Matthew is doing much better. His fever has subsided and he is sleeping more soundly.

We had a very long weekend. Matthew spiked a fever of 103 at 2am Sunday morning and was inconsolable. We gave him some Tylenol to control the fever and tested his urine for a urinary tract infection. Once that test was inconclusive we headed off for the hospital emergency room. in 30 minutes Matthew had a catheter inserted and withdrawn, a very painful blood draw from his foot, a shot in the leg of antibiotics, a chest X-ray, and an echocardiogram. I am not complaining about the hospital staff. On the contrary, they were wonderful and very efficient. It is just hard to walk into the ER knowing that you are about to watch your son endure procedures that he doesn't understand. In the end, there was no clear cut answer for the fever besides it being "viral". We were released in the afternoon and were grateful for no serious revelations in regards to illness. Uncle Keith & Aunt Gabrielle very generously invited us over to their home while they cooked for us. By Monday morning, when this photo was taken, The King Trio was completely exhausted. Matthew is better now though he still has a low grade fever and seems uncomfortable.

Today we all paid a visit to Matthew's Pediatrician Dr. Michael Tenby. He and his wife Jennifer just welcomed their second child, Aaron, into the world last month. He is a proud daddy and greeted us with baby pictures.

Dr. Tenby is delighted with Matthew's growth & weight gain. For the first time in 13 months he is within normal ranges for both. He weighed in today at 19lbs. 3 ounces (13 ounces away from a forward facing car seat) and measured 28.5 inches.

Terri continues to work on Matthew's upper body strength and he is showing noticeable improvement.

We have been encouraging Matthew to wave hello and goodbye. Apparently this is some sort of childhood milestone.

Sometimes when Terri & I praise him for waving he looks at his hand as if to wonder what it is doing that is so remarkable.

I got a strong sense of foreshadowing when I took this picture. This little deviant look makes me think there are mischievous thoughts afoot in his boyhood mind...

You can only entertain a little fellow for so long before they want to start destroying things. Here Matthew discovers he is sitting on tissue paper that makes the greatest crinkling sound!

...With his trunk wound up he starts the initial rip and...

...The full body swing completes the tear. Boys will be boys.

At the end of the visit Matthew received two shots and this content little face vanished. I am proud to say that it didn't take him long to recover and he was back to his normal little demeanor.

"Hey Mom, what are you doing with that spoon? This kitchen isn't big enough for the both of us. Let the test of wills begin."

The trick is to sing to Matthew until he smiles. Then, like a bolt of lightning, zap the baby-food laden spoon into his mouth before he can Karate chop Terri's arm away.

After church this afternoon, Matthew enjoyed some swing time.

Matthew got a bath this morning before Grandma Wright came over to visit.

Even though Mommy made sure the water was warm, Matthew was not a fan of the dish rinsing nozzle.

Once the towel came out, the crying & fussing ceased. Then it was back to smiles. We keep Matthew's shirt on when he is outside so his scar won't darken any further. Regardless of his scar, sunlight is like kryptonite to us light haired Irish boys.

Today Matthew had an appointment with his Pediatric GI doctor who monitors his weighed gain and recommends dietary levels. Terri dressed him in this adorable outfit for the trip.

Good News! Dr. Dezenberg was very pleased with Matthew's appetite and weight gain (he weighed in at 18lbs. 8 ounces). He recommended that we take Matthew off of the appetite stimulant for a week then restart it for 3 weeks. Otherwise the effect wears off.

Back at home, with the 2100 ft. Las Vegas altitude, Matthew was back to his old self. Here he delights his Mom & Dad with feats of baby strength by holding a sippy cup to his mouth.

This weekend we went to Beaver, Utah. The altitude made Matthew very cranky and lethargic. He really didn't seem to enjoy himself and it caused Terri some stress. His appetite, however, remained good.

Matthew still doesn't have the suck-swallow-breathe aspect of bottle feeding down. He tends to hold his breath and the 6500 feet of altitude didn't help. Here, you can see a slight blue tone to his face as he takes a break from drinking.

Because of the altitude, Matthew took many naps. Here Terri lays down with him before he fell asleep.

Since Matthew is a "Tweener" (that is, between too big for his infant tub but too small for the bath tub), Terri gave him a bath yesterday in the kitchen sink. He finally gets to play with his "rubber ducky". If only Kermit-the-Frog was here to sing him that song.

"Rubber Ducky you're the one. You make bath time so much fun..."

This is Peetie, our very senior cat. With Terri's introduction he and Matthew met for the first time. They both seemed quite fascinated with one another.