Wandering Words

As too often happens, it's been a while again since I posted baby pictures. Enjoy, all! Oh, and check out all the rest of the new pictures here.

	Check out my teeth! Giving a big grin. (April 30th)
	Water! He just couldn't resist. (May 10th)
	By the big cottonwood tree Hanging out on our trip up to Santa Fe (May 16th)
	Hiking along the Rio Grande This is where he learned to say Rio Grande. (June 21st)
	Hmmm...

Yeesh, he's getting into everything. This is a way fun age, though. He's learning new things SO fast. It's incredible to watch.

	The Rack More funny faces. (Apr 8th)
	Blanket time He kept playing hide and seek under the blanket. (Apr 9th)
	Train man I *love* this hat and overalls combo. (Apr 11th)
	Hamming it up He was having too much fun putting the hat on. (Apr 11th)
	MY shelf! Guess we should just store this one away for later. (Apr 14th)
	Where's your nose? Something tastes funny... (Apr 17th)
	At the playground He was pretty excited about climbing around. (Apr 17th)
	Looking through the hole (Apr 17th)
	Climbing the ladder already (Apr 18th)

We got hiking together again yesterday. We've been wanting to head out to the De-Na-Zin wilderness ever since we visited it's sister, the Bisti badlands, on the way back from our Utah trip last summer. We finally got there yesterday, and it was totally worth the trip. De-na-zin is much larger, and even more remote (12 miles on dirt roads off the highway rather then 3, with just a teeny-tiny sign letting you know where the one trailhead is). We were totally blown away be how amazing it is, though. The sheer variety of rocks colors and formations and shapes and sizes is just incredible. We saw oodlins of petrified wood laying all over the place, and a number of other fossils and cool minerals, too. We ended up hiking for almost 6 miles up and down hills and through arroyos. I was pretty glad I had the GPS with me, because it would have been awfully easy to get totally turned around otherwise. As it was, we all had a very fun time. Check out this little video of little guy dancing around in the desert:

I went to club last week, but I haven't even gotten around to analyzing the games yet. Meh. We went hiking a bit last weekend, and that was much more exciting. On Friday, we roamed around the Sandia foothills for a couple miles with our friend the Conrads (no relation). Then we headed northwest on Saturday to the Rio Puerco wasteland surrounding Cabezon Peak.



Playing with his camera.



View of Cabezon Peak from Ignacio Chavez SMA.



View of Cerro Parido from the road.



Little guy climbing around the sandstone formations.



Hiking man.

It really has been a while since I posted some of these...

	Traveling man Hanging out in the suitcase after our trip back to New Jersey. (Mar 16th)
	I've got Mom's phone! He was having lots of fun playing with that. (Mar 18th)
	Wow, this stuff is cool! Playing in the sandbox we finally got set up in the backyard. (Mar 21st)
	I like sand. He had a blast playing in the sandbox. (Mar 21st)
	Sandy legs He's working on burying himself here, we think. We're not quite sure. (Mar 21st)

Went to this one a month or so ago (Jan 31st), and they sent out copies of the pictures that their photographer took there. This one was just too funny not to post.



Is that a deer-in-the-headlights look??

It's been WAY too long again since I posted a pic. He's been growing and learning SO fast anymore...it's like he's picking up almost as many new words a day as I am (probably more, lately!). In this picture, he was really proud of himself for figuring out how open my pager up. Way cool.

What a fun kid. Just thought I'd throw these up as I'm getting ready for church today.

So we had a super nice Christmas this year. It's really the first time we've ever been able to have a Christmas of our own, in our own home, without having to worry about moving or anything (we've moved at Christmastime three out of the past four years). It was awesome. It was good to me, too. I got myself a brand new 8 gig iPod Nano and a GPS. The most fun, of course, was watching little guy play with all his new toys. He's too young to really get super excited about the day, and hardly even got into the unwrapping thing. Still, he loved it, especially the Christmas tree and lights and all. You can check out the full gallery here, but here are a few highlights.

	All I Want for Christmas... His second tooth showed up just barely in time for Christmas. (Dec 24th)
	Reading with Mom He sat still for the whole book and LOVED it the whole time. (Dec 25th)
	Making music One of the *favorite* toys of the day was his new music maker. Joy! (Dec 25th)
	I'm a star! He likes playing with glasses. (Dec 25th)

	Matthew in the wagon at Nolan and Bobbie's Matthew on our trip down to Las Cruces on Thanksgiving. (Nov 22nd)
	Yum...oranges (BALL!) He likes oranges. (Nov 24th)
	Matthew at the botanical gardens He was tooling all around on our trip to the Botanical Gardens in Austin. (Nov 30th)
	Matthew on our visit to Toy Joy Matthew at Toy Joy in Austin. (Nov 30)
	Matthew at the Laguna Gloria art museum Matthew on the nature path at the Laguna Gloria Art Museum. (Dec 2nd)

Okay, so maybe he was less than thrilled.

	Mayhem in the kitchen Matthew on the kitchen floor (Oct. 14th)
	Mayhem in the Living Room Playing around with his toys (Oct 26th)
	Our little dragon Sorry you can't see the tail...but it's a really cute outfit. (Oct 26th)

It's been a rough week. Along with the flurry of studying/reviewing for my test yesterday, we found out on Monday that my father-in-law had a stroke on Monday morning. He's fairly fortunate, as strokes go, in that the primary effects seem to be drooping in his face and the inability to swallow. Unfortunately, that swallowing bit hasn't been coming back, which is a bad thing. Something like that can't help be focus you on your own mortality, and worry for my own aging parents. At any rate, it's nice to see some fun baby pictures that just make you smile despite everything. It's all about hope for the future...

So, somewhat prompted by little guy figuring out how to walk this week, I went ahead and uploaded a few more pictures from the archives and organized some of the other one we already had online. You can check out the full gallery here if you're so inclined. Here's a sneak peek at some of the newly uploaded pictures, though. Enjoy.

	Wearing Dad's glasses He was *so* excited to try those on. (May 15th)
	He'll grow into it During our hike in Rivera Canyon in the Zuni Mountains. (Aug 18th)
	Matthew on our trip to Taos Trying out hats while we go shopping with the grandparents in Taos. (Oct 5th)

ONE more cute baby picture from last weekend...

How cute can you get? Is this not an incredibly cute picture??

So, he was learning how to feed himself today...with sweet potatoes. He really did a pretty good job of it, overall, although he did need a bath immediately afterwards.

Mmm...computer chair.



You lookin' at me?



Product placement shot.



Alll right...here's a cute one, too.



Man, it was good to come home and see him again.