Manly Matt

My sister Sharon has six kids. The first four were girls, so when she was pregnant with her fifth and found out she was having a boy she knew she had a steep learning curve ahead of her since she didn't know much about little boys. She's had fun experiencing boys first hand. When she was visiting over Christmas we were talking about how boys and girls are just so different in everything from their personalities, to their demeanor, to the way they play, etc.

Even though Matt is the lone boy of his siblings and has five sisters influencing him, he's definitely "all boy." Even though he's only three he has some pretty manly hobbies. He loves tools... his plastic ones and his dad's real ones!

One day Sharon was working in the kitchen when she looked out the window and saw Matt sawing away on one of the trees in the yard with one of his dad's REAL saws. Sharon rushed outside to take it away from him, but not before snapping a few pics out the window with her cell phone.

Matt was glued to the action when a tree service came to take one of the large trees in the front yard down. (He was probably thinking, "Where's my dad's saw now?!") Matt actually has a little plastic saw that he brought with him one of the times they came to visit last year. One afternoon he was playing in the backyard when my mom noticed that he had climbed up into our small flowering dogwood tree and he was sawing away on the branches with his little, plastic saw. It was quite comical, especially when he kept making comments about needing his dad's chainsaw so she could cut down Grammy's trees. Too funny!

Here Matt is helping his dad paint the newly repaired porch railing:

Real men aren't afraid to go around in their undies, so long as they're sporting their hard hat, goggles and dinosaur boots, and have their drill in hand, right?! (I also love that Emi is photo-bombing in the background.)

My brother-in-law built Matt a little workbench for his third birthday, to go along with his tool set:

Here's a picture of Matt hoisting a spade––I love the expression on his face! Matt also likes sticks and it's not uncommon to see him with a stick in his hand (even in their family picture!).

When I made my blog post about Christmas I purposely didn't post many pictures of Matt opening most of his major presents because I wanted to make a special post about him. A little back story on Matt and his love of tools was necessary to help  everything make more sense, though.

When I asked Sharon what I should get Matt for Christmas she suggested either a weed wacker or a lawnmower. I found a lawnmower on Amazon that I thought looked perfect, so I decided to go for it. I was so excited for Matt to open it since I knew he would love it (and he did!). After he opened it I asked him if he would let Chandra take a picture of him because I knew I wanted to capture it for the ages. This is the adorable pose he struck (and all I asked for was a smile!):

Matt knows exactly how a lawnmower works; I think he's seen his dad mow the lawn a time or two!

Lawnmower primed and filled with gas. Ready to roll!

Matt said that his lawnmower, or "blawnmower" as he refers to it (not quite sure where that extra "b" came from, but hey, it's cute!) was his favorite Christmas present. (Yay, score for me!) I'm glad Mattie likes his lawnmower and I'm glad it went home with him. It's quite a loud little mower since it makes a revving noise when you pull the cord to "start" it, and it also makes noise when you push it along (it's like one of those corn popper toys).

There was something else that Matt was really hoping to add to his collection of manly toys. Could this be it…?!

Yep... just what he was hoping for... a chainsaw!

Taking a peek at it and seeing if it cuts through the cardboard box:

I thought these next few pictures were funny. Just like a typical kid, Matt really liked the box. Thank goodness his sisters were there to help him wriggle out of it!

Matt also got a tape measure and liked going around measuring things:

Mattie may be a manly little boy, but he loves getting his toes painted along with the rest of the girls! (Too bad I didn't get a picture of that!) Whenever Channie paints the other girls' fingers and toes Matt doesn't want to be left out of the action, so he gets his toes painted along with everyone else. (When he woke up the next morning he excitedly exclaimed, "My toes are still purple!") I just love this little guy!