Nana and Pawpaw visit

Nick's parents came into town for the weekend for a visit with us. They got to spend some quality time with the boys.

Jonathan poses in his new overalls.

Matt showed them all his tricks, including hauling all of the balls down the hall and throwing them everywhere!

Matt played baseball with Pawpaw and his daddy.

Then he got out his doctor's kit and listened to everyone's hearts.

Before they set off for the airport, Nana and Pawpaw said goodbye to Matt. He showed off a few crazy tricks before they left, like beach ball baseball.

Matt's Two Favorite Things!

Videos!

Matt has taken to lots of his toys since Christmas, but his two favorite things to do upstairs are hit baseballs and "read maps" with his Daddy. We are so proud of him and his affinity for geography. He has his daddy's love for maps already. This is now one of his bedtime stories at his own request.

As for his love of baseball, that has been several weeks in the making. Matt definitely throws left-handed right now, but he looks pretty good hitting right-handed.

Evenings at the Trevinos

We have had some adjusting to do in the evenings. Matt usually has the run of the upstairs and he takes full advantage of the space. Now he has to share it as well as watch out and "be gentle" around Jonathan. Matt has adjusted well with a few reminders now and then.

Jonathan gets to stretch out on the floor.

Trying to get him to look at the camera a bit early.

Matt still runs down the hallway in style. Look at the mess behind him. He and Nick throw the balls up and down the hallway playing catch and their own version of dodgeball!

He still likes the close up shots!

It's fun getting to partake in the physical play now. I sure have missed making him laugh like this over the past few months.

Matt is such a great big brother, giving Jonathan kisses (typically upon request from us, of course).

Jonathan stars in his first video. He has started smiling at us and it is so amazing!!!

Mommy & the boys

Today was our first day without Nick. He went back to traveling as of this morning, so we were on our own. We managed to get out of the house by 10:30 & ran a quick errand and then we were off to story time at the library. Unfortunately, we were only 10 minutes early and there were no more "tickets" for story time. Matt was such a trooper though. I told him there were no more tickets and asked him if he wanted to stay to read stories or if he wanted to go back to the truck. He said "go to truck, Mommy", and off we went. I felt so guilty and wanted to do anything to make it up to him, but then realized he was just fine with my telling him we'd try again on Wednesday. So, we stopped at the park in our neighborhood on the way home and he showed me how he is mastering the art of climbing one of the ladders at the playground. He loves telling me to stay back and "I climb by myself". I stay within arm's reach though, just in case. After the park, we came home and ate lunch and then Matt entertained me with his desire to take pictures with my new camera as well as his latest combination of toys.


A self portrait

Matt took this picture of Jonathan sleeping in his swing. Matt loves it when Jonathan is in his swing because it means Mommy is free to play with him.

Jonathan is such a trooper, sleeping through Matt playing with all of his trucks, tractors, and anything else with wheels. Here's Matt on his new tractor from his Grandpa Marcus & Grandma Karen. He loves when Nick pushes him around on it and he loves to have his stuffed Elmo drive while he pushes him around. Today he decided that it would be fun to have th footballs along for the ride.

Time to unload the footballs from the tractor to the dump truck.

Multi-sport Matt

Matt enjoys entertaining us these days and combining his toys in unusual ways is his favorite. Today he decided to try on his new helmet (affectionately known as his "garage helmet" because of a recent slip and fall in the garage), and shooting baskets with his whiffle balls. The video is a bit long, but there are so many things to see to truly understand how much laughter there is around our house these days!

Here's our big boy!

Notice the left handed skills. Nick is so excited every time Matt throws with his left. I am still trying to leave the whole dominance thing up to Matt and not force things, but as far as eating and throwing, he's a lefty!

Brotherly Love

Overall, Matt has adjusted wonderfully to his baby brother. Along with being 2 years old, he is dealing with sharing our attention, which has been a bit rough on him. We are seeing more emotional reactions and whining, but we are also seeing some incredible moments between the two boys. Matt typically tells his brother "It will be alright, Jonathan" when he hears him cry. He grabs the nearest pacifier when Jonathan has the hiccups (and sometimes it goes right to Matt's mouth and then to the sink before Jonathan even sees it). He keeps asking if Jonathan can play "choo choos" with him, and like one of his Big Brother books says, we tell him "not just yet". He is eager to play with Jonathan, but for now we'll just have to settle for sweet kisses on his head and an endearing voice whenever he talks to him.

Matt tried to show Jonathan his cool new airplane with the pilot that comes out. He told him all about how to put the pilot in so that you could close the top of the plane. I am sure Jonathan understands!

Jonathan didn't really engage with the airplane, so he tried two of the cars that came with his new train set. He is trying to get Jonathan to grab anything he puts near his hand. It's so hard to explain to Matt that he just can't hold anything yet.

Matt decided to climb up on the couch to sit with his baby brother for this shot. Notice Jonathan's blurry left hand. It looks like he is ready to reach for something, but Matt's given up this time.

Our two favorite pictures of the boys right now:

Nick and Matt went to HEB, and this picture just says it all. Matt is kicked back in his car grocery cart, with his drink in hand.


Jonathan gives his first smile to the camera.

Christmas at the Trevino's

In all of the craziness of the holidays, the blog has been neglected and for that I apologize. So, here's a run down of Christmas at our house.

Here's Jonathan fully engaged in getting used to things in the outside world. He managed to find his fingers and his thumb right away. Accuracy aside, he's pretty good at eventually getting some part of his hand in his mouth.

We decided to introduce Matt to Santa this year and he has fully grasped the concept as much as he can at this age. He waves to any Santa decoration he sees in the neighborhood. He has enjoyed reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" at bedtime each night and now says "Merry Christmas" when we pass any Santa n the neighborhood. So, we decided to go for broke and try cookie decorating so we could leave Santa a treat on Christmas Eve. Here he is getting started.

I was so proud of him. He actually put a few gum drops on the cookies after I put on the icing.

Here he is trying to be sneaky about eating all the gumdrops he could before I could grab his hand and aim it at the cookie! It's a great guilty look, isn't it?

Here are the 4 cookies we managed to complete. I had to stop there since Matt wouldn't stop reaching for candies! Notice the missing piece from the left foot of the front cookie. He just couldn't resist trying one out before lunch.

Here's how Jonathan helped out with the cookie decorating!

We went out for our first family car ride to look at lights on Christmas night. Jonathan tolerated the car ride a lot better than he did the photo shoot.

We left one of the cookies out with some milk and when Matt saw the plate on Christmas morning he was so excited that Santa ate his cookie he had made him. It was adorable and we can't wait until next year!

This expression pretty much captured Matt on Christmas. He was so excited about all of the new toys. We had to do gifts in about 4 separate shifts in order to keep his interest on opening up more boxes.

Jonathan hung in there during the whole thing. What a sleeping champ! There was so much noise going on I can't believe he made it through.

One of Matt's favorite toys of the day was his new baseball game from our friends Donny & Julie. They spoil him rotten and he in turn entertains them fully! As long as we didn't expect Matt to operate the toy the way it was meant to work, he loved it. Just don't turn the sound effects on and don't you dare push the home plate and make the arm move by itself! He'll get there, but for now he's happy to make things happen on his own and use his own sound effects. We'll take it outside when the weather warms up (likely next week).

Batting lessons from Daddy!

The boys meet!

Matt came up to the hospital last night to meet his baby brother. At first he was a bit timid and just curled into my arms, then he let loose with his personality and once we put Jonathan down, he ran around the room throwing the aspirator like a ball and amusing us all. We got a few momentary pics of the boys together for their first encounter. I think they'll do great together!

I just love Matt's look in this picture. He's not quite sure what to think of the whole situation.

Here's Matt trying on his "hat" while I try to eat my dinner they brought me. He was quite a character in the room.

Here's Jonathan trying to compete with his photogenic big brother.

Matt was a bit leery of being right next to the baby, but tolerated it briefly for a few pics. My dad was able to be there for the big event, but just because Mommy wasn't the one holding the baby didn't make it any easier at first.

Welcome Jonathan Andrew!

We welcomed Jonathan Andrew Trevino into the world this morning at 11:08 am. Labor was much shorter, but more intense than with Matt, but we are all doing well and recovering from the eventful morning!

Here we are "rocking out the baby" trying to get things moving a bit faster with the labor.

He's not quite as loud as his big brother, but he made himself heard early on.

Matt hung out at home with Grandma for the big event. He'll be coming to meet his little brother after his nap this afternoon. That should prove interesting!

Jonathan came into this world at 19 1/2 inches and 8 pounds 6 ounces. He's resting well, and feeding great already.

A Morning at the Zoo

The boys were troopers this morning, waking up early and heading out for the zoo! We didn't tell Matt where we were going until we got in the parking lot. We had tried to go a couple of times recently and it hadn't worked out for one reason or another. Matt was surprised and excited when he found out where we were. It was a bit chilly to start, and many of the animals were still not out eating breakfast yet, but we got to see a lot in our short time there.

Here Matt and his daddy look out at the gibbons, swinging on the ropes and warming up their voices.

Matt was too eager to look at the giraffes and not at the camera. He tells us all about what he sees.

This is my favorite picture from this morning. There's no telling what was being said, but I couldn't pass this picture up.

Matt reluctantly left the playground and went into the petting zoo to visit all the baby goats. Many of them were snuggled up sleeping, but he managed to find a few and try to yank at their ears. They must love toddlers!

He had a good adventure at the zoo and took a bit of a catnap on the way home.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Matt's birthday was really the 21st, but we seemed to string it out a few days between our opening gifts on his birthday to his party 3 days later. We hear rumors that there are several more gifts in the mail. I don't know what we will do come Christmas. Hopefully, he won't think his birthday lasts for a whole month! That will be quite something to live up to each year!

I tried my hand at cake decorating another year. It's really hard to find kid birthday decorations that don't have a character theme, so, we made do with the icing airplane on the cake instead. Yes, that's an airplane!


We had Matt's party at a friend's indoor playground that Matt just loves. He had a blast running around like a crazy 2 year old and playing with all of the kids. Here he is in the "car wash" with his friend Ava.

Matt played ball with Maya and Skyler for quite some time. They would toss the ball over the top and he would laugh and run to get it and throw it back out at them.

Matt was quite happy riding on top of the car, while Lindsey pushed him and her daughter Ava around. That is, he was happy until he saw "MOMMMMMMMYYYY!" That's how it goes some days around here now.

Bubble time is magical for all ages it seems!

Matt discovered slides here a few months ago and loves to go down the bouncy slides, as long as none of the older kids were coming right behind him. He got bounced and rolled out a few times, but quickly recovered and returned to run and slide.

Parachute time took some coaxing, but all of the kids seemed to enjoy it to some extent.

Matt enjoyed being pushed around in the car by his favorite playmate, his daddy!

When everyone left, they got to take a balloon with them. With all of the wind and rain, several parents opted to leave the balloons. Matt got lucky and ended up with more than planned. He punched those balloons while running around the house for a few hours that night. He was very excited all night!

When it came time to open presents, Matt was reluctant because it meant he had to stop playing with the other presents he had received earlier in his birthday week! (see below for his new tool bench his daddy got him) But, once the train set was up, he was game for that! I can't believe he let me assemble it, and kept it together for so long.

Here he is setting up his signs around the parking lot. His newest thing when we're in the car is to point out the street signs to me. His favorite is to tell me there's a circle and then tell me that it says "Do Not E e e e enter". He can't seem to get it out without stumbling every time. It's funny to listen to how many variations he comes up with on one trip to the store.