Staples, Tacos, and Love: Our Monkey Matthew

It's been about a month since Matthew turned one, so it's definitely time to talk about him again!

We had a fun little birthday for him. He really likes cars (Hot Wheels especially), so we decided to do a car theme for his birthday. I made a very manly light red car cake for him, and Joseph and I decorated the main level with cars. For his birthday, we had a few friends over and played name that tune with cars (car sounds, at least . . . it was chaos) and then had races where people pushed Hot Wheels across the carpet with their noses.

this is the 3rd transportation cake I've made in 2 years.

Radiator Springs and lots of different automobiles

He mostly liked the frosting

Here are some fun facts about our boy:

-He is a monkey! He finally figured out how to climb up the stairs while Kevin was in Spain, and ever since he's been drawn to them like a magnet to a fridge. Up and down and up and down. Any stairs will do. We definitely have had to be more careful about where we leave the step stool.

-He is so friendly! Here is how church often goes: wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, chase him down a few times, listen to some fussing, hand him to some random stranger, and then he sits calmly for the rest of the meeting. I have lost track of how many times he's fussed because he's wanted someone else to hold him. It has actually been super helpful for us as we've tried to make friends here in Connecticut.

-He is a speedy crawler! Once he's free of our grip, he shoots off like a pistol. Sometimes he has this really funny plodding crawl where he very deliberately raises his hands up high as he moves.

of course, the best way to crawl is with a superhero cape on one's head

-He could walk if he wanted to. Three weeks ago, we got him to walk back and forth to us for a few steps, but he lost interest, especially with the move. I see how quickly he scoots along the couch and think about how fast he already crawls and I have to remind myself I don't necessarily want him walking just yet. UPDATE: he's walking now. a few steps at a time, at least.

-He is pretty little! Just like Joseph. In fact, it caused a bit of a problem at the doctor's office when it looked like he hadn't gained any height since his last appointment. I've been pretty skeptical about height measurements ever since Joseph was 19 inches at birth and 20.5 inches 2 days later, so I wasn't too worried. Especially because it was a different nurse who came in and measured him (a lot more accurately than the nurse at most of the appointments). (Same with his head. I even went home and rechecked and I really really think she measured wrong. If his clothes don't fit over his head then that means he's grown, right?) But the doctor was worried, and she was worried about Joseph's heart murmur that got resolved a year ago, and they tried over and over to draw Matthew's blood for hematocrit whatnot and it never worked (even though I had just given him water and nursed him, and they complained he wasn't hydrated), and so on. On the way out of the parking lot, I told Joseph, "Well, that was zero fun, huh." He agreed, since he had gotten 3 shots, and he likes the word "zero."

He didn't even bleed enough to get a bandage! It was the worst.

For comparison, here is Joseph at the same age. The matching outfit was a coincidence!

-He is a ham! He knows what will make us laugh and definitely does it over and over. And even if it doesn't make us laugh, if it makes him laugh that's good enough. One of our favorites is his sniffy face.

He knows where hair things go!

someday I'll have a girl.

If it makes us laugh, he'll keep doing it!

-He has so many words! It is so so so hard to record them, but at last count he had at least a dozen. Mama, daddy, baby, peekaboo, "thereheis," uh oh, hooray, thank you, whoa, whee, water, apple, and his three favorite: NO, BAAAAAALLLL and CAAAAAAHHHH (car). "No" is his power word, and he uses it whenever he has strong feelings of any kind.

"Ball" is used for anything spherical, including some light bulbs, and also for things that can be thrown, like blocks. It is the first thing he notices about any room.

a wall of balls at Villano park. What could be better?

"Car" refers to both the large and small varieties. He also has some word which sounds like "flag" or "flower" to describe anything with a design (we think).

It's always tricky to get him to say words on command, but last night and this morning I got a few. Actually, as I was watching the movies this evening before uploading them, he was so cute about repeating the words a lot better than movie version of himself.

(I made those videos last night when he wouldn't sleep, but he was more cooperative this morning. sort of, at least.)

-Matthew loves container play! Things go in boxes and out of boxes, on shelves and off shelves. And to his brother's dismay, anything he doesn't want anymore goes in a different car seat. Once he gets in a groove he can stay occupied for several minutes at a time! This is how this video happened. (I really didn't intend for it to be 4 minutes, but I just was riveted so I never stopped.)

container play. container container play, to be specific.

This is sort of container play. I mean, there's a hole there.

-He likes to mimic us! He likes to make whatever sounds we're making and often just babbles along. He also really likes "Popcorn Popping" and "Eensy Weensy Spider" in addition to the classic "If you're happy and you know it."

He also wants to do whatever we're doing, which made it hard to wash dishes and complete transactions at stores.

good luck reading the card numbers

-He loves tunnels! One time in deacons' quorum, one of the boys was teaching a lesson, and Matthew noticed there was a slight gap between his feet. So he crawled over and kept bonking his head on the boy's legs until Kevin finally said, "You're just going to have to let him through." So he opened his legs up, and Matthew went through the tunnel. When our house was a mess of boxes, it was like tunnel heaven (and container play heaven, which was a bit of a problem sometimes). Another bit of heaven came at the Boston Children's museum (more on that later).

-He loves cups and water bottles! Any time he sees a cup, he wants a sip. If there are multiple cups at the table, then he needs multiple sips. And if there's a lid that belongs on a water bottle, then that lid better go back on. And off. And on again.