Matthew: Eighteen Months!

Look at the sweet cuddly baby! How is he eighteen months old already?!?

Height/Weight: Well, Matthew continues to toe the line of being the shortest boy. He measured in at 30.5 inches, which is roughly the same height or slightly shorter than Connor (who had previously been the shortest at 18 months). William was the "tallest" at a little over 31 inches, though, so really, they were basically all the same height at 18 months. However, Matthew continues to raise the bar for weight; William had previously been the heaviest at 22 pounds, 12 ounces and Matthew beat that by just over half a pound (which also puts Matthew at nearly two pounds heavier than Garrett was at eighteen months!). Matthew definitely has the greatest spread between height and weight percentiles, but he showed consistent growth in both areas from fifteen to eighteen months, so our pediatrician isn't terribly concerned.

He may not be the biggest 18 month old on the planet, but that doesn't stop him from trying to keep up with his brothers!

Wearing: While Matthew's disproportionate height and weight might not be a concern for the pediatrician, it's a little bit of a headache from a clothing standpoint. Most twelve month onesies are a good length, but they fit like spandex around his gut. Similarly, the eighteen month shorts that actually fit him in the waist are a little awkwardly long. So we're in a very weird spot for clothes right now, but it's fine, because I've got clothing hand-me-downs from three older brothers (and assorted cousins and friends), so the kid has never needed to worry about going naked, even if his clothes maybe don't fit as well as I'd like them to. I just bought a few more pretty big boxes of size four diapers because we haven't noticed any issues with them, but in looking back at Connor's eighteen month post I read that we were starting to discuss moving up to size five diapers, so hopefully I didn't buy more than we'll be able to use before we need to move up a size!

And yes, he's also wearing Christmas pajamas in the middle of the summer. I've developed a "if it fits, they wear it" mentality with pajamas because ain't nobody want to do laundry when there is a clean pair of pajamas in the drawer, regardless of if they are seasonally appropriate (also, this kid has gotten his limbs stuck in the crib slats waaaaay more than his brothers. So that's been super fun)

Eating: Is it food? Yes. Does he eat it? Yes. Does it matter if it's been sitting on the kitchen floor for three hours? No. Matthew has some weirdly innate ability to determine food items from non-food items, which on the one hand is nice because for quite a few months now we really haven't had to worry about him putting foreign objects in his mouth (unlike his eight year old brother who had to get x-rays recently for swallowing a metal ball #becauseofcourse), but on the other hand is incredibly irritating because honestly, some of the "food" items he finds on the kitchen floor may as well be foreign objects because they've gotten so hard and/or gross from being on the floor. But it's like he knows that it's food and he just can't bring himself to go throw it away (but pebbles or pieces of paper that he finds on the floor? He'll put those in the trash no issue). All this to say we have very few complaints when it comes to Matthew and food. He's still a typical toddler and will have good eating days and bad eating days (sometimes with the exact same foods), but for the most part he loves himself some food. Especially ice cream. And cupcakes. And, well--he has his Momma's sweet tooth for sure. I can probably say with confidence that he's had way more sweets than his brothers at this age #fourthchildproblems

Okay, fine. He also eats dirt. Which I *suppose* technically isn't food. But it's still an organic material so it kind of counts? Maybe?

Let's not talk about how much of this ice cream sandwich he ate by himself, mmkay??

Sleep: I complained at fifteen months that he was super Jekyll and Hyde with his sleep, and while he's certainly not perfect, he's gotten A LOT better in the past three months. He'll still occasionally stir after his first 45-mintue sleep cycle (both at nap time and bed time) and need some help settling back down, but aside from that he'll usually sleep 7:45 to 6:15 at night and a solid 90 minutes at nap. And bless his heart, the kid is super flexible with his nap. Depending on the day, he goes down for his nap anywhere from 11:45 to 12:45, and the varied start time doesn't seem to impact the length of his nap very much at all. 

Unfortunately, there's a good chance that sleep will take a bit of a hit around two when he looses his beloved pacifier brigade... 

New Stuff: I feel like I've done a terrible job keeping track of his new developments over the past three months (maybe that's why I justify giving him the extra sweet treats!). His teeth continue to cut in spurts; he had five in the front at fifteen months and within a month he had all eight. And then, within two weeks of eighteen months, he cut three of his four one-year molars. One bottom one is all the way in, the top two have broken through the gum but just slightly, and as of eighteen months the second bottom one is super swollen but not yet visible. I can only imagine the fun we'll have in the next six months when he is due to cut all four eye teeth and all four two year molars. 

Although I don't terribly enjoy having multiple teeth cutting at once, I am glad that he's finally getting more teeth in. Because he still insists on getting food served to him the same way his brothers get it. He's not stubborn or anything, don't worry #cuetheeyeroll

Although he'd been babbling "Mama" and "Dada" for awhile, he definitely seemed to start using them intentionally just after fifteen months (although sometimes he still seems to confuse them, but whatever). However, we're actually pretty sure his first word was "Delta". You see, for months this late winter/spring, Connor had asked "is that a Delta?" every time a plane flew overhead. Unbeknownst to us, Matthew had picked up on the word "Delta", and was using it to name things in the sky. We pieced it together shortly before our trip to the beach (where Matthew got to ride on an actual Delta airplane!), and realized he'd actually been using the word for weeks, but we just never understood the connection between baby talk for "Delta" and "airplane". Once we made that connection, we started identifying other words he was using: a variation of "pup pup" for "dog", a drawn out "b" word for "bus", and he is constantly mimicking words that his brothers say (although for whatever reason, he is more likely to copy something Garrett says than any of his other brothers). 

Matthew was pretty excited to see all the "Deltas" when we flew to the beach, but I daresay he enjoyed the beach more

Walking the "pup pup" while we were dog sitting. He faceplanted about two seconds after I took the photo because he couldn't keep up, but was totally unfazed by it. Although with three older brothers I guess I wouldn't be that surprised if he is the toughest of the bunch

I honestly can't think of a whole lot of other things; this summer has seriously flown by and, well, #fourthkid. There are a handful of activities that he tends to gravitate toward (and that will actually hold his attention for longer than two minutes!), such as putting objects into containers and dumping them out as well as driving cars/trucks around, but somedays there is NOTHING that he will play with independently and he will fuss and scream until I sit down with him (which then usually turns in to the "Mom is a Jungle Gym" game). He also likes to play with balls, and while there is no shortage of throwing them inside the house (or really, throwing anything--everyone has pretty well learned to be on alert when Matthew has something in his hands), for whatever reason he insists on kicking everything outside. Even small balls like golf balls--despite the fact that he constantly throws similarly sized balls inside the house, outside he wants to do nothing but kick them. 

Books--especially train books--are also super popular. I always get super happy seeing little hands "reading" books

Always ready to be a little helper

More than once we've commented on how much fun Matthew is at the age and how much (silly!) personality he has, but honestly--sometimes I think his personality is just a reflection of how much fun our house of boys is. I wouldn't change it for the world--and as much as I enjoy (most of!) the stage we are in, I can't wait to see fun comes next, especially as Matthew continues to get more verbal, more independent, and (almost certainly) more silly.

Proof of the silly (as if you doubted me!)

He may be silly, but he may also turn out to be just a bit of a handful. From being super eager to help light the fire...

...to being just a little too excited to shoot Roman Candles at the 4th of July, we're definitely starting to see a bit of a wild streak in this kid. Here's hoping it doesn't get too out of control!