Teeth

Matthew had his first dentist appointment yesterday.

 

He was so good! He opened wide, wasn't scared by all the tools and the doctor's mask and crazy glasses. In fact, he actually seemed to really enjoy it! (Probably because the doctor just took a look at his teeth and he bypassed the teeth cleaning, FLOSSING, x-rays, and cavity fillings like Mommy. Boo Mommy.)

In other pearly white news, this little lady has had her first tooth pop through the gums:

Her first tooth is her upper, left, and second from the front tooth. She's gonna be a snagglemonster! (Picture of said tooth to come when it is completely in.) 

Just Sayins'

It's been decided that we need to make a list here of some of Matthew's sayings that we have found to be adorable and funny that we don't want to forget because over time its inevitable that we will.

Wha happ? (while shrugging his shoulders and holding his hands up and out)

Mommy/Daddy/Papa, are you? (with one hand to the ear)

OHHHHH NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, no, no, no, no! (while shaking a finger at you)

Bye Daddy. (while shoving you away because he's about to do something naughty or silly or when
you tell him he's going to have to stop something that he wants to keep doing)

Mommy, k?  Mommy, k? Mommy k? (whenever anything drops, making a noise, or I cough/sneeze, hiccup)

Less go Mommy! (while waving you to come)

Sisser! (referring to Thea)

Hi Paul! Hi Titus! Hi Paul! Hi Titus! (starts at random and can continue for minutes at a time on repeat)

Titus, home. (when he is missing Titus and/or remembering that Titus and he both left Grandma and Papa's to go home)

Daddy, dance!

Sa-you! (sorry)

And then there's our favorite of Titus's:

No way! No way! Sop!

Box Peez!

At a restaurant last weekend, Matthew surprised us when he asked for a "box peez!" at the end of the meal.  Such a polite little boy.  When given a box, he put his leftovers inside and closed it up, just like he'd done it a thousand times. 

What you see here is leftover tortellini soup and a piece of broccoli, minus the floret.  Culinary arts at their finest. 

Tonight we went to BW3s and this is what he packed up:

After his bath, he retrieved his box and sat down to dig in. On his hot dog bun. Note his hot dog did not make it home.  Just the bun.  Also, I am sure he is looking forward to eating the topping-free tortilla chip from the bottom of the nacho pile sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Another word on the hot dog bun.  He was pretty jazzed by it.  He took it out of the box, enjoyed a mouth-drying bite, graciously offered bites to both E and I, and then helped himself to another mouthful.  Yum.

Week of Geoffrey

Two months ago, I lovingly called my father and aggressively told him he was coming to Chicago for the NASCAR race.  Gently accentuating my demands with perfectly placed f-words, I let him know I selflessly bought him a plane ticket and race tickets.  I then told him to shut up and get on the plane.  Being incapable of expressing kindness without intertwining it with excessive dollops of sarcasm is a telltale sign of being emotionally well-adjusted.

The next day, I went to San Francisco on a work trip.  Turns out, my hotel was a mile and a half from my dad's high school.  So I woke up early and walked over there.  It was both cool and surreal to imagine my father walking through those gates.

Because my father and his parents are and were ridiculous, I had never seen a picture of him when he was older than 4 and younger than 26.  So I walked into the school and asked to see yearbooks from over 40 years ago, which is slightly less creepy than asking to see the current yearbook.

The 1970 Galileo Lions.

The 1969 Galileo Lions.

NOT PICTURED: The senior pictures from 1970 nor the junior pictures from 1969.  Dad chose not to take class pictures and his parents chose not to make him do it.  Thanks, guys.

ALSO NOT PICTURED: The entire page of 25+ seniors of 1970 with the last name "Wong".  Seriously.  Every single kid on the page was named "Wong".

In the front hall, there is an Athletic Hall of Fame.  Fred Setting '50 was my father's baseball coach.  O.J. Simpson '65 had a career in television, among other things.  I'm sure Otto Sempel '45 was a terrific fellow.

After seeing the football field that is no longer named after O.J. Simpson '65, I went to see my grandparents' old apartment, which mom and I actually lived in with my grandparents for a few months when my dad was apparently really poor at sea in 1983.  He was a Somalian pirate in the United States Navy.

Turns out my grandpa put the numbers on this door. In the mid-1970's.

It was an incredible experience to walk the same steps my dad did. Sounds crazy, but I kept feeling like I was about to see my 17 year old father walk out that door or walk past me on the street.  It was very special.

Next week, maybe I will travel to Miami to the now horribly rundown neighborhood my mother grew up in.  You know, the one where I was scared to fall asleep at night when I stayed there with grandma in the early 1990's.  Or maybe I won't.  And since my mother actually did things like take class photos and buy school yearbooks, I don't have to do that.

Sleep: A Week in Review

Sunday Night:
9:30: Asleep almost instantly when my head hit the pillow
9:50: Awakened by Mike rubbing my arm in his sleep.  Very nice, Mike.  Now stop it.
10:40: Matthew wakes up with diarrhea.  I change his diaper and take off his jammies because he is a radiator when under the covers in our bed, which is where I took him.
10:50: Thea wakes up because of Matthew crying.  I feed her because that ain't her fault.
4:30: Awakened when Matthew sweetly aligns himself next to me, in the fetal position, on the top of the covers, FREEZING cold.  I move him back to his pillow and put the covers on top of him.
4:34: Thea's crying.  And this continues on and off for the next 45 minutes.  AND...Matthew's up for the day.  And awesome.  So are we.

Monday Night:
8:15: Matthew starts crying and comes out to the family room until about 8:45.
Midnight: Matthew's crying.  Was able to talk to him via the monitor (thank you, monitor)
4:30: Thea is up for a feeding.

Tuesday Night: For whatever reason, Matthew wakes up at 3:30 and despite trying, can't fall back to sleep.

Wednesday Night: Up with Mike with stomach issues.  For an hour.  At 3am.  Both kids...slept through the night.

Thursday Night: I woke up once when Thea cried for about 5-10 minutes around 3am.  Pretty good! And a HUGE relief!

Saturday Morning:
E: Are you going to ask me how my night's sleep was?
Mike: Oh, yeah! I just assumed you slept great, deeply, and through the night because I did.
E: Of course you did. (pause) Matthew woke up crying at 1am because he was tangled in his blanket and Thea woke up at 3am but went to sleep without me feeding her about 5-10 minutes later.  And then I woke up to go to the bathroom once, woke up when you went to the bathroom, and was hot/cold all night long.  Soooo, not such a great night for me.

Who's this Guy?

We'll let Titus tell you:



 

 

Titus, aka Ninja Turtle (who apparently wore his costume for 3 straight days)

Awaiting Trick or Treaters

 

Mike, Rachel, and the boys had planned to take the kids around the block to trick or treat but it was pouring rain the entire time we were there and without a stop to the rain in sight, we decided to head home.  Good thing Matthew is still young enough to be oblivious to what he missed out on!  Although Grandma did give him a treat which made the hour drive (read: should've been 20 minutes) home a little bit better...for Matthew. 

On Halloween Eve, the kids and I went to Mike's workplace for a family Halloween party which consisted of trick or treating and about an hour long game of chase through people's cubicles.  You can thank us later for your greatest day of productive work.