Happy 15 months Matteo!!

Well Matteo is now 15 months old...he weighs 22 lbs and has 3 words in his vocabulary...mamma, us (meaning bus) and his latest word is quack quack quack....on his 15 month birthday after we had gotten back from his checkup at CHEO (and more bloodwork) he grabbed his big Easter duck and carried it to me saying "quack, quack, quack"....I have usually done the quacking when we played with it, so it was a lovely surprise for him to say this.... Also S. thinks that he says "yes" pronounced "s"....but I'm not so sure...however in the last few days he is definitely showing signs of trying to repeat words that I say, so this is nice to see...

This is our last long weekend of the summer!!...I decided to take Matteo out of daycare today and plan a mini 4 day holiday for us. Today we shopped for new shoes, groceries and then dropped into a park that Matteo has been to but I haven't so we went together. Got lots of nice photos posted below and even bumped into a high school friend's mom...so that was nice. Matteo climbed the play structure for the first time with me (not sure if he has with W.) But it was wonderful to see him climb and try and explore and not be afraid.

Tomorrow we have plans to visit with some other single parents who have adopted or are in the process of adopting...not necessarily from Vietnam.

On Sunday the Vietnamese community has organized events at city hall for the Autumn moon festival so we are attending that.

And on Monday we will be visiting my high school art teacher who has become a friend over the years. She was very instrumental and inspirational to my becoming both an artist and an art teacher....She is anxious to meet Matteo and I am anxious to have him meet her too....so we will head out to spend the afternoon in Almonte.

Here are some photos from our day today.

Thanks Chantal....

I think the problem with the spam may have been resolved thanks to a few suggestions by Chantal..have removed some wigits and so far the links are gone...but please let me know if it is still happening when you access this blog....if it is still happening for others I will let go of this blog and migrate to the new one I've already set up!!...

Matteo is walking!!!!

As far as I am concerned I think I can safely say Matteo is walking...this weekend he was walking on his own farther and farther...from 2 feet to 5 feet and a little more...so he is doing this on his own, so now it is a case of practicing and of course I'm sure he'll have some falls...but very emotional to feel this milestone has been reached!!!

My apologies for the spam!!

I have known for a while that someone has linked some unfavourable sites with my blog...and have been trying different things in order to get rid of them. I have been in touch with Google but have not heard back, nor have they fixed the problem!!...so hope you will be patient...may put the blog off line again for a longer period so that that might help or transfer addresses ?? Anyhow I appreciate your patience and hope noone else has this problem!!

Waving bye bye and clapping

It has been a busy week but wanted to document that Matteo can now clap his hands and wave bye bye!!...we have been working on these. Will upload a video of the clapping. Below I've added some photos of Matteo's first trip to the Museum of Nature with his daycare friends. Apparently he liked the birds the best!! Looks like he and the boys had fun...as well we took our first walk in the neighbourhood with Matteo just holding on by one hand. He is still shaky and not walking on his own, but the one handed walking is going quite well!

First high fever....38.6 = 101 and Mamma

I guess these were a few more memorable days. Matteo had his first high fever where his body temperature hovered around 38...at his highest from when I measured it was about 38.6. The doctor didn't think it was his teeth because it lasted over a day and instead felt it was a virus. Though his canine teeth are sprouting and one definitely has cut through the gums.I know Matteo will go through a few viruses over the next few years as his little body builds its immunity, but it was very scary as I did not get much sleep on Thursday night as I checked on him regularly worrying that it would go up instead of down. The tylenol just brought it down to 38,3 ...

This morning, Saturday, he work up and his body temperature felt normal. I checked his temperature at noon and it was normal. He had little energy in the morning and was very clingy not wanting me to put him down but by the afternoon he was energetic, and playing on his own, and giving me lots of smiles.

At dinner he surprised me by calling "mamma" and pointing to the cheese, instead of just making noise and pointing to the cheese. He has been saying mamma for a few weeks now but not really using it to call me though when someone asks him who is his mamma he did look at me. Yet calling me mamma to get my attention was very special and he was very proud of himself when I enjoyed the moment so much!...Technically it is his first word. He sort of says bus with a loud "uh" when a bus goes by, but he does that for big trucks too!!...so not sure if he is saying bus but I think he is only he thinks it means large vehicles. So a few days to remember, the not so great fever days but the great mamma day today!!

A Memorable weekend....

The long weekend in August turned out to be a memorable one for some developments for Matteo. The sweetest one was that he started to give me kisses without being prompted to. Usually I kiss him and ask for a kiss /bacetto back and he obliges most of the time. But on that weekend without any prompting on my part or without having first received a kiss from me, he opened his mouth (that's how he gives kisses) and moved his head towards me to give me a kiss. He did it during breakfast and then later when he was playing and then when he was near me, he just gave me a kiss!!...

Secondly on the walking front, Matteo started to try to walk on his own. I had been trying to help him with this by standing him a couple of feet away from me and then getting him to walk to me. On the weekend he started to release himself from one piece of furniture and then try to walk towards something else...so this is good!

Lastly we were at my sister's for a pizza party. She made the pizza (and it was delicious) and it was such a beautiful day we just hung out in her back yard. I put a couple of blankets on the grass (first time for Matteo) and he really liked this. He spent a lot of time with Luca, Isa's son (Matteo's godmother) and Luca and Matteo bonded that weekend. Such that Luca was asking his mom if he could have a sleepover with us and for Matteo, at the end of the day when I was trying to pack the car and Matteo didn't see me and started to cry. It was Luca who went to him (while I was still beyond his sight line) and Matteo immediately stopped crying when he saw Luca and felt comforted. So that was especially memorable. Here are a few pictures of that beautiful afternoon.