Happy New Years!!

May the new year bring you new joys, new blessings and new beginnings.

May God bless you and your family in 2008!

Love,

Scott, Cheryl and Matthew

A White Christmas in Gig Harbor

We had a little snow for Christmas in Gig Harbor (an event that doesn't happen all that often). So it was nice to see some of the white stuff to add to the holiday spirit. Matthew really enjoyed his first Christmas and was spoiled like crazy by many of our family and friends. I don't think Scott and I will need to buy any toys for the next few years ; )

More later....

Cheryl

Merry Christmas!!

Matthew's First Visit with Santa

As you can see, Matthew really enjoyed his first visit with Santa- NOT!! Actually it wasn't that bad. He calmed down when mom and dad sat with him. So we got some great pictures of the three of us that was totally unplanned (my hair was a mess because it was pouring out that day).


Sorry I haven't been able to write much with our posts these days, but our life has been pretty busy. Matthew has now learned how to crawl, pull himself up on things and crawl up the stairs. So my day is pretty much spent following him around making sure he doesn't kill himself (we've had little time to throughly baby-proof as well). I've also had a few unexpected things pop up that have really thrown a wrench into my holiday preparation this year. But I had a great insight the other day in the grocery store. I was turning over a bunch of things in my mind and really stressing out about them. I started my shopping and picked up a bottle of Tums that Matthew decided he wanted to play with. He began shaking them and laughing hysterically. Then it dawned on me, all the stuff that I had been stressing about really doesn't matter. All that matter is keeping this little guy and my family happy. Thus begins the education of mom and dad by Matthew.


So as I mentioned, Matthew is definately getting more mobile. He's also discovered the joy of making raspberries and all kinds of sounds as well. He's starting to do all kinds of new things. After his afternoon nap the other day, and he had pulled himself up in his crib, pulled his mobile down and taken all the sailboats off and half of them were on the ground by the time I got to him. Completely harmless, but very entertaining. He's also found that he can pursue the cats now. Caesar is pretty quick and just runs from him. Cleo on the other hand has been a champ with him and lets him pull her tail and grab fist-fulls of fur from her and only whines a little bit. We're working on the concept of "gentle" now. She still loves Matthew to death though. He had fallen asleep on my lap the other day and she jumped on my lap to join him and nudged herself under his arm.

She loves her Matthew!

Well I've got to run for now. I am taking a neighbor to the airport and picking up my parents while I'm there.

Take care and Happy Advent!

Scott, Cheryl and Matthew

Childproof Drawer

My mom sent me this. Now if we could only get Cleo and Caesar to do the job.

A Boy and His Binky (and Binky, and Binky)

Yes, the boy has three binkies. What started out as an attempt to keep Matthew happy at bedtime has turned into an interesting routine for him. Matthew has about 2-3 binkies in his crib at any given time so that if he wakes up during the night he can usually feel around and find one to soothe himself back to sleep. The funny thing is that now he likes to have all of them around him when he sleeps. I went to check on him one night shortly after I put him to bed and he was feeling around his crib to gather all of his binkies together. Very cute!!
PS- The white one isn't jabbing him in the eye even though it looks like it is.

What? Looks Straight to Us.

Starring Matthew as St. Nicholas

Check This Out!!!

Okay- For a hilarious site that little Ms. Gracie Brill put together, click on http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1131841080

You will laugh out loud...
Matthew was "dancing" with his grandmother and grandfather today!

Then he danced with Mom and Dad...
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1131931550

Happy Half a Birthday Matthew!!

Happy six months baby boy. It's hard to believe we're already halfway to your first birthday. Everyone keeps telling us to enjoy our time with you because it goes fast, and boy it does. We love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our lives. We look forward to watching you grow over the years.
Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Just Like Daddy

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving and that you were able to share it with ones that you love. At Mass this morning, Father Hung read George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation from 1789. If you haven't had a chance to read it before, it's definitely worth checking out. Without a doubt, Scott and I have a lot to be thankful for this year. But I think that this little guy below tops the list....

Thanksgiving jammies

Thanksgiving sweet potatoes

Matthew doing a little yoga move- downward dog

He's All Boy

Despite my attempts to work on Matthew's femine side today by taking him to the scrapbook store and to the bakery, this is what he did when we got home....

The Difference Between Mom and Dad

Can you guess which feeding was done by Scott and which was done by Cheryl? Which one do you think was more fun?

Matthew's in Training

Well it looks like it's time to get Matthew in shape. Ok, maybe it's really time to get Scott and Cheryl in shape. So we're in training again and hoping to run a half marathon in January. So wish us luck. Although Matthew is doing his part and working hard at his jogging stroller riding skills as well. And it must be paying off because......

.....yep, this is Matthew sitting up by himself. And it looks like crawling isn't too far away either.

I've also included a picture from his last swimming class. This is Matthew and daddy doing "reach and pull" exercises.

Happpy Halloween!

Arrrrggghhh!!

Matthew eating his sword


One pooped out pirate

More Info on Mark Schultz

Hey all-
I just thought I'd add this link to an interview with Mark Schultz who wrote the song above. Have kleenex handy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z61zdZJ9uZc

Everything To Us

Scott and I were driving home from church today and heard a song on the radio by Mark Schultz titled "Everything To Me". Needless to say, neither of us had a dry eye by the end of the song. These are the lyrics....


"I must have felt your tears
When they took me from your arms
I’m sure I must have heard you say goodbye
Lonely and afraid had you made a big mistake
Could an ocean even hold the tears you cried
But you had dreams for me
You wanted the best for me
And you made the only choice you could that night
You gave life to me
A brand new world to see
Like playing baseball in the yard with dad at night
Mom reading Goodnight Moon
And praying in my room
So if you worry if your choice was right
You gave me up but you gave everything to me
And if I saw you on the street
Would you know that it was me
And would your eyes be blue or green like mine
Would we share a warm embrace
Would you know me in your heart
Or would you smile and let me walk on by
Knowing you had dreams for me
You wanted the best for me
And I hope that you’d be proud of who I am
You gave life to me
A chance to find my dreams
And a chance to fall in love
You should have seen her shining face
On our wedding day
Oh is this the dream you had in mind
When you gave me up
You gave everything to me
And when I see you there
Watching from heaven’s gates
Into your arms I’m gonna run
And when you look in my eyes
You can see my whole life
See who I was And who I’ve become"


I can't help but think of our birthmother and what a tremendous gift she gave Matthew and us. She gave us everything. When I look at that toothless grin my heart just fills with feelings of gratitude and love for her. So please, pray for her and other birth moms who have such incredible love for their babies, that they not only chose life, but make an enormous sacrifice so that their children can have everything.

(couldn't leave without posting a pic of the boy wonder)

First Swimming Lesson

Hey everyone. Sorry it's been a while since we did a post. Matthew's social calendar is pretty busy. He's definately a baby on the go.

Scott's father and stepmother were just here for a few days and we all enjoyed their visit. We were pretty busy with all the usual tourist activities. We went to Seattle for a day and enjoyed Pike's Place Market and the rest of the city. We also drove out to the Northwest Trek which is a wildlife park that has bears, wolves, elk, buffalo, cougars and a lot more. Definately worth a return trip. The big news is that Scott and I got to go out to dinner ALONE while they were here. Of course we talked about Matthew most of the time, but it was still nice to get dressed up, go out and act like adults again. I think it's worth pursuing "date night" a few times a month.

Matthew continues to be a joy. He's now in baby boot camp with me twice a week and just started swimming lessons today.



Yes, that's actually him under the water and going thru the hoop (on his first lesson!!). Amazing. After both activities today, he was totally ready for a BIG nap when he got home. Who knows? Maybe this will be the ticket to getting him to sleep thru the night ; )
Well got to run for now. More later.
Cheryl

Ahhh, the Proof We Needed

So, Scott has always joked that Matthew is a secret agent baby sent to kill us with sleep deprivation. Now we have the proof......

Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning

So this was our greeting from God this morning. Not too shabby, huh? We woke up with Matthew around 6am and the sky was just on fire. So we loaded up the baby and some coffee and went to the park at the mouth of the harbor and took some absolutely stunning shots of the mountain and the water. If you're interested, I'm going to load them into snapfish, so email me (CherylTaylorNNP@hotmail.com) and I will send you the album.

Yesterday, we went to the salmon hatchery in Issaquah. It was really interesting. They have two huge holding tanks with about a thousand Coho and Chinook salmon that should start spawning any day now. Matthew was mesmerized while watching all the fish in the tank. Here's kind of a neat shot of it....


The creek that runs through the hatchery has a big waterfall that the salmon were trying to jump to head upstream. It was fascinating to watch. There must have been hundreds of salmon in the creek, some at least 30 pounds (definitely bigger than Matthew). It was an experience I would recommend for anyone visiting Washington in the fall.


This past weekend we loaded up Matthew and went to the coast for the night. We stayed in Ocean Shores, WA. Unfortunately, we got into to town after dark and when we woke up the next morning it was raining like crazy and the wind was really blowing. So we drove onto the beach for a while, but decided that it looked like the tide was coming in, so we should probably head out. So not much time spent at the ocean, but still a good trip. We got home in the afternoon and were in the middle of unpacking when we heard what we thought was thunder and then had a power surge. We heard another burst of thunder after that. We both looked outside and found it funny that the sky was absolutely clear. So at that point we just chalked it up to the cats chasing each other around the house. However, after we turned on the TV a few hours later, we found out that it was a propane tank that had exploded at the foundry in Tacoma. I guess it was pretty dramatic with debris flying onto the freeway (they had to close WA16 and US5). Amazing that we heard the explosions all the way in Gig Harbor.


Matthew continues to be a joy. He started rice cereal last week and the jury is still out on his response.


Other exciting events in his life include, attending the Puyallup Fair....


and hanging out with his new friend Tia...

So life is busy for Mr. Matthew. (and his parents) Well, that's all for now. I hope all is well. Take care.

Cheryl

Aren't I Still Your Baby Too??

Hey everyone. We're back in business with a new hard drive and now we're faster than every (very exciting). But I'm a little short on time now, so I will post more later. In the meantime, I thought you'd all enjoy this pic of Cleo.
Cheryl

"Serious Error"

Sorry there hasn't been much news, but I haven't had much internet access. It appears that our hard drive has a "serious error". Yikes! So it is off to the shop for repair. Until we get that fixed, unfortunately, we can't post any pics.
Other than that, really not much to tell. Matthew has finally settled back into a schedule. The big news is that he rolled over from back to front for the first time. Very exciting. Now he's doing it all the time and quite pleased with himself. He goes in for his 4 month check-up and shots this week. That's always fun ; )
Scott has been off for this week and we've been quite busy. We went to the Puyallup fair earlier this week and Scott spent the day yesterday on a cigarette boat racing from Tacoma to Olympia. I'm told it was quite loud and very fast. He heads back to work this week.
That's all for now. Will post more with some pics when our hard drive is fixed.
Cheryl

Transition to the West Coast

Well, we had a fantastic time in Michigan and enjoyed seeing everyone again. Although it is nice to be back home, the transition has been a little challenging. Sir Matthew has had a difficult transition back west coast time. So he is up at 4am everyday and very cranky for the rest of the day because he hasn’t gotten enough sleep. So the previous post, is his usual expression these days.

I have a snapfish album from our visit, if anyone is interested, just send me your email (CherylTaylorNNP@hotmail.com).

Although I'd love to write more now, it is almost 11pm and I need to go get some sleep.

Cheryl

Matthew and Joseph's Reaction to UM Football

Will post more later....

Happy Three Months Old!!

Hard to believe that it's been three months already. Wow how time flies. Thought you'd all like a few comparison pictures....

Hello Again Mt. Rainier

I was driving out of the neighborhood today and saw the moutain for the first time in several days (it's been a bit cloudy). It really is quite a sight. I told Scott that I hope we never take for granted the beauty around us here. I've included some pics, but obviously they don't come anywhere near to the real thing. It's so frustrating to see a great sight here and not be able to capture it in it's fullness. Oh well, for now you'll have to settle for this...

Thank You to Those Who Serve

Thought I'd post a few cute pictures from our week. Things seem to be settling into a routine here. We still have to hang some pictures, but now are days are mostly filled with taking care of Matthew and the normal household stuff. We went and did a "take #2" for Matthew's announcement pictures down at the pier earlier this week. The picture of the three of us below was taken by a young man who is on leave visiting his parents from North Carolina. He is a Marine MP. We really enjoyed meeting him and hearing his stories about his recent deployments to several places overseas.

Then, yesterday Scott took Matthew downtown for an early morning walk so I could shower and have some time to myself (what a great hubby!!). We met for breakfast and then went for a walk. We met a man who is in town for a surprise birthday party for one of his friends that he served with in Vietnam (he hasn't seen him in 35 years). He was a helicopter door gunner that provided escorts for supply boats in the Mekong Delta. One day the boats were attacked and this man we met jumped into the water from his helicopter to save one of the soldiers. The soldier was in the water, covered in oil, and being badly burned, after his boat exploded. What incredible stories he had! So even though it's not Memorial Day or Fourth of July, and no matter your feelings about Iraq, or what your political views are, these men and women deserve our thanks. They are willing to put their lives on the line for our freedom and safety. (Ok, I'm getting off of the soapbox now).

Mr. Matthew continues to do well. He started some medication this week for reflux and appears to be much happier. He has really great head control, so we're starting to put him in his exersaucer for a few minutes a time every day. The cats are also liking the exersaucer (as well as all of the other baby toys). Personally, I think it's definitely for someone who has ADD.

Well, that's all for now. We're heading back to Michigan in September for Matthew's baptism, so hopefully we'll get a chance to visit with some of our friends.

Take care.

Cheryl, Scott and Matthew

Breakfast with the Jellyfish and Birds

What a great start to the day! Scott, Matthew and I had breakfast on the pier downtown this morning. It was fairly early in the morning so the water was very still and there were very few people around. Lots of jellyfish in the water and birds getting a morning snack though. The pier is pretty crowded on the weekends with all kinds of boats and people fishing and crabbing, so it's nice to be able to take the stroller enjoy the scenery without the crowd. What a treat! It's times like these, that I'm glad that we chose Gig Harbor, over Tacoma or Puyallup. I think I am truly becoming a Gig Harbor snob. I really don't like to cross the bridge now unless I have to.


It's been a lot of fun exploring new places here on the peninsula. We went to Sunrise Beach the other day. We had to park about a half a mile from the beach and walk across this big field to get there. Well, we got there just at dusk and the field was full of deer- very tame deer. They would let you get within 5-6 feet. I found two baby deer hiding in a patch of bushes as we were walking down to the beach.






We're almost completely moved in now. Mount "Box"more was demolished this week. All we really have left to do is hang some pictures and rearrange the furniture in the living room now that the boxes are gone. It sure feels good to have everything just about done.

Matthew continues to do well. He definitely likes being out and about. It has really been great that he enjoys going to the store, out to eat, etc... We're very lucky. He had a difficult time with his morning nap the other day. Every time he fell asleep, I'd put him in his crib and he'd be up again in 10 minutes. The last time, I had someone from St. Vincent DePaul here to collect some items for charity. He was asleep, so I put him in his crib. I helped her load her car and then came back into the house. I fully expected to hear him crying since it had been about 10 minutes or so, but nothing. So I went to check on him and found this......

Evidently, he didn't want to sleep alone. And for those of you in the NICU/neonatal world, I only put him on his belly during the day when I'm able to check on him frequently. We definitely do "Back to Sleep" at night. It's one of the "I'll never's" that I've broken.

Well that all for now. Hope all is well with everyone and you're enjoying the last days of summer.

Cheryl, Scott, Matthew, Caesar and Cleo

Quick Update

Just wanted to drop a quick line on the blog while Cheryl gets Matthew ready for bed. Kim, Jessica and Jasmine LaMar dropped in for a quick visit over the weekend. We had a good trip to Seattle and Matthew traveled and went sightseeing like a champ!

Matthew's cousins Jack and Charlie were born on August 2 in Savannah and mom and babies are doing well! They are spending some time in the NICU gaining weight and have charmed their parents and grandparents!! We are all very excited for Don and Julie!

I thought I would put up a funny photo for y'all- Guess what Matthew is doing here?!

Take care and have a great day!!
-Scott

The View (and not the TV show!)

Well I promised some pictures of the view. This is it. The picture, of course, doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea. This is from our street. Our view from our bedroom window is similar, but we have a couple of trees in the way. You can make out the Cascade Mountains in the distance (just below the pink sky). Also you might be able to see the Vashon Island ferry on the right. It runs between Point Defiance and Vashon Island. I'll try to get some pics of Mount Rainier soon. You can see it from the road out of the complex on a clear day. It's been too cloudy for about a week now for the mountain to be out.

2 Month Check-Up

Hey everyone! Today is a big day for Matthew. He went to the pediatrician today for his 2 month check-up and immunizations. He is now 14 pounds plus a half an ounce, that puts him at the 90%tile for his weight. He is 23 and 1/4 inches long (50%tile) and his head circumference is at the 70%tile. So, yes, he's still a big boy. He got his immunizations and all things considered, is handling it pretty well today. I think the around-the-clock Tylenol is helping a lot. We got some good news from the PNP at his appointment today. We can finally stop boiling the water for his formula. Not sure if many of you heard about this or not, but Scott and I, two college-educated persons, can not boil water. We have a routine every night when Matthew goes to bed, we put all the bottles in the dishwasher and put on the water to boil for his formula. The first night that Scott was off for the week, we did all that and then sat down to watch a movie. About an hour or so later, I said "What's that burning?". Yep, burnt up one pot. But the kicker is that we did it again the next night. So for a while our stove top was filled with different pots and pans that we kept burning up. But not to worry, the boiling is over.









We took Matthew for his first ferry ride on Monday. We spent the day in Seattle and went to Pike Place Market and the Seattle Aquarium. The first picture below is taken at one of my favorite spots in the market. As you can see, Matthew is out like a light in this picture. He was totally fascinated by the city after we stepped off of the boat, but that lasted for about 20 minutes and then was sound asleep.

The Market was exciting, as usual. We brought home a really nice piece of salmon, some sausage and berries. One thing is for sure, we need to take a big cooler with us next time. The aquarium was a lot of fun as well. We're going to try and make it back in the fall when the salmon are using the "elevator" to get to the hatchery. Both places I would highly recommend for anyone planning to visit Seattle in the future.

Well that's all for now. Got to go and make tomorrow's bottles. And NOT boil the water.

Cheryl