Matthew's kittens

As I was trying to talk grownup talk about the best way to fix our house, Matthew was bugging me. Go look at the kittens I said. 5 minutes later I discovered he'd moved them from under the dog house to inside, along with himself.

If you don't feed us, I'm going to bite your leg off! (Are you seeing all 6? They are all in the pic.)

Matthew? Where'd you go? What do you mean go nurse? This is what Matthew thought they were saying. Them following us inspired him to say, "See Mom, they need me. Pandora wants to see them. They need me. The kittens need to come with us and their mommy too. They need to live with us."

Let me give them hugs and kisses goodbye. (He really wasn't strangling it.)

Ahhh, finally settling down to nurse again. Yes, we now have 6. We lost 1 a week or so ago, but the other 6 are lively and seem to enjoy Matthew. And he loves them. I wish we could ALL live as a family again. I guess it will have to wait.

Matthew says and does

Here is a list of stuff Matthew was saying in June/July:

Matthew on bathing: I do it.

Matthew on watering: I do it.

Matthew on bicycles: Mom say "MOTOR CYCLE" and I ride my motor-bi-cycle.

Matthew on our car: My car is too hot.

Matthew on firetrucks: Dad, it not a firetruck, it's a FIRETRUCK.

Matthew on making decisions and opinions: "I think so", "We can" and the ever popular "We can try."

Matthew on bedtime: It's almost bedtime. Almost.

Matthew on fishing: I never get to go fishing.

Matthew more currently:

Now when it's bathtime Matthew says, "I take a shower." When I told him he needed to use soap last night he informed me, "I use soap when I take a bath Mom." I don't think so!

The other day Matthew wanted to know what the wall heater was in the bathroom, so I told him it was an old wall heater. He wanted to know if it worked. I said I didn't think so. He looked it over carefully and announced, "Oh, it's lost it's batteries!"

Now Matthew calls his tricycle a tricycle.

Matthew is fond of saying, "Not today", "We can walk" and "But I like to/it."

Matthew has no concept of space relations. Last Tuesday he gave me a goose egg, on my brow bone, because he didn't realize my head was so close to the handle he was holding. Last night he jumped straight up into my mouth, with excitement, and split my lip, again. Help, my 3 yr old is dangerous to my health!

Matthew and the pedal vehicles

All summer long Matthew has been loving to ride his tricycle.

Outside

Around and around the kitchen table.

Sometimes it breaks down and has to be fixed.

It takes alot of tools.

But in the end he finds the right ones for the job.

The tricycle isn't the only pedal vehicle he likes to ride. His military vehicle is fun too. Along with the race car.

Riding in style all summer long.


Before I forget again, Matthew has been working hard on figuring out time. His is in love with the idea of having his own watch. By looking at the numbers on the clock, Matthew is starting to learn which number is which. When he learns one, he normally goes and gets the fridge magnet that matches it, to prove he knows that number. He is also learning which numbers we leave on to go to different places. It's so exciting!

A very busy Thursday!

Storytime at the library started Thursday, and it was even more exciting because one of Matthew's best friend's Mom is the new children's librarian! He had an awesome time listening to stories and singing and of course, the Potato Head playing.

And the watercolor painting. Matthew did a great job for the first time!

After that it was time to head off to KC and go to the Halloween Masquerade at the Curious Sofa, my favorite store in the world. Every year they have a huge Halloween event, but I've never been able to go before. Because of my new work schedule, I was able to trade days and go.

I was so excited I took some photos on the way in. I've always wanted to meet the owner, Debbie Dusenberry. I didn't get to meet her, but I did get see actually see her in person, which was thrilling for me.

I knew from the outside it was going to be awesome. I wasn't disappointed. I hope Debbie posts photos from the inside. From the meet the artists post, I knew that I really, really wanted Lesa Dailey's owl artwork. In a bad way. Really bad.

I was 15 minutes late (arrived at 5:15), but by 5:30 I had snagged the last owl! There was a few sculptures left, but for the most part, all sold out. Several people told me I was extremely lucky to have snagged one, while I was waiting to pay for it.

I was so lucky. I think it's Amazing!

It was a perfect day. A very busy day, I ran all day, but it was perfect.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 20

I can basically sum up this week in 3 words. Water, wait, plant.

We watered alot with cooler water. The rain filled it completely up with rainwater, yea!

The waiting. Waiting for our 2 tomatoes to grow. They are, slowly.

2nd tomato growing, slowly.

We finally have a pumpkin! I name it Prince Charming and hope it grows to adulthood. Grow fast little guy.

My Dad's HUGE brandywine tomato plant that looks awesome, has tons of blooms, and never produces a single tomato. What's with this family's tomatoes?!?

I didn't get pictures of Matthew planting turnips in with the pumpkin vines, but in the upper right triangle is where he is planted turnips. We are hoping we get a very good turnip crop.


Over at The Inadvertent Farmer, she has another guest , Theresa Loe, that talks about the Center Street Elementary's school garden. In the article Theresa mentions The Edible Schoolyard, which is at the Martin Luther King Junior Middle School. Mom introduced me to The Edible Schoolyard blog over the summer and Wow! what an awesome program. I wish that the students in our area had a chance to participate in learning like that. I think that it's wonderful that there more school's planting gardens and incorporating other elements that make it work at their school. At Center Street they have bins for children to scrap different foods into. The compostable stuff goes to the garden. Great stuff!

Rainy day fun

It's rained several times lately. But it hasn't bothered Matthew. He's found plenty to do. Is there something in the box that Matthew's final carseat came in?

Oh, it's a Matthew!

Later we tried an art activity that I saw on Thanks for the Lemonade. It was a little advanced for Matthew and we changed it up a little.

But he still had fun. After that, we decided that since it was only lightly misting, it was time to break out the rubber boots. Since we got them, Matthew's been going around telling people "I'm ready for rain."

Can you tell that this is one excited little boy? He's really tackle the BIG puddle.

Getting used to the feel of walking in water.

Still getting used to it...

...and clean boots are history!

It's all about stomping as hard as you can and running as fast as you can through the puddles. Good thing his Mom packed a towel and clean clothes to change into!

School's back in

ARGH! Why does Blogspot load photos wrong? Mom, Matthew and I all had our first day of school last Thursday. Mom in her new classroom and Matthew and I at the daycare. She has some charming setup's in her bookshelf cubbies. I wish the photo had loaded properly!

Her room has transformed into a well organized machine. If you don't remember how the room looked when we helped move her in, click here.

With all the things to see and do, Matthew's favorite is to be is still right next to MaMaw.

We went over and helped with last minute stuff, last Wed. and took these photos. We went and helped again on Sunday and it looks even better. The students having been there have somehow lent a charm to the place I think. I look forward to watching the room grow and change.

Matthew and I, after waiting breathlessly for weeks about whether we'd even have a job to go back to, found out, on vacation, that yes we'd have a job and start the very next week. We don't go every day anymore, but something is better then nothing right?

Our family's 1st vacation, not to CA

We went to Shady Beach!!! I love seeing all my in-laws dearly, but it was so nice to get to slip away for 3 days and see my Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Leon at their campground! For more information about Shady Beach go here.

It's rustic, it's sleepy (at least the pace during the week-weekends can see 600 people packed in), and it's peaceful. The perfect vacation spot.

I knew it was going to be a good trip when Matthew looked like this on the way down.

We got one of the cabins. May I just say I'm in love with their design? It sleeps 6. It has A/C. If it had a toilet and a sink, it would be perfect. I might never leave.

Downstairs was a bed and picnic table.

Upstairs was a matress on the floor and...

...the futon where Matthew slept all by himself. He LOVED it! He felt so grownup. It would make the perfect rainy day play room too, in my humble opinion.

At the camp store Matthew modeled a cowboy hat made of Coors Light boxes for me.

This is a large 6 bedroom, 2 bathroom cabin that my Aunt, Uncle, and son built on a different property. (Any CA relatives want to fly out and spend a weekend or week with us here?) Very clever design again, rustic, yet charming. It has it's own private beach. My hat is off to my aunt and uncle and their son. I couldn't build and fix as many buildings as they have, that is for sure!

After they got done taking us on the grand tour and to supper, Matthew and I bounced on their private trampoline. Matthew showed off the mad skills he'd learned at his month of gymnastics.

The next day we went and played on their beach for a long time in the morning. The water is so clear that you can see up to 6ft down. Deeper then that gets murky. We also rafted down the Elk River, but I have no photos of that. I was afraid the camera would get soaked. I'm sure it would have. You'll have to trust me that it was awesome!!!

Matthew got a net for catching minnows. While rafting we finally caught 2.

Even Phil had fun in the water, and he is not a water person. It bores him. He loved it so much that we are going to try and go again this year.

This cliff just fascinated me! It literally hangs over the road, while the road hugs the river. I wish I could have taken pictures from the water because it was amazing.

And at the very top is this house that is hanging over the overhanging cliff! We thought it was a crazy place to have a house. It was beautiful though.

That is the conclusion of this presentation. Maybe in the near future Shady Beach will be more of a household name, but for now, remember you heard about it here first!