Big Boy Bath

Tonight we decided to try Matthew in the regular bathtub since he seems to be quickly growing out of his little baby tub. It is bitter sweet to see him getting so big. I honestly can't even remember a time when I had to hold him supporting his head. Now he has to be REALLY tired before he will lie in my arms like a little bitty baby.

He seemed to really enjoy more space but I am not sure he realized that he was out of his little green tub. The little toys he is playing with are from our favorite BBQ restaurant Sonnys. They were giving away these little rubber duckies dressed like animals back a few months ago. We have the Zebraduckie, Tigerduckie, and several others. They are small and he loves to squirt the water out of them. I need to get him some more bath toys. I might look into that soon.











I thought I would start something new this year on my blog. On Matthew's 'month' birthday I am going to post a picture from 1 year ago and then side by side with a present picture so we can see how much he has changed.

Here is Matthew at 13 months



and here he is at 1 month



Can you believe how much he has changed??? I can't believe these pictures are of the same baby boy.

All Stripes AREN'T created equal!!! (thanks for the spelling correction mom)

So today was my not so little boy's 13 month birthday. Although I resisted the urge to run to Dr. Goosby's office and get him weighed as I usually do on his month birthday, I do wonder what his weight might be. I feel that he is getting heavier and I know he looks A LOT bigger but I have been surprised at times when I got him weighed. I might have to take him after all because he seems to have a cough starting up.

Although Matthew is still eating baby food, he is beginning to eat more and more table food. He loves French fries, but I won't let him have some until he has had at least 1 veggie jar of baby food. He also loves crackers and the little puffs.

He has taken a few stumble steps and is getting more comfortable standing all by himself. I feel that he will be walking independently within the next month. Of course, I have thought that before and it didn't happen. He will do it in his own time and I have to have patience.

This morning Seth got Matthew dressed. Which btw...I am thankful for...however, this is how Matthew was dressed for the day.



Thank goodness he doesn't seem to notice about style and seems to be happy in his various stripes. I thought he looked so precious!!! Thank you daddy...for a wonderful laugh!!! and the lime green and white striped baby's first Easter socks from...yes, almost a year ago.

In the mean time...enjoy my 13 month old's photo shoot this afternoon.

Back Home

We got home last night and I wasn't in the mood for blogging. Tonight I am tired as well but I wanted to let you know that I am planning on getting back on track this weekend. Give me a few days to get into the swing of things and I will be back on track.

In the mean time, enjoy my Valentine's day theme.

Dorothy Marie Hayes Berry (1925-2010)

I love visiting Alabama with Matthew, but not under these circumstances. On this past Friday evening my grandmother who we all call "Granny" or "Nanny Dot" died. She was such a mild mannered, lovely lady and will be greatly missed. One of the hardest things I have ever had to deal with was being told over the phone that she was dieing. The last night of her life she was actually feeling pretty good and was able to talk to all of her family. I even heard her say how much she loved me over the phone before it was her time to go. Although I know she is in a much better place now it still hurts. I will go for now and hopefully give an update in a couple of days. Matthew and I are going to stay and visit for the rest of the week.

Far away from home

When you move away from home...no one tells you all of the important and critical events that you miss. Sometimes I feel so selfish for leaving to pursue some big dream of becoming a concert flutist traveling all over the country...or at the least performing in some orchestra somewhere. At times like the present, I feel so guilty for trying to chase some stupid selfish dream and failing miserably to find myself teaching in the public school system and never playing my flute. (disclaimer: There is nothing wrong with being a public school teacher...it was just my fall back plan...you know...in case I didn't make it in my dream) Don't get me wrong...there are a few things that I enjoy about teaching...but again at times like this those 'things' are few and far between.

I guess the 'times like this' that I'm talking about is the fact that my grandmother 'granny' is critically ill about 13 hours away. Simply speaking my selfish failures are keeping me away right now. I am sad because I can't be there to help my momma and daddy out or sit at the hospital with her...or even get to talk to her just a little bit when she is awake and feeling up to it.

Please keep our family in your prayers at this time. Fortunately, my grandmother is not in pain (for the most part).





At least Matthew got to meet his great grandmother...I love the last picture. They are smiling at each other and it is so sweet.

Let's also say a prayer for the people of Haiti tonight.

WHAT!!!!

I can't believe it...I didn't post ANYTHING about Alabama winning the National Championship game almost a week ago already???? What is wrong with me...I was so happy I forgot all about posting...I guess that maybe since I came down with the stomach flu the next night I just let it slip my mind.

I am sorry my Bama boys...Way to go and make this Bama girl transplanted in Miami proud.

Under the Weather

So I haven't posted this weekend because I have been down an out with an awful stomach virus. Yuck. I haven't had one of those since I lived in Ohio like 6 years ago and I had forgotten how horrible it makes you feel. Luckily I only felt bad for about 24 hours and now I am back to normal.

On Friday, Matthew went for his 1 year check-up, yes, I just said 1 year...can you believe that my little baby has already gotten his 1 year shots!!! I really don't understand why he cries so much when we put him in the scale to get weighed. Maybe he just remembers the doctor and doesn't like it very much. To top it all off he has another ear infection or maybe the one he had back at Christmas time never went away completely.

Right now he weighs 18 pounds 12 ounces. He is 28 1/2 inches long. We are trying to start more toddler type baby food...although tonight he didn't seem to like the turkey, rice and veggies mix. We will keep working on that. Dr. Goosby said that we should start on cow's milk now. He likes to move on to 2% and skip whole milk. Has anyone else ever heard of starting 2% instead of whole milk at 1 year old?

Anyway, I will leave you all with some pictures of Matthew the other night in his Boston University attire. The other night we decided to take some pictures of Matthew in the shirt that Seth brought back from Boston about a month ago. Since Seth is getting his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University we have to be a teeny tiny fan. So enjoy the photos!!

Let's get it together boys!!!!

Wow, we are just a few minutes into the Alabama vs. Texas game and Texas is already ahead and our quarter back McElroy still hasn't figured out that he can't throw and he has already been sacked 3 times. They are having some issues but I feel good about them pulling this off (hopefully).

Here we are ready for the game!!!

A sick little boy

Whoa!!! That is what I said this afternoon when my seemingly happy-go-lucky...laughing at a lady he only sees once a week....never happy going to ANYONE if I am around (but was today)...crawling all over the house (of my piano student's)..........comes over to my knee and proceeds to puke his 2:30 snack and what seemed to be some of his 11:00 lunch all over me...their cow rug and freshly new hard wood flooring!!!!!! After he was done...he went back to laughing, jumping, playing and otherwise being his happy-go-lucky self. We thought that maybe he had just eaten too much at lunch or who know just got too excited so I tried to feed him some green beans because he was 'acting' hungry. So he ate a full 4 ounces in like 2 minutes...then about 2 minutes later...he puked the 4 ounces of green beans right up. I knew at that point that we had a sick little boy on our hands. I got some pedialyte and tonight he is doing much better. He has taken about 10 ounces of the pedialyte and about 3 ounces of formula. He still seemed to want something else so I tried a couple of crackers and some Gerber puffs. All of that has stayed down....so far. Maybe we are over the worst.

Sadly, I wasn't able to go to my first choir practice tonight. Also, I have to stay home from work with Matthew tomorrow and I don't really have very many sick days left.

On a happier note...tomorrow night is the National Championship Game between Texas and Alabama...There is only one thing to say to that!!! ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!

Meeting Great Granddaddy Partain and praying for Granny

Nearing the end of our trip to Alabama Matthew got to go to the nursing home to meet his Great Grandfather who I have always called "Granddaddy Partain". Although he has been out of our life for many years due to circumstances I will not go into on my blog, the past few years he has been sick and has ended up in a nursing home. So we have gotten back in touch with him. He, for some reason, always asks about me and when I will be up visiting. Of course he knew about Matthew so we all went to visit him.

It was so funny because I get really nervous when older people want to hold a baby. So before we dropped by to visit I asked mom what the plans would be if he wanted to hold Matthew. (In situations like this I like to be prepared on how to handle difficult moments) Mom assured me that he wouldn't want to hold Matthew. Low and behold the first thing he did was reach for Matthew...so me being completely unprepared I handed him off to Granddaddy. Mom held his hand while I held another and surprisingly Matthew didn't cry. (Thank GOD because the entire time Granddaddy Partain kept saying "He doesn't like me"...which I didn't understand at all because Matthew was sitting up on his lap like he was right a home. They even looked at each other and smiled at one point (see below). I was so happy we got to visit with him because I do not get to see him that often and I was very proud to have him meet Matthew.






After we stopped by to see him we dropped by to visit my grandmother "Granny" who is not doing very well lately. She has been having problems making blood platelets and some of the medication they have her on has made her sugar go extremely high. To make matters worse the doctors do not seem to know how to help her. Right now she is at home (where the temp is supposed to drop to 9 degrees tonight) and has a very confusing medication schedule. This is the short version of what has been going on since Thanksgiving week so please keep her in your prayers. Below is a picture of her, Matthew and me while we visited right after Christmas.



Please do not forget to pray that she will feel better soon. I think and hope she will be going to another doctor soon that can hopefully help figure out what all is going on.

Tomorrow night I will finish up telling about our Alabama trip.

Have a great night!!!

Birthday Boy

So on Dec. 29, 2009 Matthew Wayne turned 1 year old. I can not believe that he is already 1 year old. As of Dec. 24th he weighed 18 pounds 8 ounces and was 27 1/2 inches long. Right now he is wanting to eat more and more table food and loves crackers. He has also eaten a few grilled cheese sandwiches when we eat out. Although he is not walking just yet he is showing some very positive signs and loves chasing the cats around the house by crawling after them. When he does start walking I feel very bad for the cats. Maybe Roxie will lose some much needed weight (and mommy too for that matter).

Anyway, his party was Dr. Seuss inspired and based on the book "Happy Birthday To You". Since the book wasn't one of Dr. Seuss's more popular one's it was very difficult to find any kind of decorations so we just made all kinds of posters and had the cake special made for him. The pictures below tell the story.