'm glad we did the party. After all, this is how Matthew learns what a birthday is - and he's proved that to us and he likes to replay the singing of the birthday song and the blowing out of the candles. Here are some pictures from the party.

Lots of the people swimming at the party.

All of the Great-Grandparents came - even 96-year-old Grammy, 24 hours after moving into her new home!

Matthew trying to blow out his candle! This is good of a shot of the cake as I got - I forgot to take a picture of the Buzz cake after it was finished.

The candle wouldn't go out, so he tried to get a little closer...

Nama finally had to help!

Here's one of Matthew opening his presents. This one captures his excitement over cars.

Lastly, here is a shot of the cake before I wrote "Happy Birthday Matthew" on it. When I showed Matthew his cake the day before the party, he got upset because his cars were on the cake and because he couldn't have the Buzz Lightyear figure. The event ended in Matthew holding all three - which I took back after he went to bed. Then I hid the cake until the party! At the party, I caught him taking the Buzz figure, licking the bottom, and puting it back. Needless to say, that claimed which piece of cake was his!

Taste of Family Camp

I'm hoping to put all of our Family Camp pictures into an online album, but it's not happening too quickly. To hold you over, since I'm sure your anticipation is growing (ha), here are a couple pictures of our fabulous trip up north to Michigan.

Matthew on his birthday. He just slightly loved the attention of everyone singing to him...

Matthew's first trip on the Dawn Tredder (sailboat).

Daddy and Matthew listening to an Old Jake story. Matthew acted like Old Jake was an old friend.

Fishing in the lake, despite the fact that the water was only 42 degrees! It didn't bother Matthew.

Matthew occasionally talked Mommy and Daddy into going into the water with him.

As part of the theme night at camp, we had to dress in costumes to respresent Spain. Mary was a flamenco dancer, David a bull, and Matthew a matador. Matthew could tell you that he was a matador and he would even wave his red flag so Daddy would come running.

Family photo on "The Bear".

Matthew caught a frog (after someone else had caught it and put it down). Here he is rubbing the frog's belly.

A gorgeous sunset on Lake Huron.

Pretending to be a sailor!

A classic bridge shot (we have a thousand of these - it's so pretty we take them every year!)

Matthew would have spent the entire week on the swings if he could have. He discovered the joy of "underdogs". Here he is having some fun giving the empty swing and "underdog". While he of course enjoyed being pushed on both the big boy swing and the baby swing, he also enjoyed pushing his toys, ice cream, and friends in the swing as well. He'll be a good big brother!

That's it for now! Eventually I'll get a whole album ready!

Little Precious Prayers

Tonight at dinner as we sat down we said to Matthew that we were going to pray. At first he did his usual two-year-old response and said "no". But then David asked him if he wanted to pray. To our surprise, Matthew said his first dinnertime prayer! He squeezed his eyes as closed as they could possibly be, muttered something not understandable, and then we heard "Mommy and Daddy. Amen." Matthew prayed for us! And we just thought it was the sweetest thing. It's amazing how all those frustrating moments that occured throughout the day were suddenly erased by 20 precious seconds.

Drumroll, please...

David and I had a goal to decide on names for the baby (or at least narrow them down to a couple for each gender) by the time we got home from Family Camp. Well, last night, about an hour from home, we reached our goal! Let us know what you think. What is your vote? We have three for each gender, since we don't know if it's a boy or girl.

Boy:
Andrew William
Jacob William
Peter William

Girl:
Margaret
Bethany
Abigail
(middle name still to be determined - it's down to three as well)

Matthew says he'd like to name the baby "cars" if it's a boy and "mommy" if it's a girl.

Above and Below Average

We just returned from Matthew's 2 year check-up this afternoon. He weighed in at a whopping 23 lbs, 12 oz (7th percentile) and is 35 inches tall (70th percentile). He's growing nicely at his own little growth curve, so the doctor is not worried at his low weight.

Our trip to the doctor was followed by a trip to Graeter's to get Matthew's free birthday scoop of ice cream (which we also did last night at a different Graeter's location :) Last night Matthew chose purple ice cream and today he chose green. He said he liked green better (mint chocolate chip), but I'm still trying to convince him that purple is better (black raspberry chip).

Beginning the Birthday Celebration

Matthew is turning 2 on Saturday. To help celebrate his birthday, Toys R Us sent us a small gift certificate for him to pick something out. David took him today to get his new toy. When you get there, you're supposed to tell the store that it is the child's birthday. They give you a hat, a balloon, and, over the intercom, they tell everyone in the store that it's your birthday and they sing happy birthday. Matthew thought it was the neatest thing ever!

Many of you alrady know this, but Matthew has an intense love, or possibly obsession, with cars. And it's not just any car, it's Disney's Cars Movie cars. So Matthew's choice was, of course, an addition to his collection. He chose Mr. and Mrs. The King. He also would have liked to have bought every other Cars Movie toy in the aisle :) Here is his showing off his new prize, and then inspecting the back of the box, figuring out which car he would like next.

Road Trip

Yesterday we took a road trip to Louisville to visit some good friends of ours, the Koesters, who moved there last weekend. We had a really nice day getting to see their new home and town and just hang out with our friends. Matthew, especially, had a blast getting to spend the whole day with his buddies, Titus, Sam and Mara, who he talks about all the time. We were all bummed as we left knowing it would be awhile before we see them again. But we're very happy for the Koesters as they begin this new phase of their lives.

Playing Little People with Mara.

Everyone being silly together.

Doctor's Visit

This morning I had a good check up at the doctor. The baby is growing perfectly on track. The head is down and ready to go. The heartbeat was 137, which is low (it was at my last visit too - wives tale says that lower heartbeats are boys, but who knows!) It was a good report and the doctor said that I am all set for our trip to Michigan. He said to stop every 1 and 1/2 hours so I can stretch and walk around - I told him that between needing to go to the bathroom at least that often and having a two-year-old, it would be no problem. So, Family Camp, here we come!

Waterpark

I've been wanting to create a blog for awhile and have been waiting for something good to begin with. I thought our recent trip to the waterpark would be perfect. We spent Saturday evening at the Great Wolf Lodge waterpark and had a blast. If you ask Matthew what he thought about it, he'll just tell you "more waterpark" over and over. Matthew was so brave the whole time. He enjoyed jumping the waves in the wave pool. He especially loved the various slides that he could ride all by himself. With one of us at the top and one at the bottom he would go down the slide, get out of the pool, go up the stairs and go down again....all by himself. Here are some pictures of our little adventurer having a blast.

This is Matthew after we told him to tell the water "night night" so we could go home. He insisted that he was going to sleep right there next to the pool.