Back from Blog-cation

So, it's been a couple of months...okay, THREE...I apologize for the extended vacation from the blog (which I have termed "blog-cation"). I'm looking into trademarking this term, so don't get any ideas! Kidding. Sort of. :)

Rather than try to cram all the events, pictures, and videos taken over the last few months into one blog entry, I have decided to simply list some of the highlights to catch you up to speed on what's been going on:

July: First bite of solid foods, learned how to roll over from his tummy to his back (already knew how to do it the other way; thus, he began rolling all over the floor to get where he wanted to go), began sitting up on his own
August: Began "scooting" and babbling a lot (mama, dada, baba), made a wide array of interesting noises, learned to feed himself Gerber cereal puffs. Also, we took a mini-vacation and went to the Iowa State Fair and to Adventureland amusement park, where he rode his on his first rides: the carousel, the ferris wheel, and the little train that goes around the park.
September: Learned to crawl, figured out how to open the drawer under our oven and open cupboards, went on his first airplane ride.
October (up to now): Got his first tooth (with another one on its way), learned to drink from a sippy cup, has expressed dislike for certain foods for the first time (green beans, mainly).


Today, we finally got some portraits taken for the first time! We have a bunch of pictures of Matthias from birth until now, but had not gotten any professional pictures taken yet. It was a pretty fun experience and Matthias was such a ham. He smiled very big for the camera. We got some shots of us as a family, Jason and I together, me and Matthias, Jason and Matthias, and of course, a lot of just Matthias. :)

Ever since about June or July, we have suspected that Matthias understood the word "no," but now there is absolutely no doubt that he gets it. When he hears it, a lot of the time he will protest by whining (and sometimes crying and smacking the floor with his hands/arms). Thankfully, there are no full-blown temper tantrums yet!

A very sad recent event was when my aunt Cindy died of a heart attack on September 19. She was my dad's sister, and now, my aunt Becky is the only sibling left. (I hope my aunt Becky is prepared to live to 100, because I want so badly for her to stick around for a long time...she is one of the only close family links left that I have to my dad.) Cindy was such a wonderful person — so sweet and loving, kind-natured, an amazingly positive attitude, always had a smile on her face, always wanted to help out everyone. She just exuded God's love to everyone she knew. A lot of hearts have been broken by her passing, especially my uncle David's (her husband). Our whole family is missing her a lot right now. I'm so thankful that I got to see her in May of this year, and that she got to meet Matthias. My mom, sister, brother, and Matthias and I all flew out to Oklahoma for her funeral. It was Matthias' first plane ride and first time meeting many of our relatives. There was a lot of sadness, obviously, but having a lot of the family there was really great and I think it helped us all to be together.

This month, something we are looking forward to is the arrival of our nephew! If he does not make an appearance by October 14, then the doctor will induce my sister-in-law, so we'll be headed down to Keokuk to visit that weekend. The little guy will be blessing #4 in my brother and sister-in-law's household, so life is going to get even busier for them very soon!

Well, that is pretty much our lives in a nutshell over the last few months. I'll try not to let 3 more months go by without blogging again...but no promises... :)

-Melissa