Playtime before gametime

Matt had a big day today! He got his second haircut at the barber shop. I think we were all 3 so traumatized by the first one, it took us a good 10 months to go back. Matt watched as his daddy got his hair cut and then sat in Nick's lap to get his own done. After the initial fright of the clippers, he calmed down and the whole barber shop got to watch Noggin on tv while Matt got his hair cut. He did so well and he actually looks like someone made an effort to cut his hair. It's not his usual cut on the run in the bathtub cut that I give him!

He played outside tonight with his sand & water table while he and his daddy talked about the upcoming USC game. His favorite thing to say on Saturdays is "BOOTY!" (the USC quarterback), followed closely by "FIGHT ON, DADDY!". He's becoming quite the little fan even though all the games have been passed his bedtime. He watches bits and pieces of the recorded USC games on Sundays so he can see his favorite quarterback throw the ball.

Here they are modeling their SC shirts and playing in the sand.

Check out those haircuts! I can't believe what a big boy Matt is turning into!

Since tonight's game started right at 7, we watched the intro to the game, and Matt said "night night, Booty!" while waving at the tv. Things like that bring tears to his daddy's eyes! Don't get me started on our little lefty quarterback in the making and what it does to Nick when Matt throws him a spiral!

Playground!

Matt's newest favorite thing to do is play on the playground! Recently we've made a couple of trips to some of the indoor play places around town since the weather has not permitted much else. He has loved it and enjoys exploring the whole place! I end up getting quite a workout trying to keep up with him. Here are some pics from our trip earlier last week.

He's getting a couple of new teeth in, can you tell?

His favorite thing to do is combine toys. Unfortunately for him, the toys do not always combine well, like a riding toy inside a closed playhouse.

He is always one step ahead of his current activity. He stayed on that dog only long enough for our incredibly delayed camera to catch him riding it.

He explored the top of the pirate toy last, and thankfully made a gracious exit when we headed off to our first library story time. He waved at the entire place and yelled, "bye bye, playground". The other moms in the place got a big kick out of his grand exit.

Here's Matt this morning when we went to play on our neighborhood playground. It's the only shot I could get of him while still for at least 3 seconds. He borrowed a car from a boy at the playground and explored all over, driving the car on the bench, down the slides and over the bridge. Then, after about 30 minutes of playing, he walked on the sidewalk toward the street and said, "all done, playground". I had to convince him to get back to his stroller so we could walk home.

25 weeks & a trip up to Dallas

Over the weekend Matt & I took a trip up to Dallas to visit with family and friends, while Nick was with family in Tennessee. We stayed with Grandpa & Granny (No pictures again! I am so bad about that.), but were able to get together briefly with Matt's cousins and my brother and sister-in-law. Unfortunately, I waited a bit too long to get them all together for a picture. It was very cute how all of them tried to cheer Matt up to take the picture while he tried to let everyone know just how far past his bedtime we had pushed! He had been working on saying their names for a while, so it was good to see him able to practice in person.

Figured we'd update the prego belly pics since we hadn't taken one in about 6 weeks. Here's the latest belly! I am feeling huge, and looking back at my pregnancy with Matt, I am bigger. We'll have to wait to see what the doctor says about the big belly on Friday!

Pool party

We had some friends over last weekend for one last pool party for the summer. Matt slept through a big portion of it, as usual. I can't complain about our good sleeper, but I felt bad he missed out on some serious playtime! He managed to slip right into the mix though and seemed to have a good time with all of the kids.

Kirk and Skyler look on as Matt, Abby and Luke play in the sandbox.


Matt learned how to make it impossible for me to get all of the sand off of him before he went inside for the evening!

Matt & Abby hung out for a little Nemo watching time. Notice how Abby is holding Matt's hand! They are too cute together, even with their glazed over looks!

Matt decided to fight the more aggressive hand holding technique Abby tried.

Oklahoma visit

It was off to Oklahoma for a visit with Nana and Pawpaw over the weekend. We also got to see Matt's Uncle Mike, and his cousins Abby and Dom. Matt was a bit moody and clingy over the weekend, but he had a great time with everyone. Matt is becoming quite the little traveler. I started preparing him on Tuesday for our Thursday flight. We were set to meet Nick up in Oklahoma for the weekend, so Matt & I were left to the flight up there by ourselves. We made it up there without much drama. The only incident we had was when Matt's straw cup decided to become a waterfall while we were flying! We both got rather wet, but were able to dry by the time we landed. Here's Matt with his first guitar lesson from Pawpaw. He also managed to learn how to say "OU" for Pawpaw as well. I think Matt melted his heart a bit with that one!

Matt wasn't very cooperative with the photo shoot in the front yard, but we managed to get a family picture anyway.

Here's Matt, holding all his toys including a stick he found in the yard, a large nut that fell off one of the trees, and tucked away inside that hand is the cat's ball he toted around all weekend.

Matt took Pawpaw for a walk around the front yard. Notice Matt's feet are a bit blurry. He just wouldn't stop moving long enough for a picture!

Matt stopped briefly to pose with me and Nana, but we think it's only because we bribed him with his favorite playmate of the weekend, Joey the kitty. He and Joey chased each other around all weekend. I don't know who was more worn out!

One more brief stop for a quick picture with Nana! Then it was back to running up and down the hill in their front yard.

Matt has become a little back seat driver recently. If the cars take too long at a green light, he's been known to tell them, "go cars". Nana and Pawpaw shared in his new talent of telling everyone if there's a "red light" or "green light" in his sight. The only problem is that he does this while we're driving on the freeway too. He sees the lights at the intersections on the frontage roads and lets you know. One good thing about his awareness in the car is that he is also able to spot police cars quickly! That could come in handy, once he learns how to say "police" a little more clearly!

Baby pics!

UPDATE FROM AUGUST 17TH APPOINTMENT WITH THE DOCTOR: The due date has been moved up to December 19th. Looks like we will be at home for Christmas for sure! Now I may have competition to share my birthday though!


Here are the ultrasound pics from Friday! I am 21 weeks pregnant as of today and things are looking good so far.

For the last pic, tilt your head to the right and you'll see the face.

Matt even got a high five from the baby during the ultrasound. At one point the tech said, "ooh, long legs", and Matt randomly shouted out "YEA!" We all had a laugh at that one. Who knows what he was thinking.

Hanging out in Matt's room

Finger Puppets

Matt recently discovered his finger puppets, given to him by our good friends the Brodes. He loves putting them on his finger and then saying, "Hi, Matt!" He's a real crack-up these days!

Here he is posing for a close up instructional shot of how to put on a finger puppet.


Time for the belly shots!

I am now 19 weeks and we decided it was time to start taking the belly photos.

Here's the nice profile, with my frizzy Houston hair and all.

Matt has begun talking about and to "the baby" in my belly. At times we can even solicit a kiss for "baby". He often tells the baby "night, night" and we can't wait for him to feel a little kick at the sound of his voice!

We really need to invest in a faster camera. Matt had just kissed my belly here, but pulled away quickly right as the camera took the shot.

His closet is still his haven and he often puts some of his stuffed animals in there and closes the door. Tonight he took ALL of them in there and shut us out!

All I can say is "Blair Witch Project" for this close-up.

Matt wears a hat!

Matt is not usually fond of hats unless he's taking off Nick's hat and being silly trying to put it on his own head, or mine! The other day, I got his hat out and we were just playing with it. He ran to the mirror, got a good laugh, and kept it on for a short photo shoot!

Abby comes up for a visit!

Even though Mona and I were pregnant together and Abby & Matt are only 3 weeks apart, we haven't had the opportunity to get them together much. Now that naps are shorter, we have a bit more awake time to plan things, so Mona & Abby made the drive up from Galveston for a morning of playing and a hearty mac & cheese lunch for the kids.

Matt took it upon himself to drive Abby around in his wagon! She wasn't too keen on it at first, but she sure loved it when he continually crashed her into the doors and cabinets!

Here are the two of them hiding out in Matt's "house". The roof is a bit saggy, but it's still cozy by toddler standards.

I think they were devising a plan to hide from us or something! Abby kept insisting the "door" be closed, and Matt finally went along with her plan. It was fun to hear the giggles from behind the foam squares!

These two could have gotten into lots of trouble together if it hadn't been past nap time. We had to separate them! I think we all had a good time catching up, and seeing the two of them play was fun! We'll have to get them together more often!

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!