SNOWMAGEDDON!!!!

That's what our endlessly charming and fit-for-command president called the recent snowstorm that crippled the mid atlantic states. It's one of the few things we agree on. One weekend we got about 22" of snow, only to get about 18" more the next week. The previous huge snowstorm that I remember around these parts was around 1993. I remember having to walk to the doctor's office with my mom because the roads were completely unpassable. It was also so cold that my abundant nose hairs froze solid.

I managed to make it to my Richmond hearings on Monday morning after the huge weekend storm. I then drove to Baltimore-Washington airport to fly up to Erie, Pa. the day before the next storm. By the time I got to Detroit for my layover, Delta had already cancelled my flight home the next afternoon. The last thing in the world I wanted was to be stranded in Erie, Pa for a second longer than I had to, so I decided to drive my rental car to Harrisburg airport and have Robyn meet me there. It started snowing on my way home, however, and by the time I got near Harrisburg, it was snowing so heavily that we didn't think it was safe for Robyn to continue. So I had her turn around and I brought the rental home. There it sat all the next day until I finally returned it to BWI, where my car was sitting since Monday. It was a long, drawn out ordeal, and I was lucky that work was fitting the $371 bill for the rental.

Robyn and I had a great time being snowed in, mostly because when you're cloistered up in your house your first instinct is to bake stuff. Which we did. Again and again. I even got out of one of my hearings in Philadelphia on Thursday.

The view out our front door.

The back door.

2 months!

Our little man is 2 months old already! Time flies. He gets more and more fun every day. He is becoming quite the talker. The night before he turned 2 months, I was inspired to start giving him a sleep routine to see if he would sleep a bit longer. I give him a bath, try to read him a book, but he's not really into that yet, and nurse him to sleep. He usually gets to bed sometime between 7 and 8 p.m. and if we're really lucky he sleeps until 3 or 4 a.m. Once he got up at 10 p.m. and I thought all was lost, but this was a one time thing. It's been nice for Matt and me to have some time together and if I could only get to bed earlier, I would really be benefiting from this as far as sleep goes. Matthew has figured out how to bounce his bouncer by kicking his legs. He has decided bottles are for the birds and we have fought with him to take it, but so far he is prevailing on that one. At his 2 month appointment, Matthew weighed in at 14 pounds, 1 ounce (90th percentile) and 24 1/2 inches (90th percentile). He head has gone from 50th to 75th percentile. He is a big boy and we are absolutely in love!
Matthew LOVES bath time. He will just kick and kick forever. I can't wait to take him swimming when the weather warms up.

Daddy and Matthew in a 0-3 month outfit his Aunt Jackie gave him. We tried to give it one last shot, but he's obviously outgrown that size!
Hanging out in his 2nd swing with his little tiger. He couldn't care less that the tiger is with him, but I thought it was cute. He looks so chubby here!
Matthew spends a lot of time in this swing. Worth every penny!
Sporting his BYU onesie given to him by Aunt Heather and Uncle Steve for Christmas. He has babylegs on!
Modeling his new hat. I have a slight addiction to a website - babysteals.com. Matt has set a rule that I can only order one item a month.

Big smile!
He sleeps in a Halo sleepsack every night. He hates being swaddled and kicks off every blanket we put on top of him, so this is perfect!

Beef

When I was 15, I made a decision. I vowed never to eat another hamburger. This is purely a mental thing. It's hard to explain. It's just something I decided for myself after eating a hamburger at Burger King one day. In the 15 years since that time, I've rarely eaten hamburger meat or any red meat for that matter.

On Christmas Eve, I decided to take a HUGE risk and stop and In-N-Out with my mom in American Fork. At first we were just going to get fries. Upon seeing the ginormous line for the drive through, I decided what the heck, take the plunge. Here is the video as evidence:




I know, very attractive!

I have only had one burger since, at In-N-Out in Orem with my friend Mandy last month. Don't worry people, I am not totally sold on this burger business. Fortunately, In and Out puts so many toppings on and the patty is so thin, I can barely taste the meat.

1 Month Old!

This picture was taken today. He is becoming so much more alert.

Time flies! It's hard to believe our little guy has been with us over a month now. I took Matthew to the doctor on Thursday and we found out he is a big, strong, healthy boy. He weighed in at 11 pounds 11 ounces and measured 23 inches. 90th percentile on both weight and height and 50th percentile for head circumference. We are headed out to Utah on Wednesday, the 23rd, for the holidays and I figure he should be about 12 pounds then. This means I have a 5 week old the size of a 3 month old! It makes for easier packing. I figure I will just wash and pack his 3-6 month clothes since he is actually at the weight and height for that size. I can't believe it. My baby boy is growing way too fast.

Note: Matt had an idea to take a picture of Matthew every day of his life for the first year. Afterward, we will make a movie showing each day and the progression of change. I thought it would be a good idea to do it on the Boppy so that there is an constant in the pictures to measure his growth by. Hence all the pictures of our sweet little guy on the Boppy :)

Matthew on the day of his 1 month check up.

I decided to dress him in 3-6 months clothes the day after his appointment, just to see how they look. The pants are a tad big in the waist and a little long, but other than that he is filling them out quite well. I hope he stays in this size for a while!

Dress Up

Mommy loves to play dress up. Matthew doesn't. He hates having his clothes changed. His little arms are so stiff and he just cries and cries. I had to catch him while he was sleeping to get this little sweater on him.

He LOVES being in the bath, but dreads getting out and having to get dressed.

Daddy bathing baby Matthew.

Mommy drying him off.

Look who came to visit!

Grandpa Shipley called us this morning to let us know he'd be stopping by in the evening to say hello and give us all a big hug. He had to come out to Washington D.C. for business for a few days. We were so excited to see him and have him meet Matthew for the first time. He was actually in town the day I went into labor. My water broke an hour after his plane took off. So, he was back out exactly a month later to meet Matthew. It was so fun to watch him interact with Matthew. He is so good with babies. He lulled Matthew right to sleep and put him down in his crib. Only problem was he woke up an hour later, but gave us enough time to play a game of Settlers :) My dad has VERY strong genes. So many of the Shipley babies look just like their grandpa. I was amazed looking at the picture of the two of them and noticing that Matthew's coloring matches grandpa's.

First Airplane Ride

All ready for my first airplane ride. Dressed up in my "Little Pilot" outfit.
So excited for my first big trip!

We took a quick trip to Boston. It was quite the adventure. The week Matthew was born, Matt offered to take a hearing in Boston so that I could come and bring the baby to visit our friends Alisa and Eric. Matt has earned enough flights with Southwest that I can fly for free with him anywhere he goes. Matt was flying back from Louisville, Kentucky and didn't have enough time to come up to the house and get us and go back to the airport, so my sweet friend, Donna, offered to drive Matthew and I to the airport. Just before leaving, I decided to see if we needed any documents for the baby. I found out that Southwest requires you to bring the baby's birth certificate to prove that he is at least 2 weeks and less than 2 years old and also to prove that you aren't trying to fly away with someone else's child. Well, this was a problem because we had to send the birth certificate back as they had forgotten to put the "IV" after MKS on the certificate. After lots of phone calls and inquiry, Matt found out that we would be okay if we had an immunization record from the pediatrician. Luckily I planned an extra 30 minutes to get to the airport, so Donna drove us by the pediatrician to pick the paper up.

When we arrived at the airport, we found out our flight was delayed 50 minutes. There was a big snow storm in Boston that day and the airplane coming in was late. It seemed as if everyone at the airport was flabbergasted that we were taking a 3 week old on an airplane. We were nervous about it too, but hoping all would go well. After getting through security and waiting for daddy to get out of the bathroom so that we could find a decent place to feed the baby, we got onto the airplane only to find out that our flight was delayed another 90 minutes!!! So much for hanging out with Alisa and Eric that night. I was regretting coming, but after pondering the thought of going back home only to have to turn around to pick Matt back up the following night at the airport, decided to stick it out. Luckily, Matthew fell asleep. When we finally took off I was so worried about making sure Matthew was sucking on his pacifier that I put it in his mouth and kept moving it around to get him to suck. I wasn't sure if he was sleeping if his ears would be okay and didn't want to take any chances. After landing, we waited for the Dollar Rental Car shuttle to take us to get our car. We watched as 3 or 4 shuttles passed from every other rental company before Dollar's shuttle came by. Talk about bad luck! We didn't get to our hotel until almost 11 p.m. Side note: we realized it would be much easier to check the car seat instead of taking it to the gate.

When we checked in, the guy told Matt there would be a crib in our room. We got to the room and there was no crib. They finally brought the crib, but it looked pretty scary - very institutional. I opted to let Matthew sleep in his car seat and then near me in the double bed after he got up the first time. Well, we did get to see Alisa and her big boy, Tyler. Ty is 7 months old and in 18 month clothes! He is such a cutie! It was so fun to see Alisa. We went and had Thai food which I haven't had for so long as Matt is not a fan. Then we went back to her house. Eric was home for lunch and Matt pulled up just after we did with canolis from Mike's Pastry! We had a great visit (despite Matthew's fussiness) and Alisa even let me take a much needed nap. Matt and I went to Boston 2 weeks after Ty was born, so it was fun to be able to bring Matthew out at about the same age.

The trip back, we checked the car seat and made it to our gate to find out we were delayed 50 minutes. I guess you just have to expect lots of delays in the winter. We were grateful to make it home safely and agreed that the next trip would be longer than 1 day, but that it was worth the trip to see the Stoddards and to know what to expect before heading out to Utah for Christmas.

Alisa and me with our boys in front of their gorgeous Christmas tree. These guys will be good friends.
Matt and Alisa taking care of the babies.

Ty showing off his mad jumping skills!