Jump

Matthew has learned how to jump.

Cottage

We had a fine week adventure at the cottage. We got a railing built in the bunkie, Matthew learned some new words, and we got some great relaxing time with family. Here are some shots:

Mom and Matthew in the water

Playing ball (or "BA!") with Grandpa

We call this one "reflective pondering with tractor"

Grandma playing, Matthew watching

Ready for Canada Day

Captain Adorable

Sharing some sand with Grandpa

Golf. Matthew is home sleeping (theoretically).

Terror on the High Seas

Boating is pretty much a given if you are going to be a Gerhard. My dad grew up on boats, Dave and I grew up on boats, our various and sundry spouses are now boat people, so it only stands to reason that our children will be boat people too. We have a not-insignificant fleet to choose from! So while we were at the cottage we decided that a little boating was in order. Nothing fancy, just a ride around the lake in Ed (the boat). Ed is an aluminum fishing boat. Stable, comfortable (albeit loud) and generally all around safe. Tyrannosaurus Rex (the canoe) can be a bit tippy, Pegasus (the dingy) is stable but small, David's kayak is a one person dealie (Matthew isn't really ready for that yet), and Shadowfax (the sailboat) is at Northern Harbour 45 minutes away. So for the quick jaunt of an evening, Ed is the way to go.

So we got all ready to do just that. This is Matthew in advance of the trip, complete with all the necessities including a bus and a chair. (the smile BTW is classic Grandpa Osborne, his namesake)


With all the appropriate gear, we are ready to go. We get to the boat and Matthew responds with what can only be described as abject terror. Total meltdown. Crying - sobbing really - clinging to mom and dad, and when we put him down he bee-lines back to the cottage. Of all the responses, this is the most unexpected, particularly give his heritage. However, the Bus adventure of several weeks ago, and the tractor incident before that, should have twigged us that Matthew isn't all that good with big, loud and new. Oh, he likes it fine from afar: he points at big trucks going by and is simply beside himself with glee and excitement. But they can just stay afar thank you very much.

So Kristine and I went through a significant conditioning regiment over the week that we were there, culminating in a significant boat ride where Matthew was generally fine the whole way. He wasn't happy about it and was a bit clingy, but he didn't freak out. We have hopes for him yet.

Bus Ride!

Matthew has developed a love for all things with wheels. Whether it is in the car or on the sidewalk, he loves to point at all the big trucks, cars and buses on the street and say "ooohhhohoho!!" He does the same for tractors on the farm. His favourite toys are his Little People school bus and a little John Deere tractor that he drives around making engine sounds and parking them along the wall.

So I thought he would love to actually go for a ride in one of these big vehicles. We phoned up our friends Jenn and Madeline and planned a day to go for a bus ride downtown to do some shopping at MEC.

Everything was going great until we got on the bus. Matthew was not as excited to be on the bus as he was to just see it go by. I kind of thought this might happen based on his reaction a few weeks ago to going for a tractor ride at the farm. It was just too big and too loud and he wasn't feeling the safety of being strapped in all snug-as-a-bug in his car seat. I thought for a moment that we might even have to get off and walk home, but we stuck it out and soon the tears faded. Then he noticed all the other cars, trucks and buses outside the bus window and soon we were hearing "ooohhhohoho!!" again as he pointed to them all.

He was much happier to get on the bus on the way home, although still a little unsure of the whole thing. His favourite place to sit was on my lap, but I didn't mind at all because it meant that I was getting some awesome cuddles which are somewhat rare with this little kid. And it also meant that I didn't have to walk all the way home from downtown because the bus was too scary. All in all, a very successful adventure. These are some pictures of our return trip...

He even ventured out to his own seat for a little while.

Big boy sitting on the bus

Looking out the window

Seeing other vehicles

Cuddles with mom

Vocab update

Language is coming along pretty well now, so these updates may start coming more regularly. Matthew is certainly in the language learning mode.

"No" - classic, remarkably unhelpful because he uses it all the time, but also really really cute. It is never said in a mad way, always is a really soft kind of matter-of-fact way. He uses it regularly when he is doing something that he is not supposed to - often just before he does it. This is by far his favourite word right now. Excellent.

"yesh" - this is a fairly recent. When he starts into his repeated "no no no no" we start trying to get him to say "yes" - which he has now become pretty good at. He doesn't actually use it ever, and sometimes when we say yes, he says no, like-a so:

Matthew: "no"
Parent: "yes"
Matthew: "no"
Parent: "yes"
Matthew: "no"
Parent: "yes"
Matthew: "no"
Parent: "yes"

A precursor of what is to come perhaps? It doesn mean that he understnds there is an association between yes and no, I guess he hasn't quite figured out any reason he would want to respond to something in the affirmative.

"Please" - this is a new sign language one. 'Please' is basically like rubbing a circle on your chest with the palm of your hand. Matthew's adaptation is to sort of 'sweep' his chest with his hand a few times. He hasn't self initiated this yet, but when he signs for more and we say "more please?" he will sign please. Today he even put them together. He also put more and "nana" together today as well. Sentences!

"ann dee" - for auntie. This one is just coming, but it is there and he associates it with Luanne and pictures of Luanne pretty exclusively, although not super consistently.

"der dee" for dirty. We have used 'dirty' to explain (as much as you can explain something to a 17 month old) why he shouldn't be touching things. As in "don't touch that Matthew, it is dirty". This includes things like the potty, garbage, the toilet, the plunger and things like that. He also doesn't like his hands to be dirty, and used to use "uh oh" if he got them mucky. He now associated "der dee" for all those.

Da-dee

"da-dee" is officially part of Matthew's vocabulary. He has been working on it for a while and can now, with fair accuracy and repeatability, assign "da-dee" to me. He can knows that there is a difference between mommy and daddy (although I still get "mom-mee" a bunch) and the distinction is starting to solidify. "doey" is still more consistent than either of these, and has come to mean any cat, but mostly his cats: Joey and Patches.

Mother's Day at the Forks

The forks seems to be a great place for pictures. We went there on Mother's day to putter around and have dinner. Matthew is quite into pasta, and the OSF has some of the best. We have been there lots recently.

Here are some pics of Matthew and Mom