Leaves, leaves everywhere

Sean just sent me this video of him and Matteo cleaning up the leaves in the front yard!!

By the way, all these leaves are NOT from any tree in our yard. They are all from the neighbor's trees!

A Walk in the Park

Sunday, we took advanatage of the gorgous fall day, and went for a walk in the park with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Vikki!! It was really nice to get out, and Matteo actually took a stroll too, that is until he found the raisens in the diaper bag, then all bets were off!!

Grandpa, trying to keep up with Matteo!

A stroll with Grandpa!

We found a caterpiller!

Off we go!

Trick or Treat!

Monkeys and giraffes, oh my!! It was Matteo's 2nd Halloween, and while I don't think he'll remember either one, it was still a good time had by all. Last year, it was dad racing home from work so that he could make it in time to bundle Matteo up and sit on the front porch and pass out candy. This time, it was mom's turn to rush home. Because of my schedule, I wasn't able to make it home until about 7pm, technically on my lunchour, but I was there, none the less.

It was so nice to be greeted by a monkey running up the driveway at me. Matteo looked so cute in his costume and I think he really enjoyed wearing it. After a couple of times over to the neighbors to steal some candy, the monkey boy had had enough.

Inside he went, off came the costume and the real fun, the candy eating, could begin. One thing we have realized, Matteo enjoys candy, and he knows where it is. I kept bringing his pumpkin up to us and trying to some. He still does it even today, three days after!

Matteo actually go to go Trick or Treating twice. We went with the Toledo Parent's Group, trick or treating thru the streets of Point Place in the morning. It was a great time had by all!

Pumpkins & Cake!

Fall in the midwest cannot be beat. I know the winters can be cold, drab and downright dull, but boy do we make up with it during the fall! Hot apple cider on a cold day with the sun shining! You can't beat it. And today was one of the most pictuesque Toledo Fall days I can remember in a long time.

We took advantage of Sean's rare weekend day off, and packed up Matteo to head to the Gust Bros. Pumpkin Farm just over the border in Michigan. For some reason or other, this option-- going out to a farm to pick your pumpkin, never occured to me until the TPG (Toledo Parent's Group) went. The farm was a little toddler's dream. Huge cows, which at first, Matteo was afraid of, chickens, bunnies, sheep and of course a dog. He loved looking at the animals but couldn't understand why they would not come up to him and let him touch them.

We embarked on Matteo's first hayride. He really seemed to like it, and, for the most part, was a great passenger. He got to pick his own pumpkin out, and has no idea what is to come when we carve it. After he chugged down some apple cider (don't think he got the concept that we got it for all of us to share) he crashed in the car on the way home!

After his LONG nap (thanks Matteo!) we got to head over to our neighbors and celebrate Jordan's 2nd birthday!! Boy, it's always an experience when you put a bunch of toddlers together in a room and then feed them sugar!! Overall, we all came out unscathed, with the exception of a small bump on the head for the birthday girl! Hope you're feeling better Jordan!

Now, it's back to work tomorrow. Can't we just put work on hold for fall?!

Catching Up on Pics

So, as promised, here are some of the latest pics of Matteo...

Matteo's First Birthday

My boys in Boston

At Joe's Wedding

Ready for the Beach

Who's looking at you?

We're going to a pumpkin farm this weekend, and going to our neighbor's 2nd birthday party, so I should have more after this weekend!!!

I'm Inspired!

I've been inspired. I have been blogging since December of '07 about the kiddo, but know that I have been lacking about updating it since Matteo turned 1. Well, no more. The moms in the Toledo Parents Group I'm a part of have inspired me! I also went thru and re-read all the posts. You forget so much, and it's so cute to see my little man back when he was still a baby.

So here I am today, promising to keep up on the blog, if for no one else but posterity! So Matteo can look back on this and say "Moooommmm!" So I can show his girlfriends when he's a rebellious teenager and embarrass him!

And with that, onto the latest adventures of Matteo-- almost 16 months now...

A walking fool-- and while I didn't have the actual video camera handy, I was able to catch some of his first steps on my cell...

An avid flier-- He's survived his first flight out to NH for Joe & Torie's wedding, which was a blast by the way!!!

A full-fledged eater--eating at the counter with dad and stealing food off his plate

I'll have more still pics when I post from home (yep, actually getting paid as I type this).

Long Time, No Blog

Alright, I know...I've been really lacking in the blog dept. But really, I don't think anyone really reads this unless I send out an e-mail, so I bet you didn't notice.

Major changes in the Sifuentes' household. I got a new job after being layed off from the old one. Matteo started crawling and now he's turning 1!! Don't worry, that's all the re-cap I'll give you...at least about us. On to the important guy...

Matteo is just growing like a weed. I think the last time I blogged he had just gotten the sixth tooth. Well, we had about a 2 month break and all of the sudden another one popped up! Then, thinking the other bottom one was on it's way, my finger in mouth managed to find 4 bumps, meaning his molars were coming thru. It's been about 4 weeks since that happened, and still no tooth, or molars. Just our little guy in a lot of pain.

He officially moved on from his "army" crawl to really crawling, and boy can he move. He pulls himself up everywhere, and walks with the aid of his walker, but doesn't do much more in the walking arena. No pressure!

His birthday party is this weekend! How can he possibly be turning 1 year old?! When I think back over the year, boy have we come a long way since the days of our "bump on a log" but there's no way it's already been a year. I always say the stage he's in is my favorite, but it really is. We think we may have heard a few words from him now, and I'm pretty sure he's said "uh-oh". Again, favorite stage.

Here's some more pics of our little man!!