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!"