Happiest Baby In the Pool

Matthew started swimming lessons this fall. When I say 'swimming lessons', I use the term very loosely since really all he is doing is splashing in the water and being moved around by Mom or Dad as they sing ridiculous songs with all the other adults. Anyway, he had a great time. He loves the water, as you can see in the following pictures...

splashing with Daddy

playing in the mushroom shower with Mommy

happy baby

practicing his floats

looks like Daddy had a good time too!

Party of One

Matthew's first party was a great success. Not sure how one exactly judges success in this context, particularly given that Matthew will have exactly zero recognition of the event. However there was cake and singing and presents and friends and fun. So definitely all good. A special thank you to Auntie Tricia who made the cakes!

You know, it is funny introducing these rites of passage. It makes you kind step back and think about it. Celebrating birthdays is, in and of itself, not that weird an idea, but the fact that we all do it the same is fascinating. We all sing the same song, we have the cake and the candle, and presents. It is such an established protocol, and yet, all brand new for Matthew. And kinda brand new for us, since we get participate now in a different role. Fun.

Singing the song.

Daddy helping blow out the candle.
Matthew generally unconvinced about the whole process.

Cake. A hit.

Birthday Message from Zoom!

Our little one is 1, and what better way to celebrate than with a message from Zoom! Here is a blast from my past. Dave and I both had personalized messages from Zoom for our birthdays. Of course in our day they were on records - floppy plastic records if I recall - but the song is the same.

A New Perspective

I don't really what to say about this new behaviour. He figured out how to do it all by himself and realized that he liked looking at the world upside down. So he kept doing it. It makes us laugh and so we will keep encouraging him...

Communications....sort of

Matthew has learned the sign for Milk! ...or perhaps liquid in general...or good-bye... perhaps it is contextual. Anyway he is definitely sort of communicating. At least we are responding as if he is communicating. At the table he asks for milk fairly consistently. He seems satisfied by water as well, and he has begun using the sign at bed time just before Kristine starts nursing him. Of course he uses the similar sign for good-bye, but there is a noted difference is the angle and positioning of the wrist, which is clearly intentional and obviously meant to distinguish the two signs....clearly.

Election Night!

Next to Christmas, this is the most exciting night of the year - even if it was "just" a civic election. We did our duty and participated in the democratic process, and Matthew was there in fine form. We of course met up with Bill and Mary, as we always do on elections. Kristine puts up with this mostly, but I just love election night, and I hope Matthew will love it too. the outcome wasn't as favourable as I would have liked, but this too shall pass.

11 Months

Already?! Wow.

caught mid exuberant outburst

"Matthew would accomplish more if he could maintain his focus"

11 Months.
Not sure about the hair...

Standing

Not necessarily for an extended period of time, and if there is any kind of breeze at all, like a fan, or a sneeze, he may topple over, but he is definitely standing on his own. He has even added to this amazing feat, the clapping together of various plastic implements. Walking is coming too. So far it is mostly just delayed falling, but he has the concept, and if you hold his hands he'll truck all over the place.

Inner Cat

Everyone has a little cat in them (or so says Kristine). Matthew's inner cat has expressed itself as an attraction to boxes:

10 Months

Here is Matthew's 10 Month Photo. Again, the whole sitting still thing is not really his forte right now, but really, we like it that way.

distracted by, well, by everything

Standing - good, and yet...

The 10 Month Picture.

9 Months.

Today is the "outside more than inside" anniversary. Our little Matthew has now existed for 18 months (give or take) and 9 of those have been outside mommy, vs the 9 spent inside. Pretty big milestone. We have been fairly diligent taking the monthly pictures, although Matthew is far less accommodating now. He is a busy little guy and sitting still for a picture is not really on his agenda. Regardless, we have some fairly cute shots, even if they aren't exactly what we planned.

When all else fails, bribery.

Clearly not focusing.

The 9 month smile.

Little Red Wagon

Way back in the spring, Grandpa H bought Matthew his own little red wagon. We haven't really been able to use it until now because I just wasn't sure how stable he would be sitting on his own in there. But tonight, after he climbed up the stairs by himself, I thought he seemed pretty confident in his abilities, so we tested it out.

As it turns out, he loves his wagon. He is still a little bit wobbly in there, but he quickly learned how to hang on to the sides. He was all smiles and giggles, especially when Daddy started sweeping the sidewalk after mowing the lawn. That was hilarious.


Checking out how this wheel thing works


Eventually, I decided it was time to go in, since it was getting close to bedtime. Matthew had other ideas. As I picked him up, he launched himself down again, back toward to wagon. Clearly, he wasn't finished riding the wagon, so I put him back down. He sat there, looked at us and started shaking the sides as if to say "Let's get a move on here, we don't have all night!"

Jumping on the bed.

We lowered the crib the other day. It was a big milestone. Matthew had, up to that point, been able to role over, crawl and stand, but not move easily between the two. Well whilst we were at the lake, he pulled himself up from sitting to standing. Kristine and I both looked at each other and said "uh oh". First thing we did was lower the "play yard" to the bottom (good idea) and then when we got back home we lowered the crib. Clearly, as is attested to by the following footage, it was time.



I am not sure why he thinks jumping is fun, but that is all he does in the crib now. And we really can't figure out what that pause and then flop back down is all about, but we found it hilarious. Maybe all the hyperventilating made him light headed or something. Anyway, we laughed a lot. Now you can too, in HD!

Work, Work, Work

This is Matthew's home office, where he gets a lot of work done:
And because he just leave his work behind, his mobile office:

Tractor Ride

"Matthew, would you like to go for a tractor ride?""Yay, Grandpa! I have been waiting my whole life for a John Deere tractor ride!!!"


"Here, Grandpa, let me show you how to do it."


"Are you paying attention to me here?"


"Yeah, that's right Grandpa, we are going that way."


"Go, John Deere, Go!"


"Push those trees a little further back, Grandpa."


"Quit playing and get back in the tractor, we have more work to do!"


Yeah! That was fun! Let's do it again!"

Cottage Holidays

Well, actually, Matthew's days were pretty much the same as usual and Mom took all her work with her. Dad even had to do some work on his holidays too. So maybe "holidays" isn't precisely the right word. But Matthew did have a change of scenery, Mom got to do some sleeping in and Dad wasn't at the office all day so he got to spend more time with his family. I guess you could say that we did have a vacation and it was a very good one at that. Even the cats got away for a little R&R at the farm.

A little nap on the way

In between two weddings, we spent a couple of weeks at the lake. We packed a lot into those two weeks too! We visited with friends, played in the lake, won the Euchre Championship of the World (despite more than one lay-down hand from our opponents) and we even got a round of golf in at the White Moose Golf course. I'm not going to elaborate on that any more than to say we went and we came home with a substantial haul of found golf balls. The rest is not worth mentioning ;)

We were fortunate to have lots of friends join us this summer on our holidays. First up was Laurie and Arthur and the kids. This was a designated "no work weekend", even though it was actually in the middle of the week. They have spent many, many hours out at the lake in the last year, but almost all of it has been working (very, very hard) on the Bunkie. So it was nice to just relax and do lake things.

Next up was Barb and Rick and the boys. They hadn't been to the cottage in a couple of years and the boys had never been so it was nice to have them all there. Barb cleaned the island out of wild blueberries so we ate blueberry everything for a few days.


Finally, Noelle and Jonathan joined us for the last couple of days of our vacation and it was a nice, relaxing way to end the holiday. Noelle was super excited to go sailing and Jonathan was just as excited to not, so I think they complement each other perfectly and I approve of their recent marriage ;)

Most exciting is that Matthew hit a couple of significant milestones while we were away. He had been working on it for a while and we were sure that it wasn't going to be long, but on the first day at the lake, he took is first real crawling 'steps'. They were wobbly and tentative, but there was definite forward motion. After about two 'steps', he collapsed on the floor and had to take a short nap. It takes a lot out of you, you know. Within a few days, it was no longer an experiment to see what would happen when he lifted this hand and move that knee, but had become just another skill in his repertoire that he was using to get where he wanted to be, it seemed, without even thinking about it. This was one of those moments that we sat back and marveled at what amazing creatures babies are. He just learned something incredible, completely on his own, without any lessons from us.

Then, two days later, he cut his first two teeth. Just like that, both at the same time. Luckily, even though they are probably bothering him a bit, it hasn't been an unbearable teething experience.

And of course, there was swimming. Most of Matthew's water experience has been in the bath, so it was time to find out what swimming is all about. As it turns out, he loves the water! He was having a great time checking out his new mobility. He started moving his legs right away and splashing with all his limbs.

Just testing the water. Gotta have the soother to avoid 'sand-in-the-mouth syndrome

Swimming with Dad

Swimming alone in the tube!

Doing a back float with Mom's help

We did lots of other things out there too. The days are always full. Here are some pictures of some of our other activities...

Loving the swing!

Playing with Mom and the patio door

Cuddles with Grandpa

Reading a book with Grandma

Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa on the farm