Thomas Timeline: January 2009

Monday, January 26, 2009

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Too Precious

This is just too precious of a picture not to have its own post.

Picture Taken on January 5, 2009
Just over 4.5 months old

I love how much Matthew adores his little sister and I love that she adores him.
I love when there is just two in the family and they can just become the best of friends. I love our family of four and look forward to all the fun we can have together.

Matthew's shirt says BIG BROTHER
Allison's shirt says I'M THE LITTLE SISTER
I had to make sure they wore them on the same day so I could get a picture:)

Feetsies

Allison has found her feet. She does this everytime we changed her diaper now.
She is getting quite solid and chunky like Matthew was.

Let's Eat

Now that we are back and Allison is 4.5 months old we have started her on rice cereal or mush as Chris calls it. She wasn't a big fan of it her first night but after a week I think she is getting used to it. I think she likes Chris feeding her more then I but oh well, whatever it takes to get her to eat it.

New Year's Resolution

Well, I made New Year's Resolutions...for Matthew:)
I decided he was old enough to sleep like a big boy and not like a baby and use a binki. He only uses his binki at night but still he is almost 3 and needs to be done with it.
The Saturday after we got home I decided that day would be the day he broke the habit. After his lunch I asked him what time it was and he said, "Naptime, binki, blankets, choo-choo bed." I then told him that the binki was all gone and he wasn't going to be able to use it anymore. We told him that if he slept like a big boy and didn't use his binki then he would get a big boy tricycle. (We have been wanting to get one for him for a long time but what a perfect bribe right?) He started crying and though I rocked with him and tried to do everything I could to just have him go to sleep without it. He just cried. Normally when we put him down we don't hear anything from him and he just goes to sleep. So when he just kept crying it totally tore at my heart because we were doing this to him. I finally broke down and went and gave him is binki. When he woke up we kept reinforcing that only baby's use binki's but big boys don't. That night when Chris put him to bed, Chris asked him if he was going to sleep like a big boy or a baby and he said big boy. Chris was shocked and asked you want to sleep like and big boy, no binki and Matthew said yes. We were so surprised. It did take him longer to fall asleep that night because he would call us for this and that but he eventually did it. At his naptime the next day he said he wanted to sleep like a baby but we said he was a big boy and just told him about the blankets that he gets to have on him. That night he asked for his binki again but Chris just said no, he was a big boy and told him what blankets he got again. After that he hasn't asked for his binki and when we talk about it during the day, he just says that his binki is all gone and that they are for babies.
We went out and bought his big boy tricycle. He had problems riding it at first but he is getting used to it and Chris has been taking him on little jaunts which he just loves.

A common occurrence of his was running into a lot of things because he wasn't the best driver.

He has also had some wrecks but he is pretty good at getting up and getting back on.

Since Chris has been taking him down the sidewalk he is learning to steer better.

Now, onto his second New Year's Resolution which is to get potty trained!!!!
Let the fun begin!

Roll over, roll over

Our sweet little girl was trying to roll over for awhile but the darn arm kept getting in her way. However, on New Year's Day, I guess her New Year's Resolution was to start rolling over so she rolled over all the way for the first time, at least that is what my sister and brother-in-law said, we never actually saw it. Now she does it all the time and sometimes cries when she gets on her tummy even though I have seen her roll from her tummy to her back but maybe when I saw it that was just an accident.

Christmas

We did Christmas with just our family after we got back and it was so fun to have a kid that pretty much understands what is going on. We had to put our the reindeer food he made in preschool so that Santa wouldn't pass up his house.

When Matthew woke up in the morning, I took his hand and brought him out to the living room to show him that Santa came. He got so excited and ran into Chris and said "Daddy, daddy wake up, Santa came my house!!! Daddy, Santa came Matthew's house, come on daddy, come look!!!!!"
He was so excited it was so fun to watch him. I love the excitement of children.

Matthew has many friends that have train tracks and trains at their house and that is usually the only thing Matthew wants to play with when he is there and then screams when we leave. He asked Santa Thomas the train and Santa came through for him. He got a train depot with Thomas the train and then he also go train tracks to go with it. In addition he got some other train engines in his stocking. He ABSOLUTELY loves his trains.

What a great Christmas we had!

Second Week of trip

We drove to Tucson and spent a couple days with my sister, Heather, and her family. They have 4 kids and Matthew loved playing with more of his cousins. Poor 8 year old Andrew had a shadow the whole time we were there. I guess it is just something about an older male cousin. It was so cute to see how sweet Andrew was with him. Matthew liked playing with the other kids too: Emily, Jennifer, and Daniel but Andrew was his favorite. Chris and Heather's husband, Kris, went out shooting one day we were there and had a great time and the next day we all went to the Tucson Children's Museum. It was really fun and had all kinds of interesting things to do. One of the areas that was a big hit with all the kids was the fire truck and the police motorcycle.

Matthew, Daniel, and Jennifer

Matthew and Andrew

Matthew's favorite part about the whole museum was the train tables. They had two of them so he just went back and forth between the two.

For New Year's Eve, we put the younger kids to sleep and then stayed up eating all the yummy munchies Heather got for us and Heather and I played games with the girls. It was really fun.
New Year's Day Chris and I left at 8:30am and drove 7 hours that day. We stayed in Van Horn, TX that night. Allison was still so congested I was up most the night AGAIN bouncing and rocking her to keep her quiet so she wouldn't wake up Matthew (and Chris). After a week of not sleeping, because of her congestion, I was so tired and didn't want to spend another night trying to keep her quiet. So instead of just driving 6 hours to San Antonio and visiting with our friends for a couple days, I decided we just needed to drive the 9 hours to get to our own home so I could just let her cry if I needed to and she wouldn't wake anybody up. I was (still am) so glad to get home. We got home Friday night Jan. 2 about 6pm. We weren't suppose to get home until Sunday night, but I am SO glad we decided to just come home. Brenda since you only live 3 hours away we will come visit you soon.
I don't think I have ever been so HAPPY to be home. That night I went to sleep about 9 and Allison only woke up once that night and I was able to just put her binki back in her mouth and she went back to sleep and didn't wake up again until morning. I got sleep I definitely needed.

In our hotel room on the last night on our trip.

Pics From Our First Week in AZ

Matthew got to enjoy time with Grandma and Grandpa which he loved being the center of their attention.

Watching a Christmas movie with Grandma.

Matthew loved having Grandpa read him his night time story.

Matthew enjoying Grandma and Grandpa's theater along with Chris.

This is family tradition of going to see the lights at the Mesa, AZ Temple on Christmas Eve. We like to get there just as it gets dark before the massive crowd gets there and you can't even walk around.