For Mathieu's Big Fans--New Slideshow

Mathieu's greatest hits album, August-October volume, available by clicking on the picture to the right. There are 56 pictures.

Mathieu has become so playful lately. It has been very fun for me to just lay on the floor with him. He climbs around on me and we play peek-a-boo which makes him giggle. Sue asked me today, "Did you ever think you would enjoy playing with a baby?" I said, "I never thought about playing with a baby. Babies were only something I observed from afar." But now I can honestly explain to anyone how fun babies can be be.

Finally, some good lighting!

Here are two videos we took in the last few days.

Mathieu is 9 days shy of being 9 months old, and my goodness, what a difference those months make. I reread past blog entries and watch the slideshows and am amazed at all the changes that have taken place in Mathieu. Tonight in particular was such a far cry from the newborn. My little man was really playing with me, which included many squeals of laughter as he discovered that he can crawl over my tummy and then launch himself forward to claim his toy. This past weekend Dave and I celebrated our birthday and my cousin, Amie, came for a visit. We canoed in the marsh with Mathieu during a large high tide, and he even did alright with his life jacket. He looked around and played with Amie --- much different than the last time we canoed when all he did was nurse.

The three following blog entries have all taken place during the time my parents were visiting. Besides the fun we have with Mathieu, here are some highlights of their trip:
1.They happened to be on Tybee during an October heat wave so we were able to go swimming three of the six days they were here.
2. We drove to Jekyll Island and participated in the birding festival.
3. Savannah's Folk Music Society was having their annual square dancing/contra line dancing on Saturday evening. Live caller, live music, and LOTS of fun. Dave had Mathieu in the Ergo the whole time we were dancing. Many compliments.
Sorry the pictures don't match the words.

Mathieu Gets Wet and Sandy!

We finally gave Mathieu a real beach experience. He's visited the beach countless times, but Sue and I have always avoided getting him into the waves and on the sand. Last weekend we visited Jekyll Island. It's farther south (a little warmer water) and mostly undeveloped, so very beautiful. We couldn't resist letting Mathieu do everything on the beach. We let him crawl in the sand and he loved it. He scraped his fingers through the sand and plopped them right into his mouth! Sue thought that once he tasted sand he wouldn't like it, but no, that was not the case in the least. He kept right on scraping and eating. I took Mathieu out into the waves and he was mesmerized by the water splashing his body. Even when I became more daring and some waves splashed his face, this little man did not complain.When I look back on the picture of Mathieu sitting with me on the sand I am very excited. It was a father-son moment. It was so much fun to be enjoying a pristine piece of mother nature with him.

Playing With Pepere

Mathieu's New Chair!

Because of our limited space and experiencing first hand what a pain it is to wash all food from a highchair, I was convinced that Dave and me did not want one of these items taking up our entire kitchen. So, how do we feed Mathieu? For the past two months, we've been using an infant chair, but once Mathieu was able to sit up on his own, that was definitely NOT working. What were we to do? After reading way too many reviews online, I decided on the portable chair that clamps onto the table. The verdict: We love it, and even more importantly, Mathieu loves it. Once again, we have poor lighting for this video, but watch.

On the Move

Mathieu is crawling, army style, and he's going faster and faster everyday! At first Mathieu was content with hanging out in the living room, chasing his toys. Then he discovered that he can follow Mommy into the bedroom and get into all her Nutrition Action on the floor, but Mathieu's current favorite place to go is the can shelf. He proceeds to take out and topple over every can on the bottom shelf. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to capture these newest moves in a good video. Mathieu spends the majority of his waking time on the move, but when we pull out our camera, he becomes more interested in that. This video shows Mathieu coming towards the camera and grabbing it. We'll work on better lighting!