Soakin' It Up

We are trying to soak up these last days of summer before preschool/our "school year" routine starts next week. Yesterday, we met our sweet friends, Lauren and Riley, at the splash park in our neighborhood. We were the only people there which was so nice. Matthew hasn't been to the splash park since he started crawling, and I wasn't sure what he would think. Well, he loved it! We will be going back as much as possible before Labor Day!

These sweet smiles melt my heart (and make those tough parenting days a lot easier :-)

 The only picture I got of the two of them...awesome, uh?!?

 Lauren & Riley (who just turned 1)

 She was SO cute toddlin' around...I can't imagine Matthew walking

 Fun friends!

 My seemingly fearless little guy. I can't believe he crawled through these rings. Caroline wouldn't go near them.

 Playing on the playground

I'm sad for all of the summer fun to end but excited for our new "school year"...and COOLER weather!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday Pics

My best attempt at some pics before church this morning
I don't know what Matthew is holding but I promise it's not coming out of his nose ;-)

The morning wouldn't be complete without some tosses (Matthew's fav!!)

 

A Daddy-Daughter Date Day

Saturday was a daddy/daughter date day. Caroline wanted to swim and go to Chick-Fil-A so that's what they did!

Caroline wanted to dress "fancy" for her daddy. So cute.

Heading off to lunch:

I hung with this fella:

I think he was tired of me by the time Matt & Caroline came home. He was really happy to see them.

Apparently daddy/daughter dates are very tiring. They both crashed on the couch. Love these two and their special relationship.

9 Months Old

Matthew is 9 months old!

 3/4 of the way to 1 year old...oh.my.goodness.

Matthew's 9 Month Stats:

Weight: 19 pounds, 8 ounces (40th%)

Height: 28 1/4 inches (55th%)

Head: 17 3/4 inches (45th%)

All about Matthew at 9 months old:

• as evidenced by the pics, he LOVES to play with Caroline's/his lego table
• he also loves to play with any ball, water bottle, remote control and balloon
• will give us "cuddles" before bed when we ask for them

 

• is crawling everywhere very fast and has fun getting into plants, Mimi and PopPop's water bowl for their dog, Abby, and any  books/magazines in baskets
• waved "bye-bye" and signed "more" a few times this month when prompted but not doing either of these things consistently just yet
• started playing peek-a-boo! (see video at bottom of post)

• still takes two naps/day (a shorter one in the morning and long one in the afternoon)
• sleeps about 12 hours at night
• started eating a lot more table food and isn't choking/gagging as much (thankfully)...in fact, he doesn't love baby food too much anymore, and I have a feeling he'll be eating table foods for every meal pretty soon
• favorite foods so far: chicken nuggets from CFA, grilled cheese sandwiches, soft carrot, strawberries, blueberries, cheerios, cheese sticks and mum-mums
• least favorite foods: bananas, pears, mandarin oranges

•  loves doing "downward-facing dog" yoga poses with his big sister:

...and by himself 

•  three more teeth popped up this month...his two top middle ones and an "i" tooth. His second "i" tooth should pop through any day now equaling 6 teeth total
• Matthew started pulling up this month and is now doing it anywhere and everywhere. This is what we see when we go in his room in the morning or after naps:

• Matthew now rides in the car with Caroline at the grocery store...they love this!

 

• Matthew started vocalizing more this month and we have heard some "g" and "m" sounds in addition to some different vowels but still no real babbling. We are watching him very closely for the next 3 months and if he still isn't forming consonant sounds/babbling by 1 year we're going to start some early intervention evaluations of his hearing and speech. Sometimes I wish I wasn't a speech therapist! As my sweet friend, Erica, put it...Matthew is definitely making me sweat a little! Stinker.
• Matthew is an observer when we're out and about and loves to sit back and take in the world around him (usually while sitting in my lap). At home, he is quite the explorer and actually crawls away from me to check things out. This is new for me since Caroline never left my side. Once she could crawl, she followed me around and never crawled away. And she hasn't really left my side since, ha. However, I think Matthew might be a little more adventurous...time will tell.
• he also still loves to look at us and give us that big ole' gorgeous grin of his
• Overall, Matthew seems to have a very sweet, laid-back personality. I'm thinking he's more like his daddy, ha

We sure love our little man! (see peek-a-boo video below)

'Tis the summer...

...Caroline conquered her fear of the water! Woohoo! Go Caroline, we are so proud of you!

A Fun Tuesday

We had a fun Tuesday yesterday! Caroline saw her first movie in a theater...Winnie the Pooh! She was super pumped about it and was even more excited to get to go with one of her besties, Eleanor, and her mom Elizabeth. Elizabeth and I arranged childcare for our littles and decided the girls would love riding in the same car together. We were right:

Playing outside while buying our tickets:

Running through the theater. Both girls kept yelling, "this is so exciting" :-)

Movie time!

 I have no idea what Caroline is doing here, but both girls were SO sad the movie was over. They wanted to watch it again.

 We loved Winnie the Pooh! It was the perfect movie for the girls' age and both girls sat through the whole thing and did really well. The massive amounts of drinks and snacks helped too ;-) I'd highly recommend the movie!!

Outside Caroline wanted a picture of herself posing...cracks me up:

 They loved these sunflowers Elizabeth picked found on the ground for them:

 Sweet friends

 After naps, our fam of 4 headed to our neighborhood's National Night Out. We didn't get to stay very long but had fun while we were there:

 Caroline headed right up this bouncy slide. We couldn't believe it. She's leading the pack up the stairs in this pic:

 "Weeeeeeeeee"

 Climbing into the bounce house:

 My two fav guys!!

A fun day for sure!