March 30th

Matthew rolled over yesterday!! I had seen him do it before, but each time was just a fluke; he couldn’t repeat it. Well, he did it yesterday while we were hanging out on the bed together. I got excited and Tony wanted to see. I wasn’t sure he would do it again, but he did! And then he did it for a third time, which we caught on camera! We’re so excited. We were convinced that he would start crawling before he rolled over. Well, we were evidently wrong. Now he can roll from his tummy to his back, and if he didn’t stick out his arm to stop himself he would be able to roll from his back to his tummy. Now on to crawling! No rush though, because then we’ll have to totally baby proof the house, and I’ll have to vacuum more often. Hahaha.

Another soon to be first! Matthew almost has his first tooth. We know it’s almost out because he loves biting our fingers and we can feel it just under his gums. We’ll keep you updated as to when it actually makes its appearance, and the corresponding bite mark on my finger.

Last night we got family portraits done at the church. They are doing a parish directory with pictures, and each participating family gets a free 8x10. We got there at our appointed time, and were told to come back in an hour, they were running late. It was almost 6:00, so traffic was heavy and we couldn’t go anywhere without having to turn right back around. Thankfully Matty fell asleep in the car so we just hung out and waited for our turn. Finally we got to go in about an hour and a half after our appointment time. We were nervous to see if we would get anything good. We’re happy to report that they got a couple of really good pictures of us. This is the first time we’ve had a family portrait done, and Matty is coming up on his six month birth date. We can’t wait to get the photos in a few weeks!!

After pictures Matty went to hang out at Grandma Jan’s house and Tony took me out on a date (thanks to a gift card from Josh and Nicki for his birthday- yes we’ve held onto it that long). We also celebrated Tony’s promotion!!! Yes, after only five months Tony got promoted! He is now his shift’s lead dispatcher. Tony has put in a lot of effort and dedication to his job; he loves it and is really good at it. We’re so happy and proud of him!

Matty's awesome dino visor.

Taking funny pictures together.

playing with his toys.

Tony and me while out on our date.

March 24th

Last Saturday we got to go to Tony’s second cousin, Crystal’s, wedding reception. She and her husband got married in Jamaica onMarch 10th, 2010. When they got home to Texas they wanted to have a reception with all of their family and friends. We had a nice time; we drove down a few hours early to Tony’s great-aunt and uncle’s land and got to spend time with family. Tony, Nicki, Josh, and I all drove into town to go antiquing. Tony’s dad collected antique cobalt blue glass pieces, and we decided that we would each start our own collection. We were lucky enough to find two identical blue vases in the shop we were in; it was perfect!Tony and I also got a plate, and Nicki and Josh got a second vase. We’re excited about our new collections and we are planning on going to visit a new antique shop once a month together to spend some time together, get away, and expand our collections!

After our shopping adventure we headed back to get ready and then headed over to the reception. It was in an art gallery/restaurant and it was so much fun! They had live music and a great fajita bar. Crystal’s husband, Kevin, even sang her a song- it was so sweet! We had a great time and wish Crystal and Kevin lots of love and happiness together.

Other than that things have been quietly uneventful here. We mowed our lawn for the first time this year, well Tony did, and I picked up puppy-poo. We, unfortunately, had wasps start to set up, not one, but TWO nests around our house; one outside the front door, and one outside the back. This morning I sprayed the heck out of them both. Hopefully that will deter them from building anymore anywhere near our house! I got some of my first ‘alone time’ since Matty came along last night. Tony went to Wednesday night prayer group with his mom and took Matty with him. I got to just veg out, read, and then I went and got some sushi. It was just an hour or so, but it great! I’m looking forward to more Wednesday nights!

Matty is doing fantastic. He loves chewing on his burp clothes, my fingers, my hair, and anything else we’ll give him to chew. I can see a couple of little teeth getting ready to come up, and I’m scared for the day I let him chew on my finger and one of them actually chomps into me! He is still sleeping great! Thank goodness! We are so lucky!!! He’s getting pretty good at the whole cereal thing. We still do one ‘bowl’ a day. Matty is really strong and likes to use his legs to ‘crawl’ up me when I’m holding him. We’ve been working on translating that into him crawling on the floor. He’s getting closer, but still needs a hand behind him to push off of. Once he figures out that using the floor works the same way he’ll be off! I’m pretty sure it’ll happen in the next month. He is still stubbornly not rolling over. He rolls onto his side now whenever he goes to sleep, but puts his arm out to prevent him from rolling all the way over. Tomorrow he turns five months old. I can’t believe it! He’s getting so big. I’m still filled with love every time I look at him, and I expect I always will be!

About to head out; got his shades in the ready position!

This child loves staring at the camera, I can move it anywhere and he will look at it!

Hey!

Standing on his own, for a second anyway.

March 18th

Things have gotten back to normal now. Since the doctor said that we could start solid foods with Matty whenever we wanted to we decided to try some rice cereal. The first time he tried it he wasn’t too sure about it. He ate about a quarter of it and then wanted his bottle. It was a good start! Yesterday he ate the entire ‘bowl’ and had a very messy face to clean up afterwards! It was pretty fun though; we made yum noises together and giggled. Matty has been doing that a lot more lately. Grandma Jan gets the best giggles out of him; we haven’t caught it on camera yet- but we will!

Not sure, but I think I like it...

The aftermath!

Yesterday was Matty’s first St. Patrick’s Day. He had a cute little leprechaun outfit, but get it messy and needed to change. Then he got his next outfit dirty, and the one after that. It’s a good think my favorite color is green; he had many to choose from. He’s had a ‘baby’s first’ bib for every holiday, so Grandma Jan brought him a St Patrick’s Day bib when she came over for dinner.

Cutest little leprechaun!

Looks like he's had a few too many green beers!

Matty's cool new shades!

Enjoying his new rattle toy.

Snoozing at the restaurant, I think he looks like a little old man snoozing on the recliner!

Colorado trip: Part 4 (the last one)

Sunday morning we had a great brunch of French Toast with my Mom, Richard, Grammy, Ashley, Reid, and Grandma and Grandpa Chandler. After breakfast Tony’s grandparents hit the road to get back to Amarillo. My Mom had a meeting that she had to attend, so our good-byes were quick, which made it much easier. We got to say one last goodbye to Terri and Perry. Then we spent some time with my Grandma until we had to leave to meet Ashley to go to the airport. We met at Franks, said more goodbyes and we were on our way. Last I had to say goodbye to Ashley at the airport. It was so hard to leave. The trip seemed so short. We had good flights back, and Matty only got grumpy at the end, but that was because he wanted a bottle. We had to take a shuttle home since we didn’t have a car at the airport. We didn’t get into bed until almost midnight, and everyone (minus me!) had to get up and go to work or school the next morning; oh well, it was worth it!

Of course, with all the hiccups that happened on the trip the getting home part was no exception. When we got to the house (45+ minutes away from the airport) we discovered that we left one of our bags there. So the next day Matty and I took off for the airport again. We got the bag and made it back home.

While I was attempting to bring in the bag, Matthew, the diaper bag, my purse, etc. Trigger snuck out into the garage. I called him back in and saw him munching on something. Cue dramatic music, it was rat poison (I had put some in the garage after seeing a jumbo rat in there). I freaked out! I looked up on the Internet what to do and it said to feed him hydrogen peroxide to make him vomit. We didn’t have any in the house, so Matty and I rushed to the pharmacy to buy some. After administering two doses to him he still refused to vomit; so then all three of us hurried into the vet’s office. They did get him to vomit, gave him activated charcoal to stop any absorption of the poison, and gave me a prescription for Vitamin K. I was told to keep an eye on him, but they thought that since he didn’t eat very much, we caught it quickly, and he thew it all up he should be fine. He is. He acted like nothing happened. He’s still all happy, has a great appetite for anything he can get his teeth to, and has had no problem what-so-ever. What a great welcome home present though!

Trig doing just fine, sleeping on Tony's pillows!

Colorado trip: Part 3- the Baptism

Saturday morning we all hung out and got the house ready for the luncheon later that afternoon. Around noon guests started arriving. My Mom and Grandma made a fantastic lunch. We had roasted turkey, ham, homemade potato salad, homemade pasta salad, fresh rolls, relish tray, and a beautiful cake. There were almost thirty guests. We were blessed to have Tony’s grandparents, Darlene, Elmer, and Robert as well as his uncle Rob drive up from Amarillo to share this special day. The weather was beautiful and we got to enjoy my Mom’s deck and the beautiful Colorado mountain views. Around four everyone left to get ready for the service that evening. We got dressed up and headed for the church.


The priest who was supposed to preform Matthew’s Baptism broke his wrist, so we had to a different priest to do it. Father Dan, who was the priest at the church while we were growing up, was going to be the Celebrant. The Baptism was wonderful. Matthew did great, he didn’t cry at all. My sister, Tony, and I were seated in the front row; during the Our Father we all hold hands. Tony was on one side, and Ashley was on the other. I couldn’t help but think that as each of them extended their other hand out that they were holding hands with our family members, Grampy and Galen, who were celebrating in heaven with us. It brought a tear to my eye.



After the Mass ended we took family pictures. Then we went to DiRitos for dinner with the whole family. It was a great end to a wonderful day.


P.S. We have a video of the Baptism and anyone who would like a copy just let me know and I can burn it and send it to you.

After the service at DiRitos

Daddy, Mommy, and God-Mother

With Grandpa-Frank

With uncle Reid

With Terri and Perry

Me and my sweet baby

With Aunt Athena, and Grandma Jan

The Koch side of the family.

The Great-Grandparents who were there.

My side of the family.

Getting his Baptismal garment and Baptismal candle

all done!

Getting the water poured on his head, no crying!

About to start.

Colorado trip: Part 2

Ashley came and picked Tony, Matty, and I up from the airport. Jan and Athena rented a car and went to visit some old friends who still lived in Denver. It was nice chatting and catching up on the way down to Canon City (a two hour drive). When we got there we went to dinner at my step-dad, Frank’s, house. My mom was in between meetings so she got to swing by too. As we got out of the car all my mom would say is, “where’s Matty, I want to see my grand-baby.” No, “hi Mel and Tony, I’m so glad you’re here.” It was all about the baby. Ha, I can’t blame her! After dinner we headed up to Mom’s house where we would be staying. We got to see Grammy and then we turned in. However, upon opening up our suitcases we discovered that Matty’s suitcase was in Denver with Jan and Athena, and Athena’s suitcase was in Canon City with us (two hours separated us). Our two suitcases look very similar and we didn’t check very closely at the airport. Thankfully we had an extra pajama outfit in Matthew’s bag. We ‘had’ to go stock up on some other outfits for him the next morning since his suitcase wouldn’t be arriving until Saturday morning. I’m sure Athena was ‘really bummed’ to have to go shopping for some new clothes too.

Friday was spent with my family. Friday night we went out to dinner with Ashley, her boyfriend, Reid, my stepmom, Terri, and her husband, Perry.

Yes, my family can be confusing, but let me explain… Terri was married to my dad for quite a while. They aren’t together anymore but she is still family, and I feel that step-parent is a term of high honor and love. Just as Frank will always be my stepdad, Terri will always be my stepmom.

We went to Mo Mo’s, a Japanese restaurant in Canon City. You would probably think that the food isn’t too good, but it’s AWESOME!! Tony, who doesn’t really like the whole sushi thing, tried a piece of mine! He isn’t a huge fan, but I’m proud of him for trying it. He did enjoy his teriyaki chicken. We stayed there until the restaurant closed.

After dinner Tony told me he was taking me out somewhere to stay the night. My mom got to have a sleepover with Matthew. Tony said that we were just going to stay in a hotel so we could get away, but he surprised me by taking me to the bed and breakfast that we stayed in the night we got married. The same ‘bridal suite’ and everything!! We got to the B&B around 9:00; the guy running it had said that he would leave the door open for us as he was out bowling. Well, the doors were all locked. We tried calling him a bunch of times, we called the owner (who was vacationing in Florida), and we were about to give up when my mom told us to just go to the bowling ally. We did. We asked for Keith and since Florence is such a small town the lady knew exactly who he was. He came over, Tony introduced himself and Keith said “Oh, are you guys staying there tonight?” Yes, we are. “Was the door locked?” Yes, it was. All I could think of was the ‘here’s your sign’ comedy act. I wanted to say, “No, Keith we aren’t staying there tonight, the doors are unlocked. We just wanted to come out and go bowling with you!! Here’s your sign.” Geeze! Anyway, he gave us the key and we went and let ourselves in. We enjoyed a glass of wine together and had a nice time just being the two of us. The next morning we had a great breakfast and headed back to my mom’s house to get ready for the Baptism luncheon.

Colorado trip: Part 1

On Wednesday the 2nd Matthew had his four month check-up. He weighed in at 15 pounds, 6.5 ounces, and measured 26 inches long. He is still doing great weight wise and is now starting to catch up in his length (he was a little low in that category last time). The doctor said that he looks great. She said that we should keep him on his prevacid until he’s six months, then we can take him off and see how he does, or we can just keep him on it until he’s nine months when babies typically grow out of their reflux. She also said that we can start him on food whenever we’d like. She said to start with some rice cereal once a day and once he’s good with that we can add another serving. We can also start other ‘solid’ foods, but need to space them out by at least a couple of days to see how he does. I don’t think we’ll be doing that for a while though. It will be a big change just starting cereal! After his exam he got 3 vaccines. One was oral, which he enjoyed and then one shot in each leg. The nurse who preformed the vaccinations was really nice, talking to Matthew and I the whole time. Matthew gave one big scream/cry for each leg and then just wimpered. Thankfully it was then time for his bottle, so he immediately forgot the whole shot ordeal. We finished up his bottle and then headed home. He fell asleep on the ride home and continued to nap while I finished packing us for our trip to Colorado.

Tony and Jan both got off of work early and we all met up at our house. The plan was to drive from Fort Worth to Amarillo where Tony’s grandparents live. There we would stay the night and hang out a bit the next day before catching our flight to Denver. Well, we were on the road to Amarillo at 6:15p.m. We stopped for dinner about an hour and a half out of Fort Worth. Everything was going well. Matty was sleeping in the car and we all got to chat and snooze (minus the driver of course). Then about 12:30-1:00a.m. as I was driving I heard a weird noise. I changed lanes thinking it was the road, but the noise didn’t stop. Tony woke up and informed me that I had a flat tire and that I should pull off to the side of the road. Now we’re about 60 miles out of Amarillo, and there isn’t much out there; it’s really dark and there is not much of a shoulder on the road. Here starts the ‘fun’. The spare tire is in the trunk under our 6+ bags. We have to take all of them out. Then I have to pull forward to get the car in a better position to jack up the car. Next we can’t find the special ‘key’ to take the tire off. Finally we find it. Next we jack up the car, but fail to put on the emergency brake, so the car rolls off. Take two- we get the car jacked up again. Oh, did I mention that we didn’t have a flashlight? Yes. Thankfully Tony and I both have a ‘flashlight app’ on our phones; amazingly these things are really bright so we were able to do all this work.

Tony changed the tire; we loaded the flat and all of our luggage back into the trunk, and drove the rest of the way to Amarillo. We didn’t get there until after 2:00a.m.!! Long night!

Tired boys

The next day we were treated to a great breakfast thanks to Tony’s Grandparents. Then more of his family came over and we all had lunch together. We cut it a little close on time, but we made it to the airport. At the airport Tony got to get patted down because we were carrying on pre-made baby formula. Now it is bigger than 3 oz, but it is allowed; plus it was sealed. They still did a ‘chemical screening’ of it and patted down the owner (even though it was in my bag). Yeah, fun! We all had a good flight.

Matty looking like an airplane

I’ll post again later about more of the trip!

March 1st

Happy March first!!

I realized that in my blog yesterday that I forgot something! Big congratulations to our friends Kandice and Jonathan in North Carolina as they welcome their son, Seth William-Bray Thorne. He was born February 22nd, 2011; 7 pounds 8 ounces, 21 inches long. We are so happy for them. We know that they’ll be great parents! We are excited to meet him when they come out to Texas in May. Little Seth and Mommy Kandice on his birth-day.

This morning Matty was talking away in his little chair. Usually when I get out my phone or camera he stops whatever he is doing and just stares at it (he loves looking at the screen). Today he was focused on his little elephant mobile so I got a good video of him ‘talking.’ It always makes me smile, so I hope it does the same for you. Have a great day. We love you all!!!

Enjoying his morning bottle.