Tinky Pooh Pooh!

Disclaimer: This occurred about a week and a half ago, but Jonathan insists that it is worthy of recording... Maybe it's a guy thing?

I took Matthew outside and thought I could squeeze in some gardening. Ha! I spent the first half hour trailing him. Then as luck would have it, the neighbor's cat showed up. Matthew loves animals. The cat is a dim bulb (but good natured) and seems to enjoy Matthew's company. So, instead of tailing Matthew, he chased the cat around the yard and I pulled weeds. A little while later I heard, "Yuck! Tinky!" "Matthew, are you stinky?" "YUCK! Pooh Pooh!" I looked over and saw Matthew peering at the cat. Then the cat wandered off with Matthew still squating and looking intently in the neighbor's garden. Probably a bug or worm I thought. Might as well finish this bed before I take him in to change. After several more minutes of weeding, and more vocal exclamations of disgust from the Peanut gallery, I went over to investigate what had held my son's attention for so long. Matthew was right, smack in the middle of the neighbor's garden was a "Tinky!" A cat "tinky" to be precise. Yuck!

-Rachel

Sock monster

Among Matthew's favorite pasttimes this weekend has been chasing Daddy around with his "sock monster," a sock with a couple buttons and a mouth sewn on that he puts his arm in. He'll come up to me and make "rwaragr" noises which is my signal to run away and play a sort of tag where only Matthew is It.

To mix it up a bit last night I tried jumping over him to evade his growling grasp. This worked great until he decided that this was a good idea for him, too. He jumped right into my crotch, taking Daddy out for the duration. (He had the gall to complain that he had an Ow on his head, too. Ha.)

The posts just keep coming

We washed Matthew's teddy bear today; it was getting crusty and nasty with spilled milk and the like. When Rachel presented it to him dry and clean-smelling, Matthew was glad to see it.

Then he said, "Stinky! Poo poo!"

So Rachel got a diaper and they diapered the bear.

"Aw tih!" (all clean) Matthew pronounced. "Dereedoh." (There we go.)

Matthew subsequently wanted to pour his juice in the bear's diaper but Rachel put a stop to that level of authenticity.

The sneaky peanut

"Come!" he said. "Help!" And he tugged on my fingers, up and off the couch.

"What's the problem?" I asked as he dragged me away.

"Set... go!" He dropped my fingers and took off, and played with Daddy until bedtime.

Peanuts

A couple savage peanut sightings at church today:

- We spotted a man with a fairly young (3 months-ish) baby curled up asleep in his arms. Matthew pointed: "Baby! Nerse!" Yes, Matthew -- that's a baby, but no, daddy's don't nurse.

- After tossing a ball in nursery, Matthew turned to me and asked, Duh srow? "I don't understand," I had to tell him. "Duh srow?" Oh... "Yes, that was a good throw."

Help!

Matthew's cruising for an early bedtime tonight. He's been kind of a grump.

He was playing with his mom just now and she decided it was time to brush teeth and get ready for bed. Matthew disputed this decision with the predictable outcome of Matthew being carried bodily towards the toothbrush. As he flailed and squirmed he cried, "Helw! Helw!"

Sorry son, Daddy's on the same team as Mommy. :)

On your mark, get set, go!

Rachel and I went to the Utah Choclate Expo with the Galbraiths on Saturday. The expo itself was a bit underwhelming, but Matthew enjoyed it: long, long halls just begging to be zoomed! He and I ran circles around Rachel and the Galbraiths while they walked to the ticket counter. "Race you!" I said. "Rayshoo!" he answered, as he zoomed.

Matthew continued his kinetic ways inside the expo, somewhat to Rachel's chagrin. Something along the lines of "The Galbraiths are going to think we're rude if you keep taking off with Matthew like that." Well, it was that or have him howl, as Rachel found out when she took charge...

As we headed out, Matthew was still zooming. "On your mark, get set, go!" I said, and started running. Matthew seemed to intuitively understand the importance of this incantation. He stopped and shouted, "Seh... seh... " and waited for me to stop and come back. "Go!" and he was off.

Just like daddy

I got up to help Rachel get dinner on and no sooner had I left the couch when I turned around and matthew had pulled the laptop onto his two-year-old legs which were stretched straight out in front of him. It barely fit. He was "typing" gleefully away when I pulled it off of him. I didn't have the heart to discipline him; it was pretty darn cute. A kodak moment, if I weren't afraid of what he would do to it.

Speaking of Rachel, she's supposed to be blogging too. So you people wishing for more SP updates can let her know that you're waiting.

Where's Matthew

Matthew likes playing "where's Dada" but he likes playing "where's Matthew" even more. Last night and again this morning out the blue he said "Where wawa" and took off running. We played quite some time last night, but at 6:30 I wasn't up to it. (But we played tonight at Daddy's initiative.) Anyway, he discovered a new part of the game -- when he's "caught" he tries to run between my legs and prolong the chase. He's such a short kid that he only has to duck his head a very little to cruise through. He gets a real kick out of this.

Summersaults

Peanut seems to enjoy flinging his head onto the ground, so I decided to teach him the fine art of summersaulting--so at least he's doing something moderately useful--while his mother wasn't home, of course.
Despite numerous demonstrations of the correct technique, and despite being forced to do it the right way several times, Matthew prefers his own technique, specifically, placing his head on the ground and jumping as hard as he can. When he is successful he looks like he's pole vaulting himself.
When he forgets to place his head on the ground, it looks like he's doing a human javelin toss. Fortunately, he decided early on that was not a Good Idea, though I'm not sure how permanent the lesson was.
Regardless, it takes him three or four tries to do it right, so he goes up in the air (legs straight) and back down on his face again two or three times before doing the pole vault.
I even tried to teach him a judo roll, but that, like my version of the somersault, lacked the necessary tactile head involvement to be amusing.
Someday, when I'm feeling really evil, I'm going to try to teach him how to draw cartoons. The world will never be safe again.

--Uncle Grant

Horses

After I came to babysit today, I was pleasantly surprised by Peanut's good humor--his behavior on the way here mostly alternated between howling and moaning.

But as soon as he had his bath he was happy, and one of the games we played was his sitting on the rocking horse while I hummed the first movement of the William Tell overture. When he started, I started, when he stopped, I stopped. After a few successive stops and starts, I realized he was trying to throw me off. He's a quick learner.

--Uncle Grant

Peanuts

- Matthew just ran by, right foot ahead of left, making "gee-ah" (giddyup) noises. Not sure where he learned that.
- Last night he was telling people, "See ya!" Not sure about that one either, although I suspect it's from listening to Daddy -- I do usually say that instead of Bye.
- Also last night, he was playing a game he made up: open the door to a room for Daddy, then after hapless Daddy walks in, slam the door closed. Hahaha, Daddy! Tricked you! Then when I came out he wanted to play this over and over again. I tired after half a dozen times or so, but he didn't.