All the Sun For You

A mom, two boys, a husband, and a whole lot of adventure!

Category Archives: Matthew


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Fall Clean-Up

I was cleaning out Matthew’s closet today since the weather has finally changed for real.  It’s cold.  All he has in his closet that fits is shorts, jeans, and short-sleeved t-shirts – so it was time to pull out the sweaters, long-sleeved T’s, and more pants.

I’ve been slow in moving things out of his closet – it’s a big chore.  I bought altogether too many clothes in 0-3, 3-6, and 6-12 month sizes.  I was super excited about having a baby and bought enough clothes for two babies (but averaged $8 per item!) – it’s embarrassing (yet – my uber-honest self is admitting it here).  I still had all of his hanging 6-12 months clothes on the top rack of the closet (the folded stuff was long gone because drawer space is much more limited than closet space), but needed to free that space up now for the 12-18 month pants and t’s that still fit, freeing up the bottom rack for sweaters, hoodies, bigger jeans for December onward, etc.

Going through all of the clothes I’ve bought for 18 months – 3 years, I’m proud to say that the buying has gotten WAY under control.  I mean – besides his stack of sweaters (I just love sweaters on little boys), what we have of each item is perfect through next summer.  No need for pants, shorts, t-shirts (unless they’re the Junk Food brand from Baby G.ap), or sweaters.  I am so proud… and I’m even more proud that at least half of his future stash was bought at consignment shops!

He’s getting so big, I cannot believe it.  I held up some 2T shorts and B asked if they were for a kindergartener.  Nope – they’re for our boy next summer.  Unreal.  The fun part, though, is that they will be super cute – even if they mean he’s growing up.  I can’t wait to see him running around in his cargo shorts and big-kid T’s  😉

“See ya, 6-12 month clothes! Onward and upward!” (Notice B’s nervous hand … that was actually necessary – Matthew almost tumbled during this shot. HA!)


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Thank you Steph (and Baby Whisperer)

I owe a major shout-out to Stephanie.  I posted my Monday Snapshot of Matthew melting down over food and she commented with some advice from a professional baby whisperer.

The advice?

“She said that as kids start to get more independence, we hover a little too much and don’t give them choices as they are eating.  She suggested putting each type of food you give him in little measuring cups or small containers and letting HIM choose.  I know you pretty much already do that by putting it on his tray, but maybe there is something to them looking in the cup and feeling like they are making more of a choice?”

I tried that advice today, and it effing worked!  I loaded up chicken, marinated mushrooms and artichoke hearts, and an heirloom tomato into their own bowls and this is what happened:

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We will be taking 3-4 bowls to every meal out in the future.  I cannot believe this!


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The Monday Snapshot – Getting Picky

Matthew has been on a bit of a food strike for a few days.  He eats… soups, avocados, yogurt, cottage cheese, hard cheeses, and fruit.   That’s it right now.  He will dabble in meats and an occassional veggie, but he’s really just holding out for Mom’s soup and his “dessert” of fresh fruit.

Sigh.

I so hope his fabulous eating skills come back.  Careful what you wish for, right?

He’s not playing peek-a-boo 😦

This is part of a weekly feature over at PAIL called The Monday
Snapshot.


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Get Away!

What a weekend!  On Wednesday, we decided we needed to get out of town – we just needed to GO SOMEWHERE.  I suggested Kansas City because, well, I love it there and the last time we headed out of town, we went to Minneapolis so I didn’t want to do that again.  We’ll go to Minneapolis soon enough, I’m sure (I love MSP – I would move there in a heartbeat if B wanted to).

We invited our friends to come with us who have a new baby – and they were itching to go somewhere too so they came down Saturday around noon.  We had a great time!

When B and I travel, most things revolve around food.  We are always looking for some place new to try, and are open to just about anything.  Matthew is open to most foods too, so we’re pretty lucky there.  What Matthew can’t handle, unfortunately, is a long dinner at a quiet restaurant.  So, on Friday night we went across the street from our favorite KC restaurant (too quiet for Matthew!) and had some fancy Mexican food.  I love Mexican food.  I love it more than any other food type in the world.  I cannot get enough of it.  This place did not disappoint.  But – Matthew was a hot mess and tired from the drive down, so we wrapped up pretty quickly and got him back to the hotel for bed.  For some reason, the grilled chicken and superbly cooked veggies weren’t doing it for him (and truly – they were fantastic!).  Sigh.

We did stop at a wine and cheese shop and picked up lots of fancy chocolates (B loves chocolate!) and a bottle of red wine for later.  Matthew enjoyed sampling the cheeses which was nice since he didn’t eat much dinner  😉  B enjoyed picking out chocolates.  I enjoyed just being out on a nice night!

Bedtime went ridiculously well – Matthew only cried for 30 seconds and he was out cold.  We had our chocolate and wine but we feared waking him so we went to bed shortly thereafter.  I think it was the earliest I’ve gone to bed in years (9:40).

Matthew woke up too early on Saturday and wanted to get out and about, so B took him out for coffee so I could sleep a bit.  Matthew was tossing and turning all night long, and being a light sleeper and a nervous mother (I like to be constantly aware of how he’s sleeping), I heard every sigh, flip, and grunt.  I basically had been awake since 4 AM so I welcomed a little extra sleep with great enthusiasm.  I made it count 😉

We shopped and shopped – but really just walked and walked.  It was beautiful in KC and the Plaza is perfect for getting out and about and just enjoying the weather.  I did find some shirts for Matthew that I’ve wanted but refused to pay the ridiculous prices for – but they were on SALE so I got them (it was a crazy sale, ladies)!  We went to our favorite place for lunch (Houston’s) because they have the BEST smoked salmon but what do you know?  They changed the salmon since we were last there and it wasn’t cooked enough for Matthew.  As everyone knows, Matthew LOVES salmon so we were super excited about getting this for him (cold smoked – ummmm!) but alas – we could not.  We ended up getting him tuna (figured we should try it) but he hated it, lost his shit, and we were out of there.

Notice a trend???

I headed out with Matthew as B got our salads boxed up (best salad ever – I am so sad I didn’t get to savor it!) and we went back for a nap.  Our friends weren’t in town yet so the timing was great and I snuggled with my boys.  It does not get better than that!  Matthew slept on my chest and sure – my neck was all screwed up and I didn’t really sleep – but my nose was buried in his sweet hair and I was in heaven!  This nap lasted almost 3 hours.  Wonderful!

We then headed back out with our friends and picked up cupcakes (more on this later), played at a park, and then grabbed a quick early dinner before the rush.  Again, Matthew was not having it so we boxed up his food once we were all done and headed out.

What is going on with this kid who used to love going out to eat???

We all stopped at the wine shop again and got some goodies for the night.  Upon returning to the hotel, we put Matthew to bed (not a peep out of him) and S and I sent our husbands down to the hotel bar with a free pass to stay out as late as they wanted, and to drink as much as they felt the urge to drink.  S and I had a great time sitting on the sofa, dishing about the latest happenings in our lives, eating chocolates and cupcakes, and drinking wine.  B bought me a bottle of bubbly and I drank that whole thing – and didn’t even get tipsy (what is wrong with me – I never drink so this makes no sense?!).  We shared the best cupcake we’d ever had (strawberry lemonade and HOLY HELL it was GOOD!) and I got to hold her new baby the entire time (LOVE!).  The guys came back late and expectedly tipsy.  We all sat around and laughed and laughed before parting ways and going to bed.

GREAT NIGHT!

This morning consisted of a sleepy baby who woke up too early, had his morning milk, slept for another 15 minutes on my chest (oh my back!), tried to get up for about 45 minutes but was cranky the whole time, and then took a nap on me for 1.5 hours.  I am not kidding – he went down for a ” nap” from 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM.  CRAZY!  He woke up still tired and that’s when I got that cute photo of him with B on the sofa.  I’ve never seen Matthew so mellow in my life!  It was precious.

We headed out for brunch – back to the Mexican place – and had a great breakfast.  The babies behaved and it was quite enjoyable.  We then parted ways with our friends so that I could get to the highlight of the trip!

We met up with Steph, JJ, and Chloe from Blawndie’s Blawg and had a super fun time!  We went to a local park and let the kids and hubs play while we chatted.  This was my first experience meeting a bloggie friend and it was super fun!  Matthew was exhausted (really?  After a 1.5 hour morning nap and 10 hours of sleep prior to that?) and very stoic, but he showed his dad what it’s like to parent solo at the park  😉  The kids swapped sippy cups and Matthew attempted to steal a kiss from Chloe before he realized that we were trying to photograph them.  HA!  Chloe was just as cute in person as I was expecting (I can’t get over her cuteness and her blonde curls!), and we escaped the morning without a hair pulling incident (Matthew loves to pull hair – a lot!), so I would call it a success.  🙂

Matthew was asleep before we hit the road – he crashed while we were filling the car with gas.  He slept the whole way home and was still exhausted when we got home.  He was in bed at 8:30 sharp – sound asleep.  B says he’s going through a growth spurt and I’m starting to buy into that.

I didn’t take a lot of photos but these capture some highlights:

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The Secret Room…

Have you ever had that dream where you discover a secret room in your house – one that’s always been there, but you never knew about it?  That dream came true for Matthew today!

We have a finished basement that we rarely use.  There are a few reasons why we don’t use it much.  I won’t get into the reasons because they’re way too stupid to even discuss.  B asked me this weekend to please remove one of the reasons (a litter box in the main living room) so that Matthew can run around and enjoy it.

So I did.

Matthew and I spent a couple hours in the basement today and it was like a whole new house for him.  He was running around like crazy – squealing and chattering the entire time.  He would turn corners and scream with delight!  It was super fun watching him!  I grabbed my phone to take a bunch of pictures for B.  This post is really for him so he can see how much fun Matthew had per his wonderful suggestion  🙂

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Monday Snapshot – Really?

The other day around nap time, Matthew fell asleep in the car on the way home from lunch.  This was not uncommon – he does that quite a bit.  I usually have to carry him in (awake), change his diaper, put him in a sleep sack, and then rock him back to sleep a bit.

But this day was different.  Matthew was a little punchy at lunch and I was a bit frustrated – I mean – we were at chick-fil-WHG and he loves it there.  Nothing makes him happier than his grilled nuggets, cinnamon applesauce, and friendly people.  This day, he was screaming and yelling, and was very obviously irritated with me for some reason.  We left abruptly (sorry, S!) and headed home.  He was asleep in the car within 60 seconds.

Ah – that was the problem – he was beyond tired!

But this time, when we got home, he didn’t wake up when I got him out of the car.  I made the decision to not give him a new diaper, to not put him in a sleep sack.  Instead, we sat in the rocker and I rocked my sleeping baby, and then put him in his crib – day-time pants and all (he’s never slept in day-time pants – ever) and he slept his normal nap time of 3 hours.

It was so reminiscent of when he was a tiny baby and would sleep through anything – and I savored it!

Check out PAIL’s Monday Snapshot to see other memorable moments from the PAIL community!