My Baby, the Daredevil

As I have said, Matthew is more fearless than Nate was/is.  This is his new game that he invented.  He pulls the stuffed animals out of the chair and puts them on the floor himself in order to play...(it takes a minute to get in to it, so bear with the first 30 secs of him just sitting).

Easter Weekend - Part 2

Here are some pics from Sunday.  Mom, Fred and Alie (and Bentley) came over to eat lunch with us and to help us find eggs.  It was another gorgeous, warm (close to hot) Spring day.

The Easter Bunny Came! Luckily, Nate inherited my love of Peeps...and luckily he hasn't minded sharing them with me.

Nate and Neena dying eggs

This picture made me laugh...he hates when the trees tickle him while he is trying to play...it looks like he is yelling at the tree in this pic :)

That's my sweet baby :)

Nate's Masterpiece.  He was very serious about not dipping the eggs in multiple colors.

Nate wore Bentley out.  He made the puppy chase him in circles...whether he wanted to or not!

Matthew and his Neena...watching all of the egg action

A rare picture of MC and me...usually one of us has the camera in hand!

After all of the eggs were found, Nate and Fred had a petal fight with my Viburnum. 

And our stinky mutt got a bath.

And Nate took the hose to the Pirate Ship.

 Hope everyone's Easter was a sunny as ours!

Easter Weekend - Part 1

We had a beautiful weekend full of egg hunting (3 to be exact), family, friends and LOTS of sugar (we are bordering on Halloween levels around here)!  Still loading pics from yesterday but since I took so many pictures I figured I would do two separate posts anyway...

To kick off the holiday weekend, we went to Nate's class Easter party.  The egg hunt lasted all of 3 minutes (and Nate decided to find all of the eggs by the air conditioning units just to make sure I had pretty pictures) but the candy goes on.

On Saturday we celebrated Bradley Elisabeth's 1st birthday...it was the most adorable Easter Chick party, complete with an egg hunt for both the big kids and the babies.  It was a perfect day - the boys had a blast (well, Matthew didn't get a great morning nap so he got a little clingy and grumpy towards the end - but I had to drag Nate away from the girls' house) and I was so impressed with all of the details Karen thought of.  The party favors with peep chicks in a rice krispie nest (complete with green coconut grass) were the cutest!

Nate going through his loot.  I love this shot of all the baby girls in the background but especially the birthday girl lounging (furthest on the right)...so cute!  (And I admit I was completely envious of all of the Easter dresses and bows at the party...)

I think this goofy grins captures the excitement of the egg hunt and the bucket of candy!

Sweet Birthday Girl

Speaking of parties, the weekend before we were at the Big Boy Dinosaur party for Jack...being that it is men's ALTA season I lose my hubby's helping hands on Saturday mornings, so I had a tough time juggling the kids and the camera at this big kid party.  There was just too much to do!  Dinosaur excavating, bounce housing, sun catcher making, eating (not to mention diaper changing and baby wrangling)...I didn't have enough hands!  Nate definitely had fun at this party and it was another beautiful spring day to be outside and another adorable party!

Nate is going through an "independent dressing" phase.  Some days he insists on choosing his attire, and I appreciate his need to make decisions and be in control of his little world.  He didn't do too bad on this particular day (I will have to share some other pics with some questionable choices he has made...) but it wasn't the party attire I had picked out....some days I have to pick my battles.

Best shot I got of the birthday boy

Thank goodness he DID pick that green shirt! 

Back to this weekend....After the kids rested from Bradley's party on Saturday, we played in the yard for a bit...it truly warms my heart to see the two of them playing sweetly together.  I hope they continue to enjoy each others company. 

 We also discovered a beautiful little Spring miracle in our bird house (that we have never seen a bird in)...a little nest with 4 tiny (very) newborn birds (we haven't identified what type of birds they are yet)!  They are a little creepy looking but I have been watching the mommy and daddy bird make trip after trip into the bird house for 3 days now feeding the tiny chirping mouths (and the birdhouse has a little side peep door with plexi-glass so I check in on them regularly)...I have been captivated. It has just been a reminder of how much all mommies and daddies do for their babies...and how exhausting parenting can be for all species. :)

My little baby bird in his nest!

Visitors

We have had all of our family here at some point over the last couple of weeks...which has made Nate so happy, every day he says "whose coming today?"...so now he expects someone to come see him daily!

This week was no exception...Aunt Abby and Uncle Jeff paid us a visit.  They were so sweet to not only think of the Birthday Boy but brought a little something for his Big Brother too.  As has been with all of Matthew's presents, Nate has played with the Weeble Treehouse constantly (those baby toys look so much more appealing when they aren't yours I guess) in his new Conductor outfit they gave him.

We had a nice visit with them so I thought I would share a few pics...their visits are always too short but we are all safer if they get back to work (I think? Assuming they stay awake! haha).

Conductor Nate

Aunt Abby got his ticklebox going

Matthew showed off his new "walking" skills...it is very exciting, as you can tell by Abby's expression!

After they headed out, we had lunch on the deck...I love sweet messy baby pics.

And after lunch, the boys went to work on their new Pirate Ship water table.

Captain Blackbean Beard Jr loves his water table

Officially the Big "1"!

Matthew turned "1" last week...but being that it was Spring Break and Michael was out of town for work the better part of the week, I didn't find myself with a lot of time to post an update.  And, also being that it was Spring Break, Matthew's check up wasn't until today so here are his 12 Months updates...

He got another little cupcake on his actual birthday...he still liked it!

Stats - he is a little guy just like his brother:

Weight - 19.1 lbs
Height - 30 1/4 inches
Head - 18 1/4 inches

Height and Head are normal - 60-70% range - but his weight is in the 30% range.  He is built just like Nate...they have tracked pretty much the same.

Teeth - He has his 8 front teeth, 2 top molars, and his bottom right molar has finally poked through.  I really thought she was going to tell me he had an ear infection today (I still can't believe he hasn't had one) because he won't eat or drink well and I couldn't get him to stay asleep until almost midnight last night...I thought for sure something was up.  But what is "up" is his bottom left molar...just below the surface...I hadn't noticed that one yet.  So those bottom two have really gotten him out of sorts.  Poor Baby. :(

Eating - New favorite foods since last month: Bananas, strawberries, black beans, Mac & Cheese (he can put some mac & cheese away...his favorite is the "Cars" shape just like his big bro!), graham crackers (favorite snack), Goldfish (second favorite).  He really doesn't care for Cheerios...he just throws them on the floor.  He has actually eaten broccoli a couple of times and he is eating chicken a little better.  We are in the process of switching to milk this week...I think (hope) I have bought my last canister of formula - woo hoo!  He isn't letting go of his bottle easily though, and the only cups he likes to drink out of are the little toss & go cups (which don't have stoppers so it has made for messy training).

Some dinners are easier naked!

Tricks & Interests - He is standing independently a little more and he has taken a few steps to me (as in, one, two, lunge!) so we are making progress.  He loves to make you laugh and loves it even more if you can make him laugh.  He waves "bye-bye".  He is a chatterbox.  He loves swinging on the playground.  He still loves climbing the stairs - he really loves playing in the playroom so he tries to get up there whenever he can.  He has taken an interest in all of brother's trains and cars...I think we may get our money's worth out of our Thomas investment.

My makeshift barracade...and Matthew longing to climb the stairs

He is a happy boy and has become a bit of a Momma's Boy...he doesn't really have stranger anxiety but he will cling to me whenever he can.  He is brave and much more fearless than Nate was (which is good and bad).  I love his little gap tooth grin (which looks just like mine when I was his age)...he is the sweetest little love bug!

Matthew-saurus's Big Day!

After a dreary and wet week, we had the most gorgeous weekend...which was very fortunate because Saturday was our little man's 1st Birthday Dinosaur Party!  I will save his 1st year recap for his actual birthday this week and share some pics from his party.

The best family shot we got - I am just happy I remembered to at least attempt to take one!  Matthew was a little cranky that I was delaying the cake eating...and Nate had his sights set on it too.

It took him a second...and seeing his brother start to taste it to get him going...but once he did...

...he had a hard time stopping!  I finally took it away from him once he slowed down the fist fulls he was cramming in his mouth!  (and no reactions...phew!)

Nate not only sampled the smash cake but also managed to trick his Alie in to giving him a second cupcake and scoop of ice cream!  "No, I haven't had one yet..."  What a stinker.

He was pretty tired after the party (and having his nap delayed) so he was content to let his brother and cousin open his presents and have them handed to him.  (He crashed shortly after this picture was taken.) He got some really great presents - and amazingly nothing that we already had!  So they have been having fun playing with all of the new fun things!

 I was in such a mad rush before the party getting food out, etc that I totally forgot to take pics of all of my decor before everyone arrived.  Bummer.  But I did take a few after the fact...

The last of the party favors...Dinosaur crayons and I made coloring books with dinosaur coloring pages.

Not a great pic, but here is the "Wall of Tracks" with his monthly pics with "Stinky" the dinosaur.

Book signing table

And it wouldn't have been a Cox 1st Birthday Party without some "incident"...We had that moment of "where's Matthew??" panic towards the end of the party...and when we finally found him we realized he had managed to sneak away from all of the grown ups at the party and make his way all the way up the stairs (very quickly) and in to the playroom.  Talk about scary....but he was happy as a clam, just wanted a different toy to play with!

I had so much fun putting this party together (luckily it's time to start on the next one...ha) and I was so happy that so many of our friends and family came over to celebrate with our little Matthewsaurus!  I know he won't remember this day but I hope he will one day look back at the pics and see how much he was loved!  (More pics in the birthday album to the right)

We were all beat on Sunday but after all four of us slept in and saw our family off, we packed up our party leftovers and took it to a trail to have a picnic...it was such a perfect day and the boys had fun relaxing and being outside.