Virgil

I have to say this summer blew by. I wish I could have taken more time off from work and done something special with Matthew. We did go to Sesame Place one day in July, which is a Sesame Street theme park. Matthew just loves Elmo, and he got to see him live. They put on a little Sesame Street character rock show, which was kind of cool. They even let the kids come to the foot of the stage, and while Matthew tried to touch Elmo, he never got the chance. He did get to touch the Cookie Monster.

We also went to the park a few times. He still too young to catch a ball, but he tries. I need to get him to kick a ball more often. Ducks are a good attraction for him. He knows how to “quack, quack.” Actually the big progress over the summer is his speech development. We had been worried that he wasn’t progressing on speech as he should. Boys tend to be behind on speech (who says there are no differences between genders?), but it seemed he was further behind than normal, maybe because he’s “all boy” as his grandmother says. If you remember I blogged about it a few blogs back. Well, at some point during the summer the flood gates opened. He doesn’t put sentences together yet, but he points to everything and calls (or tries to) its name. We even got him to say “truck.” He always said “car,” that was easy for him, but when it came to “truck” he wouldn’t say it. He knew the difference, but he would say “carrrr,” that is “car” but changing the vowel sound and dragging out the “r.” He would say “cahr” for car and “kerrrr” for truck. He would sit in his child seat in the back while we drove and he would point to a truck and say “kerrr. And one of us would correct him, “no that’s truck.” And he would go quiet for a second and then say “kerrrr.” And one of us would say, “no, say truck.” And he would be quiet for five seconds pondering it, and then emphatically say, “kerrr.” Then one day I came home from work and my wife said, “guess what word he learned today? What word did you learn today Matthew?” And Matthew looked up and said “twuck.”

Here he is by an old time fire engine.


I have to say the sweetest words that come out of his mouth are Dada. I can never get enough of him saying them. When I come home from work, he squeals them out, hitting a high pitch note while running to me. He’s really daddy’s little boy. He just loves being with me. Once I’m home, he’s got to be with me until bed time. Here’s a funny story, which will tick my wife off I know. I came home one night from work and Matthew went through his “dada” squeal routine and attachment. After a few minutes I tell him I’m just going up to change and I’ll be right down. Truth be told I needed to go to the bathroom in addition to changing and I like to spend a few minutes reading while sitting in the bathroom. Matthew puts on a long face and as I start upstairs he starts to cry and it builds to the top of his lungs. Well, there was no consoling so I relented and had him come up. Later that night, after dinner, my wife had to step out for a little, and Matthew observing her going toward the door says “mama.” She tells him she’ll be right back. Matthew stares and just says, “bye-bye.” And she says, “what is this? Daddy gets blood, sweat, and tears. I feed you, change you, clothe you, stay with you all day and I just get a bye-bye?” Matthew stares and says, “bye-bye.”

Here he is at a park looking like a natural athlete.





And we put out our flag for Fourth of July.



My sister was in for a few days and Matthew got to spend a little time with his cousins, my nieces. They are much older, seventeen and twelve. Oh they adored him. I can see how being a little boy around lots of older girls can be an advantage. Somehow if the genders (a little girl with older boy cousins) were reversed it wouldn’t quite be the same. The boys probably wouldn’t be bothered. I guess life is unfair. Unfortunately Matthew doesn’t have cousins his own age. On my wife’s side they are even older. But our older nephew on her side does have three children, and the two youngest are around Matthew’s age. Unfortunately they don’t live nearby. But we shall meet up soon.

In August I had three business trips on three separate weeks, which has been unusual. I hadn’t traveled like that in a long time. Whew did that take a lot out of me. These weren’t one day things, but most of the week. It did screw up my summer with Matthew. But I was able to take him to the company picnic. I took him into work and he was a natural. He is so gregarious. He’s got an initial moment of shyness, but once he gathers you’re ok he becomes an instant buddy. The ladies at work just loved him. He was swarmed and coddled. He sat at Alison’s table at her cubicle and it was as if he was having an adult conversation with her. And I must put in a good word for Audrey. I had made the mistake the day before of telling her he likes cars and mechanical things, and she brought him in two cars (from some Lightening McQueen movie or something)and a motorcycle that were battery powered. We let them zip across the floor. Matthew would watch it go and then run after it. The picnic was a washout, but we managed a couple of hours. He was one tired little boy when it was all done.

Does he look like a natural executive behind my desk, or what? (Yes, I know. I keep a terribly messy office.)



And with Daddy at the Picnic.



September 1st was Matthew second birthday. It came on the tail end of my third trip in August, but I made sure I took the first flight out and got home by mid morning.

Some pictures from the birthday.



Here he is directing which piece of cake he gets.



And just too cute with cake.





All I can say is this past year with Matthew has been the most joy filled in my life.