A Day in the Life

Since I haven't done a lot of posting or picture-taking lately, I decided to take pictures all day last Monday. I'd like to say that the day was typical, but it didn't involve Matthew starting his nap in the car following a busy morning out, or a horrifically messy house, or me scrambling to put dinner on the table before 7PM. I also didn't get pictures of some things that I've been meaning to - Matthew in his crib in the morning, eating a meal with a fork, and pajama time before bed. Still, I think I captured a lot. I hope you enjoy our day in the life.

Because it's so warm here, Matthew is almost always naked until we leave the house. He is also almost always carrying around a ball, sometimes two. If he already had two balls in his hands and sees another one, he will spend a few minutes trying to figure out how to pick up all three. The ladies at the program we go to on Fridays call him the Ball Monster.

A very favorite morning pastime of Matthew's is to stand on the lanai chairs and point to various things. He sees bees, airplanes, construction trucks, buses, birds, and lots of things I'm sure escape my eyes. He is very good about holding on and not climbing on the railing so that I don't have a heart attack.When we leave for the morning, Matthew helps get himself dressed by putting his arms in his shirt and stepping in to his shorts. He can almost put his shoes on, but they are so stinky now that I think he'd rather avoid them. He goes down the steps by himself and knows how to get into his carseat, sort of.

On this morning, we grabbed the stroller and walked down to the local library for storytime. Matthew loves to look at all the goings on in the neighborhood, especially when I let him get out of the stroller to do some inspection of his own. Here he's checking out the papayas at a local market.

We made it to the library on time but Matthew isn't really old enough to sit and listen to the stories. At one point, he simply climbed back into his stroller and looked like he was going to take a nap. Then he thought better of that and went back to pushing all of the library chairs around. Needless to say, he was the most exhausted of the attendees once the stories were over.

Because our house is at the top of pretty steep hill and Matthew was getting hungry after so much chair-moving, I decided to take him on his first ride on The Bus. I forgot how crowded the bus can be, however, and my visions of fun evaporated when the doors opened to a bus full of old Chinese women without even room to stand. Ahh, taking the bus in Honolulu.

By the time we got home, I had just enough time to get lunch on the table before Matthew fell asleep. I used to use his naps as time to catch up on chores and other housework. Now I think that makes too much noise - and is not very rejuvenating for me - so instead I take a nap, too, or blog, or read all about my favorite presidential election.

To be continued...