Team Taseff : Game On

Wow! Can you believe Mather is one month today, the past four weeks have gone by SO fast. Even those sleepless nights don’t seem so bad when I look back at the past month. He is such a blessing to our family and we are so lucky to be his parents.

Ok – here are his stats!! And he is a BIG boy!

Weight – 10#9oz – up from 7#8oz when we brought him home!! (75%)
Height – 21.25″ (50%)
Head Cirm. – 15″ (50%)

So unlike his sister who is long and lean, Mather seems to be short and stocky. He is SO cute though, he has barely lost any hair, his eyes are lightening up quite a bit and he is finally giving us some awake time. He loves his pacifier and hates tummy time!

This upcoming month he should start finding his hands and smiling, I can’t wait.

(posted by AT)

To all my girlfriends for celebrating my 31st birthday with me last night! The eight of us enjoyed a yummy dinner at Bar Cento including their famous Pommas Fritas (Belgium French Fries) and 4 delicious pizza’s!! I am so fortunate to have such wonderful friends – including my oldest friend Erin – friends from age 4!, to friends from high school and college and friends I have met since moving back to Cleveland. As a group, we get together for everyone’s birthday, meaning that out of the 10 or so friends we are at least eating dinner together almost monthly – so fun. I was actually telling my mom about this tradition the other day and she still, after 25+ years, does the same dinner outing with her friends for their birthdays.

Thanks girls!!

Bummer that I forgot my camera because it would have a been such a cute photo! Next time – or in a few weeks when we celebrate Julie’s birthday!

(posted by AT)

First, thanks to everyone for the wonderful Birthday wishes, emails, texts, phone calls and all the cards! I had a great birthday weekend with friends and family celebrating.

In a quick recap the Taseff family was non-stop all weekend (again!). Friday we had friend Carrie and John over to visit with Mather and Alta. Alta especially enjoyed playing with Jack and introducing him to all the characters on Sesame Street. After a relaxing afternoon we headed to Chardon for a party of one of Damon’s clients. She lives on a wonderful street of century homes and along with her neighbors through a huge Forth of July bash with a great band that Alta enjoyed dancing to. Mather of course slept through the whole party in the bjorn, he loves the bjorn!

On Saturday, my birthday!!, we met up with Holly and Greg and baby Brayden over at Matt and Traci’s house for breakfast (thanks for the cake!). Brayden is only one day older than Mather and I am sure they will be friends for life. And Traci is due at the end of the month with a boy too so Mather will have a lot of boys to grow up with. Next we headed out to Vermillion for an afternoon in the lagoons! It was great to see Sarah and Jeff and their kids and catch up with all my parents friends and introduce them to Mather. From there we headed to Damon’s aunt and uncles for an evening to cousin craziness including sparklers which Alta LOVED!! We enjoyed meeting Ben (he is 4 days older than Mather) and visiting with family, along with yummy food and an ice cream cake!

My birthday continued with dinner at my parents tonight, more gifts and yummy food! Damon was even able to get some yard work done and Alta enjoyed playing in her new sprinkler in the side lot. A VERY busy, fun filled weekend!

Video’s to come. Photos on the flickr site too!

(posted by AT)

Oh, life in the suburbs is so fun!! Last night, the Taseffs, along with my parents and Kurt and Claudia enjoyed a chilly evening in Bay Village celebrating the 199th annual Bay Days. Alta especially enjoyed the slide and merry go round, Damon enjoyed the yummy fries, funnel cake, ice cream and italian sausage – oh, and winning Alta a pink inflatable hammer.

Fun videos below! Happy 4th of July weekend to everyone.

(posted by AT)

I was SO excited to get this comment on my “What’s the Mather?” post!

—-
My name is Mather Schneider and I have met only one guy in my life who has the same first name. I am 39 years old and from Peoria Illinois. Some people call me Matt. The Mexicans call me Mateo. It’s always a conversation starter, sometimes too much so.

I saw this and I just had to say hello. Good luck. Mather Schneider
—-

How fun! I wrote him an email and asked him how he stumbled across our blog. Turns out he was googling the name Mather. I love the name so much, its a strong unique name that fits our son perfectly! I thought the comment was hilarious too, especially the nicknames! When we thought of the name we never thought about shortening it or having a nickname.

(posted by AT)

When Alta was born I created a gmail email address for her and wrote her an email every month during her first year, always signed “love mommy”!

And finally this morning at 2.30am I created an email address for our little Mather – mather.taseff@gmail.com.

Feel free to email him (or Alta)!!

(posted by AT)

A lot!! Even with a 18-month old and a 2 week old (plus a little lack of sleep!).

Friday night was quiet, the family went for a nice walk in the neighborhood, stopped for ice cream at Dairy Delite, visited with friends and their kiddo’s and watched Marley and Me – well Damon watched the movie, I actually caught up on some sleep.

Saturday was all work for Damon! He was up bright and dropped in 26 fence posts, with the help of his dad, in our side lot, and across our front lawn and driveway. I am so excited about putting up a picket fence, for the kiddos and for Lincoln. It took almost 8 hours to put all the posts in and as you can see by the photo below Alta had a blast supervising! Thanks to Damon’s dad for helping with the fence!! Hope you don’t have too many blisters.

And while the boys worked, the kids and I enjoyed a visit from Katie and Brett, an early afternoon party at the park across the street, playing in the backyard, an episode or two of Sesame Street and naps for everyone! And at night, Mather and I went to my friend Erins for a wine tasting party (so FUN!!) while Damon and Alta spent some father / daughter time together. I forgot my camera for the wine tasting so I hope that someone can email me some photos to post!

Sunday = Sunday Funday!! The family was up early for a trip to Lakeview Cemetery, this was Mather’s first trip to this historical cemetery. While there we just happened to stumble across the whole Mather families graves – there are over 100,000 people buried at the cemetery and we found the Mather family within 10 minutes of walking around. Ironically, they are buried not too far from the Rockefeller family. After our nature walk we headed over to Little Italy to Corbo’s for some coffee and yummy treats before heading back home to get ready for the Indians game with friends. And yes, I left Mather (with Papa and Grandma Mann) for 4+ hours while we went to watch the Indians lose to the Reds. We had a blast watching the game, soaking up some sun and going to Panani’s for some grub and beers. I am so bummed Katie and Brett are moving away but have enjoyed the last year plus with them here in Cleveland!

Some cute photos below of our weekend! More to come too. Geez, we sure were busy.

(posted by AT)

Note Lincoln whining in the background, he really wants to be in a video!

(posted by AT)