Memorial Day Weekend

It was a great and busy holiday weekend.  Mateo seems to learn something new everyday.  Some new things for Mateo are:

• Whenever Mateo has something big and something little, like a big piece of cracker and a little piece of cracker he will call the little thing the baby and the big thing the Mama.
• Goosebumps.  I've never seen Mateo with goosebumps until this week, and it wasn't because he was cold, it was when he was being tickled.
• Eskimo and butterfly kisses.  So cute, and he always giggles when you do butterfly kisses.
• When you ask him what an Aggie says he will say Gig 'em and give the thumb or whoop with the fingers.
• Peeing in the potty.

On Saturday, we took Mateo to the Children's Museum in Fort Worth for the first time.  Here are a few pics from that.

There was a doctor's office, with an ambulance and doctor stuff.

This alligator mouth was at the entrance and Mateo kept running in circles through it.

Mateo likes to make himself fall, so everytime he ran through the alligator he would fall and then get up and do it again.

There was an outdoor section with water toys.

They had a section set up like a grocery store with shopping carts, plastic food, and a checkout.

They had some reptiles throughout the museum.  He loved staring at this snake.

They had little tables set up where they could build racecar tracks.

And this was a GIANT light-bright!  This was amazing.  Juan and I tried to figure out how we could make one for our house.

We were able to get in the pool for the first time this weekend.  I still thought it was a little chilly but the boys were fine.

Mateo kept acting like he was washing himself.  I guess he thought it was a big bathtub.

On Sunday Mateo woke up at 6am.  We went to the park and played for about 1.5 hours, and he spent most of the time there running.  It was pretty warm outside so when we got home we got in the pool for the first time and swam for an hour or so.  Then we went inside for lunch.  Mateo could hardly keep his eyes open at the table.  This is definitely a first for him!  He was wore out!

Today was a good day.  We spent time at Lady and PawPaw's and had a BBQ.

Mateo loves Harley.  He gives him his daily snack and lots of kisses.

This is a new contraption that Juan got called a Woogie.  You slip your iPhone inside of it, and it is padded all around like a stuffed animal.  It makes it easier for Mateo to hold it, and protects the iPhone from drops and throws.  Juan has a lot of learning apps that really keep Mateo entertained.  It is great for long car trips and grocery shopping.

And this is exactly what the Woogie is for!

Playing with Bubba.  He has a love-hate relationship with this cat.  One second he will be yelling "no no" at Bubba if he is messing with his toys, and the next second he will be loving on him.

Playing with sticks.

Here is his "Whoop." 

This is Mateo singing his original tune.  The tune is always the same but the words change.  Sometimes he says "da da da da bop bop bop".  Sometimes its "ma ma ma ma bop bop bop."  He'll change the beginning words but leave the "bop bop bop" on the end.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was a busy one. Mateo woke up at 5:30am both mornings (this appears to be a new habit), so we got an early start to both days. Saturday we went to Bass ProShop, and just like his daddy, Mateo loved it. There are animals everywhere! They may be a little less alive than at the zoo, but at least that way you can get close up. They also have a big fish tank that he enjoyed looking at. Then we went and had lunch at the Rainforest Café. It’s a restaurant that is decorated like a rainforest with gorillas and elephants, and birds hanging from the ceiling. That was a lot of fun too. Our table was right next to a fish tank with lots of colorful fish, and they had a little show where all of the animals would come alive and move around. We were right near the gorillas, which were a little scary, so Mateo was a little nervous when they would start moving. Today we spent the morning at the park, and then we made a trip to the toy store to buy Mateo some more MegaBlocks. They are like giant Legos, and he loves playing with them! New things for Mateo this week:

• A sense of humor – Mateo has recently started verbally answering questions with a “yes” or a “no.” This week when I was putting him to bed I asked him “Do you love your mama?” He looked me dead in the eye and said “noooooo,” and then started laughing! That is not a good sense of humor!
• Singing – He might be the next American Idol.
• Telling me what to do – Just a few minutes ago he pulled me into the bedroom, pointed to the floor, and told me to “sit down.” When I sat on the bed, he looked at me, pointed to the floor again, and said “sit down.” Yes sir! Very rarely do I let Mateo go wild with his food, but this week I gave him some spaghetti and meatballs, and he hardly ever will eat meat, but this time he devoured it. I didn't want to interrupt so I just let him go at it, and this was the outcome. Straight to the bathtub.

The Rainforest Cafe

Coloring at the table. And notice it is with his left hand. I know it's too early to tell, but I'm putting money on it that he'll be a lefty like his Grandpa and yours truly.

It was 7am on a Sunday morning and we had the entire playground to ourselves. Instead of running wild Mateo decided to pick up the pieces of mulch and stick them in the holes of the stairs. Mateo has more attention to detail than most adults. He loves anything methodical, like lining things up, putting things together, his obsession with buckles, and things like this.

MegaBlock time.

Happy Birthday Mama!

I had a wonderful birthday last week. It made my day when Juan got Mateo to say "Happy Birthday Mama." I wanted to cry, it was so sweet! We went to a nice dinner on Friday night while Lady stayed with Mateo. Mateo is 20 months old now. Some of his favorite things are:

• Colors and shapes - Colors and shapes are the only thing on his mind, and he knows them all now.
• Pretend eating - He has started pretend eating stuff. It started with food in books - whenever there would be food on a page in a book he would pretend to take a bite of it. Then he started pretending to take a bite of people. It is really weird, but we laugh so hard when he does it, he'll probably do it forever now.
• Puppy-dog eyes - This is new, and something I'm sure he picked up at school. Anytime he isn't getting his way, he gives some good puppy dog eyes.

Doing some yoga in the flower bed.

Playing some ball.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all of the mothers out there! I had a very special mother's day, starting with a 2-hour massage and ending up at Mayfest with my boys. Here are the two best Mothers ever!

Watching some Sesame Street. Sesame Street is one of the only shows that Mateo will pay attention to for more than a few seconds.

Juan and I got to enjoy some crawfish a couple of Fridays ago at an afternoon crawfish boil. It was a nice break for me to take a Friday afternoon off work - and a normal Friday for Juan!

We are planning our first family vacation to Sea World San Antonio in June. Mateo won't last very long in his stroller, so we usually end up carrying him, and he is getting too heavy, so we invested in a baby back carrier. We practiced using it when we went to Mayfest, and Mateo seemed to enjoy it. As we were walking to the car, we were passing all of the other families carrying their kids or pushing screaming kids in their strollers. It felt nice to not be one of them and I felt like I was getting a workout while using it. Josie would be so proud!

We went to The Little Gym for the first time last weekend. It is basically a large organized playdate. Mateo started out a little reluctant, but once they dumped balls all over the ground he really loosened up. He does this thing now where he will grab a toy or a ball or anything, and drop it behind his head - and he thinks it disappears. He started doing this to all of the other parents at the Little Gym. I don't think they knew what to think of it!

Happy Easter, Happy Birthday!

We’ve been very busy since the last post, so this is going to be a long one. First things first, Happy Birthday to Juan – an amazing husband and father. He turns the big 32 today! We’ve had a lot going on the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, Sadie, our 7 year old German Shephard mix passed away from a sudden illness. She was such a sweet and good dog and will be missed so much by all of us. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of her. Grandma and Grandpa Ortegon were in town for 9 days and Aunt Edith was here for the last 4 days. We went to the zoo one day, which Mateo loves. They had a really neat exhibit where you could get a stick that had bird food on it, and the little birds would get on the stick to eat, so you could have a up close look at the birds. Mateo is really interested in birds right now, so it was a really good experience for him – until the bird got on our hands. That was a little too close for his liking.

These are a few pictures from the park. We can always get good pictures of Mateo swinging, that’s one of his favorite things to do.

Smelling the flowers. Whenever he sees flowers now, he always takes time out to smell them.

Taking a walk with Grandpa.

We were so glad Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Edith were here with us to celebrate Easter and see Mateo’s first Easter Egg hunt. We had been practicing hunting eggs at home for the past couple of weeks, because we wanted Mateo to know what he was supposed to do. He did perfect at the real thing! The weather was beautiful, and we had a nice barbeque at Lady and Paw-Paw's house.

Of course once he got his basket full he decided to dump all of his eggs out.

Feeding Roy and Bella some goldfish.

Sharing his goodies with the whole family.

Juan bought Mateo a $1 kite at WalMart, and it actually flew really well. It was really windy that day which was nice for kite-flying. This is Mateo flying the kite from his swing.