This week was a very busy week. I had my 20th ish.... class reunion on Saturday night in Mount Airy so Matti got to visit with her nene and papa. We had a very busy Saturday. We took Matti to get her picture made in the Halloween dress I made her and also in her bee costume. They turned out great and I will post them as soon as mom gets them back. Here are a couple of pictures of her costume and the pumpkin dress I made for her. Matti has been so into seeing pumpkins I decided to take her to across the line this weekend to Cana, VA were there is a road side stand with all kinds of fresh fruits, veggies, flowers, pumpkins, etc. I thought it would be a great field trip for us. Matti, Nene, and I went and it was freezing cold. Matti seemed to enjoy looking at the pumpkins and flowers. She was very excited, but extremely cold so our trip was short and sweet. Here are a few pictures. I wished it had not been so cold so we could have stayed longer. I think Matti was having a great time, but she was shivering cold. Matti loved playing with her Nene and Papa all day on Saturday. If she did not get her way with Matthew, Nene, or I she would just yell for her papa to come save her. She is really starting to know how to play us. If she does not get her way with one -she will try the other. At one point she had asked Nene and I if she could go outside. It was so cold and Matti needed to change clothes so we told her not right now. She immediately yelled "Papa" and papa came over and Matti said "Papa outside". Of course Papa took her out. Here are some pictures of Nene, Papa, and Matti. Matti really enjoys spending time with Nene and Papa. When we wake up at there house she always asks for papa and then she starts looking for Nene. She loves to go into Nene's bedroom and wake her up. Matti is so into shoes and starting to enjoy dress up clothes. Here is a pictures of her new dress up shoes that Nene and Papa got her.
Matti has still been an angel here the past few weeks. Hardly any tantrums and very cooperative. She also did pee pee on the potty again last night. We were so happy for her. She was excited for herself. Still we are under no pressure to potty train just yet. Although she has been taking her diaper off by herself a lot lately. I just tell her when she learns to go pee pee and poop in the potty she can wear big girl panties and she will not have to wear a diaper anymore. We will just see how she does in the next couple of months before I really start working on the potty training. We are planning a trip to a farm here in Raleigh this weekend weather permitting. The NC State Fair is also happening right now, but I am still not ready to expose her to all of that just yet. I am not sure which has more germs the farm or the fair, but H1N1 scares the crap out of me and I know several people who have small children that have already got it and they all attended the fair. I am sure it was just a coincidence. Oh well, next year we will definitely take her. Matti also has really got into Thomas the Train here lately. I bought her a Thomas the Train toy and she absolutely loves it. It is a train that runs around the floor on no tracks. She follows him around and dances to the music. It is also interactive and response to commands, which is funny to watch her tell Thomas what to do and when he needs to go. Next time Thomas comes around I will have to take her to see Thomas also....
We had a pretty uneventful weekend this weekend. Matti has been having a few, what I think are, nightmares almost every night this week. She also may be getting her two year molars. She has had several episodes of waking up in the middle of the night crying out for me. Most of the time she just needs to be tucked in and checked on. Matti is constantly learning new words every day. Her most recent are Pumpkin and Elephant of course Elephant sounds more like El phant and Pumpkin sounds like Pukin. It is too cute. We took her to play at the park this weekend in our neighborhood which is usually empty, but this weekend there were a lot of children there. Most of them were around Matti's age. I was worried about her getting pushed around, but found that I had a different problem. She was pushing the other kids around telling all the other children "My Slide", "My turn", MY EVERYTHING. She just jumped right in front of other kids and did her own thing pretty much pushing them to the side. I completely felt out of my element and was not sure what I should do. I first tried to tell Matti that this was Every ones playground and that she needed to take turns, pointing out to her how she must share. Of course in went in one ear and right out the other. I threatened that if she did not play nice we would have to go home. Once I told her that every time a child would come around she would look at them and say "play nice". She eventually got the idea, well sort of. I just had to hold my breath and also I caught myself giggling under my breath at how darn bossy she was. I just shook my head. We ran into one little girl who looked similar to her cousin Emma. She followed the little girl around and kept trying to talk to her calling her Emma. I thought it was sweet. She has been a perfect angel here lately. Tantrums right now are few and far between, but I know that this will change again probably over the next few weeks. We have been playing with play dough, I cut out pumpkins out of construction paper for her to decorate and we put them on the refrigerator, she loves Tinker toys (only under supervision) and she loves to pretend she is cooking for us. Grandma Marion gave me a huge bag of zippers and I have found her several times sitting in the floor with the bag of zippers pulling one by one out and sorting the colors into categories. She is really getting good at recognizing her colors esp. yellow, brown, orange, red, green, purple, blue, black, and white. It was pretty cool watching her sort and match colors together. She also loves for me to take her finger and court items in books. She likes to pretend to count using my finger. I have made a game out of it. She is starting to love certain books at night before bed. It is like a ritual. Her bedtime routine is so routine that Saturday night we decided to let her stay up a little later than normal, but decided against a bath since it was so late. She was all out of sorts. We put on her pajamas and read books and then she took off into the bathroom and wanted to take a bath. I saw first hand how a routine is beneficial for bedtime. I will post some pictures of the park. She is really growing up so fast I am amazed every day at the things she can do...
I have been VERY bad about keeping up with Matti's blog and have really missed out on posting a lot. So much that it would take me forever to update so I decided to start fresh with the things that are going on right now. I have been so caught up in sewing, work, and chasing Mattison around I completely regret I did not keep the blog going.
Matti will be 22 months old next week. It is so hard to believe that her 2nd birthday is fast approaching us. At Matti's last check up, which was her 18 month check up, she weighed 26 pounds, 32 1/2 tall, and still has a big noggin measuring at 47.6cm which is the 70% for children her age. There is either a big brain in there or is it all that hair of hers. He he ... Matti has really started talking a lot over the past several weeks. Words are too many to name, but Matthew and I can understand about 80% of what she is saying. She is starting to make two to three word sentances and likes to copy everything Matthew and I say. Apparently Matthew and people at daycare call Matti Honey or Honey do not do that because Matti has been saying "No Honey" to her father lately. It is absolutely hallirous. Also her daddy told her "bye Pookie" as she walked out the door to go to school this morning and she turned around, looked at him, and said "Bye Pookie" right back to him with a big grin. It is simply amazing how much toddlers can change in just a matter of a few weeks. Matti has started singing lately. She will sing bits and pieces of the Imagination Movers theme song, nursery rhyme songs, and most recently bits and pieces of the alphabet song. She also loves to dance, draw, color, use play dough, dress up, undress (especially loves to take her diaper off these days), run, put puzzles together, play with Tinker Toys (supervised of course), play with baby dolls, etc. She is just into everything. She is starting to understand emotions as well. If I make a sad face she will look at me all concerned and say "Mommy sad". If I make a happy face she will say "Mommy Happy" and then imitate the faces stating what faces she is making. One afternoon we were rough housing and she kicked me in the face by accident. I pretended to cry and she hugged me, patted me on the back, and said "Mommy sad" and once I looked at her and said you kicked mommy she said "Sorry" and gave me a kiss. It was the sweetest. She was patting my back and sssshhhhing me trying to comfort me. What a sweetheart. One of the biggest things that has happen over the past couple of weeks is Potty!!! Mattison actually pee pee in the potty once (I think by accident), but got so excited. Once she first started to pee pee I think I scared her by my excitement, but once she understood it was a great thing she starting clapping and screaming to the top of her lungs. I was a proud mama even if it was just coienidentle. For the past few weeks Matti has shown great interest in using the potty. She will come up to me and say "Potty" or "Pee Pee In Potty" and I will take her straight to the potty. She will sit there for a few minutes and sometimes look at a book and then get up. She never really uses the potty with the exception of the one time above. This morning she was all dressed for school and before I could put her shoes on she got off the couch and crouched down in the corner and started to push and then all the sudden she stood straight up and grabbed my hand and said "potty" so I took her to the bathroom, took off her pants and diaper, she sat down and pick up a magazine, then tooted really loud, stood striaght up and said "all done". Oh well, I guess this is all a start.. I had to giggle-she toots like her father he he he.... Matti still loves school and her friends at school knowing each of them by name. I think she is actully bored on the weekends because she has no one to play with, but mommy and daddy. I will be posting some pictures later and try to get some movies, etc. I hope to keep this blog more updated. I have missed out on posting so much. Please stayed tuned.
Matti just went for her 15 month doctors appointment and is 16 1/2 months. We got a little behind when she was sick for her one year and that appointment was in January. Matti did well at her appointment. She is 24 1/2 pounds and 31 1/2 inches long. She is 70% for her age group. I thought she seemed short, but she is actually a little above the average height for her age group. Matti has changed so much over the past few weeks. She seems to be talking more. Some words we can understand and some words are a bunch of baby gibberish. We are beginning the frustration part of toddlerhood and trying to figure out what she wants by her pointing and jabbering. She is still signing, but she only knows a few signs. I know when she wants to eat, needs more, wants us to do somethings again, and there a few more signs she does not use often, but I still sign with her. She has been saying bubble, ooose (shoes), duice (juice), pee (for pee), nanna (Banana and Nana), apple, happy, nose, poo (Poop) and a handful of other words. She can name several animals (Cow, dog, pig, horse, and cat) and make the animal noises. She has little toy animals in her bath tub and we talk to her about each animal every night and the noises they make. She is doing a great job with that. I often take Mattison to the bathroom with me to teach her where the potty is and having been repeatedly telling her about bathroom procedure. Matti started to recognize when she is about to poop just last night. She was sitting in her highchair and looked at me and said "poo" and then looked down at her diaper. I did not think much about it. I cleaned her up and put her in the floor with no sign of poop. Within a few minutes she came back around the corner and she had pooped. I was shocked and so happy for her. We clapped and made a big deal of it so she will keep this up. Our night time routine is still going great. She gets dinner, bath, dressed, and then I read her a book, which has now turned in to three books before bed. She seems very interested in me reading to her and sits calmly while I read. She likes to turn the page when it is time. Sometimes she tries to read to me. She will open the book and start talking baby gibberish like she is reading. It is so cute. I have yet to get this on video. She will also point at different pictures in the books wanting me to tell her what the picture is. I have really enjoyed looking at books with her and repeating over and over the names of the pictures. It is finally starting to sink in. Matti will have a mouth full of teeth by the time we go to the beach. She has two molars and several other teeth already through on one side top and bottom and swollen gums on the other side top and bottom. We had are first night up with her (in a long time) Monday night. She woke of screaming and crying and it took a diaper change, Tylenol, and a lot of cuddling to get her to go back to bed. I know her teeth have really been bothering her. Hopefully we will be finished teething soon. She is still following simple commands. She really likes helping me around the house and she will help me clean up her room after playing. She tries really hard to put everything back where she found it. She will dust, help with laundry, wants to vacuum, etc. whatever I am doing she wants to help. She can also put on and take off her shoes. She tries to put on her sock herself, but still has not mastered that as of yet. Just over the past few weeks Matti's world has really changed. I feel she sees it in a whole new way. She seems to be grasping every day life better than before. It just all seems to click for her now. I have several videos to post. Hope you enjoy.
This first video Matti had been outside playing in sand and water. I striped her down and let her run around in her diaper. She decided she was tired and grabbed her blanket and was trying to find a spot to take a nap. You will see her point to me and hear her say night-night.
This is Matti's favorite word to say. She says it constantly. I used to keep her bubbles in the pantry and now everyday we come home she goes to the pantry and pats on the door saying "bubble".
Here is a couple of videos of Matti dancing around. I could not stop laughing at her. The first video her daddy gets up and you will see her walk over to the chair that Matthew usually sits in and she points for him to sit back down.
Matti has changed so much over the past couple of weeks. She has really started to follow simple tasks. She will throw things in the trash if I ask her to. She will get a book or toy if asked. She will get shoes or put them up when asked. These are just few tasks she will follow. It is very cute and is actually helpful to me and entertaining to her. Matthew and I make sure we say please and thank you when asking her to do these tasks and clap for her reward. This seems to make her understand that she is doing something that is positive and you can tell she is very proud of herself. Matti has to be one of the sweetest children ever. She always gives kiss and hugs to EVERYONE. She is very dramatic when she gives kisses. She makes the ummmm ma sound when she puckers up. She hugs and kisses Matthew before we leave for school each morning and loves on him when he comes home at night. When we leave school in the afternoon she walks over to her jacket and then over to the teacher to get her report card of the day. Once she gets that piece of paper she starts blowing kisses to the teacher and the other kids in the class. She is also very excitable. She gets so excited over things. She squeals, bounces, claps her hands, and gasps. Grandma Marion and Nana Bonnie went with me to pick Matti up from Daycare last Friday and Matti almost jumped out of her high chair when she saw their faces. She was ecstatic. She went straight to Nana Bonnie and was grinning from ear to ear. She is also likes to get books and get up in our laps to look at them and snuggle. She is starting to sit with us for longer and longer periods of time now. She still only looks at the pages and sometimes she will get my finger and point to things in the book with my finger as if she were teaching me and I will name different pictures for her. She also babbles a lot while looking at the book. I sometimes think she might be imitating reading-not real sure about that one. Although part of night time routine now is looking and reading a book so you never know what they pick up on. Separation anxiety is finally getting less now. When I drop her off at school she no longer cries. She usually goes directly to the other children and starts playing with them. She doesn't even look back for me anymore. This has made it easier on me in the mornings because I know she is having a great time at school with the other children. She is very outgoing and is not one bit shy. Matti is definitely a child that will need a sibling. She really enjoys being around other children and seems to miss it on the weekends when she is at home with Matthew and I. She acts like she is bored. Yesterday Matti started putting a lot of syllables together which sounds like long sentences in a foreign language. When she first did this I immediately cracked up because it came out of nowhere and she was directing the gibber towards me like she wanted to have a conversation so I just started talking back. She went on and on with this foreign sounding language and her face was just so serious. I am not sure if she is getting ready to reach a milestone in her vocabulary, but she has been up and down the past two nights just talking to herself in this crazy baby babble each night. She usually sleeps soundly through the night and we normally do not hear a peep out of her until she is ready to get up. Matti is still having tantrums when she does not get what she wants, but I have found if I can get her interested in something else immediately she stops crying and fussing immediately. If she is just having a tantrum because she cannot reach something she is not supposed to have ignoring the tantrum she is having gets her to figure out it is time to move on. I feel horrible when I ignore her frustration, but sometimes I only make it worse for her when I tell her she cannot have the item. I am trying different approaches with the tantrums to see what works the best for us in getting her to understand I know she is frustrated and everyone gets upset, but that just how things are. Matti seems to be having a lot of problems with molars right now. She has not had a solid bowel movement for two weeks. It is not bad diarrhea it is just a little loose. She also exhibits some mouth pain and every now and then feel a little feverish. Her gums are so swollen and red she should have several teeth over the next few months. Right now she still only has her two front teeth and two lower teeth. She has one tooth coming in beside the top right and one molar that is partial through. It seems like her teeth take forever to come in. I will feel better about her eating once those teeth are through. It will probably make her feel better as well. I had some cute videos to post, but accidentally delete my favorite of her putting items in the garbage and I have one of her in the backyard with the bubble machine that I need to download. I should have those up in the next few days.
Matti will be 15 months old next week. It is so hard to believe. She is beginning to be a true toddler. We have experienced major meltdowns and a lot of independence. Mattison wants to do everything by HERSELF. She is so scheduled now she knows exactly what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. She expects things. If you put her shoes on she automatically starts saying bye-bye and waving. She immediately wants to put her jacket on and heads for the front door. She will stand there and wait for me. Once I am ready to go out she does not want me to pick her up she wants to walk out by herself and she wants to shut the door herself. I usually grab her hand and led her to the car, although she wants to play in the front yard and screams and cries when I pick her up to put her in the car. Once she is settled she is fine. She has also started talking A LOT. More baby babble than real words, but every now and then she will say something that and throw a real word in there. She has started saying Mommy and Daddy instead of Mama and dada. Any time she sees a baby whether it be in a picture or a real baby she says baby over and over. She also can make some animal sounds. If you ask her what sound a sheep makes she says ba-a cow she says mawwww-lion she growls. It is quite funny. Also the other day I picked her up from school and we usually come home and have a snack and some milk. Matti started signing for more. It completely caught me off guard. I had stopped signing with her because she would not pay me any attention and then out of nowhere she did it. I ask the teachers at school and found out that they are teaching signs to them. WOW-it just took someone other than me for her to pay attention. They really work with her a lot at school. I am very impressed with the daycare we chose. The teacher actually has a lesson plan book for them. She has brought home art work and I can see the results of the teachers working with her and teaching her. I am just so thankful I made the right decision. Matti has only had four teeth since she was 12 months old and finally she is getting several teeth all at once. Including her molars. Her poor gums are blood red and swollen. Her top right molar has already peaked through and the rest are not far behind. She should have a full set of teeth within the next month. She has been really cranky and will cry in pain just out of no where. Sleeping is excellent. Matti of course has been off the bottle for a while. We have kept the same night time routine with the exception of the bottle. Now, after her bath and we get her pajamas on she knows it is time for bed. Matthew and I usually get her ready for bed together. When we are finished she usually starts blowing her daddy kisses and says ni ni dada and waves at him. It is so sweet. I will rock her and tell her a story softly and within a minute or two she will sit up in my lap and look over at her bed as if she is ready to be put down. I will kiss her head, tell her I love her and put her down. Sometimes she will talk to herself until she passes out, but never any crying. We are so proud of her. The same goes for naps. She is ready for a nap every day at 11:30am and does not fight going down. She sleeps an 1 1/2 and sometimes if we are lucky 2 hours. Wow between us sticking with a night time routine and daycare training her on the cot things are great when it comes to sleeping habits. So much has happened over the past month it would take me all day to post so from now on I promise to post every day or every other day even if I do not have pic's or videos. That is the only way I can keep the blog current and not leave anything out.
Things have been absolutely crazy around here. I feel terrible that I have not posted one thing since November. I will do the best I can to bring everyone up to speed. Well, Thanksgiving was wonderful. We went to Mount Airy and visited with all of the family. Matti enjoyed meeting some new cousins on the Seivers side of the family. We also had dinner with the Marions which is always a blast. Soon after Thanksgiving I started planning Matti 1st birthday party. On December 13th Matthew and I threw Matti her First Birthday in Mount Airy at Nana Bonnie's house which was a blast. We had mostly family and a few friends there. Matti seemed to enjoy herself although she had no idea that the event was for her. She was dressed in a princess tutu, tights, and a onsie. Matti had her own little birthday cake and destroyed it pretty quickly, she also had a lot of balloons, and a banner stating Happy Birthday. She received many cool gifts. She seemed to understand how to rip into her gifts. That was not a problem, but she seemed to be more interested in the paper than the gifts. Thanks to everyone for making that day so special.
Here are a couple of Pictures from her Birthday party.
When we returned home that Sunday and got Matti out of her car seat she was extremely hot. We thought the car seat and the warm car might have been the problem until an hour later she seemed to be even warmer than before. I took her temp and it was 102.5. Of course I freaked out a little and called the on call doctor. I spoke with an advice nurse who gave me some info and told me how to lower her fever. By Monday morning Matti's temp was still 102.1 so I took her to the doctor. He thought Matti had a cold and also said just because she does not have an ear infection today does not mean they cannot get inflamed over night. By Wednesday, the child still had a fever of 102.5 and back to the doctor again. This time it was an ear infection and sinusitis. Finally all of that cleared up just in time for Christmas. We went to Hickory for a day to visit with he Newton's and then to Mount Airy to visit with the Seivers and Marion's for Christmas. Matti once again received several cool gifts and loved everything she received, especially opening the presents. She was so expressive in showing her interest in the gifts. It cracked me up. She is my little actress. She loves to put on a show. After Christmas, Matti started in her new Toddler (12-18 months)class at school. She did not really progress much until she started this new class at school. Almost overnight I saw a completely different child emerge. She started going through separation and stranger anxiety all over again which made it hard to drop her off every morning. She also started going through a fussy and clingy phase where I had to be on top of her constantly and if I moved she would cry. She has accomplished so many different milestones I hope I do not leave any out. She says dada and mama to the appropriate parent, she also says "ooooooo" for hello when picking up the telephone, she also says bla for block, ba for bottle (which we are currently off the bottle except at night and on whole milk), Dug for dog, dat for that, and Nana of course for Nana, and Na for No and bal for ball and wave and say bye bye. She makes more sounds for words that I just have not figured out what she is saying yet. She jabbers all the time talking in her own little language while looking right at you. Her conversations are so funny. She is also into everything and the word "No" will make her cry at the drop of a hat. If you tell her "No" she will lie down on the floor and put her head down and cry like someone had hurt her. That tears me up, but I know she has to learn when she is not supposed to do something. She also points to everything and says "Dat". So I will tell her what the item is and what it is used for. She is also starting to really enjoy books. She has several touch books that make noise if you touch a part of the book. I used to take Matti's finger and press the bottom to make a noise and now she will take my finger and press my finger down on the bottom to make the noise. If we give her a brush she will brush her hair, tries to brush her own teeth for a while and now she does not want any part of the toothbrush. She wants to brush our hair with it instead. She likes to try to put her shoes on her own feet and just the other morning she saw her coat hanging on the chair and tried to put it on. She could not do it by herself so she brought it to me. I put it on her and she waved and said bye bye as if we needed to go to school.I swear she wore that coat around all morning. If the phone rings she will stop what she is doing and walk over to where the phone is and point to it. Sometimes if I am busy I do not answer it and she will stare me down until I tell her that I will get it later. She was also turning the TV off and on (we have now fixed that problem). She would cut the tv off and then scurry away because she knew she was not supposed to touch the TV and look at me and point to the remote to turn it back on. She would get bent out of shape if I did not cut it back on. Matti also helps do laundry by pulling clothes out of the dryer for me and she likes to unfold them when I get a pile folded and hand them back to me with a smile. Yesterday I was emptying out the dishwasher and she started handing me dishes out of it. Some where so big compared to her I could not help, but laugh. She is such the little helper. Also we have started to notice when Matti is hungry she will automatically head over to the high chair and start to point and tries to climb up into the high chair herself. And then there is climbing-already- She wants to climb on the furniture, up the stairs, etc. Mom bought her a wagon for her overnight trip there last weekend and she would climb in the wagon by herself and start rocking so someone would push her. I could go on and on about everything, but I have to admit so much has happened over the last four to five weeks I cannot keep up with it all now. The big step in Matti's milestone progress is that she has started walking. I mean, walking everywhere and sometimes so fast I can barely catch her. The funny thing is you can tell she is so excited by the look on her face. She even swings her hands around and squeals with delight! I have noticed since she started walking she is not as clingy and is a lot more independent. She just goes her own way and if she needs me she just walks right over to me and pulls on my pants. Matti has also had pink eye twice and two colds since she was sick in December so I have been out of work a lot with her home sick so I have not had much time on the computer lately. The updates from now on will be more frequent. Matti finally got to have her one year check on on her 13 month bday which was Jan 17th. At that time she weighs 22 pounds and 4 ounces and is 30 inches long. Her chubby thighs are slowly starting to dwindle away. I miss those little chubby baby legs. She of course hated her shots and screamed before the doctor even stuck her. OUCH!!!!! She finally has two front teeth now and she looks so much like a little girl and not like a baby anymore. She has a huge gap in between her front teeth that gives me the giggles when she smiles really big. Matthew says her two front teeth are like Lauren Hutton. Whew, with all that said we are finally up to this past weekend. Matti had her first overnight trip without Mama or Dada. Matti spent the night with Nana Bonnie and Papa Lane on Saturday night so I could take Matthew out for his birthday. Nana and papa bought Matti a wagon and pulled her around everywhere. The full report when we came in to pick her up on Sunday was she did not miss me at all and she was an "Angel". She sort of looked a little funny to see us again. Almost like, you mean I have to go back home with these people. Oh well, she gave me a big ol kiss right in the mouth so I really know she missed us. I am posting a video of her walking. It is not the best video, but right now it was the best I could do. I promise to keep this blog updated better. Hope you enjoy.
Here is Matti posing in the scarf that nana made for her.
Here is Matti posing in the wagon that nana and papa bought for her.
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