Crawling Baby!

I really thought that Matthew was going to be one of those babies that just didn't crawl. He had already moved on to skills like pulling up and going from his belly to a sitting position, so I thought that I'd be able to enjoy an immobile baby until he started walking. Well, as it turns out, I was wrong! He started crawling last night and is very proud of himself! I'm sure that I won't be sitting down for the next few years of my life, but that's ok. He loves being able to move and is so cute when he's crawling! Here is some video footage of his new accomplishment.

So far in 2010

So far our new year has been off to a wonderful but incredibly busy start! Since 2010 started, we have been working hard getting our house ready to put on the market. We have cleaned, organized, given things away, put stuff in storage, painted, pressure washed, cleaned the carpets, and had our creaky floors fixed. The house has been officially on the market for a week and a half now, and I must admit that putting the for sale sign in our yard was really painful. I am so excited about moving back to Atlanta, I just wish I could take my house with me! We are still waiting on our first showing and in the meantime have to keep the house picked up and spotless at all times. While this seemed like it was going to be very difficult to do, it's actually kind of nice because I never have to spend all day Saturday cleaning anymore! Here is a photo as a tribute to our cute house!

This winter has also been one of the coldest in recent years, and has the most snowfall! While I can't compare our snow to places north of us, it's a lot for us. So far we have missed 4 student days and had several delayed openings. And then, in case I couldn't get enough snow here, we went to Atlanta last weekend and it snowed 4 inches there! Apparently I can't get away from it. Matthew seemed to enjoy himself in the snow though, and we got lots of cute pictures!

Speaking of cute pictures, while we were in Atlanta we stayed with our friends Michael and Jennifer and their son Caleb. Michael is a wonderful photographer and he took some pictures of Matthew. You'll see a couple of them below. Matthew and Caleb had a great time together, and while we were unsuccessful in getting Matthew to crawl, Caleb enjoyed bringing Matthew whatever toy we had placed just out of his reach. We are really looking forward to this summer when the boys can play together a lot more often! (And so can their mommies!)

We can't believe how much Matthew has grown in the past few months. He now has 6 teeth and is working on two more. Thankfully teething hasn't been especially terrible for him, so we are still getting to sleep all night! He has learned to feed himself both a bottle and finger foods. He especially loves bananas and we just started feeding him mandarin oranges a few days ago which he is a big fan of! Yesterday morning I went in his room to find up sitting up in his crib, and he repeated this at the end of his naps so we decided it was time to lower the crib. He has yet to crawl forward, and I feel like I am partially to blame for this since I never crawled as a child. However, he is quite good at going from all fours to sitting up and back down to his stomach again. If he could only figure out how to make his backward movements work for him he'd be much less frustrated! He is still as happy as can be though, and every time we go somewhere people comment on what a happy baby he is. We are so blessed!

8 months old!


Exploring Linville Caverns

Having fun dumping out all my toys!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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)