The Manley Memoirs: March 2010

Spring Break is over. :0( I'm going to miss hanging out with my lil monster. We had a great week. We didn't do anything outrageous, but we played and visited with family and friends. I got to take Catch to volleyball practice with me and he always loves that! Catch is the kind of baby that needs to be entertained, if so, he's always in a great mood. He kept pointing to the volleyballs and getting the girls to hand him the ball. At the end of practice I put him in the ball cart and took pics. He was in paradise!

PRICELESS!

Some of the girls with Catcheroo.

Catch went to visit Papa and Grandma Lisa one night while Chris and I met some friends. He always loves seeingt them, and he must have had a great time, because he passed out with Papa.
One of the best things parts of breaks is meeting up with Chris for lunch. It's a great break during the day for us. We went to Mazzio's and I realized I forgot Catch's baby food, so Chris had to walk across the street to CVS to get some. What a great dad!

Catch loves any type of glasses and is always trying to take them off of people's faces.

I asked Catch to clap and he did! Such a smart boy. :0)

"Whatcha lookin' at mom?!"

He's always trying to take the camera.

One cool dude! Finally got the glasses. ;0)

St. Patty's Day was great. My lil man was looking too cute. I got him a t-shirt that said Lucky. But who really needs luck when your name is Catch?! We met up with Lisa for dinner at Louie's so she could visit with Catch. It was a nice evening.

Look at those cheeks?!

Stop what you're doing! It's Catch time.

Playing with his new bball.

Measurement cups?! Who would have thought that something so simple could please him.
A regular activity at Grandma Lisa's.

Trying to get the pebbles from the display on the coffee table.

LOVE IT!

Mommy moved the pebbles from the coffee table, and baby wasn't happy.

Play time at home. Already picking up the bat. :0)

One of my favorite things that Catch does is crawl to me, stick his head into my legs, and climb up until he's standing. :0)

Finally stood up! Who wouldn't love this face staring up at you?!

I'm going to miss hanging out with my Catcheroo all day, but only 9 more weeks until summer break!

Most importantly, my Catcheroo finally said mama!!!! It was Tuesday, March 9 at 8:40 pm. Chris, my mom, and I were sitting in Catch's room before bed, playing with him, when he crawled toward Chris and said mama. We all looked at each other to verify that that was what he said, and then he said it again. Granted, he was crawling toward Chris, but he still said it! I literally squealed with excitement, scooped him up, and kissed him. I actually scared him though. Oops...I had tears in my eyes. I have been waiting so long to hear that. He said it one more time that night and didn't say it again til at least a couple days. Dada is still the dominant word, but I'm hoping he'll get more comfortable saying mama soon. :0)

Catch is also starting to point at things. I know it's rude to point, but this is adorable. He sees something that intrigues him, and he will point at it. Chris said the other day when he came home, Catch pointed at him and said dada. How cool is that??!!

Chris, Catch, and I went to the zoo today. We went ahead and bought a family pass for $35. I've all ready told Catch that we'll be going plenty in the summer, so we are definitely going to get our money's worth. The weather was a little colder than I thought it was going to be, but luckily Gammie packed Catcheroo and extra sweatshirt. I hadn't been to the zoo since I was in elementary school, and I had a great time. I forgot how much walking there was! It'll definitely be a good, little workout in the summer.

I guess I expected Catch to be a little more excited than he was. He doesn't quite know what to make of it all, but I'm sure by mid-summer he'll be familiar with some of the animals. He did seem to like the monkey hanging from the top of one of the cages. :0) I'll probably take him during the day later this week, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

I also entered Catch into a photo contest for the magazine, American Baby. His pictures are posted on parents.com. If you want to check them out, just enter the keyword: catch matthew manley. I also sent some pics to this local modeling agency. They said he passed the first round and they said that 80% of entries don't even make it past the 1st round. Don't worry, I'm not going to turn into one of those crazy parents, but people are always telling us that Catch looks like a Gerber baby, so I figured, why not try? :0) It may not turn into anything, but no one ever got anywhere without trying. I'll let you know if it turns into anything.

Enjoy the pics! It's been awhile.

The series of 3 pics is of Catch sleeping with Chris.