Matty Claus

Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday!!!!!

100 and Counting!!!

Wishing my Grandfather Jack a happy 100th birthday today.....

What a milestone......



Grandpa was lucky enough to have Williard Scott on the Today show wish him a happy birthday this morning!!!!!

Early December Update

Yeah...so I'm a slacker...If it wasn't for Denise..None of you would know what's going on in our lives.. Anyway..

The weekend before thanksgiving we headed down to our friends Ingrid and Josh's house for a gourmet "14 course" tasting dinner cooked by Josh. It was great fun and included delights such as dehydrated bacon with caramel sauce, tobacco creams, and caramel popcorn drinks... for a more detailed review of the meal check out this link...http://ri100mi.com/2009/11/24/if-josh-tells-me-to-eat-leaves/

On Wednesday morning we headed down to Long Island for thanskgiving.. Denise and I had the day so we hit the road before the traffic. We made a nice pit stop in Manchester, CT and got to meet our friends Karyn and Stephen's new little guy Justin.

The weekend itself was a whirlwind with lots of family and friends. Matty was a great little boy in the car by himself in the backseat as we had to take two cars.
He met some of his new family members and also got to watch his first thanksgiving parade.

Thanksgiving dinner was a whirlwind of activity and Matty tried his first piece of turkey (he didn't seem too thrilled by the taste based on his face). Otherwise we had a great day... Denise had to leave early friday morning to head back to NH for work. Matty and I spent the day with family and then headed into the city for the big post thanksgiving bash at my sisters. Matty had a lot of fun playing with his cousins...


He even got to have story time from his aunt rachie...


Matty and I drove home saturday afternoon to get home in time to meet Denise coming home from work.. That didn't quite work out due to a lot of traffic on the Mass Pike... Matty was a great passenger though and managed to make it through the four 1/2 hour trip without many tears...

Now we are back to our routines and getting into winter/holiday mode...Just today I brought down the tree,decorations, lights and menorah from our attic..I'm pretty sure Denise will spend this evening decorating the tree...

This coming thursday is my grandfather Jacks 100th birthday.... Be sure to tune into the Today show between 8:30-9:00 to see Willard Scott announce his birthday!!!
We will be heading down to Long Island this weekend once again to celebrate this milestone. Yet again Matty will be meeting some of his relatives for the very first time..

In other news...It was bound to happen eventually but winter is finally here...Matty experienced his first snowstorm (albeit a little one) but he got to hold his first snowball and seemed to be mesmerized by the snow.. perhaps when there is more snow we will try out his sled!!!!!

Here he is in his first winter wonderland...

Happy 7 Month Birthday!

Yes, little Matty turned 7 months last Thursday! So hard to believe and incredible to see him grow over that time! Each day brings more fun, challenges and surprises and even when it's tough, we love every minute of it, especially when he is as smiley as he is!

We took him to his 6 month check up this past Monday (we always seem to be a month off, oh well) and he got his regular shots plus the seasonal flu and H1N1 shot. Just like at 2 and 4 months, he took them like a champ and only cried for a bit. He did pout like I've never seen him do before and we all laughed because he looked so darn cute. I guess the laughing encouraged him and I am seeing the pout more and more often lately!

His check up went great and again Dr Eric said he is doing terrific and we are doing great as parents. Always nice to hear :-). He weighed in at a whopping 18.4 lbs (50th percentile) and 25 inches long (15th percentile! I think the measurement may have been off as he was extremely squirmy when the nurse was trying to measure him) and I forgot his head measurement but also in the 50th percentile. We talked about his eating solids and Dr Eric said we could try him on some different proteins and textures like cottage cheese or smashed chick peas so I think we might get a little more adventurous in the next few weeks with his eating.

Dr Eric also said his development looks great. I was a bit concerned as he has only really rolled over from back to belly a few times (the first being a few weeks ago and both Andrew and I saw him do it, it was a proud parent moment!) But despite not rolling, he sits up on his own great and has for about a month now. He is able to get from sitting to his tummy and almost get up on his hands and knees, although like rolling he doesn't seem to be too interested in making the move to the crawling just yet. We are fine with that since we haven't done any baby proofing of the house and we know its only a matter of time!

On the teething front...there is still none to speak of! I feel like he's been "teething" since about 3 1/2 months. He shoves everything in his mouth, drools like a dog and seems to be in a lot of teething pain, especially at night. He's been waking up screaming a few times a night lately and letting him cry it out isn't really working. We give him teething tabs which are homeopathic tabs that dissolve in his mouth and are like "baby crack"...we think he might be addicted. Everyday we wake up I feel inside his mouth and I'm convinced one of those pearly whites are going to break right through, but not yet!

Speaking of sitting up on his own, whenever we are at the store, we've been putting him in the shopping cart sitting up like a big boy, he loves it and loves all the attention he gets! Last week I was out shopping at Babies R Us and had him in there and all of a sudden I looked down and he was fast asleep! He looked so cute sleeping sitting up, I had to take a picture (or two). I couldn't push him around like that so I picked him up and carried him for a while and then went to the section with all the rocking chairs and sat with him asleep on me for about 20 minutes. He never sleeps like that on me anymore so I enjoyed every minute of it!





Next up is the holidays! We are traveling to Long Island next week to celebrate Thanksgiving with Andrew's family and Matty will finally get to meet some of his relatives he has never met before. Unfortunately I have to come back to NH on Friday as I do work in retail and as long as I do, I will never have the Friday after Thanksgiving off! Andrew and Matty are staying in NY and coming home on Saturday. Its going to be so weird being in the house and not having them here! I suppose I can look forward to a night of uninterrupted sleep but I will miss them! Of course I could always take him to work with me, he already has his own nametag for when he comes to visit at work!

Avocado Face

Wow, 2 blogs in two days...I'm on a roll! Since Matty has been eating solids for well over a month now, I thought I would blog about all the wonderful things that go along with this new milestone! We started him at about 5 1/2 months with just rice cereal, which he was okay with but boy is it bland! We tasted it too, yuck. We waited the recommended 4 days of the cereal and moved onto bananas. He liked these too but I guess I didn't realize that rice cereal + bananas each for 4 days would equal one bound up little boy. Fortunately, it never seemed to bother him and fortunately for me, he finally pooped while I was at work and Andrew was home with him. Andrew was kind enough to email me a picture of it at work though! I'll skip posting the picture here but it was a doozy!. After the bananas we did apples and then pears which seems to be his favorite. We also switched to oatmeal instead of rice cereal and he seems to like it more and has 2 grams of fiber! Next we went to veggies...sweet potatoes, butternut squash, avocado, and peas. We haven't found something he doesn't like yet although the peas didn't seem to agree with him! We only gave them to him once and that night he woke up crying, I went in after 10 minutes (yes, we did the "cry it out" wait ten minutes before going in, its working and all 3 of us are happy and well rested) and put my hand on his chest, it was wet, so I turned the light on and my little monkey was covered in green vomit! Yuck, I know! It was like The Exorcist! A little bit of a scare for all 3 of us but after we got him in dry jammies and calmed him down, he was fine. No fever, no more crying. I don't know if he is allergic or they just didn't agree with him but we didn't try them again the next day. Maybe we will try again in a month or so, I still have 2 ice cube trays full of pureed peas so lets hope he ends up being okay with them! I have been making all his fruits and veggies...so easy and fun to do too. I knew the "magic bullet" would come in handy someday! We are going to increase him to 2 meals a day now as he has been drinking soooo much milk at daycare and I can't keep up with him unless I pumped 5 times a day at work, which just isn't possible. We want to start some new fruits so I think mango and blueberries are on the horizon soon!

The upside to the pea incident is that his sleep suit was also covered in green vomit so he went without it that night and we decided what a great time to wean him off it! We did swaddle him that night with one arm out, then a few nights with both arms out and now he is sleeping in just a sleep sack and doing great! I didn't think it would be that easy but I think we got lucky.

Here is the smiley boy in his high chair waiting for his dinner!

Happy Halloween!

Matty is enjoying his first Halloween today and will be going trick or treating for the second time later on this evening. The city of Manchester traditionally has their trick or treating the Sunday before Halloween. I had to work but Andrew had fun going around with Matty in his monkey costume (what else?). Tonight we are going to our friends in a nearby town and trick or treating on the real holiday. We are looking forward to the tradition and more good picture ops!

One Big Update

It's been a while so this might be long, but guaranteed to be full of Matty, Matty, Matty! We've been settling into our new home and enjoying the extra space and luxuries we never had before such as a bath tub, king sized bed and backyard with a grill. I've been back to work for over a month now and Andrew has been in school for almost 3 weeks. Matty has been in daycare for almost 4 weeks and so far so good! He did get his first cold/cough/virus the second week which left all 3 off us pretty miserable for a while as Matty didn't really sleep well during that time at all, and in turn neither did we. Even now that he is better, sleep is still hit or miss as he is teething too. Some nights he sleeps 7 or even 8 hours straight and some he wakes up every 2 hours, and there is no rhyme or reasons as to why (or at least what we can figure out!). He is also amazingly growing in front of our eyes! He went for his fourth month appointment a few weeks ago (even though he turned 5 months 3 days later!) and did fine again with his shots...only cried a minute or two. He was up to 15.14 lbs (46th percentile) and 25 inches (50th percentile). Dr. Eric said he was doing great and said we could start him on solids if we wanted. I was thinking we would wait until 6 months but he has been showing signs of being interested in eating as he watches us eat and shoves his hands into anything we are eating so we decided to start a little at this time. His first was a little rice cereal we gave him the past few days which he took fine and seemed to enjoy the whole process. Tonight we tried some bananas and he really seemed to like it! Lots of smiles and opening his mouth up for more. It's pretty fun to see his face experience something new but yes...very messy! We are looking forward to making some applesauce from the awesome apples we picked today and trying that at the end of the week and then probably some sweet potatoes, avocado and butternut squash. I have a feeling the kitchen floor will be very colorful! Here's some pictures of him trying the cereal the first time. We were just sitting him up in the bumbo but got a chance to go out and buy a new high chair yesterday, which he looks like such a big boy when he's in it!





We've also been doing a whole nighttime routine with him every night before he goes to sleep which includes a bath and stories read by his daddy (Goodnight Moon every night!). We never really had a good bathing system as our old place only had a shower so we put the baby tub on the bottom of the shower and bathed him that way. We both usually ended up soaking wet! When we moved, we were so excited about having a bathtub. The tub is great for us, however it is very deep and has high sides and glass doors, so very difficult to put the tub in and use. So I decided to get a Tummy Tub. The place where I go to moms group, Nini Bambini, sells these and I thought they sounded great, and we can just put it right on the floor of the bathroom. They are designed to make babies feel like they are in the womb because they kind of sit in a fetal position and the water comes up to their chin. It took him a few times to get comfortable with it but now he loves it. He sits and splashes and plays. I know they say you can use it until 2 years old but I can't imagine that! I'm sure we will transition to the regular tub by then! Here are some pictures of him enjoying his tummy tub!




And lastly, we are enjoying the change of seasons. It was a great summer and some say not long enough but I guess since I was off, it felt long enough for me. I am loving the cool mornings and evenings and crisp fall air. The leaves are just starting to change in NH and it's starting to look beautiful. Today we went apple picking for the first time and enjoyed the beautiful day. It's also fun to start dressing Matty for the new season. Instead of just one piece rompers, he's been wearing jeans, overalls, sweaters, fleeces, etc...he just looks so cute! Here's a picture of him all bundled up in his bear sweatshirt when it was 50 degrees yesterday morning! And a picture of him sitting up in a baby sled our friends gave us...he doesn't know what it's for yet but yes, snow will be just around the corner!

RIP Johnny Castle...

Nobody puts Baby in the corner....

Back to School

Although I've had inservice days yesterday and today (Mon and Tues), tomorrow marks my first day of the 2009-2010 school year at Nashua High School North...



I am looking forward to meeting the 93 sophomores who I will have the pleasure of spending 90 minutes a day with, for the next 90 days...

This year I am lucky enough to have my own classroom and won't have to be one of those traveling teachers....

Go Titans!!!!!

The New Digs!!!

Well it's been almost a month since we moved into our new house...We are about 95% done unpacking and decorating (still a few more boxes etc.)...I guess it's time now that we put up some pictures.....

Here's the front...


And the living room


And the kitchen..



The kitchen from the other side...


The backyard....


Matty's Bedroom...


Another of Matty's Room..



Our Bedroom....


Our new king size bed!!!


(YEAH I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE MADE THE BED FOR THE PICTURE!!!!)

Upstairs bathroom....


And a few of the basement (used as a guestroom, playroom and office/den)

Yikes..A month!!!!

Wow...We are really blogging slackers aren't we??? I guess it's more me than Denise as its been a really long time since I blogged....Anyway it's been a busy busy month.... Since the last blog we became homeowners and have moved to our new digs..Pictures to follow soon, I promise.....Packing, moving and unpacking was a royal pain, it always is, but even more so with a 3 month old....We had a big yard sale a couple of weekends before we moved and made over 300 dollars, not bad, and we got rid of a lot of crap...

We are now all moved in and settled in to the new place. We are very happy and comfortable here (Central AC is the best!!!!)... Matty seems to be enjoying it to...
As for the rest of our summer since our last post...We took another trip to see the families in New York..We spent a night in Great Neck with my parents..Then we headed out to the Hamptons for a couple of days and shacked up in the pool house....Then we headed up to Denise's parents for a couple of days and took Matty to his first horserace at the Saratoga racetrack...

Now we are back in town, and today marks Denise's first day back at work since Matty was born....This week it's Matty and me hanging out until he starts Day care next week. School starts for me in two weeks, hopefully we'll all be in a routine by then..

Things that we promise:
Pictures of our new home
Pictures of our trip
Pictures of Matty

Soon come...

Photoshop...

Courtesy of our friend Curtis...

Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit!

Ever since Matty was days old, we have swaddled him for sleep. He has always loved it and slept pretty well. We tried the regular receiving blankets of various sizes but never got it tight enough that he didn't bust out. We then found the Kiddopotamus...a cool blanket/pocket thing with Velcro closures. It looks a little like a straight jacket, but it always worked like a charm. In the past week he has seemed to outgrow the Kiddapotamus and either got his arms or legs or both out of it in the middle of the night (hence the difficulty sleeping lately!). I tried some other swaddles we had collected and nothing kept him in tight...he always seemed to get out or wake himself up flailing his arms and legs if we didn't swaddle him. So we bought the next size of the Kiddapotamus, thinking this will solve the problem...he's too small for them! For some crazy reason, they only make a "small" and a "large"...what happened to the medium??? Anyway...I was at my mom's group yesterday and someone suggested the Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit. It's kind of like a light weight snow suit that prevents a baby (who has gotten too big to swaddle) from moving their arms and legs around a lot and waking them up...just like the little kid from The Christmas Story! The place where I go to the mom's group (Nini Bambini) sells these and let me take one home on a trial basis to see if Matty would like it. We put him in it last night and after Andrew and I laughed at the poor kid for about 20 minutes, he fell right asleep and slept 5 hours, woke up to eat and them slept another 3 (this was after him sleeping in his swing in the living room for 3 hours so a good night of sleep overall). I'm going to try it out on him again tonight and see if it works again. Honestly, I'm excited that this is helping him sleep but I really just love the way he looks in it!!!

Happy 3 Month Birthday Matty!!

This past Sunday was Matty's 3 month birthday...and he went through a major growth spurt to prove it! He seemed to grow right in front of our eyes! He also did all those other wonderful things that go along with a growth spurt, including waking every two hours at night to eat, sleeping a lot during the day and being a real cranky pants when awake. Luckily he is past most of that although he is still waking a lot during the night...I must have jinxed myself since last week I was just saying how lucky we were to have such a good sleeper! On average he was sleeping 5 hours straight at night and even had a few 6 and 7 hour nights! Now we are lucky if he sleeps 3!

Here's a few of my favorite pictures of him lately, including his 13th week picture on his chair...unfortunately, he never seems happy when I want to take his picture in it!

All swaddled up for the night...too bad I don't have a picture of him busting out of it 2 hours later!

In his bumbo, and dressed in overalls for his Grammy!

Cool dude...

Bruce Springsteen impression...can you tell his dad likes to dress him up in strange outfits?

Sitting up in his co-sleeper (we propped him up, he didn't do it on his own!)