Connor: Four Years!

 

Are you ready? Let's get this (super belated!) blog post started!

Height/Weight: One thing I've learned through the years is that--especially to random strangers--my boys definitely look like brothers. Actually, to be more accurate, there are times people think I have twins (although honestly, none of them have ever been the same size at the same time, but that comment is most often made when they are sitting so the differences, in height especially, are less noticeable). But to be fair, I honestly think that if I could "freeze" my boys at specific ages and line them up they would EASILY pass as twins (or triplets, or quads). All three have been within an inch of each other at age four--Garrett was the shortest at 39 inches and Connor was *maybe* the tallest at 39.75 inches (I say maybe because on our ruler at home William was slightly taller, but the doctor's office had William at 39.5 inches). William has maintained a decent weight advantage over his brothers; he was 35.5lbs compared to Garrett's 33lbs, and Connor was only an ounce more than Garrett. But, as usual, our pediatrician has no concerns about Connor's growth--and honestly, why should he, especially since all my boys have been essentially the same--so I'll just be over here laughing to myself about the fact that my boy who was above the 95th percentile for height and weight at birth has dropped to under the 30th percentile by four. 

Don't let his size fool you--he's still got plenty of belly to adorn with stamps!

Wearing: It should come as no surprise that Connor is starting the fall in mostly 3T clothing. We've had enough cool days that I've had to pull out some pants and long sleeves, and while not all of size 3T items are long enough, enough are that I really haven't started to pull out anything 4T. In fact, Darrell finally put the last tote of 24 month/2T stuff away just a few weeks ago because he was still wearing a handful of 2T shorts through the summer. We did move him up to a size 3T/4T pull up during the summer though, mostly because I got sick of him soaking through the smaller ones and waking up with wet pajamas.

And we apparently also wear our shirts on our heads because why not? #silliestkidever

Eating: Last year I dubbed Connor a "lazy" eater, and I definitely think that term still applies. If he's still this way by next year we may have to start putting a timer on his eating otherwise he'll never get through his lunches when he starts kindergarten. Other than being slow and pokey (and sometimes a little too silly, especially at lunches when it's just him and Matthew), eating is generally a non-issue. He rarely eats as much as his brothers, which sometimes makes me worried that he isn't eating enough (especially when he seems to be chomping at the bit to get down from the table when William has finished two helpings and he's still slowly working through his first), but it's probably pretty unfair to compare volume of food between him and his older brothers. Plus Connor has been using "big" plates for most of the past year, which I definitely think is earlier than we moved his brothers up to full-sized plates, so I'm sure his portions end up being more than his brothers would have gotten at his age (and probably why I feel like he doesn't ask for seconds nearly as often as his brothers did, even when they were younger). The only other food thing that really sticks out is that he definitely seems to have cold-sensitive teeth. I feel like I've mentioned in the past that he isn't a huge ice cream fan (although we're recently discovering that options like Mint Chocolate Chip and Cookies 'n' Cream are more likely to be eaten than things with bigger pieces like Cookie Dough), and during our melon eating this summer he frequently requested that we warm it up because it was "too cold" and hard to eat otherwise (I was not a fan of obliging this request, but Darrell recalls his Grandpop warming up cold foods of his that were "too cold", so he was more willing to fulfill Connor's request). 

He also has a tendency to complain when food is "too hot", but somehow s'mores are always the perfect temperature!

Sleep: It's been a fair number of months since he's consistently napped, which honestly, hasn't been too bad. And if he trends like William, who also stopped napping a little before four, I'll actually prefer that to Garrett, who frequently took a nap at four, and definitely needed it on the days he didn't--and honestly, even still has days that he could definitely afford a nap. I've been bad about consistently enforcing quiet time, mostly because he dropped his nap in the summer while big brothers were home from school and allowed to play quietly downstairs, but on the days that he is having a rough go of things and I make him do a quiet (and independent) activity in his room he generally does okay. For the most part he does well overnight--sleeps 8:00 until 7:00, give or take 30 minutes--but if he has a rough night, he has a ROUGH night. There have definitely been nights where Darrell or myself have fallen asleep in his bed because our presence nearby has been the only thing that keeps him from waking up every 30 minutes.

He used some Valentine money from Great Grandpa to buy this puppy to cuddle with at bedtimes, but that only lasted a month or so before Garrett claimed ownership of "Bronco". Fortunately, Connor has so many other animals he sleeps with that he really didn't fuss about it as much as I thought he would

New Stuff: Somewhat surprisingly, I actually have a fair number of "new" things, which I don't always find to be the case in these toddler years that can often be so full of growing and improving skills without always learning new ones. 

Oh yes Mama, please share all about my new skills. I can't wait to hear about them! (Seriously. Is this kid not the goofiest?!?)

It took a good amount of trial and error (and loooots of number two accidents in his underwear), but the kid is officially potty trained. He still has a bit of a tendency to wait juuuuust a bit too long, but can usually make it to the bathroom dry--although if we do notice him starting to dance around and tell him to "go potty", he usually does without too much complaint. We still need to work on staying dry overnight, but that's basically true for all the boys, so I'm counting that as a battle for another day. 

Working through number two issues during potty training definitely required a beer on some nights

COVID is definitely still more of a thing than we would like it to be (#lesigh), but you wouldn't exactly know it in South Dakota, and as such he's been able to do a lot more "normal" things this past year than he was in the months leading up to his third birthday. However, the social distancing from COVID paired with the fact that he was now old enough to do "independent" activities did create a little bit of clinginess that I'm not sure we would have had to deal with otherwise (and candidly, clinginess that we're still dealing with at places like library story times when the librarians have the nerve to ask him a question or encourage him to participate in an activity). Swim lessons was his first big solo activity, and he was pretty nervous, but fortunately he loves the water and Darrell was in the water at the same time with Matthew in the parent/child class, so he warmed up to it pretty quickly. He also went to VBS for the first time (and started Sunday School last month!), which required some extra hugs and cuddles at drop off, but his two big brothers, Garrett especially, definitely helped him stay calm. He and Garrett (and his cousins Rose and Jonathan) were in the same group, which I think also helped a lot. He didn't participate a whole lot in their performance at the end of the week, but that's been pretty typical of my kids, so I won't chalk that one up to COVID.

He definitely wasn't ready to go sledding independently, but Mama didn't mind!

Speaking of COVID, though, I was a little nervous about how he would do last fall when big brothers went off to school after being home with him for nearly six months straight. And honestly, he handled it like a champ. In fact, he got so good at playing independently that it actually became an issue when Matthew started to get old enough to play with him because he really didn't like being bothered, and definitely didn't like sharing (but he also doesn't like it when Matthew goes off and plays with something else because then he immediately decides that he MUST have that toy RIGHT NOW and absolutely HATES to wait). Unfortunately he still has a tendency to use his body to solve problems when Matthew--or anyone--won't listen to him, but hopefully as his vocabulary matures he'll be able to work through those issues less physically. 

Painting/Coloring/Stickering are pretty popular independent activities, plus art classes (with Mommy, of course!) at a local museum have been helpful for building (or perhaps, rebuilding) his social confidence

In addition to rocking independent play, his imaginative play has really exploded. He will decide he is a character from a TV show (like Peso from Octonauts), give us characters to be from the same show, and then exclusively use those names to refer to himself and others. His brothers aren't always the most tolerant, but to his credit he doesn't get super upset when they forget who he is and call him "Connor" by mistake. He'll even refer to himself in the third person when he gets in these moods ("Peso wants to color") which is pretty entertaining. 

He also enjoys being "the Vikings" when playing football with his brothers. Not a specific player (and don't dare try to get him to pick a specific player!), just "the Vikings" in their entirety. Because why not

I've got a few more fun things to brag about with my favorite Connor, but I've also got a bunch more photos to share, so I'll just let them do the talking!

We did quite a bit of hiking last fall (#becauseCOVID) and this kid was a rockstar. He did multiple hikes over a mile in length, some with decently rough and hilly terrain, and did way better than we expected. 

While he isn't reading yet--and definitely isn't reading chapter books--I did swear that he "read" his first word back in May. We were leaving the library and he asked "Mommy, why does that sign say 'exit'?". Maybe I misheard him because we really haven't seen any other evidence of his being able to read, but I swear that's what he said

This kid loves his Strider bike (no matter the weather!) and really started to cruise on it this summer. We got him a pedal bike for his birthday, but honestly haven't had much time to work with him on it. We're pretty confident he'll pick it up quickly though!

I certainly don't see a bowling career in his future, but this summer he became fully independent at the bowling alley (once I helped him with his shoes), and that was a huge lifesaver because I had to spend the majority of our bowling outings chasing Matthew around the alley and I'm not sure I could have handled needing to help him bowl as well

His confidence at the beach grew leaps and bounds this year (I swear the fact that he had swim lessons this spring made a HUGE difference in that), but he still loved himself plenty of playtime in the sand. Especially when it meant being silly with Daddy

Nothing really to say here except Boy. All Boy. (Although let's be honest, even Mama enjoys watching a good construction site every once in awhile.)

He was so excited about his rainbow birthday cake, although honestly, I think I was just as excited with how well it turned out. Here's to another great year of fun with our silly little Connor!