Matthew
Matthew understands more and more and keeps adding to his vocabulary. When Matthew whines at me I try to enforce that he needs to use his words and tell me what he wants rather than cry. He usually responds with “more mease” or “up pease.” We are trying to teach him that you can say “please” by its self and also how to say “thank you.” Here is a fun little game… can you guess what Matthew is trying to say?
shish
beer
shammas
garkers
gock
peeper
shock
moo-me
no-mean
sha-beesh
boo boo
Matthew likes to eat just about everything. Sometimes he confuses us because he eats a ton of something so we think he really likes it, but then the next day he won’t touch it. Maybe he just has to be in the right mood. Here are some of his favorites: grapes, bananas, black olives, meat (not sandwich meat), gold fish, pretzels, graham crackers, cream cheese and anything sweet.
Some of Matthew’s interests include:
Dumping/emptying things (bag of legos, kitchen and bathroom drawers, diaper bag, etc.
Coloring. We have been trying to enforce “only on paper” and he surprisingly does pretty well. I usually just let him color with crayons, but occasionally I will let him color with markers. When he colors with markers I put him in his high chair tape a piece of paper to his tray. Then I hand him one color at a time. If he accidently colors off the edge of the paper he immediately shows me and I have to wipe it up or he gets mad. Matthew is funny like that—he doesn’t like things to be out of order or he gets frustrated. In addition to Matthew coloring he likes to have Scott or me draw something and then he guesses what it is. One of his favorite things for us to draw for him in an apple—I don’t know why, but he is obsessed with apples.
Rocks. Matthew loves to pick up rocks (and unfortunately they often end up in his mouth). Scott is concerned because at least one of his teeth are cracked.
Cameron. Matthew loves playing with Cameron. He copies Cameron by putting Cameron’s toys in his mouth—sometimes he will even steal his pacifier.
Books. Matthew loves it when you read him books. He still occasionally puts them in his mouth—but he is getting a lot better. I think he just likes to get a reaction out of us.
The oven. Matthew loves the oven. He has good ears and if he hears the oven click (when it is pre-heating or warming up) he runs over and tries to open it. He then says “hot.” We have even caught him with hot pads trying to open the oven. I guess we like to make cookies a lot because he associates the oven with “gookies.”
Baths. He loves to take baths especially when there are bubbles. He likes it when I add extra soap to the water to make bubbles and also when we blow bubbles in the bathtub.
And for the answers:
Cameron
Here are Cameron’s stats from his last doctor’s appointment (1/22/09)
Age: 4 months, 11 days
Weight: 14 pounds, 12 ounces
Height: 25 inches
Head circumference: 42 cm
He was about the 50th percentile all around.
Cameron is currently working on sleeping through the night. He still wakes up quite a bit, but will usually fall right back asleep if I feed him or give him his pacifier. Cameron loves to look at people. He stares at you until you look at him and then he smiles really big. He likes to be held, likes his pacifier, enjoys baths and loves to put things in his mouth.
Ever since birth Cameron has had a tight frenum (tongue-tie). This causes the tip of his tongue to be shaped like a heart and he can’t stick his tongue out past his lip. Research shows that tongue tie may cause feeding problems, tooth problems, and speech problems. Two weeks ago I took Cameron in to get his frenum clipped (a two second procedure that barely bleeds and has a very quick recovery); well Monday was his follow-up appointment and SAD NEWS! It didn’t really work. I guess after his frenum had been clipped, it healed itself back together. So Cameron still can’t stick his tongue out very far and his tongue is still shaped like a heart. (Apparently the clipping helped a tiny bit, but not much.) So now we just have to wait and see if Cameron has a lisp once he starts talking and if he does, then they will try to fix his tongue again. I think the doctor said something about a procedure called z-plasty. I’m not sure. So sad! I was hoping to get this taken care of now when he is little and can’t remember. Poor kid.
Saturday night Scott and I enjoyed dinner at Outback while my parents and Miriam watched Matthew and Cameron.
Above: Me and Katherine (and our two kids, plus a little girl she babysits)
