A Mother's Day Visit

Nick was out of town over the weekend, winning first place at the Yaga's Wild Game Cookoff . The boys enter every year, but only seem to win something every 4 years. This was Nick's year!

Here's the team minus Erik Lynch who was off shore that weekend. Tony, John, Nick, Roon, Sean and Chris have a blast each year in the cookoff.

After a bit of mayhem, drinking, and a first place trophy, here's another team picture.

My mom came in to spend Mother's Day with me and the boys while Nick was out of town! We had a short visit, but it was great to spend some time together and Matt really enjoyed seeing Grandma.

Here are some pictures of me & Jonathan. He's learning to ham it up for the camera!

My mom worked on some baseball skills with Matt while I was inside feeding Jonathan. I think he's finally getting the "run the bases" concept.

He's rounding first!

I guess Grandma got the ball and he had to wait on third.

I don't really know what happened here, but he looks like he is saying his usual, "oh no, I fall down!" I'd say he slid into home, but the ball's on the tee. No telling!

We took Grandma on the long trek to the park in our neighborhood. The walk alone is a good workout, and then add chasing Matt around the playground. This was Matt's first time down the big slide at the playground. He's come a long way with his play recently.

Jonathan went to the park and stayed in his stroller, got a bottle, and smiled and laughed a lot while we were there. This was when we got back. He's a bit bright in this picture. He's got his 2 toys as well as a loud bib, and the beads that Matt thought he needed to carry on the way back from the park. Seems happy with all that stuff!

I tried to get a picture of my mom with the boys, but Matt decided he'd rather entertain his brother than get in a picture.

Lions and tigers and planes, oh my!

A few weeks ago, we decided to take the weekend and drive in a couple of directions. On Friday we ventured off to find the Orange County Zoo. It was an adventure, but not one that we expected. The zoo was limited with the amount of animals they have, but the surrounding area was amazing. Now we have to go to San Diego for sure, so Matt can see an amazing zoo!

Matt was so funny with the goats at the zoo. He even tried to give one of them a hug through the fence.

Matt saw the "choo choo" and the ducks were old news. We made a run for the train so we could catch a ride.

This was as close as we could get to getting Matt to look at the camera. We had to face the train so he was looking in the right direction. It was a great distraction!

The boys had a good ride while Jonathan and I waited until the ride was over.

The next day we went down to San Diego for the Red Bull air show. The actual show was during nap time, so we just went to see the planes and pilots. Matt was so excited. We kept him in the stroller for most of the morning so we didn't have to chase him inside the hangers and away from the planes.

We stopped to watch a plane take off. There was also a helicopter landing right next to us, that scared Matt a bit, but he still loved it!

Here's one of the planes we saw. Matt was fighting the stroller by this time.

Freedom from the stroller!

Preschool & all that comes with it!

Matt started attending preschool when I started work last month. He goes to preschool in the mornings and then does lunch and nap in the daycare with Jonathan. It is so wonderful because all of this happens at the clinic where I work It was great to have the boys with me the first week especially. Matt was VERY emotional and that bottom lip was out more than usual and the tears were flowing. Imagine the insecurity... new brother, moved halfway across the country, been at home with Mommy for 3 months, starting preschool with all new people, AND he's 2 1/2. I couldn't have hoped for a better transition. This morning when I dropped him off in his classroom (he's now been attending for a month), he leaned in to me for a kiss and said goodbye. Off he went to play with a big pirate ship and a group of 4 boys. It warmed my heart and made me proud!

Today at preschool they had a Mother's Day tea for all the moms. I was able to reschedule a couple of kids and attend the tea. It was adorable! There was a craft, great food, and the best part was the kids getting up to sing for all of us moms. Matt still has a bit of a shy side and doesn't like the spotlight, so his bottom lip popped out and he started to cry when they got up to sing. He stood right by me and mouthed the words to his new favorite song, "I love you Mommy"! I had the benefit of a solo performance last night in the car on the way home from work. It was a tear jerker for sure!

So, along with all the great things this week, Matt has really started showing how much he has learned in the past month, along with things we had been teaching him before the move. All of the things we have done, songs we have sung, and places we have gone have all started meaning new and different things to him. I think we overprepared him for the move because he still wants to take a plane and fly to California, but we haven't had the maps up for a while and he's a bit out of practice (he IS 2 1/2, and was ripping the maps off the wall shortly after our map video, so we took them down). He is singing everything and I just love it. He's becoming a pro with the ABCs and will sing them along with 2 of his toys in the car that sing them. He started singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" in the car the other day, and was rehearsing several songs in front of his mirrored closet doors when he should have been napping the other day! He's quite a character and reminds us every day.

In the past 2 days he has taken off his shirt with only verbal cues from me to put his arms down instead of up through the collar as he removes it, and he is trying to master taking off his pants once I unfasten them. Makes this occupational therapist mommy proud! His squealing behaviors are starting to calm down a bit and if he is in the right mood he will say "I sorry, Mommy" when I call him on it. I just wish he'd stop doing it in the first place!


This was the only picture I could get of Matt at the Mother's Day tea. He was busy enjoying all of the wonderful snacks they had for us.

Jonathan is 4 months old

...but he looks like he could be 6! Our "big" boy is now 26" long, weighs 16 pounds, 6 ounces (1 pound and 3 ounces heavier than Matt at the same age), and his head circumference is in the 95th percentile. We are amazed every day with how well our boys are getting along and entertaining each other. Matt is now able to make Jonathan smile in an instant and he's starting to laugh at his big brother as well.

Jonathan has started a few new things in the past week. He is now laughing at peek-a-boo. He coos and is starting to babble a bit. I think he's competing with Matt's new high volume because it gets quite loud around here at times! Jonathan has recently found his feet and when he's laying on his back he'll grab his feet and roll from side to side. Although naps are still unreliable and this week has brought about a few nights where he wakes up at least twice. I am a bit tired, but his smiles and laughter are worth it! Here are a couple of pictures I took recently. His hair does not look red in person, but we look like we have a redhead in these pics.

Daddy's Birthday!

We have been so busy with moving in, getting adjusted and taking advantage of our new surroundings. We had to take some time out and stay home to celebrate Nick's birthday. Matt helped me decorate the cake when he woke up from his nap. He was so excited! I couldn't keep his hands out if the frosting as you can see. He may be Nick's clone, but he sure does like birthday cake like his mommy!

It was so hard to get Matt to understand that the letters had a purpose and had to go in a specific order. I had to rearrange things a few times.

After dinner we sang "Happy Birthday" to Nick and Matt got to enjoy a piece of cake.

Cardinal, Gold, and a Pouty Lip!

On Saturday I was awakened to Nick saying "how fast can you get ready?" Turns out USC was playing their spring scrimmage that morning and being so close, we just couldn't miss out on something like that! I jumped out of bed and into overdrive. In just under an hour, all four of us were ready, donning our SC gear.

We tried to get a few shots of the boys interacting. Matt is trying to get Jonathan to hold his plastic frog he brought along.

In between looking for Traveler and climbing in and out of the seats, we got Matt in a couple of shots.

This was the best we could get of me and the boys. Watch out, there's a hint of a smile on Matt's face, while looking at the camera!

Nick and Jonathan curled up together for a shot.Here's Matt reaching for the camera, again!

A shot of Matt's favorite animal, Traveler. He loved seeing him in person and was so excited to see Tommy Trojan riding around on him.

The day before the game, we headed to a local mall to go to the USC store. We saw this and had to get Matt on for a ride. For some reason he showed off his pouty lip the entire ride.

Here's a great shot of the lip! He was surprisingly excited about the ride afterward and told us how much fun he had riding Traveler. Any white horse gets that name these days!

Not that he needed anymore stuffed animals, but we just had to get him a Traveler.

Our two boys!

Brotherly love is running wild at our house these days. Matt can't get enough of running up and kissing Jonathan when he sees him first thing in the morning, or after his nap.

Matt was trying to push Jonathan in the swing in this picture. I had to stop him shortly after this.

Jonathan encourages his brother when he sees him by smiling at him most of the time!

More backyard fun!

For so long, it was hard to get Matt to put on a hat. Now, he likes playing around with his baseball helmet and he recently found the straw hat we took pictures of him wearing when he was only months old. Still makes me smile!

He started dancing and running around after he took off his hat!

This is just one of Matt's many looks that shows his personality! He's quite a character these days and cracks us up constantly.

I am not too sure what he was doing in this picture.

Sand & Surf

The weather turned hot and we headed to the beach with the boys!

Matt's pensive beach look, again! (see July 2007 for our visit out here)

There's nothing like shoving "poofy crackers" in your mouth, having a snack on the beach!

Nick tried to get Matt in the water, but with the water temperature still on the cool side, he wasn't going for it.

He threw around his USC football with Nick for a while and then came back up to tell me and Jonathan all about it.

Jonathan and I just enjoyed ourselves on the blanket under the umbrella while Nick and Matt got some sun.