Easter

For Easter, we headed to Denver, CO to visit my sister Maggie, her husband,Chris, and3-yr old son, Sam. We had a great time. Unfortunately, Matty now knows how boring his house is compared to Sam's house where there are three dogs, a huge sandbox, an indoor jumpy-castle, stairs with NO GATE, and a nearby rec center with an AWESOME pool and indoor kids jungle gym. Whew! No wonder Matty slept so well while we were there!

We also were able to catch up with our friends Tanuj and Amy, and their daughters Zinnia and Sage, and our friends Jenni and Brian and their daughters Hannah and Natalie while in Denver. The bunch of us enjoyed lunch at Tanuj & Amy's and an impromptu 1st birthday celebration for Sage before heading to the Denver zoo on Saturday. I was very impressed with the big cats at the Denver zoo - they actually moved around! We seem to always catch the big cats sleeping at the Houston zoo...

Despite a cold Easter morning (there's no way it was more than 40 degrees), Sam and Matty had a great time collecting eggs during the egg hunt in Chris & Maggie's neighborhood, and we enjoyed a terrific dinner that afternon.

Here are a few pictures from the trip...you can click on any of them to see the full album..
Going down the big slide at the rec center...

From April09

Dying eggs...an accident with the green dye left his shirt and belly stained green...

From April09

Action shot of Sam hunting eggs...

From April09

Daddy helping Matty collect eggs...

From April09

Matty eying Sam's pack of gum...

From April09

Family picture

From April09

Matty & the little ladies checking out the fish at the zoo...

From April09

We also got Matty a sand and water table recently since he LOVES playing with both substances (especially together). Here's a good one of him playing with the water...there are ALOT more in the album - I went a little nuts on the pictures.

From April09

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Visit from Uncle David

Two blog posts in two days - unprecedented!

We enjoyed a visit from Juan's brother David this weekend. He was on his way back from a work trip in London and was able to arrange a layover in Houston to spend the night with us. It was great to see him! We took the opportunity to check out the new "Discovery Green" park in downtown Houston along with Juan & David's friend Arli and his family who also live here in Houston. The kids had a great time at the park and we enjoyed catching up.

Matty and Uncle David


Matty on the little kid trampoline:


More playground fun


With Daddy and the big downtown buildings around the park


Flirting with Arli's daughter Sophia at lunch afterwards

Weekend in Gruene

We enjoyed a visit from my parents a couple weeks ago. They were happy to get out of the cold and snow and we excited to have them visit. Luckily, the weather cooperated and we had a week of perfect Texas spring weather. We made the most of it by going on the Azalea trail tour in River Oaks, catching a Rice baseball game, going to the zoo, and then heading to Gruene, TX for a night of live music by the Belleville Outfit at Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas. My second cousin Connor is the pianist for this group and we think they are terrific - if they are playing in your area, we highly recommend you check them out. Connor's dad Pat (my dad's cousin) made the trip down from Tulsa to join us, so we had a little mini family reunion in Gruene. It was a great time!

Gorgeous azaleas...


Matty and Grandma at the baseball game


Matty checking out the goats at the petting zoo


Matty in the beer garden at Gruene Hall


Cowboy playing in the dirt at the beer garden


Mosey'ing


Hanging out


Matty's communication skills are really coming along. It seems like he learns a new word every day. His latest is "elbow" - he will gladly show you where his elbows are, and where yours are too. Another favorite is "side", meaning "outside". He LOVES to play outside. Most nights after dinner, he runs to the door and says "side, side, side", until we cooperate and take him outside to play. Here's a picture of him trying to take matters into his own hands to get outside...



And, some other good pictures from the park...


Weeeee!!!

Very belated Christmas videos

Things have been a little busy since Christmas, so it's taken me awhile to post new pictures and videos! We had a great time in Minnesota for Christmas and Matty enjoyed lots of attention from his grandparents. Juan got me a very tiny camcorder for Christmas, so we tried it out over the holidays. See below for my handiwork...

Matty enjoyed playing with Morris, the cat while in Minnesota:


Little did we know it, but Morris was living the last of his nine lives when this was taken. Poor Morris had to be put to sleep a couple weeks after Christmas due to an abdominal obstruction. We will miss him!

Opening presents:
Ripping paper is fun!

Fun with wipes:
We have trouble getting Matty to sit still long enough to have his diaper changed, but giving him wipes to play with keeps him entertained!

Matty (aka King Kong) playing with blocks with Grandpa and Jack

After our return from Minnesota, our friends Pablo and Andrea came for a visit with their kids Maricela (2) and Christian (8 mo) over New Year's. It was great to catch up with them and see the kids play. Matty turned on the charm and managed to get a kiss from Maricela in this video (and gave one in return...)

And, here's the two of them taking a break:

Juan consistently impresses me with the new things he thinks up to keep Matty entertained while getting him ready for bed. In this video, Juan is pretending to be very sad which Matty finds hilarious.

And, we rounded out the month of January with a visit from our friends Kevin and Amy and their son Josh. It was so fun to hang out with them and get some good bathtub pictures to blackmail the boys with when they are teenagers:


We hope you all had wonderful holidays and that your New Year is off to a good start!

SNOW!

What's that saying about hell freezing over? Tonight it is snowing in Houston! It's been at least a few years since the last time we saw snow here. Here's a picture of Matty checking out the snowflakes...




I doubt any of it will stick, but it's fun to see anyway!

Long time, no blog...sorry for the delay! Let's see...alot has happened in the last month. (warning - long blog post follows!) First of all, there was Halloween. As you saw in the last posting, Matty went as Yoda. We didn't end up going out trick or treating since Matty is too young to eat most of the candy, and Juan and I sure don't need it! Instead, we took pictures with pumpkins and took Matty to the park.

From Halloween and Thanksgiving

From Halloween and Thanksgiving

As you probably guessed, if you click on the "Halloween and Thanksgiving" link below any of the pictures, you'll go to our Picasa album that has more pictures than what I posted here.

And, here's a video of Yoda in action...




Not too much happened in the first part of November, but the week before Thanksgiving, I had to go to Seattle for work for 3 nights. This was my first time ever spending a night away from Matty. On one hand, I was REALLY looking forward to THREE nights in a row with no baby monitor! But I knew I would miss the little guy (which I did of course). I had a good trip and knew Matty was in good hands - Juan's mom came to visit for the week to help out. So, Matty got to stay home from "school" for the week and enjoy 1x1 attention from his grandma. What could be better than that?

After I got back and before Juan's mom had to go back to El Paso, we all went to the zoo. Juan got some really good pictures of the animals - check them out!

From Halloween and Thanksgiving

From Halloween and Thanksgiving

From Halloween and Thanksgiving

Next, we were off to El Paso for Thanksgiving. Juan's sister Darcy and his mom cooked up a strom and put on a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoyed seeing all of the family and eating to our heart's content. Matty had a GREAT time playing with Darcy's daughter Jasmine who is only 6 weeks older than he is. It was super cute to watch them running around after each other.

From Halloween and Thanksgiving

From Halloween and Thanksgiving

From Halloween and Thanksgiving

And, we owe a big thank you to Juan's brother David and soon-to-be sister-in-law Isabel for hosting us for the weekend. I don't know how they managed to get any sleep after 6:30am when Matty woke up every day. His "inside voice" is not exactly quiet.

Now, we're getting ready for Christmas! For the first time in several years, we actually put up a tree. Check out Matty and the tree below. He's actually been pretty good about leaving it alone. It only took a couple of times saying "no touch!" before he got the message. But, we'll see how long that lasts...there's still alot of time before Christmas.



And, of course, Matty is doing all kinds of new things. He can show us where his nose, ears and belly button are, he can imitate a gorilla, and tell us what the owl says. He says a few words now. We think "duck" was the first word that he actually used pretty consistently toward the correct object. Other than duck, he also says "Dadda", "Momma", "shoes", and "uh oh". He really likes to say "uh oh". Especially when he drops anything from his highchair - accidental or not.

And, as always...a few vidoes.

Falling asleep while drinking his milk...


Crazy baby!


Playing laundry basket boat with Aunt Darcy and cousin Jasmine

Halloween Preview

Last Friday, my company had an Oktoberfest party where families are welcome and kids are encouraged to debut their Halloween costumes. Matty, aka Master Yoda, had a great time running around at the party and eating ice cream and hot dogs. Check him out below - he's about the right height to be Yoda! The costume did not last long. He was fascinated with climbing up and down the stairs in front of the building and the robe was getting in his way. But, we think he makes a pretty cute Yoda!




“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not." - Yoda