Daddy's Home!

40

I started the first day of my forties early this morning to the lilting refrain of my breast pump. Anyone who's ever used a breast pump knows what I'm talking about. "What an old bird! What an old bird! What an old bird!" it seemed to be taunting me.

I tried to remember what I was doing on my last decade birthdays. Ten - I don't have a clue. Twenty - I was clueless. Just a kid, starting out in life. Thirty - now that one I remember pretty vividly. I had been divorced for a little over a year. It seemed that all my friends were having babies. I dreaded the invitations to the baby showers, because that meant I had to go to Babies R Us, which made me cry every time. I turned 30 in the sports bar across the street from my office with a bunch of married guys from work. They tried to make it fun for me but it was pretty bleak!

So I listened again. The house was quiet - both of my beautiful babies were still sleeping. I looked around my kitchen, cleaned while I slept by my sweet, impossible, funny, aggravating, wonderful, faithful husband. So what if I'm still a little thick around the middle and the laundry never gets done... The pump had changed it's tune - "Such a great life! Such a great life! Such a great life!"

Rodeo Day

Dandy Lions

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Another beautiful day in Austin, Texas

Crawling

Matthew is an earlybird. Most mornings I get to spend some time with him alone, which is nice. I took this video just this morning with my new little camera - I don't know why it sounds like we're in a wind tunnel! And I wish it was not so dark - I had the lights on and blinds open but it was really foggy this morning. I'll try to get another one on a sunny day! But as you can see he is getting around pretty well these days. He is using his hands and knees more now, but he still defaults to his marine crawl most of the time.

9 month stats

Matthew did great at the doctor today. Here are his stats:

Height: 29 inches (75%ile)
Weight: 21.5 lbs (50-75%ile)
Head: 47.25 cm (90-95%ile)

She said his weight gain was great, with a nice big head. :)

She checked his ears and saw some fluid, but she said as long as he stays happy and fever free she is not too concerned, though so she wants us to come back in a month to check them again.

The best part was no shots today! Just a finger prick to draw some blood, but he was a trooper.

I just went and looked up Zachary's 9 month checkup. Deja vu! (except for the hair part) :)

Happy Birthday Daddy and Nine Months Old!

Sorry Charles, you are going to get short shrift in this post. But happy birthday! :)
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So, Matthew is nine months old today! As always, it seems incredible that his time on the outside has been as long as his time on the inside - it has flown by. He is growing in leaps and bounds now. He started really scooting the weekend of the Superbowl so... about three weeks ago. Now he is really fast with his army crawl - he drags himself along with his arms and pushes off with one foot. Last week he mastered sitting up by himself from lying down. He is constantly hopping up on his knees, but hasn't quite gotten to the full belly up crawl yet. This past Saturday he learned "Gimme Five!" and was quite delighted with himself.
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He is eating like a champ - the daycare ladies have been gently suggesting we try more solid food than the stage 2 jars I am still bringing. Unfortunately I have three cases of stage 2 jars still at home, so he will be eating it for a couple more weeks yet. But the other day I sent a banana with him and he ate the whole thing! I have also been giving him things like toast and of course his beloved Cheerios. He still has just his two bottom teeth but is working on some more I'm pretty sure.
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Tomorrow he will have his 9 month checkup, so I'll try to remember to post the results!
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Dr. Matt

Because I am such a scheduling genius, Zachary had his first ever dentist visit on snow day. We had to drive all the way to Buda in blizzard-like conditions. I took him to a pediatric dentist down there - he was really nice and he was a Victoria Stinagaree, so we had something to talk about. Zachary did great - he let Dr. Matt count all his teeth and asked and answered lots of questions. He even got to pick two prizes from the treasure chest. Dr. Matt said his teeth look great and he doesn't think he will need braces based on what he sees now. He did feel one small occlusion (pre-cavity) but said it doesn't need to be filled for a while so we can re-evaluate at the end of the summer. So it ended as a positive experience, than Zach got to go play in the snow at school.
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Oddly enough, my new dentist is also named Dr. Matt!

Snow Day!

Last week we went from wearing shorts on Sunday to snow on Tuesday and then back to shorts by the weekend.
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The kids went crazy playing in it at school.
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This was the view from my office window.
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Matthew enjoyed the snow from his new big boy carseat!
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Grandma, stop laughing. ;)