Lori converted Mathias’ crib to a big-boy bed a couple weeks back, which has been great. We don’t have to haul him up and down over the rail (he’s heavy!). He can get himself out of bed in the morning—all good things.
The new set-up has encouraged some pretty enthusiastic jumping, though. He likes to hold the rail, shout, “Jump! Jump!” and bounce like crazy. It’s impressive to watch.
Before we try to get him to stop doing it (again, he’s heavy!), we thought it would be fun to film it. But, as typically happens when we try to film him anymore, he decided to come over and commandeer the camera instead!
No longer content with his sketchbook, Mathias decided to explore a larger canvas this weekend while our backs were turned. Our hallway wall got a nice set of scribbles, and the dude got chewed out a bit. After the tears dried (he’s quite a softie), we all chipped in to clean up his latest work.
Mathias and dada survey the damage
The fellas chip in, with an assist from dada's bald spot.
It was an exciting Christmas season for the three of us, full of great gifts, fun times with family and wonderful get-togethers with old friends.
The fun actually kicked off a week before Christmas, when we headed to South Bend for Fahey Christmas, the gathering of everyone on James’ mom’s side. Between beer pong and a boisterous gift exchange, Mathias got to tickle the ivories a bit in the back addition.
Next up was our Chicago Christmas, which actually took place on Thursday. Among other gifts, Mathias made off with a truck and a set of old-fashioned blocks.
He likes them both, although he likes the blocks best when he’s knocking them to the ground after we build them up! (In the video above, he’s reading some of the letters, though.)
On Saturday, we celebrated with James’ mom, stoking the fire, playing plenty of board games and watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” with Mathias. (“Charlie Brown Christmas” had gone missing. It later returned, but not before we bought another copy!)
Here’s the family enjoying the fun.
And here’s a video of the family enjoying the fun of the Elmo drum set grandma got for Mathias! (James seems to be enjoying it more than anyone.)
Finally, after starting Sunday at grandma’s, we headed to James’ dad and Gail’s house, where we celebrated with the extended family. There Mathias stretched like a monkey (with Lori and Aunt Sherri)…
Goofed over Christmas dinner with cousin Aubrey…
And posed with mama and Uncle Nathan!
We hope your Christmas (or holidays) were just as fun—and just as filled with love. We leave you with a video of the annual Christmas concert, which was enlivened with plenty of percussion this year. (We should have brought Mathias’ drum kit over to top it off!)
We flew down to Florida again this year for a warm-weather Thanksgiving with Lori’s parents. As always, it was a lot of fun. We spent some time in the sand at Clearwater Beach, got plenty of vacation reading, movies and crossword puzzles in, and stuffed ourselves at Thanksgiving.
Sitting down for dinner
The only downside to the trip was that Mathias managed to come down with croup on Thanksgiving! He spent most of the day feverish and sleeping, and we thought he just had a good cold. But toward evening his voice started getting raspy, and after a call to our doctor back home, we heard the barking cough the clinched it as croup.
We ended taking him to the emergency that night just to make sure everything was ok. The nurses and doctors confirmed it was croup, reassured us it wasn’t as bad as it sounded, and gave the little guy some steroids for treatment. By the next day, he was doing much better, and now he’s back to fun and mischief!
Besides that, it was a great trip. Thanks to Oma and Opa for the hospitality, and thanks to Bobe and Uncle Dave for some good games of bean-bag toss. You can see all the photos here.
Mathias and mom enjoy a drink on the couch.
Rocking out on the roll-out keyboard
Learning proper bean-bag technique.
James, Lori and Mathias pose for their last coatless outdoor photo for a while.
Mathias is crazy about numbers. He points them out on television, he stops us on the sidewalk to poke at every address he goes by, and lately he’s even been able to identify which are which. Here’s a video of him counting out his “1 2 3 Chicago” book. He almost gets them all!
On Saturday, we drove out to Elgin to celebrate with our friends Chad and Beth as their daughter Caitlin turned one. It was a lot of fun! There were plenty of kids and great food and a Hello Kitty cake that James devoured with the sugar-crazed enthusiasm of a bear finding a beehive.
Lester still gets his crib time, but lately Mathias has been spending a lot of snuggle time with another stuffed animal. This guy, who we call Wrinkles, has been around since before the little man was born. I caught the two of them together on the couch this evening and knew I had to share a photo.
