March Madness

When you hear "March Madness", you think of college basketball. March Madness is a phenomenon that grips the national sports psyche from the first week of March through the first week of April. March Madness is the moniker that is given to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments. These tournaments determine the national champions of college basketball.

When I think of March Madness, I think of the all the craziness and hoopla that has occurred so far this month. I like to refer to it as, "Mathias Madness." I mean, honestly, my life continuously revolves around this little guy so every month is pretty much about him anyways.

So what's new these days, you ask? Well, Mathias is currently 21 months old. He's got a mouthful of teeth and we brush them every morning. :-D He prefers my Sonicare electric toothbrush, so I bought him a generic one that has a button that allows him to brush with the vibrator on or off.Hmm, what else? My father flew back home to the States after serving in Baghdad for over a year. So now he's home for good and is finally enjoying his retirement with my mom up in their mountain home. Lucky folks.

Another regular occurrence during the week are our morning walks with Gamma (my mom). The weather has been your typical CO weather. Sunny for days with highs in the 70's then boom...a week of snow hits. So depending on the skies...the three of us are usually out and about in the neighborhood at least two or three times a week. Mathias loooooves it.

Gorgeous Day #2

Yes, I know, not very original of me to use a repeat title for today's post...but really, I didn't know how else to describe it...it really was another gorgeous day! :-)

The weather was phenomenal...again. Gorgeous (I really could use a thesaurus here) blue skies and bright warm sunshine beamed its heavenly rays on my mom, my son and I. We all decided to take a stroll around the neighborhood again and even managed to play a bit out front afterwards before Mom left to go back to Divide. All in all...a very fun and refreshing day outdoors. Enjoy the pics of our pleasant stroll as well as some videos below!

Gorgeous Day

It's hard to believe it's February here in Colorado considering how dry and warm today has been. Apparently, it's supposed to be in the upper 60's all week...looooving it! The wind makes it a little brisk, but other than that, the weather is so nice. So of course, Mom comes down to visit and takes advantage of being in the sunshine with her grandson all morning. Afterwards, the three of us had lunch at San Chang's where we stuffed our faces with some yummy Korean eats. I'm still full. Mathias ate so well he nearly conked out about 30 minutes ago and will probably be asleep for a good two hours. :) So I'm taking advantage of this quiet time and updating the blog before he gets up.

New Haircut!

Aaah, the first haircut...before you view the slideshow below, take a look at these photos of some random kiddies getting their very first haircut. They all don't seem to be enjoying it too well. Hehe!

My mom and I took Mathias to get his first professional haircut at Great Clips the other day. Boy, was that an experience. He cried and screamed bloody murder as the stylist cut his hair. Mom and I had to hold Mathias down the entire time while the lady snipped away his long locks. She did this all under five minutes! Pretty good I might say so myself, considering she had a screaming child bobbing and weaving his head the entire time. It was quite a nightmare...haha!

So despite the few uneven spots here and there, she did a good job. A little short for my taste, but next time I'll know to request his hair a little longer on top. For now though...Mathias looks so much older and so darn cute! I love it!

Lunch with Friends

I had a lunch date with some friends that I used to work with as well as my sister (whom I mentioned before now works with all of them). They loved seeing my son and after lunch we all went back to my old company to catch up with every one else. It was funny showing off my son to the office staff as well as the guys in our warehouse considering the last time most of them saw Mathias when he was either two months old or five months old. Now he's a little giant and was running around all over the place like he owned the joint! It was pretty amazing!

I Wear My Sunglasses...

Little Mickey...the cool kid on the block. He just recently started sporting his very own shades given to him by Gamma. My mom and I get blown away by how quickly he's growing. Just a few months ago, Mathias would get irritated if one of us tried putting them over his head. Now he actually picks up his own shades and puts them on himself...or at least attempts to. He would wear them all day and night if he could. :)

Cruisin' & Dancin'

Today was a fairly warm day considering we had below zero temperatures yesterday with a fair amount of snow. Alas, the glorious sun melted most of it away. Gotta love Colorado! So to take full advantage of the warm weather; my mom and I decided to hang out with Lil' Man in front of my house after an afternoon of shopping and dining out. It was fun and Mathias loved every minute outside...so much that he would get into a fit if we tried taking him inside. Actually, he would just a get into a fit if we stopped playing with him altogether. He was certainly taking full advantage of trying to spend every minute with his "Gamma" and Mommy all day. We loved it. This is what we live for - our children and our grandchildren. God is good!

(My pretty mother)

(Posing is hard when they don't sit still.)

(Silly Grandma!)
(Weeeeeee!!!)

(Vrroooom!)

VIDEO #1

VIDEO #2

Lil' Biggs

A day with Mommy and Grandma at Lil' Biggs Play Center

Mathias is now at the age where he is such a blast! He walks, "talks" and interacts with anything and everyone. So the latest place I've been taking him is this pretty cool play center for tots known as Lil' Biggs. It's the smaller version of Mr. Biggs and only minutes away from my house so not only is it convenient for us to go...it's also a lot of fun. I try to take him at least twice a week.

The place offers a simple buffet with fairly good-sized eating area as well as play area. The play area is setup with arcades, and is basically a mini-town with about 5-6 different playrooms (such as the music room, a hospital, bakery, etc...). There's a large inflatable for kids to jump in (Mathias is still too young for that) and my favorite spot is the giant sandbox. This is probably where Mathias gets the most interaction with the kids. Surprisingly, because he's so tall for his age, everyone seems to mistake him for a 3 or 4 year old. It's hilarious to observe. Twice he's stepped on some kid's sandcastle and danced all over it (very bad). He made the kid cry...and the kid was older than him! Hehe! Then the last time we went, two little blond girls came and sat next to Mathias and started talking to him not realizing he's just a baby. When one of the girls asked Mathias what his name was, Mathias responded by throwing sand in her face. Hahaha! It was hysterical, but I had to scold him in front of everyone and Mathias just looked at me and clapped his hands. I've got a long way to go when it comes to disciplining...and he's not even two yet! *sigh* Next week, I'm hoping to take him to his first soccer lesson. Classes begin at 18 months of age so I'm super excited to see what's entailed. I'll keep everyone posted!

19 Month Milestones

Sweet Mathias will be 19 months old this upcoming Wednesday. Where does all the time go??? So in lieu with all the hub-bub that has been happening around the holidays, I'm posting all new updates strictly revolving around my handsome little boy, as well as a video clip at the end of this post.

• runs out of control, walks backwards, sideways, walks up and down stairs w/assistance
• able to place things in and out of containers...for example, can hold a bucket in one hand while placing toys inside of it with the other hand
• meticulously lines up a number of objects in a straight line...for example, bottles, cups, balls, blocks (OCD just like his mother?)
• "brushes" his teeth...more like sucks on the toothbrush bristles, but close enough
• able to feed himself with utensils
• can take off his own clothes...particularly when it's bathtime
• open and close doors (looooves shutting doors)
• knows when something is wrong or when he's in trouble
• covers his ears if something is too loud...or when we scold him (too cute)
• mimicks your facial expressions very well...for instance, if you smile, he'll smile. if you stick out your tongue, he'll do that same. pout your lips and he'll do the same.
• he recognizes his own reflection now
• can throw overhand...learning to dunk basketball into hoop
  
  1. cocka cocka = quack quack (like his rubber ducky)
  2. booball = football
  3. oooooo = this sound is used for so many things, but most importantly to sing along with the theme song for Spongebob Squarepants
  4. num num = wanting food (yummy), he usually makes this noise in a lip-smacking way whenever I'm holding him while I cook in the kitchen...or even when I walk up to him with a plate of food
  
  Here's the lil' booger getting ready to head out for dinner at his Emo Sara's house. He was bundled up for the cold snow outside and I have to say...pretty darn cute!
  
  
  
  
  Enjoy!
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
• loves trying to "talk"...is quite a babbler :) he makes up his own words, but so far this is the new stuff that I'm able to interpret along with any of the older words he's already learned to say: