Phew!

Nov. 26 - Whoa! We really thought that Mateo was going to have to move into a big boy bed, much to my chagrin. He just kept insisting on sleeping on the floor. Then he realized that he could get out of his room and walk into our's whenever he wanted. Not good! It has been quite the unusual challenge for us to get him to go to bed at night. He'd normally just lay down in his crib, roll over and fall asleep. Not so much, for the past few nights. He's been waking up at 2:30am either crying or just showing up in our bedroom. Ric even went to Babies 'R Us to order the conversion kit (crib > toddler bed > full-size) but came home with new Elmo crib sheets in hopes that it would keep him in his bed. OK, so it didn't work, so it was back into the crib. After crying for A VERY LONG time, he fell asleep at 8:30p and we didn't hear from him until 7:15a this morning. Phew! I'm confident that we made the right decision to put him back into the crib until determined otherwise. Night, night Tato : )

Cover Your Eyes...

Nov. 18 - This morning I held up TWO different shirts for him to pick from and as I expected he picked the one with a truck on it. I had the camera close by, so I snapped a couple pictures of him for the heck of it. As it turns out the red-eye reduction light came on really bright in his eyes. I taught him that when the light is bright to "cover your eyes." He'll do this when I turn on his bedroom light in the morning, when the sun is shining brightly into the car while we're driving and in this case when a camera light is bright. The funny thing is that whenever he covers his eyes, he announces "Eyes, eyes,..." His verbal skills are progressing everyday, so it's so much fun for me to hear him try new words and expressions.

Another Monday Morning

Nov. 17 - Have I mentioned Mateo's new obsession with trucks? He truly can't get enough. As you can see in this photo that even while eating he needs to have one of of his trucks with him. I bought him a new truck book and he'll just walk around with it, decide to plop down wherever and flip through it. He'll point and yell, "TRUCK, TRUCK, TRUUUUUCK!!!" And when I ask him what color the truck his, his answer regardless of actual color is "RED!"

When we ask Mateo, "How old are you going to be?" He responds with "two." This time he was also showing us two. He's a freak about "2." He loves things in pairs and anything that has to do with 2. Just recently has he moved on to the number 3. Slowly but surely. He likes to understand the concept of the numbers and not just say the number. Por ejemplo, he will put his shoes together and say, "2." He will line up two cars and announce "2." He will hold up two fingers and yell, "2." When he has once sippy cup he looks for another, just so he can have and say, "2." You get the picture. Maybe it's because he knows his Mama was the 2nd born, which makes 2 the best in his world ; )

New Place to Sleep

Nov. 17-18: Mateo has been making it more and more clear to us that he no longer wants to sleep in his crib. Last night, I gave in and put down on the featherbed that was on his floor. It totally did the trick. He asked for blanket then waved at me and said, "bye-bye." That was it and he was down for the night. We crept in at 7:15 this morning to find that he had moved his way down but still was sound asleep - on his featherbed - ON THE FLOOR! He's found a new place to sleep.

Poor Mr.Quincy was kicked off our bed, out of our bedroom, and down to the first floor by Ric no less. I feel so bad, especially since it's gotten cold and Ric only heats the 2nd floor. I know he wear a permanent fur coat, but still... Mr.Quincy curls into a tiny ball to keep warm and now has a new place to sleep : (

Snowy Sunday

Nov. 16 - We got a big snow today. It was beautiful as long as you didn't have to be out in the cold. I wanted to bake cookies with Mateo but since our oven conked out on us, the plan was aborted. I'm sure we'll have other cold days when we stay in and bake cookies.

Mateo snuggled up with Mr.Quincy on the couch.

Time to break out the eskimo hat.

It's A Boy!

...No, not me. I wish though. Ann and Steve are expecting Baby Boy Griffin this Christmas. We threw them a little shower to share in their excitement and anxiety.

I got them a cake from Cake Nouveau in Ann Arbor, and this was the cool creation that Courtney came up with. I came up with the idea, Jojo sent her a sketch and description and Courtney did the rest. It was a huge it. This tasty dessert was pumpkin cake with buttercream. We served it with hot apple cider. Mmm, mmm, mmm... My parents' cat even thought the chicks (Ruari & Teagan) were real.

Mateo had his eye on that blue egg from the start. Did I mention that everything on that cake was edible. The chicks and egg were made of edible gum paste.

Yes, I did let him get in a couple of nibbles, but that I was it! I couldn't imagine what the night would have been like had he eaten as much as he wanted to. Eek!

He enjoyed the live music and watching Lolo & Lola Orca dance to their song, "Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis Presley but performed that night by Tito Ronnie. He has an incredible voice.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This Halloween we met in Sturgis to do some trick-or-treating with Ruari and Teagan. As you can see, Mateo and Ruari were farmers and Teagan was the chicken. Mateo was actually a dairy farmer, carrying around a milk bucket. Mr.Quincy was suppose to be his cow but can you believe that every cow costume his size was sold out?! I was totally bummed about that.
Mateo couldn't quite say, "Trick-or-Treat" but he could go up stairs and knock on doors. That is exactly what he did and he loved it! If someone didn't answer the door right away he would yell out, "Helloooo?" It was SO funny. One lady, said to him, "Well, I heard you the first time." He became a pro and loved collecting his treats and eating them WITH the wrappers still on!

(A pictures says a thousand words.)

My little Huckleberry Finn : )

True buddies. The funniest thing was that Ruari freaked out when Mateo took his boots off and was outside without shoes. She knows that is a n0-no and kept calling out to Ann, "Tato, shoes! Tato, shoes!"

School Party

Fri., Oct. 31 - Today Tato and his classmates celebrated Halloween by getting dressed up in their costumes, parading around the hospital, collecting treats, then having a pizza party. Since Ric wasn't going to see Mateo this weekend, I ran in a snapped a few pictures of him enjoying the festivities. The only thing was that, as soon as Mateo saw me, he got up, pushed his chair away from the table, ran into the bathroom and washed his hands. He thought it was time to go home. I felt so bad when I had to leave because I knew I must had just confused the little man.

The Great Pumpkin Caper

Thur, Oct. 30 - Downtown Plymouth was holding their Annual Great Pumpkin Caper, when most of the downtown retailers stay open and give out trick-or-treats to the kids. There's a costume contest in Kellogg Park too. I knew this year would be a challenge because Mateo is 20-months old and a challenge to keep in one place. He's quite the mobile toddler.

TaTo meets the Papa John's character. I think it reminded him of Disney.

Uh, oh. He's heading for a meltdown (it's dinnertime.)

Cool hats, ladies.

Patiently waiting in the long line for his dip into the candy bowls.

OK, so he was suppose to be Richard Simmons for Halloween, but it got too cold.

So, I dressed him up in what appears to be 80's jock wear. That was until a girl passing out candy pointed that he looks like the big brother from "The Goonies." I couldn't help but laugh and whole-heartedly agree.