Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Today Matthew turns two! He's been practicing being two for a little while, but now it's official...his three favorite words are "no," "mine," and "now." He is a spunky kid, who is a wonderful mix of toughness and sweetness. There's nothing better than hearing his sweet little voice (unless it's yelling your name over and over again), and one of our favorite things about him right now is how he acknowledges that he's being shy by straight out saying "shy," and hiding his face. He loves his brothers; he wants to copy everything Daniel does, and stops everything to give Aaron a kiss or gentle touch on the head. He loves to climb, and is quite fearless when it comes to playing on playgrounds. He LOVES ladders, and is quick to point them out to us whenever there's one in sight--whether it's one in a store used to stock shelves, outside a house or building, attached to fire trucks, or even just a picture in a book. He's our best eater so far, eating spicy foods and unusual foods (calamari comes to mind) that Daniel would never touch. His favorite toys are cars and trucks, and he can recognize vehicles going by our house by the sounds they make (bus, airplane, garbage truck, motorcycle, helicopter). We could go on and on and on, but instead, here are some pictures of Matthew celebrating his birthday over the weekend:

Waiting for cake.

So focused on his chip he doesn't see the cake.

Blowing out the candles.

Awesome! This cake has a truck on it! (Thanks, Fr. Jordan!)

Yum!

Dumping the cupcake out of the truck.

Back in.

No fork necessary.

Sharing with another Matthew.

Awesome fire truck!

Roadwork book!

Matthew has lots of friends waiting with anticipation...

Whoa! Another fire truck!

He's getting pretty good at opening those presents...

Trying out the dump truck.

Another truck! Note that things have started to move into the dirt.

Daniel tries out the new sand toys in the dirt.

We are going to need some serious baths tonight.

After all that cake, Matthew is in need of a good teeth-cleaning. Good thing we have a newly graduated dentist in the house...

Happy Birthday, Matthew! We love you!

Joy

Joy.

Who Done-it?

Mystery of the day....

We found Matthew outside with no shirt on, and mud all over his face and...

 ...on his chest....

 ...and on his back...

...ALL over his back...

And we just can't figure out how it might have happened....hmmm.....

Jog-a-thon!

About a month ago (I know, we're behind), Daniel had his first jog-a-thon at school. Due to rain, the event was moved into the gym, but it was still tons of fun. We weren't sure what to expect from Daniel, since he'd never done anything like this before. He ended up running at least 2 miles in 30 minutes --we're not sure how far exactly, since his lap counter lost track of him for a bit after he changed into his shorts. :) Despite the inaccurate counting, Daniel had a blast, and so did we!

 Entering the gym. Daniel waves to the crowd like an Olympian.

All the preschoolers lined up, waiting for instructions.

 One last wave to the crowd before heading to his starting position.

Matthew waits patiently for the action to start.

 Daniel's pre-running stretches.

 And, he's off!

 He had a lot more fun running than some of his classmates...

Staying strong. Daniel ran for at least 20 minutes before we told him it was okay to take a break to walk.

The whole family had a great time! Thank you everyone who helped Daniel raise some money for his school!

6 months

Our little baby is no longer a "little baby." This month he has been working on his crawling skills, discovering the joy of toys, grabbing anything within reach and severely disliking his car seat or anything that holds him in place. Here are some highlights of Aaron's sixth month.

 Sneaking into his big brothers' clubhouse.

 Enjoying the [finally] nice weather.

 Hearing lots of jokes from Daniel.

 Then getting some love from him.

 Celebrating Auntie Laura's return home!

 Meeting Grammy and Grampy for the first time.

 Lots of bouncing with Grampy.

 Working on crawling...

 I'm sorry, but isn't he just the cutest?

 Seriously.

 Back to figuring out this whole crawling thing,

 which leads to getting stuck here...

...and here.

Can't believe it's been 6 months already.

Early morning park trip

Things here have been c.r.a.z.y. The end of the school year is Daddy's busiest time at work--lots of big events that take a ton of planning. So, the morning after a big event that ended one of the longest, most tiring weeks, Mommy and the boys decided to give Daddy a gift...a quiet house. We took off to the park at 8:30 on a Saturday morning and stayed for a couple hours so that Daddy could keep sleeping. Daddy was so tired he didn't even realize we had gone until he got up and we told him we had been out at the park...

 After countless times trying, Matthew finally decides he likes the big red swings.

 Daniel joins in the fun.

 Aaron wishes he could ride, too.

 Last man swinging.

 Over to the water to check out the ducks.

Love those ducks!

 Aaron couldn't see much, but we're sure he would've enjoyed the ducks, too.

 No trip to the lake is compete without checking out the boats and surfboards.

 On the move again.

 Resting up for the walk home.

New skill

The soundtrack of our lives here has changed again. Daniel can now whistle. While it's great that he's finally figured out this skill, Mommy and Daddy might just start wearing earplugs...

New vs. Again

Along with Matthew's growing vocabulary, he's learning the difference between words and concepts. A couple months ago, we brought a coveted toy up from the basement (where toys go to rest for awhile) and as expected, Daniel and Matthew fought over it for awhile before Daniel got tired of arguing and Matthew triumphantly claimed it as "mine." Of course, said toy was overplayed with and ended up breaking beyond repair so back into the basement it went until we could dispose of it properly. Matthew has been distraught about this and for awhile, every time anyone went into the basement he asked for the toy to come back up. We've explained to him that it is broken and he'll just have to wait till we get a new one. After hearing that explanation over and over again, he has transferred the concept of a new toy coming after one "left" to replacing other things, places and people who we are not currently around. The funniest one came after dropping Daniel off at school the other morning:

Matthew: Daniel? Daniel?

Me: Daniel is staying at school for a little while.

Matthew: New one Daniel? New Daniel?

Me: No, we can't get a new Daniel. We'll just pick up our old one after school...

Of Course!

Currently if you ask Matthew if he wants something and he does, he'll say "Yes. Of course!" I'm not sure exactly where he picked it up, but he uses it appropriately 99% of the time.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Thursday was Daddy's birthday. Here are some pictures of his birthday dessert of choice: strawberry shortcake!

 Too bad we couldn't fit the other 30 candles on his strawberry shortcake...

 Daddy gets help blowing out the candle.

 31, but still needs help remembering his table manners...

 Aaron is really looking forward to solid foods.

Getting ready for a big bite.

Can you tell we love dessert around here?