Our 3 Miracles: Marvelous Matthew

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Marvelous Matthew

Matthew is continuing to be such a delightful member of our family. He really likes his family to be together. If someone is missing who is normally there, he keeps asking for them. For example, U had a meeting and missed dinner one night this past week. All during dinner, Matthew kept asking where daddy was.

Matthew loves to play. Favorite toys include balls, things he can stack (nesting cups, blocks, etc) and Duplos (especially the windows and the Pooh honey pot). He enjoys peekaboo and likes playing pretend puppy with his sisters. He also likes playing with the plastic containers in the kitchen drawer. He often puts the lids on and then comes asking us for help to get them off again. He pushes stools to get to something out of reach. And he loves baths and would take one every day if he could.

Matthew likes getting under stools.

Waving at his fans:)

Matthew love birds! He gets really excited when he sees them. He looks and listens for them and is often the first one to see a bird. If he hears one but doesn't see it, he will look around to find it. On walks, he is often scanning the sky looking for birds. Favorite places to spot them include out in the backyard (he often sees them while he's eating), on walks and pretty much anywhere we are outside.

Matthew is a bit opinionated, especially about clothes. He has his favorite type of shirt (polo). And he has his favorite polo shirt (green). There is one t-shirt is also likes quite well. He will change his shirt if he doesn't like the one we pick out for him when getting him dressed. He also has his preferred clothes for dad (suits) and has some of mom's clothes he likes better as well. It's interesting that he is quite so opinionated about clothes!

Wearing daddy's socks. The shirt he is wearing is his favorite t-shirt.

Trying out daddy's shirt.

With his hair in a hairband. He is often asking for a hairband or clip to be put in his hair. (We don't usually put them in and when we do, they don't stay in too long. Hooray for fine hair!)

Matthew's vocabulary is increasing a lot! I'd definitely say he's in the language explosion phase of life. He's picking up new words every day or two. It's really fun! Recent additions include "doggy" and "blocks." Some of his favorite words are "hot" (very useful around here between the weather and food), "help" (used for anything and everything he wants help with), "yea" (we know we've figured out what he wants when he says "yea" after what we say), "hat" (when in doubt, say "hat" is Matthew's philosophy) and "bird." It is very helpful that he is able to sign a lot of the words as well as say them since many of his words sound close to the same and so the sign allows us to differentiate. He often teaches Megan words and signs.

spoken words: shirt, shorts, purse, ball, mama, Sarah, Uh oh, Jesus, monkey sound, dinosaur sound, Patches (his stuffed dog), close, rice, carrot, blocks, trash, hi, me, church, sandwich
signed words: please, thank you, no, all done, more, bread, signing time, dance, eat, passy, bath, water, baby, wash hands, phone, sleep, I love you, something on bread (telling us he wants us to put something on his bread), music, "shhh"
spoken and signed words: yes, shoes, hot, daddy, milk, banana, hat, cracker, help, bird, bib, train, dog

Matthew is very expressive. He lets us know how he is feeling and does so loudly. Some of the sounds he makes are rather interesting and not so pleasant sounding. Of course, these are complemented by his many laughs and giggles which are delightful! He has a very expressive face and is always making us laugh with his dramatic looks and smiles. We've tried to capture a few of these on camera. However, it's a bit difficult to do given that the situation really gives itself to interpreting the expression, which is obviously lost in the photo. Here are a few of his smiles and looks:

Pleased smile