California, here's to thee

The little dude and I are visiting my parents for a few days. My mom has been having some nasty back trouble and we thought she could use a little distraction and some cheering up. Mateo happens to have excellent skills in both areas! So, we flew down yesterday.

Let me just say that flying with an 11-month-old is somewhat challenging. He's adopted a new behavior recently, which involves dramatically throwing himself backwards and screaming whenever something happens that he doesn't like. For example, if you're trying to get him to stop yanking on the seat in front of you. Or if you're trying to get him to stop flinging ice chips all over the airplane's floor. Or if you're hoping that he will nurse off to sleep but he doesn't feel like lying down at all, much less nursing. So, as our baby group teacher advised last week, I practiced my labor breathing (funny how it's so much more helpful when you're not in agonizing, debilitating pain) and we got through the flight in one piece!

Since we've been here, just as Sacha predicted, M has made some huge strides in the walking department! In the Oakland baggage claim, he took probably 10 steps as my mom and I watched in amazement. It was very cool. He's become a lot more confident and will take several steps here and there. I think he's slowly ramping up to walking all the time. My mom said that she would consider him officially walking now, so I guess we really have a walker on our hands! We're very proud. And a little tired just at the thought of it.

Yes, Mateo is a busy, busy, busy boy. He is everywhere, doing everything. Today, we went out on a little shopping trip and he made sure to inspect everything, especially the brightly-colored flower planters, as we went around the shopping center. He loves to push his stroller around all over the place, including down the bike trail behind my parents' house. We had a little social hour out there last night, with us moving about two feet in five minutes and talking to lots of people passing by. It's pretty fun to see the world from his perspective. I keep looking at him and thinking "wow, we have a kid!". Even after 11 months, it still just blows me away. I think we must be the luckiest two girls and little walking boy in the whole wide world.

Cal 31, Oregon 24

I would just like to say one thing.

GO BEARS!

Full speed

We have had quite the week! With the fall arriving and school in full gear, we have been busy. After a couple of months of fruitless job hunting on my part, Sacha and I talked it over and decided that it might make more sense for her to resume tutoring with a few of her past students. She makes considerably more doing that than I would at a social service job and would only have to do it a few hours a week on top of her teaching job...so we were leaning towards that and having me be a stay-at-home mom for awhile longer.

Then, in the course of 24 hours earlier this week, three places called and asked me to come in for interviews. Two of them, the ones I'm most interested in, are today. I'm going to go and do my best and we'll just see what happens from there. Sacha's afternoon schedule is already busy, so I would have to get a great offer to make juggling that all worthwhile.

Mateo is really going full speed these days, too. He's learned how to point and also is waving more consistently. He loooves to go to the park and push his stroller around on the grass. He even pushed it most of the way home the other day, with me following and steering as we very slowly progressed towards our house.

As part of the process of learning new things, M spends a lot of time expressing frustration. There's so much to do and he just doesn't quite know how to do it all. But, he is learning and we're hoping to have our happy boy back after he finishes learning how to walk. He's able to take several steps now, when he wants to, and I'm sure it's just a matter of time until he's running everywhere.

Here's a video Sacha took last week. The cuteness is just about too much for me.

Into the frontier

I believe that we are taking our first tentative, wobbly steps towards toddlerhood. Yes, I am referring to Sacha and me. Mateo may be learning to walk, but we are also learning to deal with this new creature in our lives - an almost-toddler! It's going to be an adjustment. M has always had quite the will of his own and now has more tools with which to express himself. It's amazing to see him turning into such a little person. And, it's a whole different ballgame around here with our frequently fussy Beba. He's on the cusp of doing all kinds of stuff and he can't do it yet and boy is he frustrated!



All of which is to say that I have a bunch of stuff I want to post about and haven't been able to get myself to do it yet. We have a great video Sacha took that I'm going to upload. Until then, here are some photos from this weekend and Zenaido's visit:

Curious Mateo

Thanks to Catherine and Mekka for the adorable onesie!

The boyz

Kraig, Liam's dad, just sent us this photo. So sweet!

Tottering towards mobility

Last night, while we were all just hanging out in the living room, Mateo pulled up on the rocking chair, let go, and took two tottering steps while Sacha and I gaped in amazement. He's been getting really solid with standing alone and he must have decided it was time to get going. We're so proud! He probably has quite a ways to go before he really walks, but this was an exciting step (har, har). Here's a video we got a few minutes later:



Also, here are some photos from recently:

Here are our friends Annie and Matt, from the Back to Guinea blog, on their way out of Portland and (eventually) back to West Africa! We all had a great time with the two world travelers.



And, here are a few shots of Mateo and his buddies Nils and Liam. I can't get over the cuteness of watching them all play together. It's like watching puppies roll around.