My Kind of Quilt

I made this quilt for Mathew. This is the back of it.


And this is the front.

This is about all the quilting I can handle. No batting, no binding, and you don't have to be perfect with cutting and lining up squares... all the imperfections are hidding in the raggy edges. This is my kind of quilt. Makes you wonder though, if there's no batting, no binding, no stitching tops to bottoms, and no complicated shapes, is it really a quilt? Maybe it's just a fun blanket. Either way, I'm darn proud of myself.

McQueen

Nathan's favorite movie is Cars. I am positve that we have watched this movie (in parts) at least 300 times in the last year. So when a friend of ours from school mentioned that she was looking for a good home for her son's Lightning McQueen bed, we jumped on it. We picked it up yesterday and assembled it while he was downstairs watching a John Deere video. You can imagine Nathan's glee when he walked into his room and found his new bed.


Nathan was very excited. He voice kept getting louder and louder as he looked the bed over. He was very concerned that Lightning's face seemed to be missing.


He checked out all the decals and the tires, everything seemed to be official!


This afternoon, on our way home from school, Nathan asked, "Mom! Is my new bed still in my room?" I think he was worried that it drove away while he was at school!

Reading

Reading is so much better when we're all crammed in a chair together.

Short Visit

Aunt Shirley and Grandma Ma (Po Po) came for a short visit this week. Shirley wanted to see the boys before heading off to Europe and then to her new job in Jordan. Nathan had a wonderful time with them. Nathan and Shirley made pizzas for dinner one night.

Mathew was his usual good natured, cute self. I can't believe how fast he is growing.

He's Three?

Well, my Silly Goat turned three today. I can't believe how fast time flies. It doesn't seem like that long ago when we brought him home from the hospital.

Nathan woke up this morning to find his room filled with balloons (an idea I stole shamelessly from my friend Kristen). We had a little ballon fight before breakfast. Then Nathan and Chris stuck all the balloons to the ceiling with a little magic static.

Not too be outdone, Mathew started rubbing toys on his head too. He never did get them to stick to the ceiling!

Gift opening was a little like Christmas. This year the aunts stole the show. Darn those aunts! Aunt Kim got Nathan a game called Hullabaloo. Nathan enjoyed playing this so much he didn't realize that it involved listening and following directions! Aunt Shirley brought a set of Lightning McQueen games and books. We had to endure Lightning McQueen dominoes, Lightning McQueen Bingo, Lightning McQueen Go Fish, Lightning McQueen Checkers... you get the idea.

We were originally going to check out an indoor playground, but had to change plans when Mathew ended up at the doctor's office for an ear infection, and then the hospital for a "quick" stop to draw blood for some allergy testing. This took the entire afternoon. So we had to adjust our plans a little.

We had lunch at Chipotle and dinner at the Tea House, two of Nathan favorites of late. I have no idea how we escaped the Mongolian Barbeque - his usual favorite. After dinner we came home and had cake and several rounds of several Lightning McQueen games.

I made little dinosaurs cakes. The T-rex, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus came out pretty good. The Brontosaurus was pretty ugly.

Moving Right Along

Mr. Mathew is crawling! Really crawling... like on his hands and knees! He started off with a slow gimpy kind of crawl, but after only one day, he's a pro. Of course, he crawls best when I'm not around. When he sees me he stops, smiles big, and throws his arms up into the air ("Mommy!! Pick me up!!") This afternoon he crawled 6 feet across the floor to hoist himself into my lap.

I already miss being able to set him down in one spot with a toy, knowing that if I ran to the kitchen quick to grab something, he'd be in the same spot (plus or minus a foot) when I got back.

Grapes

Mathew shows great interest in food. He doesn't always want to touch it or try it, but he stares intently at the things we eat. Yesterday Ms. Mary called me from school to tell me that Mathew spent his entire lunch time eyeing Ms. Corbin's grapes and trying to devise ways to steal them. Ahhhh, he is soooo my boy.

Makes Sense to Me

When I picked up the boys at school yesterday, Nathan ran up to me and hollered, "WE HAD A FIRE APPOINTMENT!"

There was a sign on the door that said they had a fire drill.

Mr. Mathew's Milestones

This has been quite the week for Mr. Mathew (aka Boo Bear, Boo Boo, or Boo Boo Bear). He's graduated from little star shaped puffs to Cheerios. And boy, can he eat Cheerios! He is good at collecting a pile of them in his highchair! He also enjoys little baby crackers and bits of pancake.

He has been scooting around on his bottom for the last few weeks, and I use the term "scooting" loosely. It's a gradual process... he'll move a couple of feet over a 10 minute period of time. This week he has been getting up on his hands and knees and rocking a bit before settling back on his bottom.

Then this morning I helped him stand up (which he loves) and let him hold onto my thumbs. He took three clumsy steps towards me while hanging onto my thumbs for dear life. This seemed to please him a great deal since he started grinning and squealing. He was so excited that he let go of one hand to wave it around in the air!

This evening he tried to pull himself up about a dozen times. He finally succeeded! It was shortly after I snapped this photo that he realized he didn't know how to get back down!

Wisconsin Dells

We headed for the Wisconsin Dells with the Watson's last weekend. Everyone had a blast... except maybe Mathew.

Nathan's favorite thing was this green slide. Actually, I loved the green slide too. It was perfect, a nice smooth ride, not too fast, not too slow.


There was also the yellow slide... not nearly as good as the green slide.


Here's a pic of me, Nathan, Becky and Clara...


And Mr. Mathew... not all that thrilled about being in the pool.


And of course... Chris and James, checking out the hot tub.