Me and My Truck

Right around when Matt turned 14 months old, he fell in love with trucks, completely out of the blue! He saw and heard every truck, everywhere! His favorite book became his tractor book and his favorite toy became this huge CAT truck! He carried it all around the house for a few weeks straight and did everything with one hand so he didn't have to put it down. We even made the mistake of letting him bring it in the bath tub (and then had to poke holes in the tires to get the water out)! He has since branched out a bit from this truck, but it is still up there in his top five favorites!

This week he is enjoying a little medicine dropper his Nanny bought for him to play with and also a tiny blanket that we used for a burp cloth when he was little. A week or two ago he started playing with his baby doll quite a bit, wanting to dress and undress him (or should I say, have mom and dad dress and undress him). So I pulled out the little blanket to wrap the baby in, but he wanted none of that, because he wanted the blanket all for himself. Every time I would sneak away and wrap up the baby again, as soon as he saw it, he would unwrap it right away! I even tried to swaddle the baby up really tight so he couldn't undo it, and boy, that made him angry! It was very funny!

It seems his favorite toys change every few days, but for those few days he doesn't put whatever the particular toy is down! I guess we'll be bringing the medicine dropper and blanket with us to Syracuse on Wednesday!

"Hi Kitty" and "Uh Oh"

Most of you know Matthew does not have many words yet. He says a lot of "da" and not much else. However, we always know what he wants so he really has no reason to start talking yet. Last week, he put two words together for the first time. Now, it was basically his only two words, but it is still progress! His Nanny and Grampy's cat was sitting in the window and he looked up from the driveway and said "hi kitty" and waved!

Besides hi and kitty, he also knows what the cow says and he seems to be saying bump too. And just last week for the first time, he started with uh oh. So now when he wakes up in the morning, he lays in bed saying "uh oh uh oh uh oh" for as long as it takes for us to drag ourselves out of bed and get him! I will tape it over the monitor one of these days and post it here, it's too cute!

Hat Fun!

Matt loves to try on mom and dad's hats, and of course, the one time I get it on video, he's wearing a pink one!! :-) It's possible I am biased, but I think he is just the cutest kid ever!

Get to work, boy!

Matt is going to start earning his keep around here:

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our little stinker to you...

Matt had a great time at his first Halloween party at Tot Time on Thursday! And he actually kept his costume on! He wasn't quite sure how the trick-or-treating thing worked but I think by the end, he understood that he ended up with candy!

"What am I supposed to do here? Hmmm...What's in the big bucket?"

"What are these? What do I do with them?"

"Oh, this I know. A lolipop! Yum!"

"So I must eat this other one too, right?"

"Ok, I'm ready to go home!"

Where does the airplane fly?

Matthew does not miss a trick. He sees and hears everything...and I mean everything! He has been hearing and pointing out airplanes for awhile now. If he hears one, and he'll let you know that he hears one by yelling or grunting or pointing, he will continue this yelling or grunting or pointing until you acknowledge him with "Yes Matt, I hear the airplane too." This summer, we had lots of fun laying on the deck and watching airplanes fly overhead! However, just because we are not outside much any longer doesn't mean he doesn't still hear them. This picture is from a week or two ago when he heard an airplane while standing in the kitchen! And now, even if we don't hear one, if you ask where an airplane flies, he'll answer by either throwing his head back to look up or pointing up or both!

Our little daredevil...

Matthew's newest thing is climbing and standing on top of anything at all! He climbs on stools, couches, toy boxes, and coffee tables. He attempts to climb onto beds, cribs, tables, and highchairs. He stands on books, blocks, baskets, toys, and just about anything he can fit his little foot on. His latest, and most inventive, is putting two things together and standing on those. Here he was on the front porch, trying to stand on a big cardboard stacking block. It kept caving in, so he decided to put this piece of wood (which says "The Blanchard's") on top of it. I wish I had a video of the noise he made when he accomplished this feat. He was so proud of himself!