OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!

DEC. 28 @ roughly 7:00pm - This definitely deserves to be immediately posted because I am still in complete awe. After dinner tonight, Mateo and I went upstairs so that I could give him his bath. When I turned on the water to rinse the soap off of him. He was sitting facing the faucet because he likes to fill his little bucket with water. Then came...
Mateo: Off, off, ...
Me: Do you want Mama to turn off the water?
Mateo: Off.
Me (thinking): Is the water too hot? He usually says "hot" if that's the case.
Then he stands up and puts his finger on the word "OFF" to the right side of the faucet and taps its. And again repeats the word, "off."

OK. Is that just a complete coincidence or did he just read the word off? It was too deliberate to be a fluke though. I am still in complete awe and amazement with what occured during 30 seconds of his bath tonight. He is completely into learning the alphabet, but what a FANTASTIC SURPRISE : ) I am proud beyond words!

Como Te llamas Me llamo ......

A song we sing alot with Tato goes something like this, "como te llamas, me llamo ?" (Translation: "what is your name, my name is?"). We've taught him to respond to our song by saying, "Tato!"

Well, one day on our way back from Daycare, I break out our song. Unfortunately, he was not in a good mood to sing along but he managed to give me a little something.

Parents & Tots

Always with a truck.

His Amish gingerbread man.

Snacks...

... and more snacks.

Denise & Nate

Dec. 12 - I decided to take the day off today, so I could have a special Mateo & Mama day. We went out to Einstein Bagel for breakfast then to another PNN event. This one was Parents & Tots. We again met up with our friends Denise and her son Nate. We did two craft projects, had snacks, listened to stories, and sang songs. Lots of fun : ) He was so well-behaved the entire time too. That just means that he wasn't running around like a crazy kid. That was a nice surprise for me.

ABCs

Mateo has really gotten into learning the alphabet. He has a few alphabet books that he likes to pull out and point to the letters and ask "What's this?" I tell him the letter and he repeats it. I go through the entire alphabet that way and he does pretty good. We sing the alphabet song ALL THE TIME now and he's gotten pretty good at that too. He can sing A-B-C-D-E-F-G all by himself. Then we pretty much help him with the rest, which he happily finishes. Now he's really gotten into the habit of pointing at the letters on the pages of any of his books and saying a letter, whether he's right or wrong. He can recognize a few letters on his own too. The cutest thing is when we hear him singing the alphabet song. He scolded me one night when I joined in; he clearly wanted to sing it himself!

The Fat Man Cometh

Dec. 9 - Ric took a whole series of photos of Mateo, while he was sitting in front of the computer watching one of his favorite YouTube video cartoons. This one is our favorite because it is the ultimate in fat man faces. He has the rosey chubby cheeks, double chin, squinted eyes, and wide open mouth. We love this photo, especially since it makes us laugh whenever we see it.

We have lift off!

Dec. 5 - Mateo hit another milestone. JUMPING! Who even knew that that is considered a toddler milestone? I read about it and his Pediatrician update sheet had it on there too. So after months and months of "salta" (jump) he finally had lift off! Both feet off the ground at the same time. I think I got choked up when I saw him do it for the first time. He was so excited and proud of himself that he kept doing it over and over again. He would sometimes fall but he'd get back up and do it again. If you say, "salta" he'll start jumping and laughing. He does say "jump" himself and he's so proud. We are too : )

Breakfast With Santa

1. Santa making his rounds.
2. Not wanting to sit on Santa's lap.

3. At least he sat for this picture.

4. Getting his holiday treat.

5. Checking out what he got from Santa.

Dec. 6 - We're part of a social group in Plymouth called the Plymouth Newcomers & Neighbors. They do all kinds of events all year round. This annual event we attended with our friends and their kids was Breakfast With Santa. I assumed that since Mateo did so well last year that he'd be just as cool. I was wrong! He pretty much didn't want to have anything to do with Santa. I do have to say that this year's Santa was a little creepy looking. Even though he wouldn't sit on his lap, he did sit on mine while Santa talked to him and he Magna-Doodled. (Thank you to Nate for letting him play with your Magna-Doodle) Still, he was good enough to get his treat - TRUCK!!! How did Santa know?

Putting Up the Tree

Ooh, pretty lights.

Are we done yet?


Eww, prickly.

Nov. 29 - In 2006, we decided that it would be ultimately friendlier not to cut down our Christmas tree, not to mention the convenience, so we bought an artificial. We'd always gone out and picked out our tree, but I do have to say that Mister isn't so tempted to pee on the artificial one. Anyway, this year Mateo "helped" Ric put the tree up. He even learned how to very easily turn on the tree lights; it's one of the step switches. You literally step down of a dome and the lights turn on.