Holiday Mystery...

Yesterday Matty received a Christmas card in the mail...it was postmarked Manchester NH and had no return address. All the card said was "hoping this helps Matty have a Merry Christmas" and inside was a Toys R Us gift card for $60!!!! We have NO idea who sent this and would like to thank them in person!!!! If anyone has a clue to help us out, please let us know!!! Whoever the mystery "Santa" is, THANKS!!!!!

Happy Happy Boy

Im not sure what happened, but I wrote this blog weeks ago...oops



Well, it's been a week and Matty couldn't be happier to be "cast free"! It came off last Monday and ever since then, I feel like he's happier now (and better behaved) as he ever has been! I think he is so relieved to not have that heavy plaster cast holding him back! That thing was heavy and yes, we kept it...and we did find a Cheerio inside it when it came off! His walking is getting better ever day but he does still have a bit of a limp and turns his foot out when he walks. The doctor said that's pretty normal and his limp should go away soon. It's funny, he walks like the cast is still on! We took advantage of his good mood this weekend and decided to attempt going out to dinner again. The last time we tried, we jumped ship before our food even got served and instead had everything packed up and ate at home. He just wouldn't sit still in a restaurant high chair and wanted to get down and move around. We were hoping that was just a phase caused by the cast and luckily for us, it was! This past Saturday night we went to PF Changs in Boston for a nice dinner....we decided to go to Boston because a new PINKBERRY just opened on Newbury Street, so we had to go!!! We had a blast walking through the park before dinner and came across a huge pile of leaves that Matty had so much fun playing in for about a half an hour. Both Andrew and I were taking a million pictures of him and of course, got maybe 2 or 3 good ones! Dinner was good and we discovered Matty loves Hot and Sour soup! He ate almost an entire bowl of hit (feeding himself and ruining a white undershirt in the process!). Sunday we went to the playground for a while and ended up again playing in the leaves for a long time...this time getting a couple of nice pictures and a semi-family portrait!

We are looking forward to more fun times without he happy little guy and love to watch him play and be so happy!

Halloween Fun

Matty enjoyed his second Halloween and despite the cold and the cast, didn't let anything stop him from enjoying trick or treating early in the day when we went around a neighborhood close to home.


Later on we headed to a nearby town to go with our friends "The Renos" and their 2 girls (one was a shark and one was dressed as sushi! Very creative and I wish I had some pictures of them!) We went with the Renos last year and thought it would be fun to do it again...Matty had a different thought...Unfortunately he got pretty frustrated and wanted to walk up to the door and choose his candy like the other kids and due to stairs, long driveways and walkways and lots and lots of kids, he just couldn't do it comfortably...he didn't want to be held and didn't' want to go in the wagon (which we thought would be a great vehicle for him!) and ultimately ended up melting down. We had to abandon the tricks and treats and carried the screaming little monkey back to the Renos, packed up and headed home. Once we got home, Matty was pretty calm and enjoyed looking through his "loot" and tried a root beer dum dum lolipop. He didn't' eat much of it, taking after his parents who both hate root beer flavored candy.




After checking it all out, he ate some dinner and went to bed with no trouble, until he woke up at 3am and NEVER went back to sleep...and neither did we! We are thinking he is just sick and tired of the cast and is just ready to have it off! We are looking forward to that too.

Monday afternoon can't come soon enough for us and we are hoping the monkey will be as good as new!

Haircuts...

Believe it or not, Matty has actually gotten 4 haircuts so far. His hair grows wicked quick, which is good because the last time we got his haircut (about a month ago), he basically got a buzz cut! It's growing in nicely now but took us a while to get used to it. We always go to the same barber shop (where Andrew has gotten his haircut for the past 5 years) and the last time the woman said she remembered him and would do the same thing as the previous time. Too bad she forgot because she took the clippers and went straight across his head! Oh well!

As far as him dealing with the haircut....well, the first time he was okay with minimal crying and each time since has gotten progressively worse! I guess that's one good thing about his hair being so short now, we won't have to go back for a while!

Here's a few pictures of before and after shots:

Before the first haircut

After the first haircut!


Before his third haircut...I can't remember or find pictures of his second...oh well

After


Before his last haircut

After

Oct Update

Matty is coming along nicely with the cast...I think he forgets he even has it sometimes as he is walking and getting round like it's not even there! He does get frustrated some times as he can't climb as well as he used to and can't move as fast but it really doesn't seem to be slowing him down. One more week and he gets it off, hopefully good as new!

We went for his 18 month check up this past week and got a clean bill of health from Dr. Eric. Matty is in the 30th percentile for everything...weight, height, head circumference. They used his weight from the week before when we were there for his leg, this week would have been quite different, I'm sure the cast weighs at least 5 pounds! Dr. Eric was happy with all of his developmental milestones, even his language. We've been a little worried as he doesn't have a ton of words for an 18 month old (dad, dog, cat, duck, ball, bye) but doesn't talk that much. Since he has and uses about 20 or so signs, Dr Eric said hat is perfect as he is communicating and choosing his form of communication...he also said the signing will help his vocabulary and we should see an explosion of word soon. I can't wait!
Here is a picture of him signing "milk"...and yes, he has milk sprayed all over him from his straw!

Halloween is tomorrow and Matty has already attended a Halloween party last week at Nini Bambini (his second annual one). A woman I work with made his Halloween costume and was nice enough to adjust it for his cast. We decided to dress Matty as an "Imagination Mover" from the Disney show. Although he doesn't tell us, we know this is one of his favorite shows and loves to watch it every morning as he is snacking on his Cheerios and milk in our bed before we all get up for the day (thank goodness for DVR, we have about 10 episodes to choose from at any time!). I can't lie, Andrew and I love the show too! The music is very catchy and the writing is very clever. Anyway, Mover Matty is ready again to get dressed up in his costume and head out for trick or treating tomorrow! It's supposed to be cold but we'll all bundle up and keep him warm in his wagon.


A few nights ago we carved our pumpkins, roasted the seeds for a snack and tried to take some pictures outside with them. I guess it was too dark out but Matty had fun playing with the seeds and the inside of the pumpkins!




And finally...there couldn't be a more beautiful fall tree and we are lucky enough to have it right in front of our house! It's too bad the whole thing is bare now but for about 2 weeks, we saw this every time we looked outside!

Good reason to Blog...

Just to prove our blog is not DEAD, I thought I would post about our latest adventure with the little daredevil monkey we call Matty. Our little guy is now the proud owner of a blue full leg cast! While at the playground last Monday after going down the slide, he started to cry and had a hard time standing up. He got over it quickly and remained in a relatively good mood unless he was putting weight on his left leg. So, we went to the emergency room and after 4 hours, no dinner for any of us and way past Matty's bedtime, the dr. said his x-rays were fine and sent us home saying it was probably just a sprain or strain in his knee and if he isn't better in a few days to follow up with an orthopedic or our pediatrician. On Wednesday, he still wasn't putting any weight on the leg so we went to his doctor and got more X-rays to find out there was a small hairline crack in the bone right below his knee. They called this a "toddler fracture" and not uncommon but the best treatment being a cast for almost 3 weeks, he gets it off Mon Nov 8th. The casting process was a fun one with the little guy screaming so hard and loud that I think the whole building heard him, he just didn't want to be held down! The dr and cast tech were finally done and Matty just passed out in my arms, waking up after we got home a while later and being very confused as to what the heck was on his leg! Yesterday was his first full day with the cast and he is doing fine, figuring out a new way to crawl, climb stairs and even walk a little bit! He is definitely a resilient little guy! We did go out yesterday and buy him some "lounge wear" as none of his pants will fit over the cast so it's sweatpants for him for the next few weeks. We also bought him a few new toys to keep him busy since he normally is running around and climbing on everything and anything that moves and has wheels. His new toys are more for him to sit quietly playing with and I think we made the right choice with the Magnadoodle, he loves it! We also got him a few new videos to watch as we (Andrew and I) are getting kind of sick of the 1 or 2 he wants to watch constantly. Lately his favorite is Signing Times, which has been great as he has over 20 signs he currently uses. My favorite is whenever he sees a baby, he wraps his arms around himself and just shakes back and forth, it's really cute! Since he loves the Signing Times so much, I ordered him 2 more from the series, hopefully they will be here soon to help keep him occupied! So, the next few weeks should be fun and interesting...I'm just so proud of how he is handling this, we really are lucky that he has such a good disposition and seems to be handling this all in stride right now!

The picture is him crawling yesterday morning for the first time! We'll get some more pictures posted soon (I guess that means about 2 months based on the last post!)

Beach Photos

A few weeks ago while on vacation, we went to the beach in The Hamptons. Here are some pictures of our adventure, Matty loved the water!!!!