Matteo's boyhood milestone

Well, it's here. Matteo's next milestone is complete. He's lining up his vehicles like a big boy! See here, how he put all the cars and trucks against the gate in front of the wood burning stove. He said sshhh they're sleeping. Cute!

This is Matteo's favorite character and toy. Tow Mater! And I learned something new. If I put the camera lens in macro mode and turn off the flash, I get some sweet close ups with blurred backgrounds...

And this is Matteo's second pick for favorite car. It's a forklift. He brought it to bed with him, looked for it first thing in the morning :)

You know, Matteo and I are real renaissance men. We signed up for an online experiment kit from the RiverSide company. Days later we receive our very own cryogenic kit. It had a young turkey packed in dry ice in suspended animation. The theory is that once thawed the turkey comes back to life. Click to see a live video feed of the bird from our webcam in the kitchen. If you notice, it is in fact a frozen live young turkey! Look closely and see it twitch. Mommy can't wait for thaw time!

Thursday and Friday nights

Ok well as you know, our cousins came home with us, let the fun begin!!!

When we arrived home Thursday night, we all went downstairs to make some make a fort and enjoy some good old male bonding.

Friday night we took out some marshmallows and roasted them much to Andrew and Jay J's delight. However when you only have mini marshmallows, its not too easy.l..haha.

And of course, we enjoyed some popcorn by the fire too. Don't worry Auntie, no one really had too much popcorn.

And it wouldn't be a visit from our cousins, unless Matteo attacked Andrew at some point and here he is attacking Andrew in the car! Andrew clearly is in need of a passenger door.

Gobble Gobble, it's Turkey Day!

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all. Clearly I've been very exhuasted from all of the festivities and have been unable to update you all as to our happenings.

Well Thursday came very quickly it seems this week and here is Matteo and Mommy getting ready for our 2 hour car trip to Grandma's house where she has been hard at work for about a week or more getting ready for her favorite holiday.

Here is Matteo all dolled up, as he is my dollie :-)

A two hour car ride usually produces tears at least once by someone, this time it was Matteo. He cried until he could call his cousin Andrew.

Once at Grandma's Daddy took out his I-pod to which him and Jay J enjoyed too much time playing. Daddy more conversation time is needed!

And here is cheater Gramps. He told Daddy they would start growing a beard on Thanksgiving. However Gramps clearly started MONTHS ago. Shame shame gramps.

Matteo and Auntie clearly had too much sugar.

And now we are taking Jay J and Andrew home with us........stay tuned to hear about those adventures.

Craft night with Matteo and Daddy

Today I was given the awesome responsibility of updating the blog. I can feel the power under my fingertips. Lots of silly pics here today for you!

Tuesday was nice. Daddy went to "MommyDaddy and Me" with Matteo and Mommy for the Thanksgiving party. Because of the lavish feast of pumpkin bread and apple juice, there was not time for the craft, so we took it home to make.

That night was nice as well. Mommy went to rest a bit from a long day. So Matteo and Daddy did the craft - we made a turkey!

We let Matteo do the placement of everything.
Feathers on the bottom...

Feathers on top...

We glue the feet to the forehead...

Silly pics...

And it's DONE!

Oh and then Play-Doh of course.
That's a sticky note in a straw.
= Sailboat

See you next time!

Pre-Thanksgiving Tuesday

Before we get into pre-thanksgiving Tuesday, just some snipet photos of the days past. As you all know, perhaps are sick of hearing about, Matteo loves loves play-doh (santa are you listening?). Here while Mommy napped, Matteo and Daddy made some animals. Blue=giraffe and green=elephant. Daddy helped make these animals with the wonder of straws (again Santa are you listening?).

Next, with all of the rain we had today, we decided our Halloween pumpkins are very close to being put out of their misery, however in the true spirit of Thanksgiving, they will remain until Friday.

And for our Dear Friend Amy, who inquired as to what "Hemmie Dinosaur" looks like, here he is.

Lastly, as a treat Daddy came to school with us today to celebrate Thanksgiving. Here Daddy is trying to put on Matteo's indian hat, of which Matteo wanted no part. (Be sure to tune in next week when Daddy alone has to take Matteo to school - sans Mommy :-O)

Ho Hum Monday

Today was rather a boring Monday, however Matteo and Mommy did spend some quality time outside in the warm sunshine, mmmmm Vitamin D.

Matteo ate lunch, napped and then woke up to some storybooks and an early dinner and here we sit up to our elbows in play-doh.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more eventful with school (thanksgiving celebration!) and then hopefully a playgroup.

Stay tuned....

Receipts Receipts and more Receipts

Sunday consisted of receipts, receipts and more receipts as we undertook more christmas shopping at the outlets. After 3 hours of shopping, we then tried out Applebees for the first time, which Matteo loved as he received a green balloon. Then we ccame home, Matteo napped and more shopping. This time to get mommy some shoes because wearing white sneakers this time of year I fear is a fashion mistake and I just don't care to make that mistake anymore. And then back home for some good old play-doh fun.

Hopefully today will once again consist of pictures, but I thought I might give you all a reprieve. Besides, Santa can't show his goodies until Christmas.

ABC Dancing

With Matteo's new toy on Saturday, he couldn't wait to show off his dancing moves to Gramps. Here is Matteo talking to Gramps on the phone and "showing" him how he dances.

And Gramps, your haircut looks very chic.

S A T U R D A Y night

As I type this I'm singing in my head the very awesome S A T U R D A Y night song, because our Saturday night was just that: awesome. First, Daddy went out to the store with Matteo and his ride-on digger (of course Matteo insisted on bringing it) and got us some stove-top popcorn, which has been YEARS since we have had. Only problem, the one Daddy got us was not compatable with our stove-top! Silly Daddy, or should I say, only Daddy could make a mistake like that. No worry, as with most problems, daddy solved our dilemma.

We popped our kernels on our WBS! Genius.

Ohhhhh the anticipation, mmmmmmm the butter, can you smell it?

Voila the popcorn is ready!

Ok the popcorn lasted all of 30 minutes. Then Matteo and Daddy took off to painting his Dinosaur.

I love this picture: Daddy helping Matteo's hands.

And then Mommy went to bed...guess who is in charge. Notice the placement of Matteo's fingers and where is his paintbrush?

Oh yes, Mommy is in bed SLEEPING and yes, Daddy IS in charge.

Once again, Mommy-sleeping; Daddy-in charge.

and now, everywhere we go, the dinosaur goes. So if you see us, please be sure to say hello to Hemmie our dinosaur.

e.

the way we started......

..........is the way we are ending the week.....lazy/easy/fun :-) With the winds as gusty as they were today, we decided to really spend much of the morning playing in the basement. As a treat we also 0pened one of Matteo's birthday presents and let me tell you, what a great present as Matteo was occupied by it for honestly the whole morning! It sings, counts, recites the alphabet and has a pizza shop, what's not to love.

Then we decided to have some hamburgers and FF for lunch.....and I could not resist taking a picture of Matteo's precious golden locks.

And my Dear Amy, here is what is so funny when we were on the phone. Matteo decided all by himself to take to sweeping the floor as he saw crumbs. However take note, he is sweeping with my swiffer! Also take note: matteo is wearing the same shirt as yesterday, coincidentally the same shirt he also INSISTED on sleeping in and this picture was taken around 12:30 PM today. I was finally able to get hime out of it and change him into something fresh.

Finally Matteo is all bundled up ready for his walk to Kohls. We didn't find any treasures today, however the walk put Matteo to sleep for an hour and a half and as we arrived home, EYES WIDE OPEN!!! mmmmmmmmm no rest for poor Mommy.

TGI FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually that title makes no sense, since everyday here is FRIDAY! But today started off no different than the rest, making a fire in our WBS to keep warm. Here is Matteo in our wood room, sweeping and like a good boy wearing Mommy's shoes.

Next, in order to get ready for our playdate, Daddy helped us by vacuuming the downstairs. Gramps your vacuum works like a charm, thanks for leaving it. :-)

The rest of our day, we played with our friend and Matteo did a very good job at sharing. Now he is, as usual, napping in the garage, and we don't anticipate a very exciting evening, except to say PIZZA!!!!! Yummmmm............ I wonder if I made your mouth water! :-)

Time for a Change Thursday

Boy did today start out delicious, waffles, eggs, bacon and sausage, we should let Daddy go to sleep with us more often!! Mmmm Mmmmm good. But seriously, can you tell Matteo got his haircut yesterday? haha

After breakfast Matteo decided to serenade us with his piano playing skills and honestly he plays the piano very nicely. Clearly no tune, but he doesn't bang bang bang on it. And look at the placement of his shoulders, well done son!

Next TIME FOR A CHANGE, and boy did Mommy need one, hence I went to get my hair cut...before shot

...and after shot. A good cut, a great deal and a happy Mommy :-)

After that our day pretty much settled down. Lunch, going for a walk so Matteo naps, picking up some leaves and now I am off to write Matteo's thank you notes from his birthday party (yes I am still writing them). Check back later or tomorrow to see what new adventures we find ourselves in.

Playdoh, where did you GO?

Mommy fell asleep early last night, so here's a little movie of what Matteo and Daddy where up to.

PS - I won't take offense if we invite you over for a playdoh date and you respectfully decline. After where our playdoh has been, it's no wonder :-)

And the joke is, how many men does it take to zipper a child's pjs?

A lackadaisical Wednesday

Today started out VERY uneventful, you might have even called us lazy!! Still in our PJ's at 10:30, oops late for our haircut appointment. Off we are, first to showers (no pic), then to get Matteo his hair cut.

Sorry we forgot our camera at home, but I think we were in and out in about 4 min, no kidding! This woman does a superb job and in no time, then again, it was also lunch time, so maybe she was hungry.

After haircutting, I took Matteo with Daddy to Kohls as Matteo enjoys seeing the christmas trees.

Here is a picture of Matteo's hair from the back. A good solid one inch cut. And in his mouth a lollypop, clearly a bribe for being such a good boy at the salon. However we left Kohls soonafter as our "good boy" was no longer "good."

After our lunch, Matteo fell asleep during our walk. So Mommy leaves him in the garage to sleep. You know what they say about sleeping monsters..LET THEM SLEEP, and the kind of afternoon we started out having, i'm doing exactly that.

I anticipate a quiet night, hence the early post. But as always, if anything exciting pops up, I will be sure to have my handy dandy new camera on hand just in case. And FYI: I continue to search for my old faithful camera every time I go out. No exaggeration.

Lastly, a reminder to Gramps and Amy and those of you who are not fans of Kath and Kim, tomorrow (Thursday), channel 4 at 8:30, this show hurt my head the first time I saw it, and now, it's just funny. You won't learn from it, you might even kill more brain cells than normal, but man, it's just funny. Check it out. Comment on it.