A Matias update

playing in the sandbox at our house

Matias is my favorite nephew.  Sure, he's also my only nephew, but he's also my favorite:)  My return to Bolivia has been good, and one of the biggest bright spots has been time spent with my nephew.

A week after I got back, Collin and I took Matias up the mountain a little ways to build a campfire and roast marshmallows.    He was both fascinated and afraid of the fire, asking for us to build it up, but then squealing and turning away once we did.  Overall, he had a good time listening to the night noises and looking at the moon and stars, but by the time we took a picture at the end, he was really ready to be done!

 For some reason, almost every time Matias comes into my room, he pulls my Bible off my desk and flips through it for a long time.  I think he likes the paper-thin pages, but sometimes it almost seems like he's studying each page.

One of Matias' favorite activities is to pour water slowly out onto the ground.  He was thrilled when we went to a friend's house and they had an elephant watering can.  "Ellie", as Matias calls elephants, kept him entertained for over an hour.

Another favorite activity is sweeping.  I'm personally thrilled about it, hoping that he takes after his Tia Katie and Nana, not his dad:)  He sometimes wanders around the house, pointing out all the dirty spots and making grunting noises.

Matias' favorite friends are still the neighbor kids, who usually come over every Sunday.  Liz, the oldest of the four, loves to read books with him, play with him, and help him eat or take a bath.  It's amazing how mature and grown up each of the neighbor kids are with him, even though they're all under 10.

On March 16th, Matias turned 2.  His mom, Brianna, made an amazing cake that look professionally done, and bought magic candles that relight.  Matias is very aware of fire safety and anytime he sees something burning, he always tries to blow it out.  The magic candles backfired, and instead of being excited about the opportunity to blow out the candles multiple times, he got more and more frustrated.  His high-pitched screams seemed to prove a point that the TERRIBLE TWOS have begun!

For the most part, Matias seemed oblivious to the party around him, happy to drive his car by himself on the floor, or in the cardboard maze in his room with his friend Mauricio.

When the piñata was broken open and all his peers and their parents scrambled for the candy and toys on the ground, Matias was more than happy to pick up all the pieces of shiny paper and put them on his head.  Someone handed him a piece of candy, and he popped it in his mouth, paper and all, and went back to collecting shiny pieces of paper.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATIAS!