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. ;)

Valentine's Day

It was a beautiful warm day in Austin... that turned into a cold blustery day! Luckily we decided not to take a nap before we went to the park.
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Another cute thing...

We have been reading a book about Disney World and there is a page about the Country Bear Jamboree. Every time we get to that page, I am required to sing the Davy Crockett song, and he always gets tickled at the part where he killed himself a bar when he was only three!

Before I forget...

Zachary started this really cute thing a week or so ago. For some reason, any word that ends in '-er', he now pronounces as ending in '-o'. For example, our evening meal is suppo. Here are some usages I can think of off the top of my head...

"Mommy, my movie is ovo!"
"I need help with my zippo!" (putting on his jacket)
"Baby brotho"

To make it even funnier, he has always had a cute way of saying words that end in 'oor', pronouncing it more like "oh-er"
Floor = Flow-ah
Door = Doe-ah

So now, he puts the 'o' sound on the end of that too, as in "flow-oh" for floor and "doe-oh" for door.

It's not like he can't pronounce his 'r's either, it seems very distinct and purposeful. I can't really explain it but it is cute!

Double fisting

Tubbing

Library Shirts

Yesterday we went to the library and Zachary got his very first library card! He saw me putting Matthew in his tie-dye shirt (thanks Aunt Kathleen!) so he wanted to wear his too. Now they are known as their library shirts, which I think is appropriate!

We had been in the library less than one minute when Zachary located these Star Wars books. We hadn't even found the kids' section yet!


After the library we went to Costco. The boys got lots of comments and smiles in their library shirts. Zachary is drinking a sample of Zip-fizz, an energy drink, which might not have been the best idea in retrospect. :)

Mardi Grazie

Last night the boys and I went to Andrew's band fundraiser, Mardi Grazie. Charles stayed home because of the extreme pinkeye we have been passing around the family all week. They had a good lasagna dinner and we got to hear Andrew play his bass with the jazz band. Uncle Bob donated some of his beautiful lathe-turned bowls for the silent auction. After the dinner and auction they had a concert in the auditorium. By the time we got there it was standing room only - they brought in some extra chairs so we were able to sit on the front row. But just before they started playing the director said they were recording the concert so to please be as quiet as possible. Uh, here I am with a 3-year old and a baby, both way past their bedtimes, five feet from the microphones! We got to hear one song and then Zachary announced, loudly, that he was tired of sitting there. Luckily it was during the appause but we bugged out of there. I'm sure Andrew's band was great!





Notice Matthew's teeth! Thanks to Aunt Cynthia for sharing these photos!

And thank you to Reid Matthew for taking this awesome photo of Grandmother and Matthew Terry!

Yum yum!

Matthew has been eating solids for a while now and he is a very good eater. On this day he was doing this super cute smacking thing - he's never done it before or since but it was so cute!

Some random pictures from my phone to give you something new to look at.

This is Zachary at his Christmas party - what a smorgasboard! I love the pipe cleaner halo.


Here is Zachary pontificating on something at IHOP on our New Year's Eve Mommy and Me date.

Matthew stayed with Aunt Cynthia - here he is giving LeeAnn a big wet kiss.

We went to my office and watched the setup for First Night downtown. They had the bridge blocked off and there was a giant fire pit set up. He was at my office again earlier today and said "Where's the fire?" so I had to explain that there is not normally a big fire in the middle of the South First Street Bridge.

Here he is posing with Alvin and the Chickmonks at the movie theater when we went to see Princess and the Frog a week or so ago.

Matthew and Weenie are buddies.

Hello, Gorgeous!

And now bottom right is here!

First tooth!

I felt it this morning. Bottom right.

Happy New Year!

Matthew decided to celebrate the new year and his 7 month birthday by sitting up. He is been doing it some before, but he was pretty wobbly. Now he sits up for fairly long periods, and exits the sit more gracefully. :) We definitely need to step up the babyproofing - yesterday I was doing something in the kitchen and heard "Mom! Baby brother is playing with a cord!" Thank goodness for Zachary. :)