Family Road Trip to the Mountains

This is the year of the first big family road trip. The kids had been talking about seeing some mountains and so that is where we are headed.  In a weak moment sometime in the winter, Adam agreed that he would sleep in a tent and so Kristine began a busy few months planning, making lists and shopping to ensure a successful family camping adventure. After a crazy week of organizing and a frantic morning of packing everything we need to travel and camp for two weeks into the car,(we hope and discovering that Adam's bike had been stolen from our garage (a story for another day), we were finally off.

It was a mostly uneventful first day (other than discovering Adam's bike had been stolen). The goal of the day was to make it to Regina. We did and so the trip is off to a roaring success (except for discovering that Adam's bike had been stolen). The Regina Gerhards were there to greet us and feed us and all the cousins were ecstatically happy.  All is good (except for...never mind)

The car all loaded up

Car entertainment

A quick stop in Brandon to stretch the legs

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

Words

Along with signing more, Matthew is saying more, and we have officially declared him to have a vocabulary. He has quite a few regular sounds, but the "words" he has are different that because they are associated fairly regularly with consistent objects or people. It is funny to watch him figure out words. Given that he has so few, a word must mean a lot, so whereas we have very specific meanings, his are quite broad. And instead of coming up with new words (new words are hard!) he just makes do with the words he has by broadening the definition (see "doey") . His current language set includes, in order of appearance:

"uh oh". Not really a word, but definitely an expression with a meaning - that being "something that is not what it should be - often because I made it that way". As in, "I dropped the book on the floor": "uh-oh", or "I threw my food on the floor": "uh-oh". This was technically his first sound with consistent discernible meaning, but most kids get this one early and it isn't really a word per-se. So we are going to give the honour of first word to "mum-mee"

"Mum-mee". This one is very clear and is consistently associated with Kristine and pictures of Kristine. However I am also included in this sometimes. "Da-dee" is very close to being part of the lexicon, but it is not consistent enough yet - though he does say it and it is associated with me.

"doey". Also very clear, and used regularly to refer to Joey... and Patches, and cats, and sometimes animals in general. Like I said, when you only have 5 words, you make them work for ya. We were in Superstore and he went tearing down the isle (why walk when you can run... everywhere!) and came to a stop in front of a huge bag of cat food with a big picture of a cat on it. He proudly turned to me and pointed at the bag declaring "doey!".

"nana". the most consistent and specific of all: banana.

"ba-boo". Bottle. This one is fairly new. he uses it intermittently, but only associated with his bottle.

If you include his signs, he also has language for "more", "milk", "wash hands", "hot", "bye", "all done" and of course the ubiquitous "that" which is just pointing. The degree to which 'that' is important is conveyed by the earnestness of the point, or, the exceedingly annoying "unuhhh!!! uuuhhhh!! uuuhhh!!".

But what he can communicate to us is far outstripped by what he understands. He can respond to fairly complex instructions, like "go find mommy" or "go get your shoes and jacket because we need to go". Basically we talk to him like a real person and he responds. It is fascinating. Also dangerous because we have to watch what we say now. I don't really want his next word to be "oh crap".

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.

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!

Baby's first AGM

There are significant events in our lives that act as the milestones - markers of the path we have taken. Birth (obviously), baptisms, graduations, first dates, and the like. Well Sunday we had one of those significant events in our little guys life: his first AGM. Yep Matthew attended our church's Annual General Meeting. A lively event full of intrigue and debate. He participated fully by talking through the first part and sleeping through the second - not unlike many of the other participants. I wanted to get a shirt: "Baby's first AGM", but can you believe that they are special order?