M2 + S2 = LOVE

Sam Freeman Sargeant - an old soul, Makili's new friend, my friends' Ben and Evan's first child. NYC. Yellow walls. Good times.

What I Imagined

I've said before that when I was pregnant I really couldn't conceptualize having a baby. I was very absorbed in the pregnancy but I really was truly unprepared for the actual baby part. Now however, we've arrived at the time where Makili is the baby I think maybe I imagined. The last 6-8 weeks have been awesome. Every day, every week he is more playful, interactive, smart. He's fascinated by everything, able to do so much, and growing too fast.

He's a highly adept crawler. When he turned 8 months old, I though he was on the cusp on walking. He has pulled up on furniture for a long time and cruised around for a long time too, but once crawling became efficient for him, forget it. He zips around
the room, over obstacles, pushes open doors. Maybe he won't walk too soon. Who
knows. Why walk when you can get everywhere crawling?



Raph hasn't been at work this week which has been truly blissful. I enjoyed the last week SO much- between my parents visit, Raph's time off, absolutely idyllic weather, Makili consistently sleeping all night.

Raph puts Makili to bed every night, and the last few days he's been putting him down for naps too. Yes, I realize I'm in trouble when Raph goes back to work, but he's just so good at it. It takes him half the time it takes me! I am so thankful that MAkili is sleeping through the night. It makes life so much better. I have a few hours to get things done, still get at least seven straight hours of sleep, wake up and bring Makili to bed to snuggle with us first thing in the morning. It has been wonderful.


He's such an inquisitive little boy. He wants to look in everything, open every door, investigate the nuances of each curve, crack, and hole. He has his father's focus too, concentrating on things for what seem like an eternity to me. He is relatively independent (if your in the room), easily amused, and everyday more interactive.

He points to show you where to go.

And shows you his treasures.


And LOVED spending time with his grandparents.

For Uncle Terry

He specifically wanted a picture of him in front of all the delicious food that Tim and Patton prepared for dinner last night. Making use of the grill in the glorious weather. Seriously. The weather has been so wonderful it hurts. So good for us to spend our time outside. So good for Makili and so good for me! (By the way, I ran two miles yesterday for the first time!)

How about that!

Amanda ran the Boston marathon today. Can you believe that someone would choose to run for 3 and a half hours (3 hours and 17 minutes to be precise)? We got to go and see her and all the other runners go by. It was actually really fun, far more fun than I imagined when considering the hordes of people that go to watch, the limited number of parking spaces, etc. But everything worked out perfectly for us and we were there early enough to watch the wheel-chair racers, the elite runners and the masses go by. We almost missed Amanda though. It is hard on the eyes to scan the crowds for your friend for an hour. I told Blair and Dad, it's like where's waldo without the red and white striped shirt. And then seriously, five seconds later a guy in a red and white striped running shirt and blue hat ran by. We almost missed Amanda, but Dad's eagle eyes spotted her and I got the tail end of picture. Fun. Amanda was very excited about her time. I was inspired and ran 1.6 miles today. Maybe I'll try to reach for 3 miles. That would be like a marathon for me! Baby steps. Amanda is too tough for those.

Labor Camp

My parents and Raph and I have been working out butts off outside. We made a new flower bed, which involved a rock wall and digging up a LOT of grass. We planted raspberry bushes, cleared trees, cleared a large area of tall grass and weeds. Lots of work. Today my brother and Amanda showed up in preparation for Amanda's big run in the Boston marathon tomorrow! We took some time off from labor camp to visit the ocean and go out to lunch. The weather has been absolutely phenomenal! Unbelievable. It will be such a disappointment when the bugs hatch. We're not thinkng about that yet. Still enjoying every bit of bug-free 60-degree sunshine. Ah!

So Big

Now thar he's got clapping down, we're working on "so big."

Raph says that his head is so big it will more like this when he does it...

Welcoome dinner for my parents at Tim and Tamara's house. Tomato pie. Yum.

30 Days of Photos: Day 30

And the winner of the comment contest is: Laurie. There were a total of 52 entries, and Raph was my witness and name picker. He watched me write all 52 names (well really only like 22 names) on pieces of paper, fold them. Laurie, I'll need an address...

For the record Anna left by far more comments than anybody, so she will recieve a consolation prize as well.

I loved reading all of your comments. When I went back to count, I found a few new comments, some from friends I hadn't heard from in a while. What a treat. I love knowing who reads my blog and what your thoughts are. I've gotten really into this blogging thing. I'll probably do another contest, so stay tuned. (I've got to make a package first!)

This was also the last day of my 30 Days of Photos project and to be honest I'm ready to set the camera down for a few days. Some days it was a bit exhausting to worry about what picture I would post from that day, especially on days when I just didn't feel in that "there's a shot" kinda way. Whew. I'll probably repeat this project again, but not too soon.

A Big Day

Aside from helping me build a little stone wall around my flower bed, weeding and learning about various dirt consistencies, Makili learn two other things today. First he learned to clap and will do it on command! Second, he learned that when he points at things I go in that direction. He spent most of today pointing, especially at things that were way out of reach like mobiles, wall art, high branches. Sometimes I'd lift him up for a better view, but he also pointed at other things like the pitcher of sun tea brewing that he wanted to touch over and over. That's a lot for one day! Who could ever predict what might fascinate a baby. I don't think the toy makers have it figured out because my kid would rather play with sticks, rocks, bowls, and dirt than any of the plastic toys we've collected. Go figure.

He also had his nine-month appointment today (even though he's a little more than nine months). He's a squirt with a big head apparently. 27" 19lb 5oz. 18.5" head. Little in length and weight, but again, quite big in the head. He for real didn't cry for his shots today. Who doesn't cry for shots? Not that I'm complaining, but seriously, how tough can you be?

30 Days of Photos: Day 29

Building the wall together.

The Christmas Card

30 Days of Photos: Day 28

Wilderness Soup for the squirrels, hand-collected.

17 Years

Happy Anniversary Laurie and Doug. I can't believe my sister has been married for 17 years. That number sounds so huge. Like enormous. Almost as big as the concept of four children. We love you and miss you.

30 Days of Photos: Day 27

Gabrielle.

Uh.

I know I've been going kind of crazy with the photographs lately, but I really can't help it. So much I like, that I just have lost the editing ability. I can't. I look at my blog as a photo journal and I just don't want to forget any of these images.

We had a fabulous trip. Short and sweet. Thank you Matty for buying us tickets! Thank you Emily for saving the day with the car!!!! (I won't go into the long story of multiple shuttle rides to shady, hole-in-the-wall car rental dealerships, inadequate insurance policies, lack of car seats, etc except to tell you that my cousin Emily saved the day with her Enterprise connections. It pays to know people in high places sometimes!) Thanks you Jason and Deanna for cooking and entertaining and sharing your pool. Thank you Gabe, Laura, and Gabrielle for moving back to the mainland (and cooking, etc. too). We can't wait to see more of you. One of these days Gabrielle won't be able to outrun Makili any more and she'll just have to put up with his kisses like the rest of us.

Larry started calling Makili "slimer" because he has a tendency to slime you. Like cover you in drool and boogers. Yum. Gabrielle on the other hand is all dainty lady-like cuteness. I can't wait to see them grow up together.

Here are the four generations of Mattys. Great-grammpy (Rudy), Paka (Larry), Dad (Raph), and Makili. So lucky.

And our trip to the beach today. God Makili was completely in heaven. Crawled like a mile. Stood in the water. Chased the sandpipers. Ran sand through his fingers. I was near tears watching how much fun he had. Uh.




Can you see my new teef?




This picture is so damn cute I had to go over-board and blur the edges to romanticize it even more! But I mean come on. Have you ever see anything so damn cute?