Yesterday our blog visitor counter logged its 2,000th hit. Wow -- thanks to all you loyal fans of Mateo who check our site regularly for photos and updates. Sorry we haven't been posting new stuff so frequently these days. As many of you know, we've been dealing with a very prolonged and stressful search for a new nanny, since Mateo's current nanny Roni will be traveling to Ghana for 10 months. We had always known that her services would be temporary, and Anita has been searching for a new childcare situation for Mateo for months now. Each time we thought we found someone who would work out, something ended up falling through. However, we finally hired a new part-time nanny who we're very exited about -- her name is Alexis, and while Anita found her through a craigslist posting, Anita actually already knew her since she has been volunteering at the Women's Community Clinic (which oddly enough is the exact same situation that led us to find and hire Roni). Alexis won't be able to start until the end of the month, though, so Anita's mom Sharon has been kind enough to fly out to help out in the interim, and we're also each taking some time off work to pick up the slack. We also hired a second part-time nanny, Marilyn, whom we know from our home birth class -- she'll be watching Mateo along with her own 9 month old daughter Ayla, and we think she'll be a good fit since she shares many of our parenting philosophies. Once Alexis starts, we're going to begin the search for another family to share Alexis' care, since that's the only way that the childcare will be economically feasible for us in the long-term (plus Mateo always likes having a little share care pal to play with).
In other news, Mateo came down with a high fever yesterday, and unfortunately he's still pretty under the weather today [he and Anita are napping right now while I write this post -- he's actually sleeping right through his Sunday swim class, but that's okay because he's probably too sick to go anyway]. But otherwise, he's been doing great. He's crawling all over the place, pulling himself up on anything he can grab, cruising around the furniture, and yanking all his books and toys off the shelves. And speaking of books, he absolutely loves them, which of course is something that we as parents will never complain about. But honestly, he loves them almost to the point of absurdity, and he'll literally spend over an hour a day with us reading practically every single board book that we own. He likes turning the pages, touching the pictures (and occasionally kissing his favorite animal friends), and lifting any flaps or interactive components.
He's also been speaking a lot, though that's not new since he's always been quite the talkative fellow. But now he seems to clearly know the following words, and while they're not articulated perfectly, he uses them reliably for the appropriate referents.
Listed in roughly the order in which they were acquired:
"bah" (for ball), "baa" (for bath), "mama" (which he uses interchangeably to mean "mom" or "I want food"), "ga" (which for some reason is the way that he says "dad"), "gog" (for dog), and "buh-buh" (with a wave, for "bye-bye"), "buh" (for book), and "bih" (for bird)
We haven't taken many pictures lately, but here are couple cute one to end this post:
Helping us shuck the corn from our organic CSA box.
Enjoying the yummy rewards of his labor.
Playing in our kitchen sink.
"I wonder what that lever does? Whoa!!"
We had no choice but to take his soaking wet pants off, and he surely didn't complain.
Testing out a daring traverse maneuver.
Mateo was so excited that Nalini, Taj, and Surya came over that he stayed up way past his bedtime.
The guys jam out together on the keyboard.
Nalini and Taj put the finishing touches on a playdough pizza. Mateo sneakily grabs a slice and proceeds to eat it.
Nalini cuddling up with Mateo. Mateo cuddling up with a camera case.
"Wait, I thought the game was to grab Daddy's headband."
"Goodnight y'all. I don't know about you, but I'm off to my bath."
