Thirty days

I made it! I actually blogged every day this month and really enjoyed it. It was nice to document what Mattison has been up to everyday. I hope to continue if not everyday at least every other day.
Nothing really new to report today except I received the first of Mattison Christms gifts today. I knew I would be excited this year, but when I opened the box to see a shiny pink tricycle a flood of Christmas memories took over and I was even more excited. She said again today that Mattison wants a pink bicycle. I can not wait until Christmas morning arrives and to see her face and get her reaction when she sees it. I know it will be priceless!

Talking a lot

Mattison let me sleep in until 8am again this morning. When I get her out of her bed in the mornings she has started asking to come get in my bed for a snuggle. It is so nice to have snuggle time on the weekends. Sometimes in the middle of the day she will stop whatever she is doing and say Mattison get in mommy and daddy bed.
She is constantly chatting and is doing a great job with her vocabulary. She says three to four word sentences and we understand about 80 percent of what she is saying. When she watches TV or looks at a book she likes to talk about and describe the story. She also likes to pretend to read books to me. She tries to tell the story by the pictures. It is so sweet.
This morning she caught me right before I got in the shower and said Mattison shower. So I told her to get undressed and she could have a shower with me. She really has a great time doing that. After our shower we got dressed and I put her up on the bathroom counter and dried her hair with the hair dryer. She played in my makeup bag and smiled and stared at herself in the mirror.
We were all lazy today and I am sure Mattison will be more than ready to see her friends tomorrow.

Home Sweet Home

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and really enjoyed visiting with family. Mattison loves being at Nene and papa's house. Mattison was so tired from chasing Enrique around she ended up sleeping until 8am this morning. We took Mattison to have her Christmas photos made. They turned out great. She is getting harder to snap pictures of because she does not like to be still. We got back in Raleigh around 6pm. I could tell Mattison was still tired because she was very clumsy tonight. She is now snuggled in her bed sleeping. May be she might give me an extra hour of sleep again in the morning.

Santa Claus

This morning Mattison when Mattison woke up the first thing she said to me was "Where Papa and Nene". I really think Mattison truly loves it here at Nene and Papa's house. She loves running and playing in their house and exploring new territory. She was so wore out by nap time she slept for almost three hours. When she got up from her nap I had decided to take her to see Santa Claus at the Mount Airy Mall since I knew the crowds here would be much less than in Raleigh at the Mall. Me, Nene, and Nannie Anna piled in the car with Mattison and headed to the mall. Mattison of course will not ride in a stroller at all so the stroller was a great way to carry all the purses, coats, and diaper bag as we shopped. Mattison had a field day at the mall. We shopped at Belk and then headed up to Santa which there was no one in line to see him, but Mattison did not like him one bit so no picture were made. She did however, sit on my knee in front of Santa staring at him like a deer caught in headlights. He ask what she wanted for Christmas and I told Santa I think Mattison wants a bicycle (Which she has talked about nonstop for a while now)and Mattison said in a very quiet whispering voice "Mattison pink bicycles". I told Santa that Mattison had been a good girl this year and Mattison said "Good girl" so Santa told her he would make sure she had a pink bicycle on Christmas morning. That was about all she wanted to do with him. At that point she was finished and ready to go. We headed to Kmart to check out the toy deals and of course she was all over the place. Nanna Anna, Nene, and I were needless to say worn out after this trip.
Once we returned from our shopping trip we had a nice family dinner. Mattison really enjoyed eating at the table with everyone. She joined in on the conversation and had everyone cracking up at her. She is such a comedian.
Aunt Lindsay came in around 7pm with Enrique and Mattison chase him around for two solid hours saying "Enrique where are you" and "Come on". She loves the little pup.
Mattison went to bed around 10pm which is very late for her. I think she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She has been running full speed ahead most of the day.
Tomorrow we go get Christmas pictures made. I am very excited about it. I hope she does well consider we are getting them done at her usual nap time.

Thanksgiving

Today was a busy day. We woke up around 7am and got everything packed up and headed to Mount Airy. We started out at the Seivers for Thanksgiving. Mattison had a great time meeting some of them for the first time. She was a little overwhelmed at first, but eventually got used to all the people in a small area. After that we headed to Nene and papas house to see everyone and have another Thanksgiving meal. Considering Mattison is a very scheduled child she did a great job with no nap and being way off her normal routine. We had only a few meltdowns, but they were managable.
We plan on being in Mount Airy until Saturday. We may even venture out to see Santa Claus tomorrow. All Mattison really knows about Santa is that he says "Ho Ho Ho".

Big girl

Everyone over slept this morning, which makes for a wild day. Mattison woke up very cranky this morning. Something tells me that she realizes that she will be two in a few weeks and might be going through some mental/developmental changes. For the past week she has been a little cranky.
I had to make a Target run tonight and Mattison absolutely would not ride in a cart. I allowed her to walk and she did a fairly good job keeping up, but once we strolled by the toy isle she was in heaven. I did however get a lot of great ideas for Christmas and birthday. As we were leaving I stopped by the shampoo isle for shampoo. I turned my back for a second and Mattison was putting bottles and bottles of shampoo in a ladies cart. The poor woman was oblivious that it was going on. I had to get the ladies attention and let her know that Mattison had dumped several bottles of shampoo on her cart so I could dig it out. Luckily the lady was very understanding. My Target trip ended up taking thirty more minutes than it normally does. Thank goodness I have a lot of patiences.
I am looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with Matthew, Mattison, and the rest of the family.

Pictures and short clips

Tonight while watching Mattison's new favorite TV show Zooboomafoo Mattison saw a monkey who is named Zaboo eating nuts and she turned to me and said "Mattison eat cereal and Zaboo eat nuts". I was shocked at that statement. I guess everything she sees is sinking in ... may be good may be bad..
Here are a few pictures and two short video clips. In the video clips Mattison was running around so much it was hard to keep track so they are a little shaky.

Dr Mattison

Sorry still no pictures tonight. They definitely will be posted tomorrow.
After Mattison's bath tonight she got her ear thermometer out and said "Mattison temptures". She turned the thermometer on, put it to her ear and waited for it to beep. She had a serious look on her face. A look of concentration. Then she took my temperature. She even swiped my hair back before she put the thermometer up to my ear. I could not stop giggling at her.
In other news the tree is still standing. She only took one ornament off the tree and then got bored with it. We will she how long that lasts.

Dr mattison

Oh Christmas Tree

I do not have access to my computer again tonight so I am blogging from my phone. I will definitely post pictures and movies tomorrow. We decide to decorate today which I thought it would be a lot of fun. Matti was absolutely wide open today. She was just so excited. She kept saying oooo big tree pretty. When we turned the lights on she was even more excited. We broke several ornaments of course and Matti fell on the large container of ornaments, which freaked her out. We have Matti her own tree, but she was not interested in it. She just wanted the beads off of it and called them bracelets. There is one particular ornament that is a giraffe that she would not stop messing with. It is really cute and it is glass. She kept crying saying "my giraffe" and absolutely would not let us touch it or she would loose it. I am so glad Matthews mother was here. She decorated the whole tree foe us while we tried our best to keep Mattison occupied. We finally finished and definitely have great memories of our first family Christmas decorating experience. The next month we will see if our tree survive little curious minds and hands.

Party time

I have company so I am blogging from my phone so this post will be very short. Today was a very busy day for all of us. Mattison's best friend Hailey had her second birthday party today at little gym. Mattison and I had a blast. After watching Mattison play on all of th equipment and swing from the bars she is definitely going to be signed up for a class soon. She had so much fun and just grinned from ear to ear the entire time. I have pictures to post tomorrow. I will post more info about the weekend tomorrow when I have access to the computer.

Pee Pee In the Potty

I have posted a lot about Mattison going pee pee in the potty. She is doing it more and more.
I picked her up from school yesterday and I noticed on her daily report card that her teacher apparently let Matti use the potty at school, which is perfectly fine with me since we had already discussed potty training and Mattison's willingness to go. Of course in the evenings when I pick Mattison up her evening teacher is there so she did not know anything about it. This morning when I dropped Mattison off I asked Ms. Lisa about her potty experience and she stated that three of the little girls in Mattison's class went potty around the same time. She said that Mattison did a great job, but seemed to be a little freaked out by the water splashing in the real toilet. They have little bitty toddler kids toilets at school (awww they are so cute) and apparently since she only uses the potty at home she was not used to using a real toilet. Anyway, last night as I got Mattison ready for her bath she sat down on her potty and immediately pee peed. I was so excited. She stood up and looked in the toilet, clapped, and said pee pee yuck. I think she said yuck because she has wanted to put her hands in it before and I told her pee pee in potty was yucky. I have thought hard about it and decided to try to start potty training after Christmas. I will not be disappointed if it does not work and will not force it upon her, but I will make a concious effort to ask her if she needs to go.

I'm Fine

Mattison started coughing a lot more yesterday evening, last night, and this morning. Still no fever. Just sniffles and still a raspy voice. Every time she would cough it would sound to me like it hurt, but when I ask her if she was okay she would say "I'm fine mommy". I get shocked every day with what she says. I am so glad we are at the point where she can tell me when something hurts or if she is not okay. She really enjoys painting lately. She is very good at keeping her paints on her little table and knows not to get up and walk around with the paint brush. It is so funny that she will sit in a poopy diaper, but if she gets paint on her finger she has a fit to wipe them off.
She is having a Thanksgiving Lunch tomorrow at school. Thinking about it brought back memories of being at Central Methodist Preschool and we had a Thanksgiving Day feast with Indians and Pilgrims. I was dressed as an Indian. It was cool. I hope Matti enjoys that fun like I did.

Pottywear

Matti is still a little under the weather this morning. No fever, no running nose, and really no cough. She just sounds like Stevie Nicks. I hope this is just a little cold that does not get any worse. She does not seem to have a sore throat or anything so hopefully this will pass quickly. She definitely still has a lot of energy and does not seem to be feeling bad.
I took a picture of Matti on the potty last night right before her bath. She decided she wanted to run around naked in her Hello Kitty boots. It was so funny. Here is a picture of her on the potty with her boots on and her Elmo telephone. She likes to call Elmo when she is on the potty.

23 Months

Matti is 23 months today. It seems like yesterday that I just had a sweet baby girl with a head full of hair. I cannot believe she is going to be two.
She loves Hello Kitty right now so we are planning on having her a Hello Kitty Themed party. I guess I need to get planning. Time goes by too fast.
Matti woke up this morning a little under the weather. Seems that she is getting a cold. She woke up around 5:30am crying, but I rocked her back to sleep and she slept until I had to wake her around 7:10am. I hated to get her up, but she had no fever and I had to work today so she went to daycare. I absolutely hated taking her knowing that she did not feel up to par. I know she is good hands though she absolutely loves her teacher and her teacher is very loving and caring. I just just remember being a kid and not feeling well and wanting my mommy. Ms. Lisa said she would call me if Matti seemed fussy for me. The day has passed without any calls so I guess I will get her in a few minutes and pray she has been okay all day. Mommy Guilt!!!!
Last night at story time Matti pulled out her word book which is a book with 100 pictures and words naming the pictures. We got to the food section and Matti named every food on the page saying "Mattison likes.....cheese, bananas, broccoli, tomatoes, etc" she would pat her chest suggesting that she was Mattison while she was saying that. I was so proud of her for knowing all of her foods pictured. I did not realize she knew so many different items that were in the book. She almost named all every picture in the book. I was absolutely amazed at her and I am amazed everyday at how much she learns from day to day.

Welcome Wagon

Mattison must have been tired of being around her parents all weekend. She was up at 6:00am and ready to go to school by 7:00am. I was trying to get everything ready for the morning and we normally do not leave for school until 7:30am, but Mattison put on her shoes and jacket and said "Mommy School". I asked her if she wanted to watch the Wiggles before school trying to get a little time, but she said "School Mommy". I dropped her off and she took off into her classroom straight over to her friend Hailey and started playing. Well, I guess she was bored with me and needed a little kid action.
Today when I picked Mattison up her teacher told me about a child that was visiting the school today with his/her parents. She told me that when they came into her classroom Mattison went directly over to the child saying "Hello" and taking the child straight over to the toys and telling them exactly what they had to play with. The teacher said Mattison was so sweet and made the child feel so welcome in the class. It really made me happy to know that she is such a sweet and loving child.

Somersaults

The past week or so Matti has been standing with her head on the ground trying to do flips and today did a couple which completely caught her off guard. She did one on the couch and a couple in her crib after I put her down for a nap. It is too funny. Matthew got her on film while I was out fabric shopping. He videoed her playing in her crib, standing on her head, and talking her animals while she was trying to settle down for a nap. He got it on his phone and I hope I can post it on here once I get a chance to download it. It is a cute and really funny video.
I bought Matti some really cheapo four wheeler's toys at Dollar General the other day and she absolutely loves them. You pull them back and let them go and they will do 360's and race down the hall. She has definitely started squealing a lot with excitement here lately and every time she lets on of those four wheelers go (she calls them bikes) she will squeal louder and louder and jump up and down and clap her hands. Her outside voice found it's way inside.

Shopping

Matti woke up at 6:30am this morning, but I had been in bed since 8:15pm Friday night so I guess I had enough sleep. Whew, just looking at 6:30am on the clock regardless is a little on the early side for me, but I knew we had to get the day started.
I decided to do the grocery shopping early this morning because I knew Matti was not thrilled about riding in the cart anymore. We took off to the store and she of course handled herself fairly well. She loves to get the groceries for me and put them in the cart. Toward the end of of our shopping trip though she started to get a little out of control, but I handled it without breaking a sweat. I was quite proud of myself. I am finally starting to realize I am not the only mother in the world with a very energetic toddler.
We got home, Matti had her lunch, and she was ready for a nap and so was I. Matti took a nap around 12:30pm and slept until around 2:30 or so. I ended up falling asleep on the couch for an hour, which was wonderful.
I decided to try to sew a little this afternoon. I have a wonderful jacket pattern for toddler girls that I have been wanting to try. I put Matti in a chair at the dining room table and gave her a bunch of large buttons to play with. She named each color and pretended to count them and had the biggest time. I ended up having about an hour of sewing time.
Matti decided she wanted to play in her room a little this evening. She sat in front of a mirror and combed her hair and said "Mattison Pretty", which I completely cracked up. She has also been saying "Mattison Princess" a lot lately also.
I am so glad she is not down on herself, you know...like her mom-he he Actually it was very sweet. Then she combed her daddy's hair and said "ooohhhh, pretty". This is her thing now. Everything is pretty-from clothes, to herself, to daddy, and mommy. What a sweet child.
This evening we snuggled on the couch and watched her favorite bedtime shows which consist of Caliou and Make way for Noddy. We did our normal bath time routine, which Matti pee peed in the potty again and was very proud of herself. After her bath she was so ready for bed. As soon as I put her down she was out for the count.

Bed Time

I am not feeling well. I have a migraine so Daddy is putting Matti to bed. I am listening to them read books, actually Matti is looking at the books telling Daddy the story she wants to make up. So sweet. Matti has really become a daddy's girl. Matthew loves every minute of it. There is nothing like watching your husband and daughter create a tight bond!

Dress

Nothing new to report today.
I have to say that my daughter has inspired me to take a new direction in my life. I am so determined to start a sewing business and hope to get it rolling around the first of the year. I broke down and bought a Serger and now have to learn how to use it. I did however, use it to make this dress and did a pretty darn good job. Now the seams are very professional on the inside.
She saw this dress and said "Pretty". It put a huge smile on my face.
Here is a pic....

Rubber Bands, Counting, and Singing

Matti has just had an explosion of words and putting them together lately. It is amazing what she picks up on every day. We will definitely have to start watching what we say around her. She heard me say "Oh Crap" and directly after I said that she said plain as day "Oh Crap". Her father said "Oh Great" sarcastically of course and Matti said "Oh Great" right after she heard him. She is definitely like a little sponge right now. Soaking up and taking in everything around her. Even though she still mumbles a lot of baby gibberish she actually thinks she is having an adult conversation with us which is very interesting.
She has a new favorite after school show she likes to watch on Nick Jr. Zooboomafoo. She calls it Zoobafoo.... It is an interesting show that talks a lot about animals and how they live. It is hard for me to believe that it interests her at all because it is not a cartoon. Her only favorite cartoon is the Little Einsteins on Disney and let me tell you after the show she can tell you all about it. Just listening to her describe what they did and how it happened it just hallarious.
For the past few weeks Matti has really started using numbers. She has a book with numbers and items to count which we look at every night. She counts as follows: two, three, four, twelve, fourteen-never in order, but it is funny to watch her point and think she is counting. She usually cheers at the end and is very proud of herself.
Also she really likes for us to sing songs with her each night. I am amazed at all the nursery rhymes and songs she knows. She has little hand signs she uses for all of them we sing. Daycare tuition is starting to pay off after all. I can really tell that they work with her each day. She surprises me with something new each day. Her favorite song right now is Ring around the rosey... she actually will fall down at the end.
I went to pick Matti up from school today and noticed a deep red line along her wrist. Before I could ask the teacher said that apparently Matti had taken the little rubber band I put in her hair today and put it around her wrist during nap time. Once the teacher noticed it she took it off, but at that point it was already red and made a place. I have to really keep my eye on her at home, but refuse to cut her hair so we will have to come up with another way to keep her BIG hair out of her face. She will not wear head bands and cannot wear bows to school because the smaller kids like to pull them out, including Matti so I am not sure what to do about it. I will come up with something I am sure. I am definitely not cutting her hair.

Potty Time

My only post tonight is that Mattison went pee in the potty again before bath time tonight. I hear training panties calling her name. HA
Changing her diaper is such a challenge anymore. Once that diaper comes off she thinks that is a sign to run around naked. She hates wearing a diaper and I tell her if she would use the potty she could wear big girl panties and she would not have to wear diapers anymore. She is interested in using the potty, but not all the time so I am not convinced it is time to start training as of yet. We will continue to have fun with it for now.

Nite Nite

Here is a cute video of Matti pretending to put Daddy to sleep. She has started doing this every night before we settle down to ready books. It is quite funny. This video does not show it, but I almost think she is role playing how the teacher puts the kids down for a nap at school. She will cover Matthew up with a blanket, give him animals or lovies and say "everyone nite nite" and sit in he rocking chair and hum while she makes sure he is asleep. It is too cute.
Enjoy!

Shopper in Training

Today turned out to be a beautiful day here in Raleigh. Matti woke up around 7:15am this morning ready to go.
I had a few errands to run so I loaded Matti up in the van and we ventured off to pick up a few things at the grocery store. Usually Matti lets me carry her in the store and put her in a cart, usually she wants one that looks like a car, but today was different. She wanted to walk and not ride. Of course, I kind of panicked, but decided to let her push the "Shopper In Training" cart. She was so excited and was such a big girl. She followed close beside me pushing her cart. We talked up and down the isles to get the things that we needed. I knew if I kept her interested in what we were doing I would avoid a nightmare of a shopping trip. I let her put the groceries in the cart and let her look at my list to see what we needed. As we pulled up to the check out she wanted to get the groceries out of the cart herself. When it came time to pay she stepped off to the side and allowed me to pay. I guess I will be paying for a long time. She seemed to have no interest in that at all. She waited patiently as I felt a hot flash coming on. I just knew she was going to dart off somewhere, but to my surprise she did not. I grabbed the bags and gave her a small one and we walked out to the car together without a fight. Man, she is growing up too fast.
It was such a pretty day I decided to take her to the park again. When we got there our little neighbor Maddox was there with his father. Maddox is 2 1/2. The funny thing was that Maddox and Matti have met a few times and never really played together, but I did not hear Matti say "My turn" or "My slide" the whole time. They played nicely together. I am starting to figure out she only does that when girls are involved. She does not do that when it is only boys at the play ground. Weird, huh? They chased each other, squealed, went down the slide, got on the swings, and just had a great time. By the time we got home Matti was completely exhausted. She fell asleep before I could finish reading her nap time book.
Matti started calling Matthew Daddy this weekend instead of Dada. It was so sweet to hear her say it that way. She had really become "Daddy's little girl" here lately. She also has started saying three worded sentences. A couple that stick out in my head from this weekend are "No Daddy, I do it", "I don't Like", and "What you doing". She always wants to know what we are doing. I guess because she always hears us saying "Mattison what are you doing, you are being too quiet". It is really funny hearing her talk and just be so matter of fact about things.

Chores

Mattison was a big help to mommy today. She helped dust, sweep, and tidy up the house. She absolutely loved copying everything I was doing. It actually helped me out a lot. She was so proud of herself.
This afternoon turned out to be beautiful so after cleaning house all day I was ready to get outdoors. I packed Mattison up in her wagon and we headed for the park. We had the whole park to ourselves for about thirty minutes then two little girls a little older than Mattison came. Mattison was very upset that she had to share her playground, but I found out that she is not the only one who acts like that. All the girls where taking turns on the slide. Mattison looked at one of the girls and said "My turn" the little girl went down the slide, looked at Mattison, and then looked at me and said "I am not moving". I bit my tongue and told Mattison to wait until the slide was clear before she could come down. Luckily the little girls mother finally noticed what she was doing and scolded her, but what goes around comes around I guess. We did have our first little spill on the playground. Mattison was on the younger play equipment (thank goodness) and fell straight back onto the ground. I think she got the breath knocked out of her and she screamed for a few minutes, but after that she got right back up and started climbing again. Whew... It scared me for a minute until I knew she was okay.
Here are a few pictures.

Princess

Another Friday.... TGIF.
I had to wake Mattison up for school this morning, which is very common. She must have been dreaming because she started mumbling about Colors, which is what she calls crayons. It was cute.
Mattison is getting slower and slower in the mornings. She wants to do things on her own time. I wake her up at the last possible minute not leaving us much time to get ready. I am normally dressed and ready to go and all I have to do is get her ready. She tots around, wants to visit daddy, watch a little tv, and put on her own shoes and jacket. Then she walks into her school (sometimes like she owns the place) waving and saying hello to everyone. She takes her time washing her hands and finally I get hugs and leave. I have had to learn to be very patient with her lately. I read toddlers take their time at doing everything.
The only other news for the day is we were in the floor reading Mattison's night time stories when out of nowhere she pointed to the shelf in her room. There are soft pull out drawers that have a pink princess on each one. Mattison looked and pointed to one and said "Princess" and then said "Mattison Princess". I am sure she was talking about it being her princess, but the way she said it, it sounded like she was calling herself a princess.

Ten most common phrases

Well, not much to post tonight. Matti went to Daycare as usually this morning. She smiled at everyone as she walked in, waving a big hello wave to everyone she met. She loves her teacher so I have no problems dropping her off. She enjoys being around the other children. I picked her up around 5:00pm and she can name every child in her class and tell each of the bye using their names. She has started using a new word or two everyday lately.

I thought I would post Mattison's top five mostly used phrases tonight.
1) Not Nice
2) No, mommy dada do it (there are some things she refuses to let me do)
3) Be Back (she will even put her hand up as if she were saying stop, I will do this myself)
4) My Turn!
5) Come on (she will come to you put her hand on yours and drag you from room to room until she figures out what she wants to do)
6) Poopy diapers-shew... this is a recent saying
7) Hailey Bite-not nice (She is a little tattle tail- I get a report if Mattison gets bit at school and it does not happen every day. Mattison tells a different story, but with no bite marks to prove it.
8) I do it
9) Sit Down (Mommy/Dada whoever she wants to play with at the time)
10) Hey Honey-Where that comes from I have no clue.

Oh well, hopefully something a little more interesting tomorrow. Until then Good night all....

Mattison

Just a couple of updates tonight.
Matti did pee pee in the potty again before her bath tonight. I am so proud of my little girl. She is so proud of herself. I am still not leaning toward trying to potty train just yet though. Although I have a feeling it will not be long.
Secondly, Mattison's book of choice tonight was Cat in the Hat again. She was all into the story. Pointing and giggling at that crazy cat. It is kind of nice to read a longer book instead of a bunch of short ones.
Tonight was the first time in a long time Mattison has done something that just melted my heart and turned me into mush. She noticed I had a bandaid on my arm and said "Mommy booboo" and I said yes Mattison mommy has a booboo. She leaned down and kissed my arm and I said all better. Then she pointed to her hand and said "Mattison has a booboo". I nearly melted. That is the first time she has referred to herself as Mattison and the first time she has said her name after weeks and weeks of working with her. It was the sweetest little voice ever!!!

Potty Time/Cat in the Hat

The past week Matti has wanted to sit on her potty before her bath and play with her Elmo cell phone. This has become a part of her night time routine. I let her sit on the potty until she is ready to get off. Well, tonight we made pee pee again. Matti was so excited. Matthew and I cheered for her. Again, we are no where close to start potty training, but when she asks to sit on her potty we do not refuse her. YAY!!!! My big girl!!!
I feel it is very important to read to your children. I think I feel this way because I have never been able to read out loud very well and sometimes still struggle with reading. There is not a night that passes that I do not sit and read several books to Matti. I hope that she eventually will enjoy reading to me. We have been reading books to Matti every night for at least the past year. She really enjoys that special time with me or Matthew. Usually her books are short and sweet, but tonight she pulled out Cat in the Hat. I did not think she would sit through the whole book, but I gave it a shot. (Dr. Suess books I think are a little difficult to read, but I made it through)... Matti sat perfectly snuggled in my lap through the whole book and ended up falling asleep at the end. I think I read that around this age they start enjoying longer more detailed stories. I wonder if that is starting to happen or if it were just a fluke. Oh well, I enjoyed the extra time.
I put her to bed thinking she completely out. I walked over and cut out her lamp and started to walk out the door when I heard a whisper "mommy" and remembered that I forgot to kiss her head before I left. I said "oh mommy forgot to give you a kiss". Her reply was "uh huh" so I reached down a kissed her foreheard. She said "bye bye mommy. Nite Nite"....

Time Change/Random Videos

Dealing with the time change has been harder on me than Matti. We fell back an hour on Saturday night and Matti seems to be dealing with it just fine. I was worried that it would take a couple of days for her to get adjusted since last year it was a nightmare. This year, not so much. She has adjusted just fine. Still sleeping until around 7am on weekdays and around 7:30am on weekends.

It has been quite sometime since I posted some videos. Here are a few recent ones.

Halloween (Trick or Treat)




Checking out the pumpkins




Hotdogs for dinner (Excitement)

Halloween

Happy Halloween!
On Friday Matti had her Halloween Party at school. I was only able to snap a couple of pictures of her and her buddy Hailey as I dropped Matti off for school. I was unable to attend the actual party because of work.
Here are a couple of pictures of Hailey and Matti.


These girls do not look to happy, but I swear they are buddies!!!

We had planned once again on taking Matti to the Hill Ridge Farms here in Raleigh this weekend, but once again woke up Saturday to pouring rain. I was so disappointed. Later in the morning on Saturday I noticed the rain had stopped and I knew there was a Fall Festival going on at the end of the neighborhood so Matthew and I got dressed and put Matti in her costume and decided to just tough it out and get out of the house. The rain by this time was a drizzle. We initially took Matti stroller, but Matti seemed to do just fine walking beside her father the entire time we were at the festival. Matti loved the bouncy houses, from the outside only... She seemed to circle around each of the three bouncy houses over and over again as if she were trying to decide whether she wanted in or not. She did get in the first one we came to only to make a quick exit minutes after she got in. I was relieved because I thought some of the kids were just a little rough and I was petrified she would get hurt, but I knew I had to let her at least try it out.
We also saw a big fire truck and Matti got to sit in the drivers seat, which ago lasted only a second, but she seemed to be interested in it.
We went around to different stations. Matti got balloons and candy and just got to walk around and enjoy herself for a little while.
Here are only a few festival pictures.






Matti's one minute in the bouncy house...




Later that afternoon after Matti had her nap her grandmommy Newton came down and Matti and Grandmommy painted pumpkins and Matthew and I carved pumpkins. We had a lot of fun. By this time the weather was 78 degrees and Humid!!! It was perfect for painting and carving though. Here are a few pictures.



Later on in the evening we finally got Matti dressed in her costume to go trick or treating. Our neighborhood was buzzing with parents and kids. The neighbors basically set up candy stations all the way down the street. It was a nice night and everyone was out. We took Matti to a few houses and she did a great job saying trick or treat, which of course came out sounding a little different, but we had worked with her all week and she was very polite saying thank you to each person and waving and saying bye bye to each person. We made it to about eight houses and Matti turned around and started walking home. I figured she had enough. We decided to give Matti a sucker and sit on our front porch and pass out our candy. Matti really enjoyed doing that. She also like the sucker. She had sucker everywhere!!!! It was in her hair, running down her chin, on her hands, and face. It was so funny, but so rewarding to see her have so much fun. Here are a few pumpkin painting pictures and trick or treat pictures.





We had a wonderful weekend. I have a few videos I will post tomorrow.