HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!!!!

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Happy 2nd Birthday my sweet little boy!! You have grown up so much in the past year and have accomplished so much. Mom and Dad are so very proud of you. We feel so honored being your parents-God has blessed us truly with an amazing little boy.
This past year you've learned to crawl, walk, sign, use a spoon and crayons, walking up stairs independently and so much more. We hoped you enjoyed your second birthday as much as we loved giving it to you.

We love you always,

Mom & Dad

Matthew has truly been a testement to prayer this past year. We have definitely had our ups and downs but God has seen us through it all. I look back over the past year and realize that God was in control the whole time. Thank God he was, there's no one I'd whether be in control than Him. Matthew is learning by leaps and bounds, we are now getting prepared to start Matthew in preschool about 2 days a week. We're hoping this will encourage his independence and speech. He can do everything a normal toddler can do but he's so sturborn. Which of course he gets it honest, ask my parents.:)

Above is a slide show of Matthew's birthday party. He had such a good time and loved all of his toys.

Farmer Dale

Matthew is the true farmer, he loves being outdoors and LOVES animals. He has now learned to feed the animals, at least bottle feed. Every Wednesday we go over to my parents' home for supper along with my sister and her family. It's FAMILY night with an added bonus- we get to feed the baby goats. Matthew was hesitant at first but after his first try, he got it down pat.

Matthew has officially been signed up for Hippotherapy at Riverwood, we start sometime at the end of August. We went this past Tuesday for a tour of the barn, meet the horses and his therapist. I do believe he's going to enjoy it. I envy Bradley since he's going to be the one taking him and them two having all of the fun. (Father and son time)

This is Matthew's first try at feeding the baby goat.


And this is Matthew's second try- he knows what to do now.

Along with living on a farm comes the dreaded mosquito bites. Check out Matthew's forehead.



This week I'm on vacation at home. Matthew and I have been somewhere everyday this week and what little break we have Matthew enjoys discovering new ways to play with a bowl.

Matthew loves being in the kitchen and the bathroom. We're still working on the potty some but it seems to have stalled for a bit. I guess he's on vacation too!! However, he still finds time to be fascinated by toilet paper.

Have a good evening-I finally get some quite time while Matthew takes his nap.

Getting Prepared

We started off this morning with this morning smile. Isn't he adorable!!! This week we've been getting prepared for our trip to NIH (National Institute of Health) We're going there in August to see what Matthew's chances are at developing kidney and liver disease, etc. I've been getting all of his medical records together, writing down what all he eats in a 3 day time span and what quantities he eats.

We've also had our 6 month IEP evaluation this week with a developmental assessment done. Matthew so far has made quite an improvement since his last development assessment at 6 months old. He has went from a 40% delay to a 22%-30% percent delay. His development right now is at around a 17-18 month old, a six month difference. Which isn't great but it isn't bad either as long as he continues to improve.

We also discussed in Matthew's IEP meeting about his therapy. With Gov. Bev Purdue cutting costs, some of Matthew's therapy may decrease. Example, he might lose his PT since he has all the basics and there are other kids more in need. Luckily for us we did get Matthew into HIPPOTHERAPY!!!! Which will help make up any difference in therapy if he loses what he has now.

We also discussed on Matthew starting school at 3(next yr.) We'll be having our school evaluation around the end of the year to see if he qualifies for everyday at school or half days or just a couple of days a week. Speaking of schools, Nancy Reynolds (Matthew's one day elementary school) is coming along nicely. Here are some pictures of it as it looks now.

After church today we had our business meeting, Matthew was playing with my camera and I couldn't resist getting this picture of him. Can't you tell how he feels about "business meetings".

Have a good evening and God Bless!!!!

Mr. Independent

This is Sadie, our SPOILED house dog. She's one of Matthew's best friends, he helps in the spoiling too. Sadie has more patience than I do and she knows how to easily relax-as you can see.

Mr. Matthew has become a very independent little boy here lately- he wants to help do EVERYTHING without your help. He catches on so quickly once you show him how to do something. He knows how to take the bubble wand out of the bottle and tries to blow bubbles or he holds it up to you to blow. He helps me unload the washing machine and load the dryer and then he likes to turn the dryer on. He also hands me the dishes out of the dishwasher to put and he tries to say "here" when he hands an item to me. He's such a smart little boy. And one of his favorite things is to unroll the toilet paper off of the roll and put it in the toilet. HE IS ALL BOY!!!

Since it's now garden time, Matthew likes to help with fixing the vegetables to be canned and frozen too!! It'd be nice if this stage would last FOREVER!! I could use all the help. I ended up canning 36 pints and 14 quarts of greenbeans, our tomatoes and corn are just now coming in. What a busy time of year along with Matthew's upcoming 2nd birthday!!

INDEPENDENCE DAY EVENT(S)

& LOTS OF PICTURES!!

We started off our celebration with a cookout where we invited some of our family over. Matthew had a great time and we found out he LOVES potato salad- just like his dad.

Afterwards, while the adults cleaned up, Matthew and Nathan went to play. We then headed to King for the fireworks display. Sorry, no photos of the fireworks, my pictures didn't turn out good. Matthew enjoyed watching the fireworks- he'd point to them and say "there, there" he actually sounded like "dare, dare", but he got the jest of it.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

P.S.

Matthew had peed in the potty two more times, yohoo!! (averages once a week)