Matthew: One Year!

 Whelp, it's official--I no longer have any babies. I mean, obviously they will all always be "my babies" (which makes William and Garrett roll their eyes and groan every time I remind them of that), but (knock on all the wood!!) we are officially done having kids the in baby stage. Which, honestly, I'm kind of okay with. There will always be moments of the itty-bitty stages that I'll miss, but overall, babies are freaking hard work. And I definitely struggle with it at times. (Yes, I know, toddlers can be super challenging too, but they are also sooooo much more fun. And for me, that makes a huuuuuge difference.)

Height/Weight: Well, any hopes I had of Matthew's length catching up to his weight hasn't appeared to happen yet. His weight--at 21 lbs, 2 oz--actually jumped up to the 47th percentile (higher than any of his brothers!), but his length was only 28.5 inches, which is at the 7th percentile (and I use "only" lightly--his brothers were all within a half inch of 28.5 inches at a year, so he's perfectly consistent when compared to them). We did measure him to be slightly longer on our ruler at the house, but only slightly, which means his weight is definitely still outpacing his length. I'll be curious to see what his vitals look like at his 15 month well visit--I don't inherently have issues with a "chunky" toddler, but it would certainly be a different body type than his brothers seem to have!

Wearing: Don't let his weight fool you; this kid is definitely still rocking twelve month clothes and size three diapers. He's definitely pushing his limit on the diapers at times, but we recently opened our last box of size three and I'm determined to get through them all. And I wouldn't mind stretching the size twelve clothes out for a few more months, at least long enough to get in to a few of the twelve month spring/summer items. Fortunately it isn't as noticeable if shorts and short-sleeved shirts are a little too small!

Eating: Just in case his weight gain isn't enough of an indicator, this kid has no issues eating. None. Zada. Zip. It's the getting him to stop that is usually the bigger problem. I honestly can't think of a single thing we've served that he has resisted, and there have been some meals that I swear he's eaten himself into a stomachache (like the morning he ate a pancake, a full egg, and a serving of applesauce). Nursing only happens in the morning, before bed, and before his afternoon nap, although I'm convinced there are days I force it more than he actually wants it. Mind you, it's not that I'm not kind of a little ready to be done, but I want to be done gradually and on my terms so that I don't get mastitis. Again. Twice in two months was more than enough, thankyouverymuch.

Sleeping: South Dakota hit a really bad coronavirus surge November into December, which really pared back our (already few) outings, but the number of cases has steeply dropped off, so I've been trying to get back in the habit of getting out every morning, even if it's just to the grocery store or library (basically the only places we go besides the occasional walk or something). Not only do I enjoy the breakup in the monotony of being at home, but it has definitely seemed to help with Matthew's naps--I'll usually try to make sure we are driving somewhere around nine, which is when he gets tired in the morning, so he'll still get a morning "nap", but since it ends up being a fairly short car nap, he's typically ready for his afternoon nap earlier (aka I don't end up needing to wake him up to pick up William and Garrett or leave him at home with a working Darrell while he *hopefully* sleeps the whole time I'm gone) and he tends to be tired enough that he actually takes a decent nap (aka at least ninety minutes). I'm sure this will all change again soon, but whatever--I'll take it while I have it. Nights are, well, hit or miss. If they are good, they are great and he sleeps basically all night without a peep. If they are bad, they are seriously bad, and generally require a substantial investment of time rocking him in the recliner to get him settled down. I keep trying to blame it on teething, and have even given him Tylenol on multiple occasions with the hope that it will help the night go better (which only seems to work 50% of the time), but he still only has the two teeth, so who knows.  

New Stuff: Well, I suppose it's worth noting that he celebrated his first Christmas, although it certainly wasn't terribly remarkable. We celebrated at home on Christmas Day (while I was recovering from a second round of mastitis #awesome #not) and he got the same first Christmas gifts his brothers got: his "Baby's First Christmas" ornament and a toy in his stocking. We celebrated with my family the following day, and while I'm so, so glad we figured out a way to safely do it in person (we used my dad's massive conference room, everyone masked, and families kept ample space from one another--although the kids did get to play together a little bit), it certainly wasn't the gathering and fanfare it normally would have been. There's always next year, right? 

Developmentally, there hasn't been a ton of change in the past month (or at least not that I can remember...). He now goes up and down the stairs; Garrett claims ownership of having taught Matthew how to turn around and go down the stairs safely, and honestly, neither Darrell nor I can make the same claim, so it definitely seems Garrett gets the credit for that skill. For about a week at the beginning of January he was super excited about his ability to stand in the middle of the room and take a handful of steps, and we were certain he was going to take off walking, but that seemed to be a short-lived endeavor because he is definitely only marginally closer to being a "walker" than he was at eleven months. I daresay he has enjoyed some of the perks of getting older, though; he can pretty easily see out of our picture window upstairs and loves crawling over to it, pulling himself up, and looking out. Of course, he may also be longing to be outside because despite the cold he certainly enjoys it, and he gets excited nearly every time we walk in to the garage, only to throw a fit when we walk over to the van to buckle him in to his car seat. While he doesn't really have any words yet (and seems fairly disinterested in the baby sign language we are trying to teach him), he has figured out how to point at what he wants, and he pretty much thinks that makes him the boss. And if he doesn't get what he wants, he throws some seriously over-the-top tantrums: flopping on the floor, arching his back, world's slowest and most pitiful slow cry, etc). And don't think you can take something away from him either; his grip is freakishly strong and on more than one occasion I've had to peel his fingers off something one finger at a time because I can't easily pull it out of his hands. 

All in all, though, he's been a pretty sweet baby and it's fun to watch him turn into a little boy more and more every day. And he's definitely starting to look the role, too, especially since Darrell trimmed his crazy little baby mullet off the back of his neck a few days before his birthday. As bittersweet as it is to part ways with the "baby" days, especially with our last baby, I'm excited for all the fun I know is ahead (of course, I'm less excited for all the headaches that come with toddlers, but let's face it, no parenting stage is perfect!)