A Rekindled Love

For over a year now, Matthew has loved cars. For awhile, it was an all out obsession. But lately it had kind of fallen to second place while Matthew was into Veggie Tales. Well in the last two weeks, that has all changed. I don't know what brought it on, but he is suddenly all about cars again. He wants to watch the movie all the time after not having watched it for months. He plays with his cars all the time again. And he quotes the movie - which I think is hilarious. It's amazing to the little things that they pay attention to. Some of his favorite quotes are:
"We've got a nodder" (when Snot Rod, Wingo, Boost and DJ try to get Mack to fall asleep on the highway)
"I'm not a Mack. I'm a Peterbuilt." (When McQueen gets lost from Mack and tries to find him, he comes up behind a big red truck and thinks it's Mack. When he calls the truck Mack, that's what the truck says. I wasn't even aware that there were different kinds of semi trucks. Next time you're on the highway, pay attention. It's crazy how Matthew (and other little boys) knows his trucks better than most adults.)

Yesterday morning, David walked in Matthew's room to find him cuddled up with his comforter (that has Cars on it, of course), talking to the Lightening McQueen, saying, "Focus. Focus. I am speed." That's how the movie starts. I guess he was prepping himself for the day. And since Matthew can't start words that begin with "f", it came out, "Ocus. Ocus."

Yesterday we came across the website http://www.carsdriveingallery.com/. It has all the little cars figures on it. You can see if there is a car that has been released, when it was released, if it's going to be released in the future, all the kinds of packaging, if it's hard to find, and sometimes where it is sold. Matthew could have sat and looked at this website for hours. He is now forming a list of the cars he wants to look for. We almost went car shopping yesterday for fun - we were going to go store to store to see what cars we could find! On the top of Matthew's list is Gil, a peterbuilt truck that has one of the smallest roles in the movie. It doesn't come out until April - and to Matthew, that's an eternity!

Little Helper

Remember when it was fun and exciting to do the dishes? Me neither....but to Matthew it's a ton of fun! Today was his first day helping. We did some baking, and it, of course, created a counter of dishes. So, it was more or less time for constructive playing in the water. But he helped scrub with the brush and then he would hand the dish to me, tell me it was all clean, and have me put it in the dishwasher. Bless his heart, he was sad when we were done! I told him not to worry - there will be more after dinner!

Matthew also has been enjoying writing songs. He'll make up a little tune and then ask us if we like his song (he's even called us in his room at 3 am to ask if we like a song he wrote. I told him I'd like it better after 7 am.) Here is his dish washing song.

First Foods

We started cereal with Jacob a few weeks ago. I stopped...I just wasn't ready. Well, I decided I needed to just get over it. After all, I'm sure I won't be ready when he goes to kindergarten, graduates from college, or gets married. That's just the life of a mom. So we started cereal again. Jacob never became much of a fan of cereal. But boy, once we started real food, he was all over it! He now loves sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas and apples. He will eat almost an entire banana in one sitting! I remember this being so exciting with Matthew - showing him all yummy foods there are to try. I also remember clothes stains becoming harder to get out. Why do carrots stain so easily?!

Happy Boy

Jacob is such a joy. He is so relaxed and pleasant. He's a snuggler a lot of the time, which has been fun. He has also been a really happy guy. A couple weeks ago we went through some pretty nasty ear infections, a cold, and thrush, all at the same time. Obviously, he wasn't as happy. Now that all of that has cleared up, it really has enabled us to see what a special little guy he is. We can really appreciate him more!! He's starting to become so aware of what is around. He's no longer content just laying around - he wants to move like his brother. He wants us to hold him in a standing position so that he can pretend to be mobile! Here are some fun clips of him just being happy.

Here are Jacob kisses!

Here's a place Jacob enjoys - above Daddy's head.

Brothers

David and I have had more fun watching Matthew and Jacob as they start to become more aware of each other. They both are just in such and amazing stage where they are just in love with each other and so happy to see each other. I know this will change, but for now, it's so nice. Jacob just beams and laughs when Matthew is around. Matthew enjoys giving Jacob hugs and kisses and sharing his toys (most of the time! Although sharing is much more convenient when it works in his favor!) Here's some footage of their relationship growing! Here are two photos of them wrestling. One shows Jacob winning and the other shows the final moments where I had to intervene before Jacob started gasping for air (he didn't actually do that - I intervened just in time!) And here is a video of Matthew being a good big brother and reading to Jacob.

I have to say, there are so many times where I go to tell Matthew to stop doing something because I think it might hurt Jacob, but then I look at Jacob's face, and he's usually smiling and enjoying the interactions. So I just let him go until I hear crying or see a red face!

The Baptism, Part 1

Two weeks ago, we were supposed to have Jacob baptised. However, Saturday afternoon before the baptism, our pastor called and said he was really sick and wanted to know if we could postpone. At that point, we had all the food made and the house was clean. So we decided to go ahead and have our party, even though there would be no baptism. In many ways, it was actually really nice to do it that way. There is no way we ever would have made it to church on time, looking nice, if we had had to be ready for the baptism and the party. So it was actually quite a blessing in disquise! (Thanks, Lannings, for taking the bad part of the deal on that one...they were all sick!) Here are some pictures from that day.



The real baptism is this weekend!

There's a First for Everything

So today we had a first...Matthew's first time peeing in a cup! We had just left the museum. We were in the car and pulling out of our parking spot when it happened - Matthew had to go "pee-pee". If you've ever been to the Cincinnati Museum Center, you know it's a really big hike up the hill to get into the museum. I wasn't about to do that, being that we all were in desperate need of a nap. So, what did I do (after Matthew requested to go in the snow!)? I pulled over the car and pulled out a cup. He stood up in the back seat on the floor and went. It worked out so well! And, yes, we're throwing the cup away.

This was all after Matthew had played in the water table at the children's museum, got his shirt all wet and insisted he change clothes. The only extra shirt I had in the car was my sweatshirt. So, that's what he wore home - and it's what he napped in - and it's what he won't change out of as he's playing right now as I write this. Oh the mind of a two-year-old!