Matthew's First Month

Here is how Matthew spent his first month...

Learning how to smile.

Snuggling with Auntie Laura.

Meeting cousin Audrina.

Crying over the US' s World Cup performance.

Snoozing in the baby bjorn.

Wearing out the big brother.

Snoozing in Mommy and Daddy's bed.

Learning how to play "trampoline." (Daniel's a great teacher.)

Doing tummy time. (And getting out of tummy time by rolling over!)

Guitars + Cousin + Daniel = Awesome

Chris' cousin Thomas had a grad party this weekend and broke out the guitar. Daniel was enthralled. Check out Daniel's effects peddle action in the video.

Daniel observes the master.

Now the student participates.

Dieting with Daniel

Michele and I have been noticing our waistlines a little more these days, and I think Daniel is trying to send us subtle hints...

For example, at dinner the other night:

Daniel: Mommy and Daddy, we're not humans anymore. Now we are going to be animals. Daddy, you're a pig, and Mommy, you're a cow. And me, I'm a sheep.

And later that night:

Chris: Hey honey, I bought you the medium sized shirt instead of the small. I thought it might be...uh....

Michele: More comfortable? You're probably right. Thanks. *sigh*

Chris: Don't worry, honey. I'll be buying the smalls again real soon.

Daniel: Or not so soon.

I guess he cuts right to it.

Inside voice

Matthew was crying pretty loud the other day when Daniel made the following comment:

"Oh ya...Matthew doesn't know about inside voices yet."

Touche

Daniel is our little gymnast lately. He loves to hang on things and balance precariously between different pieces of furniture, holding himself up by his arms. Today on the way into the house with our friends Tisa and Janet, he started hanging on the doorknob. After we explained to him that it probably wasn't the best idea to hang there, Janet suggested that he might need a bar so that he could do all the pull-ups he wanted. Daniel readily agreed, and I jokingly pointed out that he didn't even know what pull-ups were. Daniel stopped, looked at me and said "Uh-huh! They're a kind of diaper!" Touche, Daniel. Touche.

Matthew's Quilt

Grandma spent the week with us while Daddy's been out of town. While she was here she finished making Matthew's quilt. Here are some pictures of Matthew enjoying his new quilt. Thanks, Grandma!

Plenty of room to grow here!

Did I learn this from cousin Grady?


Thanks for the quilt, Grandma! I love it!

Umm....

This could be fun, but I'm not sure if it meets any safety standards...

Daniel's Peanut Project

Yesterday while helping Grandma get potatoes out of the basement, Daniel found Daddy's big bag of peanuts. The peanuts were bought a loooonnnnggg time ago and were never opened, but are now very stale. So we gave Daniel some peanuts to put outside for the birds and squirrels to eat. We thought he would just dump the bucket of peanuts out and be on his way. Daniel had different plans.

Daniel was very excited to be setting out treats for the birds and squirrels in the yard--it was hard to get him to take a break from shelling peanuts so that we could eat dinner. After dinner he was back at it, in hopes that his work would attract some wildlife to the yard. This morning while eating breakfast his work was rewarded. We watched as the same squirrel ran in and out of the yard carrying one peanut at a time and burying them in our and the neighbor's yard.

While Daddy's Away...

Daddy's in Cincinnati this week at a conference for work. Yesterday we went to a few different nurseries with Grandma to find some vegetables to plant in the garden (we're late, we know). Daniel had been having a rough time being patient while Mommy and Grandma looked at plants until he discovered the chickens at Swanson's nursery in Crown Hill. Matthew wasn't too excited about either the plants or the chickens...

The faces of Daniel

Daniel was in rare form today, letting us take pictures of him. In fact, he let us take LOTS of pictures of him, most of which include him looking AT the camera. It makes for a pretty fun slideshow.