Christmas Morning

Well, you all know Matthew is a very good boy so is it any surprise that we received a visit from someone last night... that's right jolly old Saint Nicholas himself paid a visit and dropped a motherlode of presents for the Mattmeister. Here are some highlights....

Note the steady camera work, courtesy of my new tripod - a very thoughtful Christmas gift from Jodi.

Christmas Eve

Just trying to keep up with the cavalcade of media we're piling up here on Matthew's first American Christmas. I wouldn't be surprised if I ran out of hard disk space after this holiday.

Here we are on Christmas Eve after a very nice dinner of pasta puttanesca and lobster newburg and grasshopper pie for dessert. Watch as Matthew gets a head start on unwrapping Christmas presents.

Christmas Comes Early: Matthew Gets a New Piano

Little Matthew has been feeling a little under the weather these past couple days (he seems to be doing better today) so we thought it would be appropriate to let him open a present a day early.

Here he is enjoying his latest present from Granny and Papa - a new mini piano. As you can see this thing is a real premium toy. It is stained in red mahogany and has carved black feet and a little stool (which Matthew likes to pick up and drop on the ground). I had a little piano like this when I was a baby and I never actually learned to play piano. At the same time I grew up with a great appreciation for music and Matthew will probably have that as well. He already loves listening to music and he's been playing with a little electronic toy guitar daily for the past 3 months.

I am looking forward to him making some sweet music with this pint-sized piano!

Matthew's First Snow and Christmas Tree?

We're not sure Matthew got to experience either of these things when he was in Korea, although we wouldn't be surprised if he had. But here is .... enjoying himself around the holidays.

Santa's Little Helper Celebrates Night Five of Hanukkah

So I come home from work today and Matthew comes running out looking like an elf in Santa's workshop.

Happy Hanukkah!!

We know this is Matthew's first Hanukkah. And he started it off by lighting the menorah and getting his first present.

Matthew Picks Out His First Christmas Tree

At least we assume it's his first tree.

And A Happy Thanksgiving to You!

Well I have clearly been slacking off in the blogging department so I figured I should get these pics up at some point. Little Matt had a great time on Thanksgiving hanging out with the family and eating lot of turkey and other things.

Matthew Through the Seasons

It snowed last night and we went out and played in the backyard this morning. It occurred to me I never posted some of our pics from the fall. Enjoy the contrast.

Matthew Goes Bananas

Matthew certainly loves his Nana. He also really loves his "nanas"

Matthew Meets with Santa

We're fully in the holiday mode at this point as Matthew has now met Santa not once, but two times. He had a casual run-in with the big fellow earlier this week and exchanged pleasantries. Today we figured we'd get a jump on the holiday hysteria and arranged for a sit down with St. Nick who was again visiting the Natick mall earlier this afternoon.

As usual, Matthew was not blown away but we think he had a good time.

Matthew On the 6-String

Just another jam session with recording star, Matthew.

More Media from the Florida Trip

Here is a good video compilation of Jodi and Matthew's trip down to Florida. More to come...

Sorry for the Long Break

Sorry for not posting anything for a couple weeks. Matthew and Jodi were in Florida and we're dealing with the mountain of media that they came home with including pics and video. We'll start posting that stuff tonight - here are a few pics of Matthew and his cousins, Mason (the little guy) and Christian (he's 7 and he's a good dude).

Some More Halloween Pics

Happy Halloween!

Obviously today was Matthew's first halloween and it was a really good one.

Things are really hectic here because Jodi and Matty are heading to Florida tomorrow and there is a lot of stuff to do. Also, Matthew has decided he would like to try going through life without sleeping, so things were a little tricky today - some highlights:

> Matthew woke up at around 5:45 and and I took him downstairs so Jodi could sleep - none of his normal cartoons were on so we watched The Blues Brothers which is his new favorite movie - can you guess why?

> We tried to give Matthew a nap at 10:30 and he proceeded to sleep for 10 minutes

> We managed to go to the park with Matthew and Belle but it was actually too windy to stay - Belle was about to fly in the air like a kite and we all know how Matthew's cheeks get windburned.

> Does anyone remember John Kerry who ran for president in 2004? Well, he was forgettable as a presidential candidate but has recently been getting crap done with the election debacle in Afghanistan. Either way, we saw him outside of Roche Brothers this morning

> Went to my parents' house for dinner and trick or treating; Matthew had a good first halloween - he got to trick or treat at a few houses and then came home and ate lasagna.

> You wouldn't believe the weather here; it was in the 70's today but cloudy and super windy; made for a good halloween scene with leaves blowing around.

Photos from this Weekend

Some pictures from yesterday with Matthew in his costume and some of us unwinding at the park.

Halloween at the Zoo

Today we went to the zoo by our house, the Franklin Park Zoo which was having some halloween festivities. It was basically an opportunity for kids to get some additional use out of their halloween costumes. In terms of activities, there were a few trick or treat stations set up around the zoo and there was a bogus costume contest (Matthew entered but did not win).

This zoo isn't in the best shape but I thought the animals were pretty active - at one point a monkey came right up to the glass and peed on some fruit right in front of us. And the weather was absolutely fantastic, so we had a really good day.

Here is Matthew at the zoo in his Mickey Mouse suit.

Toddler Time!!!

Here is a guest post from Jodi:

For the past 6 weeks, every Tuesday morning Matthew and I go to "Toddler Time". This is an hour play group for children Matthew's age. He loves it! The first half an hour is playtime in a big gymnasium filled with lots of toys. The second half an hour is circle time where we sing songs. Matthew's favorite song is "Row Row Row Your Boat".

It's truly amazing watching how much he has grown up over the past six weeks. At the beginning, I had to support him when he would sit on tricycles or rocking horses. Now he runs around the gym like he owns the place. Today I brought a camera to get some pics since next week is our last class. I'm glad I did because I was able to get some cute pics of Matthew playing and even one of him pushing a little girl in a car.