The Great Minnesota Get Together

Every year I so look forward to the Minnesota State Fair! I love, love, love it! This year we begged Nana, Papa, Amy and Luke to come up for the weekend so we could all go together. You know, six adults to one baby would surely be way easier than two adults to one baby.

Joe and I learned just how truely blessed we are and what a mild-mannered, laid back kiddo we have. We walked through the gates of the fair at 7:30 a.m. and walked back out around 1:30 p.m. Mateo was an absolute angel. We saw the animals, the bizzare, ate and even ran into someone we knew. The weather was great and it wasn't super crowded.

The trash sculpture. Every year an artist creates a

sculpture from the trash found in the Mississippi

A huge thanks to Nana, Papa, Amy and Luke for fighting with each other over who would push Mateo in the stroller.

Actually, Joe had such a good time at the fair that he actually took Mateo back last Saturday by himself. Yes - a boy's outing. Every year Joe's friends and their sons spend a Saturday at the fair and Joe decided he was going to take Taye and go along. Joe and Mateo left at 6:50 a.m. and didn't get home until about 2:30 p.m.

Again, Mateo was an angel and had a great time hanging out with the boys. He even had his first glass of milk thanks to Uncle Travis not paying attention. Travis set his cup down on Mateo's tray and all of a sudden noticed that Mateo had the cup and was drinking from it, as well as milk all down his face/shirt. Evidently the "uncles" are out of practice not realizing just what a 10 month old can get their hands on.

And one more thing. Joe and Travis have a thing for hot food. Their motto - the hotter the better. Well, here's a nice little video of Joe and Travis conquering the Ghost Wing challenge. Evidently ghost peppers are supposed to be one of the hottest peppers in the world.

Weekends

I need to get better at updating this thing on a regular basis. So, we've had an few exciting weekends so here's a quick recap.

Family Values Camping Trip
No, Taye and I did not go camping as "camping" to me is a Super 8 (no offense). However, we did drive the 30 min drive to hang out with everyone for the day one Saturday.

Every year Joe and his buddies and their families camp the first weekend in August. Taye had a great time hanging out with everyone and taking in the great outdoors. We watched some badmitten, camping golf, and climbed all over Stella - the poor dog put up with Mateo like a champ. Mateo's schedule went out the window and he had two maybe 30 minute naps and was a champ the whole day.

A curly mohawk thanks to the heat/humidity!!!

Como Zoo
I love the zoo but am spoiled by Milwaukee's. I cannot stand the MN Zoo, although it's been a while since I've been there so I should give it a chance but I digress. Anyway, Como Zoo in St Paul is a "free" zoo (they ask for a small donation) and its just a nice cozy place.

We thought Mateo would love it but he was way more interested in all of the people and little kids than the animals...oh well, maybe next year he'll get excited to see the tigers and bears.

Mateo - Ten months

Mateo and his trusty blue hammer

Somebody caved and may have given him a

bite of cake - hence the cheeseball smile

I feel like I say this every time but wow is Mateo busy!! I think I mentioned in the last post if Mateo can see it, he can grab it (or tries) and he gets closer each time he tries. He's figured out if he stands on his tip toes, it gives him just a smidge more length to grab something. If he goes around to the other side of the coffee table, he can grab dad's computer. If he uses his push toy as a step stool, he can reach mom's soda. Oh yes, the fun is never ending around here.

Mateo is eating pretty much everything except for the "bad before one foods" (milk, honey, eggs, peanuts). Anything and everything else is fair game and he loves to eat. Mateo is learning to walk and does about 5 or 6 steps before he lowers himself to his tush and then finishes his journey by crawling to where he needs to go.

Being more mobile has led to some bumps and Mateo's first black eye. Yep, a black eye at ten months old. Taye put up a good fight but the bathtub was just too strong. I've also been assured that this is only the first of many yet to come. He's also quite the daredevil. He has a rocking/scooter toy that he gets on and rocks and then will actually stand on the seat. Yeah, Nana and Aunite Amy got to witness this on skype the other day. Oh yeah, he also likes to try to crawl on the top of the exersaucer and grab what we wants instead of walking around it. He's all boy.

He also has a total of four teeth now. His bottom two came in right around six months and now his top two have finally appeared. It's so crazy how each babe is different. A friend has a nine month old with nine teeth!!! I'm thrilled with Mateo's four.

I can't believe how fast time is going/has gone. Pray that his 5 or 6 steps of walking doesn't turn into full fledged running to soon.

Mateo - Nine months

Holy smokes...I had no idea a 9 month old was such a busy age but we're enjoying every.single.second. At his check up, he weighed 20 lbs 6 oz and is 28 inches long. The doc said he is perfect (and might just be the cutest.baby.EVER!! Ok, sorry, done bragging) and can basically eat whatever he wants minus the eggs, milk, peanuts, honey.

Well, so far there isn't anything Mateo hasn't liked. The list of foods he's had (and this is more for me so I can remember):

• Spaghetti
• Pasta with goat cheese, lemon, asparagus (minus the asparagus for him)
• Grilled cheese
• Yogurt
• Tuna Casserole
• Peaches
• Green beans
• Freeze pops - very nutritional!
• Mashed potatoes
• Chicken
• Applesauce
• Avacado
• Bananas
• Cheerios
• Parsnips
• Cucumber

The last two are thanks to daycare as I think both are ishy. We're pretty much giving him anything that we eat as long as we can cut it small enough and its not too sharp or hard to chew (hence, no aspargus in the pasta dish).

Mateo will now clap and wave bye-bye when he ask him too and he just started to raise his hands in the air when we ask him how big he is. He says "dadadada," "mamamama," and other baby babbles. I think the cutest thing he does (although I'm pretty sure Joe doesn't agree) is babbles loudly when he's mad. He's for sure telling us what the trouble is, we just can't understand.

He's also a super fast crawler and loves to open the drawers in the kitchen as shown here:

He's standing a bit more by himself for about 30 seconds and we've moved into the stage of if he can see it, he finds a way to get it. Mateo is definitely teaching Joe and I that places we thought were safe is not the case.

4th of July

For Mateo's first 4th of July, we headed to ET for an action packed weekend of family, food and fun. Amy and I stopped at our friend Kari's to see her new, beautiful house, Joe and I had a double date with Amy and Luke to see Transformers 3 (and we were in the theater that served food - like we sat at a half moon table instead of how the theaters are actually set up), we had a party so the extended fam and friends could meet Mateo in person and we ended the weekend at Steph and Troy's for the parade! It was a blast!

Lordy, Lordy...Look who's 40!!!

Joe turned 40 and in honor of the big day, his bro and bbf's threw a surprise party. All I had to do was provide the garage for the party and get Joe out of the house...which actually my dad did because Joe wanted to "look at guns...I'm not gonna buy one Brooke, I just wanna look. It's my birthday." So who better than to go with to look than my dad.

Here are some from the celebration:

Mateo - Eight months

Mateo is getting braver and braver every month. Anything is now fair game and he sees it, he will try to grab it. He is pulling himself up on everything - like the doors, walls, refridgerator, you name it. He's standing briefly by himself and he doesn't even realize he's doing it. For example, he pulled himself up using the fridge and then proceed to grab a picture off of it. He grabbed it with one hand and then both hands were on the picture trying to put it in his mouth and for 3 seconds, he was standing alone and then plopped on his bum.

Mateo started eating some people food which included avacado, Uncle Todd's mashed potatoes, french toast sticks and some mac and cheese. I wish more teeth would come in because then I'd feel better about giving him more "people" food.

He also learned how to clap this month which is super cute to watch. He'll sit on the floor and I'll say "clap" and I'll start, then he'll start (he can do it so his hands actually make noise) and while clapping he shakes his head no for some reason which is flippin' adorable!!