A visit to Southern California

We had so much fun visiting our friends Aaron, Anna & Waylon in Southern California. It was tough to come back, especially since it won't stop raining at home! They were gracious hosts to us for 6 days and tour guides for several of those days as well. Matt got to play with Waylon a lot and began to learn the evil words "share" and "taking turns". It was good training for both of them who will be big brothers instantly in December!

Matt's first time to the beach!

Matt was hesitant at first with the whole beach, sand, ocean, loud noises, etc. He eventually warmed up to the whole thing, but it took some coaxing.

Matt's trying to act interested in the sand toys, but he's watching some older kids play on the swing set that was right by where we set up camp for the morning.

Here's Aaron trying to intervene and get the two boys to play together and "share" the toys. Such an evil word when you are 16 and 19 months old!

Matt's first trip down to the water. There was lots of screaming, pointing toward me, and crying at first. Once he got into the water and we jumped up and down as the waves rolled in, he settled into the idea of having fun.

Matt decided snack time meant eating the sand! Click on the picture and you'll see what I mean. Meanwhile, Waylon was having a blast with his parents running in and out of the water. Maybe next time for Matt.

A Walk to the Park

Aaron and Anna have a great park in their neighborhood, so we loaded Matt up in the stroller and took him for a walk. The park was fun for Matt. The ground was sand and rubber. You can't beat that! He loved crawling and walking all over the structure.

Here he is cautiously crawling/walking over the bridge.

Learning to drive!

A Trip to Newport Beach

We took a drive up to Newport Beach and Anna & Aaron showed us how the other half live! We saw some beautiful houses and rode the ferry out to Balboa Island for some walking around.

Matt was overly cautious on this playground, but managed to make a friend while we were there.

Here's the one shot I got of Waylon. He was off running around and exploring the playground, while Matt slowly crawled around and sat.

Matt's peaking through his new safe haven on the play structure.

Our pensive little Matt. Wonder what he's thinking about!

Here we are taking a walk over to the climbing structure where all the bigger kids were hanging out. Matt tried to climb on the ropes, but ended up having more fun just shaking them. I had to tear him away before he shook it too hard and made someone fall!

Running around on the beach!

After the ferry ride back to Newport, the boys stop to do some talking. Well, Matt apparently thought someone needed to "shhhh" and Waylon looks like he thinks Matt is a bit of a loon! He's right!

Uh oh, the boys are telling secrets!

4th of July Parade

The neighborhood had 4th of July festivities, and we joined in on the parade and potluck.

Here are the boys in their wagon, hand-crafted decorations by Anna herself! Their 2 beagles, Thelma and Louise came along for the parade.

This was the best shot I could get of the boys. Matt did fine and seemed happy until he saw me and then he would start screaming "all done". So, I stayed back!

The favorite after parade snack... crushed ice. Matt sat in Waylon's chair out back and thought about his busy day!

Ahh, the good life!

Trojan fan in the making!

Daddy, Matt, and Tommy Trojan

While in Southern California last week, we visited the USC campus, Nick's alma mater, and took Matt for his first tour. Nick grabbed Matt for a few pics with Tommy.

Watch out, there's a bit of a smile.

Matt gives his Heisman pose in this one, football and all!

He just wouldn't let go of that football!

Football in the grass

After the Tommy photo shoot, we decided it was time to let Matt run around in front of Bovard Hall a bit! We had just gotten him his football at the bookstore, and he wanted to try it out.

Here he is running after the football. We had to keep throwing it to the middle of the grassy area, because he kept trying to get onto the sidewalks and run free!

An action photo to make a daddy proud!

Matt still has his George Jefferson walk at times, and this time he adds it to his run!

A little advertising with a clear logo shot! It's all about product placement.

Matt looks for a receiver...

He strolls off to get yet another cleverly placed ball, in the middle of the grassy area.

Matt runs off for the football with my encouragement to run faster! He ran off a lot of energy, and was very reluctant to get back into the stroller.

We visited the football practice field and tried to find some players, but no luck. Then we took Matt to Heritage Hall to see the 5 USC Heisman trophies, among other prestigious awards/trophies. That's where he learned how to say "FOOTBALL" in a deep, football player kind of voice! He even said it for some of the athletic department administrators, who were quite amused at his enthusiasm. Gotta start them early, right?

Swimming & Singing

Matt has loved getting into the pool and walking along the step by the hot tub, sitting on the first step, which he calls his "bench", and playing with all of the toys he has in the pool. Here he is showing off his new singing talents while playing in the pool!

Here's Matt driving around his remote control shark. He learned how to use the control to drive it around the pool.

He's sitting on his "bench", still driving!

Father and son driving the shark together. Matt's boat from his Nana and Pawpaw is in the background. He loves riding around in his boat and making waves.

Matt & his daddy play in the pool well together! They are just alike!

More of Matt & his daddy playing together!

Matt recently discovered his love of himself! He loves it when I am video taping him and I turn the screen around so he can watch himself! It's rather entertaining. Here he is bringing his daddy into this new found interest!

Off to the Zoo!

Matt's Nana & Pawpaw came to town for a visit over the weekend and we decided to take him to the zoo! He had a good time in the petting zoo and on the merry go round. He was funny about the animals, quickly saying "all done" for a few of them just when we got to them. We'll be sure to go a lot more and hope that he can enjoy his whole visit!


Here he is brushing the goat. He did much better about not hitting the goats at this petting zoo.

The Houston Zoo, as many of you know, is right in the heart of the Medical Center. During our short visit in the petting zoo, we heard and saw at least 3 Life Flight helicopters take of from the hospitals. Here's Matt, crouching down to get a few between the trees. He kept pointing up and saying his version of "helicoptor" everytime one started up.

Matt had his first ride on a merry-go-round with his daddy, and despite the frightened look in a couple pictures, he loved it and asked for "more" after they were done.

Our last stop was the giraffes. Pawpaw finally got to steal Matt from my hip (which Matt was attached to most during most of the trip). Here they are looking at the giraffes together! I think Matt was trying to figure those strange creatures out! One of them kept sticking his head in the tall fence and sticking out his tongue!

Cookoff Weekend

Every year in May (typically Mother's Day weekend) the gang all heads to Galveston for the annual Yaga's Wild Game Cookoff. It's really more about sitting in the sun, hanging with the gang and watching the boats than it is about the cooking itself. Matt & I headed down that Saturday to spend a few hours with Nick and we got to spend some time with all of our friends while we were there!

Here's Matt showing Chris the boats as they pass by in the water.

Now, Matt is pointing out boats with his daddy! He's officially a member of the "Texas Barbeque Massacre" cooking team thanks to our friend Mona who got him a t-shirt with their logo. On the front, his shirt says "cook in training".

Matt discovered a moon bounce over in the children's play area. He had fun climbing around in there, as long as he was the only kid inside!

They also had a petting zoo where Matt discovered goats. I had to make sure he quickly learned about being "gentle" because he whacked one of them pretty hard when he first touched him. Oops!

Matt chased and carried this balloon around for a good 30 minutes. It's amazing how easily they are amused at this age.

Happy Mother's Day!

Matt and I had a fun Mother's Day morning playing outside. He just wouldn't take no for an answer and he was determined to power through the humid conditions just to play outside. Here's Matt wearing his new shirt (click on the picture to enlarge)!

In case you couldn't read that one...

Yes, it's true! Matt is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!! Our due date is... December 23rd! It should be a crazy Christmas around the Trevino household this year. I told Matt the other day that "Mommy has a baby in her belly." He looked at me, shook his head and said "noooo". It's his favorite new word! Here's the little raspberry below. There's not much detail yet, but the doctor took a chance he could find an image this early, and he did.



In case you were wondering, we're going for the big surprise ending this time too! Get your predictions ready!

A walk in the park!

Since the weather was not too sticky on Sunday, we decided to head down to the park to see what new things Matt wanted to explore on the playground. The playground we have right now is too big for him, so his new found love for climbing meant Nick and I had to do lots of climbing ourselves!

Here Matt is trying to figure out what to get into next. He is not satisfied just playing in the tunnel anymore!

The next favorite thing for Matt to say (next to "outside?") is "Airplane!" Anytime he hears one, which is WAY before we do, he points up in the air and says, "airplane!". He just spotted one when I took this picture.

Matt climbed to the top of the play structure and then was a bit afraid to go down the slide. He went down, but had to be on one of our laps to do so.


He had fun just sitting at the top and looking at his new perspective!

Now he waits for his daddy to take his turn on the slide. I hope he learns soon to move after he's done sliding. Not everyone is as nice to the kid standing at the bottom of the slide as his daddy.

Here's a boy who is just so happy to be with is daddy! Swinging is kind of an afterthought!

OUTSIDE?

Matt's favorite question at least 3 times a day is, "OUTSIDE???" He just loves running around outside. The mosquitoes don't seem to be slowing him down one bit either. We haul all of his stuff out to the front porch and he serves as our neighborhood greeter in between running his truck, lawnmower or wagon up and down the sidewalk.

Here's the wagon Matt & his daddy bought. Matt loves to go for rides around the front yard in his wagon.

I had to jump in front of the camera for an updated pic with my little ham!

Wonder where Matt gets his bottom lip from? Hmmm.

Friends!

Matt has begun spending more time with our friends' kids when we all get together, since he is tapering down to one nap. He still has a tough time keeping up since he loves his sleep, but he gets in a little play time now and then!

Here are Matt and Abby heading out for the March of Dimes walk with their mommies! Abby slept the whole walk, while Matt peeked around his stroller into Abby's and inquisitively expressed, "Abby?, Abby?" the whole walk!

Matt decided that Peter was pretty cool to hang out with and couldn't wait to change into play clothes after swimming so he could play at his sand table with Peter! I think they thought they were at the beach and soon both of them (and the patio) were covered in sand!

Matt and his car!

Matt discovered how to open our shuttered closet doors and now explores at will. He recently opened the hall closet outside his bedroom and realized his mommy had stashed a lot of his toys in there without his knowledge! His car was one such toy in the closet. He begged for it to come out of the closet and with a forced "please", I took it out. It is one of those toys that changes from a walking toy to a riding toy and he was in between when I stashed it in the closet. Well, he now knows how to climb on and off of it, but other than making it move backward on occasion, he isn't quite ready for riding it.

Despite not moving on his car, he loves getting on and off it as well as posing for the camera!