first snow day and a wow moment from school

We love how Matthew is willing to try new things. Even though he may be unsure or his facial expressions show he's not interested or excited, he will try. He normally has an "I'm not that impressed" look. Well, we got hit with a small dump of snow and lots and lots of cold days. Extremely cold - minus 20 at times with wind chill!
So before lunch was served, James, Matthew and I bundled up (like A Christmas Story style!), grabbed a garbage bag and headed out the door. Matthew seemed liked he enjoyed walking on the snow as he would lift his leg up to stomp on the higher piles. He definitely enjoyed the "poor man's sleigh rides" where daddy was tugging on the bag as Matthew sat on it and got pulled around.

Okay, so now for the "wow" moment from school. I'm sure this wasn't the very first wow moment but it's definitely one that's worth mentioning. So now that Matthew's okay with me being in and out of the classroom, I'm hanging out a lot more in there. Matthew really enjoys school, especially circle time or any time where songs are sung. On January 18, as usual, Ms. Ly asks the children to "find a circle and sit down". This usually takes a minute or two before all the children are sitting on their own circle and not on each other! And so, they proceed with all the letters they have learned so far since September and then the "new" three letters that are the focus for the week. They go through the sounds of the letters with a song that the teachers have cleverly made up and then an emphasize with objects for the three new letters. For example, Ms.Ly shakes her little bottle of uncooked noodles and emphasizes that she's shaking her "Nosiy" "Noodles". So on and so forth. Then Ms. Ly ends her circle time with one other activity. She has made these picture cards - one side is the picture of the child and the other side is just the print of their name. She pulls out each circle and shows the children the name on it and states what it saids. She does not show the picture side yet. She places each of the names on the floor with one extra of a child that's not in attendance (tricky, tricky, Ms.Ly!) So here's my "wow" moment. Matthew got called first to pick his name out of 8 other names. He gets up off his circle and heads towards all the names. He touches "Myra's" card and then puts it down. He then scans over to the next name and picks it up over his head like he's saying "this one is mine!" And indeed it was! It did say "Matthew"! Oh, man was I proud and I definitely did not hide how proud I was of him as I covered him with kisses! Moments like this is what makes me so happy to be a mommy, and especially Matt Matt's mommy :)

first swim class

We signed Matt Matt up for swim classes in January for Thursdays. Unfortunately, I've only managed to attend one of them as work got in the way, Matt Matt was just recovering from a cold and then James and I got hit by the flu pretty bad. Matthew kindly shared his germs he caught from school with us and it just wiped out the whole family :(

Since mommy and daddy do not have the skills of swimming under their belts, we've decided to send our little one year old to learn! His first swim class went very well. We were unsure of how Matthew would do as the only water experience we've had was either during bath time and just once in the waters in Hawaii (and that we were very, very close to shore). Matthew enjoyed splashing and being on his belly. The only time he rebelled was when he had to be on his back. During another class (that I didn't get to attend :( ), Matthew got dunked into the water and seemed to really enjoy it! Yay for our one year old! He makes us so proud!