When Matthew is in high chair and is done, he clearly says up, and when he is in his crib and you go and get him in the morning, he says up. He loves to have many blue puppies and his brown puppy in his crib to sleep.
He loves to be chased and is starting to walk very fast now. He loves to play chase around the first floor of the house with Michael.
They both like to sit at the Thomas table and chairs and color.
A couple of weeks ago, Matthew started saying na-na. He likes to move trucks along the floor and send them off with a push. He likes music and shakes his head to music and like to set off the barn yard animals on the refrigerator.
Wherever Michael is, Matthew likes to be. If we are doing a puzzle with Michael, Matthew likes to get right into the middle of the puzzle and it is hard to continue because Matthew will start taking it apart.
Michael recently started getting into playing games–Nana bought him a penguin game with eggs and he loves it, and really caught on right away how to play it. He also likes the honeybee game and the barking dog game. He loves doing puzzles and we all work together at it. I taught Michael to focus on a certain part of the puzzle and do as much on a part until you move on to another part. Michael has been less interested in his Thomas train table over the last 2 or 2 months since other toys are interesting him more. He likes to play with the doll house, farm, legos, puzzles, Handy Mandy that he received from Nana in the beginning of November.
Matthew loves to place items into baskets, boxes, etc.
Nana introduced Matthew to a clown with balls the other day, and he loved putting the balls inside the clown. He caught on right away and kept walking to pick up a ball and dump it into the clown.
Matthew loves to imitate and has been for awhile. He loves the Christmas musical items and knows how to turn them on. He also has 2 musical Christmas dogs that he loves and knows where the button is to turn it on.
He is a very active boy and loves the kitchen and has been attracted to the kitchen for awhile. He loves to take the magnets on and off and loves to open and close the cabinets and go and touch the buttons on the dishwasher.
He loves the stroller and mom and I were taking him for long walks while Michael was in school until it got cold in November.
Matthew loves to tap on the glass sliding doors and wave to nana and blow kisses to her when she is in the Brady Room.
On Thanksgiving Day, when nana was in bed sick with a stomach bug, after Matthew awoke from his nap, I brought him into the family room and he immediately went to look for nana in the Brady Room. He did not know she was in bed.
Most days, Michael does not nap anymore, unless he wakes up very early or if he is sick. Sometimes, he will fall asleep in the car if he is very tired.
Matthew generally wakes up around 8 or 8:30 and plays, drinks milk, some breakfast-like a banana and cheerios, and then plays-or goes to Gymboree or out for a walk and then takes a nap around 11 or 11:30 from anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours–usually 2ish. He can skip a nap, and if he does, he usually falls asleep in the car for 45 minutes on the way somewhere. He likes to try to climb on top of things and yesterday, he was testing me as he stood on top of one of the Thomas chairs. I kept saying NO and came over and sat him down. Finally, he caught on.
Matthew clearly says, mama, dada, ball, box, more, up, na-na, Ar-thur.
Both Matthew and Michael love the tub and both love to throw the toys in as the tub is being drawn. We sometimes give them a tub together, and Matthew is in the baby tub and Michael sits in front of him. This does not give Michael a lot of room to move around since the baby tub takes up a lot of space.
Matthew still likes his pacifier and will find them around the family room and put it in his mouth. He likes to eat on his own a lot now and loves to be given a small spoon or small fork to try and get things out of a bowl.
Some of Matthew’s favorites now: carrots-steamed and soft, rice cakes, cheerios, rounds of cheese, mac and cheese, any pasta, yogurt, peaches, cantelope, strawberries and as of tonight , dried blueberries. He also likes chicken, turkey, rice, and will try just about anything we give him.
He usually eats a good dinner, and light breakfast and lunch with a couple of sippy cups of mile throughout the day of either vanilla oranic milk, strawberry, or chocolate.
He loves treats, such as munchkins, or part of daddy’s apple fritter from Starbucks.
Michael loves to watch shows and if it were up to him, the TV would be on all day as background noise even if he were not watching it. We try to limit him to 3 shows a day, but it is a struggle. He loves Disney movies and nana and him saw Madagascar a couple of weeks ago at IMAX and he loved it.
Matthew loves when Sue comes on Monday morning to play with him and work on stregthening his muscles. He goes into her bag, and tries to get toys out and loves the attention she gives him.
Some of Matthew’s favorite toys currently are: the ball popper, the spinning gear toy, the Sesame and Thomas push down and pop up toys and he loves any musical toys, such as the spinning toy that plays It’s a small world. Matthew recently started playing with small puzzles such as one with three items–he is getting very independent and does not like a lot of help with things.
Michael is getting very good with recounting what a book is about even if it has been awhile since one read it to him. He likes swimming and now wears 2 bubbles instead of three as of the past month.