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We're Moving to.....

Atlanta! Brian matched at Atlanta Eye Consultants for his fellowship, so we'll be moving back to the ATL this summer. We are very excited! It will be hard to leave Winston Salem, but at least we get to go somewhere familiar and a place where we already have friends!

6 month update

Ok, so I know that I've been really behind on the blogging lately. I think my New Year's resolution will be to start blogging once a week. The past few weeks and months have really seemed like a whirlwind! I'm not sure when it became December, but I'm not quite sure that I'm ready for it. I'm definitely not ready for the cold weather!

Speaking of time flying, Matthew is already 6 months old! I can hardly believe it. He is such a joy to watch as he grows and explores new things, and flashes that adorable smile. While I am very thankful to have a part-time job, I really wish I could spend all day every day with him. He is now sitting up somewhat by himself, babbling and talking, making high pitched squeals (he especially likes doing this in public), eating solid foods, rolling all over the place, entertaining himself, reaching for and successfully grabbing everything he can get his hands on (I do not recommend holding a flight boarding pass in your hand while also holding him), charming everyone he meets, and drooling like a mad man as he cut his first tooth. He has begun to develop his own little personality, and lets us know when he likes or doesn't like something. Vegetables are definitely not his favorite thing! Check out the video below for parental entertainment and baby torture :o)

Brian and I are very eagerly awaiting next Tuesday when we find out where he will be completing his cornea fellowship! Check back next week for the news!

Visit to Atlanta

The past few weeks Brian has been very busy traveling all over the country interviewing for fellowships. He has been everywhere from Portland to Minneapolis to Baltimore, and he's only half-way through! I was very excited to be able to travel with him to Atlanta when he interviewed at Emory and visit with friends. He actually flew to Philadelphia and back for another interview while I stayed there. Here are some of the highlights from our trip.

Matthew and Caleb meeting for the first time. About 10 seconds later Caleb tried to climb in the car seat with Matthew!

Dinner with friends at O'Charleys


Caleb and I are best friends :o)

Since Jennifer, Katie and I are all huge football fans, we had to put the babies in their gear and take a picture of all of them! Of course we all know who looks the cutest (Go Gators!)



Dustin and Casey got to meet Matthew also. Dustin enjoyed hanging out with Matthew and making him laugh.

Matthew's Baptism

One of the things that we love about Winston-Salem is our church home. We joined First Presbyterian Church last year in September after attending regularly for several months. Our dearest friends Jeremy and Casey are also members of the church, and we thought it would be really special to have our babies baptized together. So, on September 20th Matthew and Taryn were baptized! Of course Matthew decided to fall asleep about 5 minutes before he was supposed to be baptized, so he was woken up by water being dripped on his head! He looked confused for a minute, and then got a little mad. Thankfully he calmed back down and fell back asleep. We were very fortunate to be able to spend this day with friends and with our family as well. After the church service we came back to our house and a had a little party for the occasion.
Getting baptized
Trying to calm him back down after
The Fosters and the Bonkowskes


The whole family!

Ready to celebrate! Loving the faces in the background of this picture.

The beautiful babies! (And future husband and wife :o)

A Whirlwind Update in Pictures

I am WAY behind on the blogging, so I'm just going to post some pictures with captions to catch up on everything that's been going on!
Matthew really enjoyed watching his first Gator game. So far he is undefeated as a Gator fan!

Matthew also participated in his first golf outing! His grandparents were very proud of him for making it all 18 holes! He did sleep from hole 7 to 16, but he was very good!

We love making our little man smile!

Four months old! Wearing my first pair of jeans too.

I just rolled over for the first time and am so proud of myself!

Back to Work and Other August Adventures

Well, I started back to work part-time at the end of August. I'm working from 9:15 to 1:15 every day, and I spend two hours in a 3rd grade class and two hours in a 2nd grade class. I'm very happy that I made the decision to work part-time, because I don't think I could stand being away from Matthew all day every day. I was also fortunate enough to be able to share a sitter with our friends Casey and Jeremy, so every other week Matthew stays at our house while I'm gone. Having a sitter every day was definitely an adjustment and I finally had to realize that no one is going to take care of him the way I do, and that he is perfectly fine while I'm gone. Here are a few pictures taken toward the end of August.

We can't believe how big our little boy is getting already!


We were very excited to have Brad come visit us at the end of August! He got to meet Matthew for the first time, and then he, Brian and Jim went on a guys trip for the weekend.


While Brian was gone on his trip, Cherie came to visit! I was so excited to meet Tyler, and we can tell that he and Matthew are going to be great friends :o)


Matthew really enjoys his play mat, and has become quite good at squealing and laughing while playing!Even though you can't tell from this picture, Matthew has started to enjoy hanging out on his tummy!

The Zoo!

We had a very busy day today! After having a yard sale in the morning, we went to the North Carolina Zoo with our friends Casey, Jeremy and their daughter Taryn, and Kevin and Lauren. It was ridiculously hot, but we still enjoyed seeing all the animals! Matthew did very well. He rode around in his stroller, and of course spent time up on one of our shoulders when he got fussy. He has been lots of fun lately, starting to talk and coo, and smiling and laughing a lot. On the way home we ate dinner at America's Roadhouse. We were slightly skeptical when we pulled in and saw a giant eagle on the front of the building, but there were lots of cars in the parking lot so we figured it had to be good. It was, and it was really cheap too!

Family Photos

As a shower present, our awesome friend Rachel gave us a free photography sitting. We went to Graylyn early on Saturday morning, and she took lots of pictures for us. Here are just a few of our favorites. Thanks Rachel!

Videos

One of the things Matthew has enjoyed lately is playing on his mat. He especially likes the light-up ball that you see in the video. While we have found that the sound the ball makes can be rather annoying after 20 minutes, at least it's not a song that gets stuck in your head!

He has also begun to smile and laugh recently! We're not sure he always knows what he's doing, but he seems to in this video.

Matthew is a Month Old!

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but Matthew has already been here for a month! Everyone always says how fast the time goes, and now I know what they mean! At his one month doctor's appointment he weighed 11 lbs 6 oz and was 23 inches long! Matthew has had lots of new experiences this past month. He has been to several stores and restaurants, gone to church, attended his first concert, had his first real bath, stayed with a babysitter, visited his other baby friends, had lots of visitors, and strolled around downtown Winston-Salem. He has also begun holding up his head during tummy time, tracking things that make sounds, laughing and smiling randomly, and perfecting his "I have a gas bubble" scream. He is only waking up once at night now, and is going right back to sleep afterward which makes his mommy very happy :o) Here are some photos of his recent adventures.

Adventures in Parenting Begin

Brian and I have been making the transition into parenthood the past few weeks. We have learned that babies can fart louder than adults, sometimes they cry for no good reason, and they make really funny faces when they're sleepy. While we are both tired, we are enjoying our new roles and our little man. When we went to the pediatrician on Friday he weighed 9 lbs 12 oz, which was 11 oz more than he was a week ago! Needless to say, he has the eating thing down. It was also great to have my mom here this past week. She was a tremendous help with things around the house, and had the magic touch to make Matthew stop crying! Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.