No More Paci!!

We are very happy and proud to say that Matthew has broken his need for a bedtime pacifier (he doesn't use one any other time)! We have been trying to take him off of it for a few months without success and a lot of screaming, but last week we decided to not give it to him. Instead we told him to lay down and go to sleep and surprisingly he did! Even more surprisingly he as done so for a week now! He still uses one occasionally at daycare for nap. That sleeping situation is much different than home and might take a little longer. Without it, he thinks he can get up and walk around while the other kids are sleeping. If he has it, he know he needs to sleep and once asleep it is out. This is a major accomplishment for us and we are super proud of our big boy! Next on our list: talking and potty training. We'll see how long each of those take!

No News...

Today marked Ryan being off of work for six weeks. We are still holding out hope that they will need more fitters in Milwaukee and Ryan can ship out soon, but those hopes are dwindling. So, for now, Ryan is keeping up with the chores around the house and finishing the "honey do" list. We are keeping Matthew at Deah's for many reasons. First off, we don't want to lose our place there. Matthew loves it there, he loves his friends and we love Deah and Sonja. Secondly, Matthew needs that routine of going to Deah's and if Ryan were to leave, going back to daycare and losing Daddy at the same time could be too hard on him, especially if we had to switch daycare too. So we continue to wait and keep our fingers crossed that things will pick up here. That is the update for now...we will keep you posted when things change...hopefully soon!

A Wintery Mess!

We took full advantage of a lot of snow. Between 9:00 a.m yesterday morning to now, we have gotten about 15 inches of snow! It is absolutely beautiful outside, so we took Matthew out to play for a bit this afternoon. We bought him a sled around Christmas, but with -20 degree temperatures then it was too cold to play and then the snow melted with 60 degree temps. We are finally back to a "normal" southern Michigan winter with a whole week of snow in the weekly forecast. After playing outdoors for about forty-five minutes we came in for Matthew's snack and his first experience with hot chocolate! Needless to say he loved it...so did his sweatshirt!

We are also taking full advantage of two more weeks with Ryan home. His job in Wisconsin got delayed two weeks (hopefully no more than that), so he is with us for a bit longer. Enjoy the pictures of Matthew's day in the snow!

Merry Christmas

We wanted to thank everyone for the wonderful gifts this Christmas! We had a great couple of days with grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles all over town. Matthew really enjoyed his Christmas too, tearing into wrapping paper with gusto this year. He loves his new toys, books, and clothes! We hope everyone else had a wonderful day too! We have new photos posted too, see them here!

Getting Bigger!

We took Matthew to his 18 months check-up today. He now weighs 26 pounds (50th percentile), he is 31.5" long (25th percentile), and his head is 19.5" (75th percentile)! In just six months he has gained six pounds and grown almost three inches! Everything else checked out with his visit and he got only three shots in his thighs. Our doctor was very pleased with Matthew's progress on his growth chart and so were we! After I got home from work, we took Matthew to see some real reindeer. Of course he was petrified of Santa, but he LOVED the reindeer. They were as soft as Norm and Matthew just wanted to stay and pet them all night.

Only two more work days until I have two weeks off for break. I am looking forward to relaxing and spending time with Matthew. We plan on playing a lot outside over break and already have some play dates scheduled at Jungle Joes and Bounce Land with some friends. We put some pictures of the reindeer and Matthew on our photo site. Enjoy!

18 months!

Matthew had his 18 month "birthday" yesterday! He is growing into such a big boy. He now will only eat if he is the one doing it, meaning he will not allow us to feed him with a fork or spoon and he loves drinking his milk out of a straw. He is surprisingly doing very well in the area of self feeding. He is getting better every day. Tonight we went to the mall to see Santa and at dinner he fed himself applesauce and macaroni and cheese. He only dropped one piece of macaroni. I don't think much misses his mouth.

Visiting Santa was a completely different story. Last year was a great experience, he could care less about who he was with. Tonight was different. He started getting restless waiting in line, we were the second people might I add. When it was time to get on Santa's lap, he did everything in his power to get off. He never cried though and once he was off, he was all smiles...little stinker! I should add though that he is weirdly afraid of every man with glasses, a beard and mustache, except Donny (Deah's husband), so we were pretty much preparing our self for this reaction. We have one more Christmas party to attend that will have a surprise visit by Santa himself, maybe that day will be different?

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a very nice and relaxing Thanksgiving! We spent the day with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Chenery, Uncle Mark and Aunt Julie, and Uncle Bruce and Aunt Joene. After that visit we had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Genisio's house. We did another non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner (sorry Debi!) and opted for southern fried chicken, twice baked potatoes and cornbread! Boy was it yummy. Matthew enjoyed eating and trying all the different flavors. His favorite though was pumpkin pie, whipped cream and ice cream! It was also nice to have Ryan home for Thanksgiving. Work is picking up again and he is working twelve hour days this past week, including this entire weekend. So, while Ryan was working, Matthew and I put up our Christmas decorations today; inside and out. All we need now is our tree, which will hopefully be here soon.