Meeting Uncle Matt

Uncle Matt came for a visit last Thursday, October 20th. He was in Atlanta for a conference and called to see if he could pay us a visit. We were so excited because we hadn't seen him since his wedding over a year ago. He's had a deployment and we've had a baby since the last time we met, so we had a lot to catch up on.

Matt was excited to meet Tristan. He grabbed him as soon as he came in the door and they got to know each other a bit. Matt says he looks like a lineman, not like the quarterback that Brent hopes he'll be someday! Tristan liked playing with his uncle. He gave him some good belly laughs. Matt tried to see if he could get Tristan to stand.

This one was out of focus, but it was so cute that I had to include it. Matt just loves kids and he plays with them just like he's one of them. He'll be a great daddy someday and I can just see him with his own big boy.

This is absolutely the best photo of Maura that I took all night. She was so excited about Matt's visit. I'd been talking about it to her all week, telling her about how much Matt likes to play and she was READY to play when he got there. She was tearing around all over the place so I never did get a photo of her with Matt. We'll get plenty of chances for photo ops over Christmas, though, because he and Brenda will be at my in-laws while we're there. She kidnapped Matt away from our conversations several times to get him to play with her. It was so cute. She's still talking about her Uncle Matt. We enjoyed our visit with Matt so much and were so thankful that he made the effort to come see us while he was nearby. I know that Brent would love to see his brother and sister more often. We just try to really enjoy the visits that we get when they do come around. I guess it's just one of the sacrifices you end up making when you are all in the military.

These are from the next day. This, folks, is why God gave me a little girl. Dress up was one of my favorite games as a child and I'm loving that Maura is finally starting to see the fun in getting into costume. This day, I coaxed her into a fairy costume and once she got dressed up she really adopted the fairy persona. I need to get this girl a wand!! She loved dancing around in her tutu and wings. I had more fun with this costume. I can't wait until she really asks to dress up and comes running out all dressed up to show me how she looks.

This would be her, "OK, Mom, enough with the photos," look. It was fun while it lasted.

I wanted to chronicle Tristan's teething process. He now has two teeth in. He started cutting the first October 19th and the second October 28th. They're pretty much in now and you can see them when he grins.

Two widdle teethers! I'm waiting for more to come through any day now. I think he might end up looking like a vampire with the teeth on the bottom skipping a space and coming on through. He's a different baby when he's teething. He's much fussier, clingier and he doesn't sleep well at all. This is all new territory for me because I never knew when Maura was getting a tooth. I still have no idea when she actually got her two year old molars because she gave me zero indication that anything was up. It's going to be a long teething road with Tristan. Pray for me!!

When he's a happy man, though, he's very happy. Check out these screams!

The other day I wanted to do a really fun craft with Maura so I made some vanilla pudding and tinted it with food coloring and let her finger paint with it. I didn't tell her initially that it was pudding because I wondered if she'd figure it out herself. She went to town with the painting.

She really loved mixing the colors to make different shades. She was going for brown here.

Here's the moment that she figured out that it was edible. She wanted me to clean off her hands and I told her to just lick it off. She looked at me like I'd grown two heads and refused to try it until I stuck my own finger in the pudding and licked it off. I guess she figured that it must be OK, because she went to town licking off her hands. She's been licking the paintings ever since because they're still sweet. I guess it'll be OK. Has anyone ever heard of someone getting food poisoning from dried pudding paint??