One Year Visit Stats

On Wednesday the 2nd we took Matthew for his 1 year checkup.  Connor was off that day, so he was able to come along, which was great because they were so slow.  We switched pediatricians, and while I really like her, the visit was incredibly slow.  Our 8:45 appointment was finally over at 10am.

Matthew was pretty good for his check-up.  He did not like it when he had to lay down to get measured.  They had to prick his finger to check his iron levels (I guess that's normal for the 1 year appointment), and he did better with the finger prick than he did lying down to get measured.  Silly kid.

Here are his stats:

Length: 29.72" 47th Percentile
Weight 22 lbs 1 oz  36th Percentile
Head Circ. 44.8 cm  10th Percentile


He's no longer off the charts for his height, but he still seems really tall to me.  Also, a lot of people comment about how tall he is.  But I guess he's about average now.

Like I said, the new pediatrician was really nice and Matthew did really well except when she wanted to see in his mouth.  He does not like people messing with his mouth.  (By the way, he has 2 new teeth but he's still working on the other 2 on top.)  After she was done we had to wait what felt like forever for a nurse to come back with his shots.  He had 4.

At Wee Care (where I used to take him), they would team up with another nurse and have one do the shots in one leg and the other do the shots in the other so that it would be quicker.  They didn't do that, and Matthew was really angry.  It took him a little while to calm down, and then he was fine for the rest of the day.  It seemed like he was a little warm, and then he'd be fine.  I didn't even give him any tylenol or motrin (although I did give him some peppermint and lavender essential oils).

Oh, and they gave him a little book, which he loves.  Have I mentioned how he loves books?  He will give you the same one to read over and over again and if you stop reading it or try to read a different book he will cry and cry until you go back to the one that he wants.  It's hilarious and adorable.  That's one of his tells that he is tired and ready to go to sleep, usually.

Matthew Turns One!

I can hardly believe it, but Matthew turned 1 year old.  How on earth did that happen so quickly?

We started the day off with some pictures.  This boy is all over the place so it's nearly impossible to get him to stay still unless he's asleep.  The camera on my phone just can't keep up with him anymore.  But I think I got a couple good ones anyway.  He's such a cute and photogenic kid.

Literally right after I finished taking his pictures my sister-in-law, mom, and nephew rang the doorbell.  Kari was so nice to come over and help me with his cakes.  I think they turned out really cute.

This is the main one.

This is his smash cake.

This was the extra one so we wouldn't run out.

The party started at 6 -- or it was supposed to.  I always think I'm ahead of schedule, and then realize at the last minute all of the things that I've forgotten to do.  Oh, well.  Even with a late start it was a lot of fun.   There were a ton of people crammed into our small house.  It helped that Connor borrowed a table and chairs from work so that people could eat outside, too.  We had a ton of food, and a lot of fun chatting.

Once everyone was finished eating we played a video I made of Matthew.  I'll see if I can upload it on here later.  Then we decided we'd do presents before cake because he would be all messy from his smash cake -- (or so we thought).

So we opened presents, which was toy after toy, after toy.  Matthew loves all of them.  He is set for a while.  He is crazy about this train/car from his nana.

So many people!

I was going to list all the toys he got, but there's just too many.  Trust me when I say, he got a lot.  But this kid loves his toys so they are all perfect for him.

After presents we stripped him down to his diaper, put him in his high chair, and sang "Happy Birthday."  I think the singing really freaked him out and after that he wanted nothing to do with his birthday cake.  I tried to force-feed him, but he wasn't crazy about that either.  (Shocking, right?!?)

So, the cake was a bust, and we went back to playing with toys.  He and his cute friend Lincoln had a lot of fun playing together.

And just like that, my baby boy is one.  He is so sweet, cute, adorable, fun, handsome, and loving.  I just can't imagine life without him.

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

And thank you to everyone who came and helped make his day so special.  I know he won't remember it, but we will.

Golden Birthday

This year I celebrated my Golden Birthday!  That means I turned 29 on August 29th.  Yay!

It was a good day.  Matthew was fussy most of the day, but by the time Connor got home he was a little happier.  Connor surprised me with some pretty flowers.

Here we are before going to dinner.

We tried to get one with Andy too, but he wasn't very cooperative.

Then we went to Cafe Rio and stuffed ourselves to our eyeballs.  Have you ever had their Tres Leches cake?  It is sooooooo good.

And then if that wasn't enough, we stopped at The Sweet Tooth Fairy and got a couple cupcakes to eat at home so I could blow out a birthday candle.

How could a birthday be anything but great when you get to spend it with such a cute little man?

11 Months

Well, this is way overdue, but better late than never!

Here's Matthew's 11 months photos:

It was nearly impossible for him to sit still.  I tried to get some on the blanket but that was not happening.  Regardless,  we got some really cute ones...because he's just really cute!

Road Trippin' Days 3 and 4

On Saturday we headed to Forest Lawn.  Some people might think it's strange to spend part of a vacation at a cemetery, but Forest Lawn is actually a really cool place to visit.  They have a ton of things to see.  First we went to the one in Hollywood Hills.  They have some pretty interesting artwork.

Later we went to the one in Glendale which has the stained glass of The Last Supper, but you aren't allowed to take pictures there.  They also have a replica of Michelangelo's David.  Wow.  Interestingly enough, when we went there when I was in high school, they did not show us that statue.  hahaha

We also spent part of the day at Griffith Park and Griffith Observatory.  It was so busy there. That's what we get for going on a Saturday.  We had to park really far away and walk.  A man stopped us and told me that my flip flops were a poor shoe choice, but I said I didn't have anything else and I was just fine.  :)

Matthew kept freaking out on the walk because he wanted to mess with the chain-link fence.  Each time we would stop he would grab it (if he was close enough), but as soon as we started walking again he fussed, and fussed for the whole 10 minute walk up to the observatory.

That's the Hollywood sign in the background.

After we had sufficiently explored, we left and tried to find the old zoo at Griffith Park.  I thought it would be pretty easy to find, but it wasn't.  Oh, well.  I did find instructions online of how to get there, but it was too late by that time.  Maybe next time!

That night we headed into the craziness of Hollywood.  We visited El Capitan, Grauman's Chinese Theater (that's not what it's called anymore, but whatever), and walked along the Walk of Fame.

Then we had dinner at a BBQ restaurant.  My food wasn't that great, but Connor really liked his.  We grabbed some dessert to-go and decided we'd head to our hotel.

That night we were staying at a Days Inn in San Bernardino.  When we got there Matthew was asleep.  We parked and saw about 10 people walking into one hotel room.  Right away we were thinking great.  Also, it just kind of had a strange vibe about it, even without all the people going into the one room.  So, Connor said he'd go check us in and we could check out our room, and decide from there.  We only paid $45 for the room, and we wanted to have a good nights sleep before heading home the next day.

So Connor checked us in, and while he did that even more people headed into the one hotel room.  Then one of the girls in the room opened the door and started shouting something to her mom and aunt who I'm assuming were in the car still.  Connor came back to the car, and said he had the key but I think at that point we were already leaning towards just going somewhere else.

He went to our room, which was 2 doors down from the "party room".  When he went in he said it smelled like cigarette smoke, even though it was supposed to be a non-smoking room.  Then he kept hearing the people above banging repeatedly on the floor.  So....yeah...he came back to the car and we decided to go somewhere else.  He turned the key in and the manager asked what the problem was.  He said the room stunk, and we have a baby and we need to get some rest.  The manager apologized for the room, but they were booked for the night so they didn't have another one to offer.  He said he would talk to the "party room" and ask them to keep it down, but Connor said it wasn't necessary.  It probably wouldn't have done anything anyway.

So, we drove to a much nicer part of San Bernardino, and stayed in a Best Western instead.  Much more comfortable, and a much better breakfast.  It was a good decision.

The next morning Matthew woke up way too early, but he was up and ready to go.  So we got a semi-early start, which was good.  The drive should have taken 10 hours, but with all our stops it took us 12. By the end, Matthew was done.  Nothing I tried would keep him entertained.  He did not want to be in his car seat anymore.  When we were a couple hours away from home we stopped and then when I went to strap him back in, he turned himself around and stood up.

He was not very happy when I had to buckle him in.

We finally made it home around 9.  It was a long, long drive, but it felt so good to be home!  It had been almost 3 weeks for me and Matthew. We had quite the adventurous summer, that's for sure.

Road Trippin' Day 2

Our original plan for the second day of our road trip was to go take a tour of Hearst Castle.  Well, after our incident the day before, we didn't want to have a repeat event so we opted to visit San Luis Obispo instead.

There's a mission there, and I've seen pictures and I've always wanted to visit it.  It really is beautiful.

When we got there, there was the cutest little hummingbird bathing itself in the fountain.  It was so cute!

Not the best picture, but if you look closely you can see it at the top of the fountain.

They had this little creek running through the town, right next to the mission.  We walked down by it, and we even saw some guy getting arrested!  No clue what he was doing that got him arrested.

We let Matthew crawl around a bit.  Mostly he just pulled out the grass.

We headed to The Habit for some lunch (yum).  We got it to go and we went to a park to eat and play some more.  Then we hopped back in the car and drove to Camarillo, CA where our hotel of the night was.  We checked in, changed our clothes, and headed to the beach.

We made it there a little later than I hoped we would, but it was still beautiful out.

The water was very cold (colder than the east coast), and Matthew wasn't too sure what to think about it.

But he did have fun playing in the sand.

And now Matthew has been in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.  All before 11 months old.

It was getting kind of late, so we headed back to the hotel.  The waves must have hypnotized Matthew because he fell asleep in the car, and then was only asleep for 15 minutes until he woke up when we got back to the hotel room.  That always makes things fun.

Interesting story.  We ordered pizza for dinner and Connor went to pick it up.  When he got there he realized that he didn't have his drivers license or his credit card with him.  The last place he had had them was when he checked us in at the hotel.  So he got back to the hotel with the pizza, and went to the front desk to see if they were left there.  The man there was the same one who was there when Connor checked us in, and he said that he had given them back to Connor.

So Connor starts checking everywhere he can possibly think of to find his drivers licence and credit card, but he just can't find it.  So I said that we should pray and bless the pizza, and pray that he would find his ID and card.  Connor said the prayer, and while he was praying the hotel room phone rings.  It was the man at the front desk, and he had found Connor's stuff!  He had left them on the copy machine and he got distracted when Connor asked him about a nearby beach (which he says is my fault since I told him to ask).  The ID and credit card would have sat there all night, but someone came in to make a copy, so they were found. 

Road Trippin' Day 1

On Aug 8th we started our little family vacation.  The first day did not really go as planned.

Our original plan was to go to Raging Waters in San Jose with some friends.  When I got up that day I checked the weather, and it was supposed to be in the high 60's, so we decided that might not be the best idea.  Plan B was to go to the Winchester Mystery House.

Connor had told me about the WMH years ago.  It's supposed to be a really neat tour, and we've wanted to go for a while.  We were going to do that instead.  So we got all our stuff together, got in the car, and we got to San Jose.  Connor and I decided to stop at Subway for some lunch, and right before we were about to order, Connor realized that we had left the stroller in San Ramon.  Oops.  So, we got our food, hopped back in the car, I called my friend to tell her what was going on, and we drove back to San Ramon, got the stroller, and then turned right back around and went back to San Jose.  Sheesh.

We went to my friend Marifer's apartment to meet her and her husband.  Marifer was one of my mission companions.  I have missed seeing her!  It was so fun to see her and meet her husband.

Anyway, we all got together, and then headed to the WMH for a tour.

Waiting for our tour.  You can't take strollers, luckily I had the ergo.

So.  We get to our tour and the tour guide (Fiona) starts speaking about the house.  Matthew was babbling some.  Not screaming, not fussing.  Fiona had been talking for less then a minute when she looked at me and said"Do you need to take her out until she calms down?"  I didn't say anything.  I just looked at her and she said "Or him."  I said that he was just talking and he was fine.  Then I was thinking to myself, is this going to be a problem for the tour?  The tour was supposed to last a little more than an hour.

So Fiona kept talking when another woman, who was standing no more than 3 feet away from her, asked if she could take a different tour.  Fiona said that she didn't think that was a possibility.  The woman claimed that she couldn't hear a thing because my baby was too loud.  The tour guide looked at me and asked if we could do a tour at a later time when he had settled down.  I said "Seriously?  He's not crying.  He's just talking."  Fiona said that people couldn't hear and she suggested we come back later.  I said that we were visiting and couldn't come at a later time.  Then she said something else, and I really don't remember what but I said, "Fine we'll leave but we want our money back."  She told us to go to the gift shop and they would maybe be able to give us a refund there.

I'm still bugged by this, and it's been like 2 weeks since it happened.  I know I need to get over it, but it was just ridiculous.  I know that people wanted to be able to hear the tour guide.  I just felt like they were so rude about it.  They really could have said it in a nicer way.

So, after we all got our money back we went to Starbucks, got some drinks (I forgot how good that Strawberries & Cream Frappuccino is), and then went to a park and hung out and played.  We had a really fun time!

It was so good to see Marifer again.  And after all was said and done, the park was more fun, anyway.  Plus, I think for one reason or another, we just weren't meant to go on the WMH tour that day.

After we visited and played, Connor, Matthew and I jumped into the car and drove to King City, CA (which is in the middle of nowhere), and got some rest.