July 4th Holiday weekend

Ryan, Matthew and I enjoyed a nice relaxing (and uneventful) July 4th weekend. It was great to have some quiet time as a family and to spend quality time together playing with Matthew. He's changing so much each day, that it's hard to capture all of his new "tricks" on camera.

His tricks lately have consisted of: sitting up on his own, transferring toys from one hand to the other and banging them on anything he can to make noise, playing with his beach balls that Poppy (my Dad) brought to him in during their visit in May, making lots of new sounds and squealing and yelling as he plays (he definitely has my loud voice!). He's rolling all over the place and is starting to push up his torso with his arms, so he may be on his way to crawling within the next few months.

We started solid foods about a month ago. He first ate rice cereal and had no problems. After the doctor cleared us to start other foods, we decided to begin with peas! I got it all on video, but it's not downloading to the blog since it's a large file so I'm working on ways to share it with everyone. It's priceless -- Matthew's facial expressions when he tried the peas for the first time were hilarious! He kept opening his mouth for more, so I kept giving it to him and he would pucker his face and even gag a little but he managed to swallow every bite and never spit it back out. Now that he's been eating them for about a week, he has actually grown to enjoy peas. Next food....carrots!

I've posted a few pictures below from our July 4th holiday. Grandma (Ryan's Mom) sent him a cute outfit that was perfect for the occasion. Ryan and Matthew even sat down and read the "Declaration of Independence" -- We're proud to be American's and so proud of Ryan's service in our military! Thank you to all the military families out there that sacrifice for our country's freedom!

Splish Splash

Matthew loves taking baths. We're still using the baby tub that sits in the sink (although we're realizing that we're going to have to graduate to the larger tub soon...). Ever since Matthew was born, he has loved bath time. Here's a little video to prove it...enjoy!

I'm a happy boy!

Here's another cute video of Matthew riding around on Ryan's shoulders. I'll post more updates on his latest "tricks" this weekend. Enjoy the video!

Matthew is 5 months old!

Matthew is 5 months old today and is cuter than ever!!

I've been rather slack with my blog posts lately, but it's not because there are a lack of things to share about sweet Matthew...I've just been busy keeping him entertained and haven't made time to write. I try to make up for the lack of blogging about Matthew's life by taking lots of additional photos (we average about 200 a month!). He's growing by leaps and bounds and has new "tricks" (as my Dad likes to call them) that he performs each week. Lately, he's found that he can twist his little body around and roll over from his back to his tummy....and this is a pretty good "trick" considering that his thighs are so chunky that it's a mini-workout for him to lift and roll them! He's laughing and giggling more and more, and really loves exploring the toys on his exersaucer (a "jungle gym" for babies that was a gift from my college roomie, Jill). Here's a picture of him in action in his exersaucer...



His other new favorite thing to do is to sit on Daddy's shoulders and ride in his Baby Bijorn. I think it's because it's a new "view". Last night he was riding around on Ryan's shoulders and was literally "eating" his hair! Here is a video...it's too cute!

It's been a fantastic 5 months with my little munchkin. I love him more and more every day!

Matthew gets the giggles!

These are such special moments that I cherish! Can't believe Matthew is already 4 months old. Enjoy the video of him laughing -- we praise God for giving us a healthy baby boy!

My little munchkin is 3 months old!

Matthew was 3 months old yesterday (March 24) and it was also Ryan's 29th birthday. What a special day!

It's hard to believe that it's already been 3 months since we were blessed with our little miracle. He's growing so fast and I love him more and more every day! Here are a few photos I took of him to mark his 3 month birthday. Isn't he adorable?!?!! I just love his big blue eyes and chunky arms and legs! He's my little prince!

The First Two Months

It's been quite a while since I've posted a blog entry, so I thought I would recap the first two months of baby Matthew's arrival home. He continues to bring us joy and I love him more and more with each day!

Several people have asked how we came up with the name Matthew Charles. Matthew is Ryan's middle name, so we thought that would be very special for him to carry on his Dad's name. Matthew is a strong name and fits him perfectly. Charles is after my Grandfather (my Mom's Dad), who passed away when I was 6 years old. Charles was his middle name and I have such fond and sweet memories of sitting in his lap as a child and asking him for Dentyne gum. He always had Dentyne gum in his pocket and we had to "snuggle" with him in his big brown chair to get any. To this day any kind of cinnamon gum reminds me of him. He was such a wonderful, sweet and genuine man and I miss him and my Grandmother so very much. It will be nice for Matthew to know that his middle name is after his Great Grandfather -- a man who loved God and loved his family.

It's hard to believe that Matthew is already 2 months old. The time has really flown by so fast, although there were a few days and nights where it seemed never ending! Our parents came into town each for a week to help out with Matthew when he was first born. It was great to have them here to help out with cooking, laundry and to give Ryan and I a break to catch our breath. When Matthew was 4 weeks old, Ryan had to leave for some flight training in Colorado. That was very hard on us both. Matthew was still adjusting and had some very fussy days and nights. It was so much harder to be home alone with him than I expected, so we were fortunate enough to be able to fly my Mom out for another week to help. That was a pure blessing to have some relief and to have her here to help keep me on track. Ryan was working so hard in Colorado to finish his training so he could get home and it was equally tough on him to be so far away from Matthew and me. Thankfully, God got us through the 4 weeks apart and Ryan returned home safely.

At Matthew's 2 month baby wellness appointment, he weighted 14 pounds and was 23 inches long. He's gone from being in the 25 percentile at his birth weight (7lbs. 4oz.) to the 85 percentile at 14 pounds! He's extremely healthy and it's obvious that the breastfeeding is going great. He had his first series of shots (one oral and 3 shots in his legs). He did really well and only cried for a few moments as the shots were given. He slept most of the rest of the day (probably a result of the baby Tylenol we gave to him) and didn't get a fever. He was a little fussy and his legs were somewhat sore the next day, but he bounced back wonderfully. We feel so blessed that he's healthy and growing like a weed! He's so cute and chunky! :) I love his little dimples!

We have family coming into town to visit us over the course of the next month, so it will be nice to see everyone. David and Jennifer were here this past week and it was so cute to see Uncle David with his red hair next to Matthew and his red hair. I've attached some photos below. We had a great time exploring the Alamo and walking downtown San Antonio at the Riverwalk.

Now that Ryan is home, I'll try to do better at posting updates on Matthew. He's talking more and more, so I'll take some videos and post those soon too. In the meantime, you can view our family photos at http://themiddletonfamily2.shutterfly.com/ Enjoy!