Matthew: Eight Months!

Yes, his tongue is out. Again

Height/Weight: Nothing official (which means no doctor's visits--yay!) but I feel like he's longer than his brothers. Not necessarily heavier, but he's definitely no bean pole. I'm very curious to see what his stats are next month at his well visit (we got the first round of his flu shot at Connor's well visit a few weeks ago and I was secretly hoping they'd take his height and weight there, but no such luck).

Wearing: Still rocking the size three diapers. I've started buying some size four diapers, but I'm sure as heck finishing off all the size three diapers (however many there are) before I make the switch. He's fully in 6-9 month clothing, although for one-piece items (like rompers and some pajamas) I've needed to move up to 12 month items so they aren't too short.

Eating: Plenty of solid food, plenty of Mama's milk. He still nurses five times a day (morning, after each of his three naps, and before bed), and about 70% of the time he nurses once at night, but rarely--if ever--more than that. He's also eating three meals a day of solid food, and pretty well loving every minute of it. We're pretty much only doing single-food purees (with the introduction of a new food every four days), and honestly, he doesn't get a ton of variety beyond the new food because we haven't done a very good job of keeping his puree options well-stocked. However, he is loving finger foods, so we've been giving him some of the vegetable sides that we're eating (like sweet potatoes and green beans), and those are generally seasoned, so he's at least getting a little more variety that way. 

Sleeping: Another month, and no major sleep complaints. Something just doesn't feel right... I can only assume I'll have it coming for me when this kid is a toddler. We're into a pretty solid three-nap routine, and he has started to stretch the afternoon nap out a little longer (even a few days where he's matched Connor's two hour nap!), so that's been nice. We had a glimpse one day of what a two-nap day might look like, and honestly, it wasn't pretty. I'm trying not to stress out about it too much and just enjoy the "comfortable" routine we have now, but honestly, I have no idea how we'll make a two-nap day work with school pick up at 2:45. Maybe we'll just go from three naps to one nap?!? That's doable, right?!? Night time has been pretty good as well; as I mentioned earlier he still gets up to nurse the majority of the time, but he goes back to bed really easily (even after a diaper change). He occasionally wakes up around 5AM, which is not acceptable behavior in this house, but if one of us sits with him he'll usually sleep until his normal 6:45-7:15 wake up time. 

New Stuff: Well, it didn't take long for him to get from army crawling to hands and knees crawling--and he was equally quick to figure out how to get to a seated position from a crawling position. His brothers aren't exactly loving his mobility and ability to get in to anything and everything, but they are equally his biggest cheerleaders. The first few days he started hands and knees crawling they all got so excited every time he did it and gave him the biggest cheers. He is also pulling himself up on EVERYTHING, so we've had to reevaluate which of our "bigger" toys can be left out because some of them are a bit of a toppling risk when he tries to pull himself up. And--for what I am pretty sure is the first time--we actually got his crib mattress lowered BEFORE he started pulling himself up in his crib! I think with the other boys it always took an "oh crap" moment where we saw them standing in the crib (and in major risk of leaning too far forward and toppling out) before we remembered to lower it (and I know for at least one boy that moment happened around 9:00 at night). The biggest downside to his obsession with pulling himself up, though, is that he can't sit himself back down yet. Not a huge issue during the day, but in his crib, well, that's a different story. I'm convinced he would sleep through the night more often if he could get back down on his own--plus when he's tired in his crib he has a hard time laying back down from a seated position, so he'll get "stuck" that way too. Honestly, though, it isn't a major enough of an issue that I'd even consider it a complaint; it's just the reality of the phase that we're going through, and after raising three boys through this stage I can finally recognize that without stressing over the negative (and mostly minor) impacts this phase has on my life. 

A few other, smaller, new things: in mid-September, Matthew got to join us on Connor's birthday outing (a special Mom-Dad-Birthday Boy date), and Connor chose an indoor swimming pool for his outing, which I think Matthew might have loved just as much as Connor did. The pool has a warm water area, which also happens to be zero-entry, so Matthew could just sit and splash and crawl around in ankle deep water and he was in heaven. Additionally, he has tolerated the first month of having TWO big brothers in school pretty well and doesn't usually fuss terribly about pick ups and drop offs (although right now we're still parking and getting out; we'll see if his tolerance changes when he has to sit idly in the car once we start doing the pick up line this winter). He took his first family trip to the Apple Orchard, which ended up being terribly anti-climatic because due to some bad storms last year and a rough drought this summer, selection was super limited and we didn't even get to do a tractor ride. Equally anti-climatic were his first few Vikings games--it's starting to look like he might be a bad-luck charm, but at least he's a cute bad-luck charm (and his brothers aren't half-bad either!)

Photo Every Hour: September 21st

Slowly (slowly) working on getting up earlier than the boys so our mornings aren't quite as chaotic

7:00 In the blink of an eye we go from four boys...

8:00 To two. And I'll be honest, I hadn't realized how burned out I was getting from quarantine until the older two started school All of the sudden it was like I could breathe during the day and it has been pretty darn magical

9:00 Plus with two fewer boys to worry about I get to focus on this cutie more! What's not to love?!?

10:00 Trying to squeeze in a few chapters of the book that I'm supposed to have read by Sunday #procrastinationatitsfinest

11:00 Playtime while Mama gets lunch ready

12:00 Work from home perk--Daddy gets to occasionally help out with lunch/naps if he doesn't have meetings. I'm not sure who loves these moments most

1:00 Lunch in the microwave, two boys napping, and mindless social media on the iPad. These mid-day breaks are definitely spoiling me a little bit

2:00 But it's not all "mindless" time! I've been trying to get better at incorporating some fitness into my "free" time while the boys are napping

3:00 Library time!

4:00 The boys found our old Mario Brothers game for the Wii and they've been straight-up obsessed. We don't give them nearly enough technology time for the amount of time they want to spend playing the game

5:00 Just in case any one needed some proof that he isn't always a happy baby. Diaper changes are not his jam--he's either fussing or trying his hardest to crawl away

6:00 Typical Mom Life--I'm the last one at the table eating because I spent the majority of the meal time taking care of others (in this case, feeding Matthew)

7:00 Bedtime for the baby!

8:00 Bedtime for the oldest two! (well, technically, bedtime for the oldest three, Connor just isn't pictured because he's upstairs with Darrell)

9:00 Working on Connor's three-year blog post so I can hopefully get this "Photo Every Hour" post up with some timeliness (and then in turn get Matthew's eight-month blog post up within a reasonable time frame)

10:00 Making some watermelon sorbet! 

11:00 School in the time of COVID--both boys bring a device home each night in the event the class/school needs to move to remote learning on short notice. We don't really let them use their devices at home (#meanparents), although William does occasionally have homework, but we do need to make sure they charge them every night because they use them frequently in their classroom so they are familiar with the apps and programs that will be used in the event of a closure

We aren't doing too hot on the "getting to bed at a decent time" thing. Probably why I'm still having a hard time waking up early in the mornings 

Connor: Three Years!

Remember how I led off Connor's two-year post by saying that it was about time for him to turn two because he'd been acting two for quite a few months already? Well, a few months ago, I actually thought to myself "I can't believe he is going to be four in a few short months"... And I didn't catch the error right away because it didn't strike me as all that illogical. It isn't even that he is necessarily that much more advanced than his brothers were (candidly, William was better with letter recognition and number sense at three than Connor is) but his mannerisms and personality just don't seem right for a kid who is *only* three. 

His birthday cake request? Chocolate with rainbow sprinkles (I made the outline of a three on the top) and rainbow cake on the inside (I made four different colored layers). He was in heaven

Height/Weight: Despite being two pounds heavier than Garrett at his two-year well visit, he has dropped to being less than half a pound heavier than Garrett was at three. Our pediatrician is not concerned in the least, though; even though his stats seem all over the place to me, according to him Connor is following right along on his curve. And considering he was measured at the same height that Garrett was at three (an even three feet), it shouldn't be too surprising that his weight was so close as well. We may have small toddlers, but at least they are relatively proportional in their smallness. 

Small or not, this kiddo was looking like quite the cool little dude at the apple orchard last fall!

Wearing: We've officially gone a full year in size five diapers--and I don't see that changing any time soon. Not only is he not getting big enough to merit moving up to size six diapers (and thereby getting fewer diapers for the same price), but he is also not showing any interest in potty training and being done with diapers altogether. We've started getting "big boy undies" books from the library and are reading them daily, but his current party line is that he's "not big enough" (even though prior to his birthday he said that once he was three he would officially be a big boy and able to use the big boy potty). So we'll see how that goes. I have had to start pulling out the 3T clothing, though; his 2T pants and long sleeves were just not long enough to make it in to the fall. Most of his shorts and t-shirts are still 2T though. 

He may not *think* he's old enough to use the big boy potty, but he is definitely old enough to dress and act like a full-fledged adult (drinking water, of course!) at a wedding reception this summer

Eating: Connor has gotten a little weird, for lack of a better word, with his eating the past few months. I wouldn't go so far as to say he is picky (can any kid who eats Brussels sprouts be considered picky?), but maybe I would call it lazy? He'll get in moods where he eats slowly, and as such his brothers finish before he does, which makes him insist that he is done so he can get down with them. But if we sit and feed him the food he'll polish off the majority of the meal no issue. He's even started to do this at lunch when his brothers are at school; he'll want to be all done so he can have some play time before nap, but if I feed him (or even just put the food on his utensil) he'll keep eating with pretty much no complaint. I suppose some child psychologist would tell me that it's some sort of attention-seeking behavior that is manifesting with the addition of a younger brother, but whatever. Even if that is the "issue", I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over it. He eats the same meals we eat, he has (in my opinion) an incredibly well-round diet, and if I have to spend a little bit of extra time feeding him to fill some attention needs, then so be it. It's better than taking the time to cook him a meal separate from what the family is eating or dealing with constant mealtime "I don't want to eat that" battles (which, from what I read, are the common meal-time behavior issues with kids his age).

Of course, there's never any issue getting him to eat something that comes out of Mommy's stand mixer!

Sleeping: I have exactly zero notes about how the transition to a big boy went, and I honestly don't know if I could tell you for sure when that happened (maybe sometime late October?), so suffice to say there haven't been any issues there. We did learn at the beach and lake this summer that even though we've never had any issues with him crawling out of his big boy bed, he certainly does not go to sleep quickly and often "talks" himself and his animals to sleep, so that definitely caused a few issues when he was having to share sleeping space with his brothers. And while we've had some indications that he does this at the house, he is generally quiet enough that we rarely--if ever--have to go in to him after lights out, so it was a little rough to try to modify that behavior when we haven't really ever addressed it at the house. Naps are generally fantastic; at the "peak" of the pandemic (see what I did there? I'm assuming that we're on the downhill slope. Hopefully that comment doesn't come back to bite me in the butt) he went through a short phase where he only napped for 45 minutes and absolutely REFUSED to stay in his room for additional quiet time after waking up, but fortunately that was relatively short-lived and I can generally count on at least ninety minutes out of him (and with basically zero battles to get him ready for nap to boot!). 

I don't even want to think about how late after "lights out" he was up playing with his animals and arranging them just so on the pillow. Goofy kid

New Stuff: Ugh. I'm really tempted to just do a massive photo dump here and let them do the talking, because honestly, photos are my best attempt at even scratching the surface of his personality. This kid is just the sweetest and the silliest and the goofiest and overall just the best three year old in this family. Plus, it's also really hard to come up with things that are "new"--I feel like there is a lot of growth that happens during these toddler years, but the milestones are less apparent (ie walking, talking, starting school, etc) because it's primarily just building skills that have already been established. I suppose the hardest "skill" to embody in a picture is his communication--and let me tell you, this kid is a riot. He has come up with some of the funniest phrases (his socks are "broken" when they start to slide off, fuzzies in his toes are "yuckies"), plus he will copy pretty much anything he hears someone else say, even if he doesn't know what it means (although he has mastered copying Garrett's exaggerated "ugh fine" when he's annoyed, so that's super fun). And--speaking of Garrett--he constantly refers to William and Garrett as "boys" or "brothers", and I love it. He'll say "good morning boys" when he wakes up and William and Garrett are already playing in the living room or "let's go get brothers" when it's time to leave for school pick up. And if they are playing downstairs and he goes down to join them he'll shout "Boys! I'm coming to play!" as he goes down the stairs. It's seriously the best. 

Filed in: Goofiest kid ever. He entertained himself for a solid twenty minutes stuffing all these markers down his shirt multiple times. And he thought it was the coolest thing ever

We tried to do quite a bit of prep to get Connor ready for the new baby, and although he was a little slow to take to Matthew to start, he warmed up to him pretty quickly. And I must say, it was really fun watching him progress from calling the baby "baby" and just showing the baby his (beloved) lambie when he was fussing, to calling Matthew by name and actively trying to bring him a toy or something to help calm him down (although now he--and the other boys--just cover their ears when Matthew gets to fussing because man that kid is LOUD)

While I wouldn't go so far as to say art is his "thing" (honestly, I don't actually know what his "thing" would be), he's definitely started to show much more interest in it and coloring more intentionally. And I'm probably biased, but I think he does a heck of a good job of staying in the lines for a three year old

Double thumbs up! He does really well with number/object recognition (there are two yellow balls--and colors are a breeze as well) and has no issue counting to ten, but he generally stumbles in the mid-teens. And while he can sing his ABCs pretty easily, his letter-recognition is mediocre at best 

"Helping" to clean up the leaves. To be fair, though, when it comes to cleaning up messes inside, I think Connor generally does better than his brothers (and not just when considering their respective ages). And honestly, sometimes he even does better than I do at remembering to put a toy away when he's done playing with it

Despite crawling fearlessly toward the ocean at his first beach trip at nine months old, he's been much more wary the past two years. Although give him a grown up that is willing to hold his hand in the water or--better yet--jump waves with him and he loves it

That fearfulness, however, does not really extend to the lake. He got a slow start this summer due to the fact that we didn't have an opportunity to get in the water until July (and our swim lessons this spring got cancelled #covidsucks), but by the end of the summer he was readily jumping off the dock and swimming with just the support of his life jacket

He's also been picking up some momentum on his Strider bike! He doesn't balance very much yet, but he walk-rides it up and down our street with ease

Puzzles are the best. Need I say more? He can do this set of 4, 6, and 9 piece puzzles pretty easily, and loves doing bigger puzzles (up to 60 pieces or so) but generally needs help with those. Although if I intentionally feed him pieces that connect to the ones he already has, most of the time he can match and position them correctly to get them in place

Flying in his own seat for the first time! And reading a book, of course--this kid seriously "reads" like crazy. I'm convinced he can memorize a book after having it read to him just one or two times, and even if he's never heard the book before he will happily pick it up and story tell it based on the pictures. It's pretty awesome and I might actually be a little sad once he starts reading for real

I know I mentioned this in his two-year post as well, but this kid genuinely has no fear on the swings. Daddy has himself a future roller coaster buddy for sure

And speaking of Daddy--look who "graduated" to Daddy haircuts! Buying a nice set of clippers has saved us soooo much money in haircuts for the boys, but we still take them to the salon when they are little because the hairdressers definitely do better with wriggly toddlers than Daddy would (no offense to Darrell, of course--I'm convinced that cutting the hair of a young toddler takes a special set of training and skill!). Connor was a little squirmy the first few times for Darrell, but he does really well now, which is good, because just like his brothers he needs a haircut every six to eight weeks or his mane gets out of control!

Driving the boat #likeaboss 

Gah. That "cheese" face. I know it definitely won't look good in school pictures, but I realllly don't want him to outgrow it anytime soon

He's a little more hit-or-miss on helping out in the kitchen when compared to Garrett (who basically ALWAYS wants to help even when it actually isn't helpful), but when he does decide to help he wants to go all out. And if you don't let him... Well, be prepared to deal with a tantrum. Hot stoves ain't got nothin' on this kid

Is he not the cutest cuddle buddy? And I just have to say--one of our greatest parenting feats to date is that we have TWO of those lamb blankets (aka lambie) and not a one of the boys knows it. We rotate them every week or so (basically whenever we do laundry), which not only means we have an equally loved back-up in case one goes missing, but that we've also managed to extend the life of them because they get cleanings and "breaks" in between use (and yes--I have had to stitch one of them up where a seam came loose so that they still look mostly the same, but it's totally worth it)

Seriously? How handsome is my little middle? The toddler years can genuinely SUCK at times (I'm looking at you super irrational tantrums), but at the same time, toddlers are just plain wonderful and sweet to their core and I will be sad when the day comes that he stops insisting on a "big hug and big kiss" before every nap and bedtime. Cheers to another year sweet boy!