Matthew: Two Years!

 Oof. I feel like this is the latest I've been with an update EVER. Basically a whole month (eek). Although to be honest, it feels longer than that. Like sooooo much longer. Remember in my December 21st post when I ended up taking Connor in for a last minute sick visit due to a three-day low-grade fever that randomly spiked on the third day? I genuinely do not think I am exaggerating when I say I don't think we've had seven consecutive days since then when all six of us have been healthy. Between stomach bugs (sooo many stomach bugs) and respiratory gunk and pink eye and everything in between, it's been a hot mess around these parts. And like I complained to our pediatrician at Matthew's well visit--as much as I want to blame the pandemic for all this junk, it's really hard to do so when none of us have tested positive. So I guess all this sickness fun is just what life is like with four kids during cold/flu season. Hopefully this year is worse than other years will be since cold/flu season was so diminished last year due to COVID precautions, but I guess only time will tell. But anyway, I digress... My baby is two!!

Height/Weight: These boys seriously continue to track at near identical heights. Garrett was the shortest at two (at 32.825 inches) and Matthew--who was just barely the shortest at eighteen months--jumped ahead to the "tallest" at two at 32.87 inches. So pretty minimal difference there. If the height predictors that say to double your child's height at two to determine their adult height are accurate, that means we will have four identically sized (and borderline short!) adult men. Weights have been a little more variable; Garrett (my peanut!) was a mere 24lbs at two, while William was the heaviest at 26.5lbs, and Matthew settled right in the middle at 25lbs, 12.5oz.

Small kiddo plus large cows equals super cute photo

Wearing: Clothes? Can that be an acceptable answer at this point? Since I'm not worried about keeping clothing sizes together so they can be boxed up and handed down to a younger sibling, clothes pretty much stay in Matthew's closet until it is no longer reasonable for him to be wearing them. I'm fairly certain he still has some 12 month short sleeve onesies in his closet, but since he hasn't really had reason to wear those in months, I haven't bothered taking them out. Most of his hand-me-down 18 month clothes are getting too small (probably because they've been washed a million times), but Grandmom got him some new 18 month clothes for his birthday and they fit perfectly, soooo.... yeah. He's wearing clothes. Sometimes it fits well, most of the time it doesn't. One of these days I'll get out the 24 month/2T clothes, at which point I'll probably complain that he's already outgrown half the stuff. Oh well. We did move him up to size five diapers sometime in the past few months, and I suppose the fact that I don't really remember anything remarkable about the transition must mean that it went smoothly.

It was a little too snug to snap, but he wore the same costume all his brothers wore for their second Halloween, so that was a clothing win in my book!

Eating: When William was a good eater, we were cautious to take credit for it because it could have just been luck. When Garrett was also a good eater, we thought maybe it could be a coincidence. By the time Connor was a good eater, we were pretty certain we had some good tricks figured out. When Matthew started eating, there were two outcomes: he followed his brother's footsteps and pretty well solidified that we had a successful strategy, or he was completely the opposite and threw a wrench in everything we knew about feeding infants and toddlers. Fortunately for us he has mostly been the former. Sure, he has his moods every once in while (like an annoying stretch where he basically refused to eat lunch), and sometimes he insists on Mommy or Daddy feeding him even though he is fully capable of feeding himself, but for the most part this kid rarely bats an eye at anything he is served. Although watch out for him if he gets hangry because oof, that is not an enjoyable experience. 

Pretty darn pleased with himself for getting his own apple at the apple orchard

Sleeping: Well, for all the success we've had in the eating department, the sleeping department continues to be my Achilles heel. At least for infants/toddlers. Matthew had been doing better, but when the sickness fun started in December he picked up a respiratory virus that caused frequent night wakings, and he had a hard time getting back to sleep on his own, so enter Mommy and Daddy. We realized pretty quickly that trying to rock him back to sleep in the recliner was a lose-lose: we couldn't get comfortable with him because he was getting too big, and as such he wouldn't settle back to sleep easily. So, in a desperate move one night, I laid down on the floor next to his crib and lo and behold, he laid down in his crib and settled pretty quickly. Unfortunately, this turned into a pretty significant crutch that he began needing at all times of the night, even once he was no longer sick. We broke that habit right around his birthday, and as such we gave him a few extra weeks with his pacis before pulling the plug on those. Once we eliminated those in early February he had another setback although he definitely seemed to recover faster than William or Garrett after they lost their pacifiers. But we're not out of the woods yet--he's already starting the bedtime stall tactics, and he's regularly asking for "one more" story, for Mommy or Daddy to "sit" in the recliner after we put him down, for one of us to rub his "back", or for an animal or water that got forgotten when we put him in his crib. Even once he does settle down, it's a rare night that he sleeps all the way through until morning. And I don't think he's even started cutting his two year molars, sooo... yay. More thing to cause sleep issues. 

So much love for his pacis that he needs two at once (and yes, you do see a child in the crib behind him. For reasons I don't understand Connor loves to climb in the crib)

New Stuff: He had his first trip to the dentist a month or so after his birthday, and although he wasn't super fond of it (he kept saying "all done"), he let the hygienist get through everything she wanted to do, which counts for something. There's no sign of his two year molars, and he had a little bit of plaque build up because he does not like letting Mommy or Daddy help with brushing his teeth, but nothing too concerning. 

Fortunately, he did let us help him clear the driveway--although I'll be honest, he was more adept with that shovel than I thought he would be!

His vocabulary is coming along--definitely more than William was talking at two, but not nearly as extensive as Garrett and Connor at two. He has started copying a few multi-word phrases ("carry me", "I first", "I too"), but not a ton. He does talk a lot, and for all we know he is stringing together much longer phrases, but his pronunciation is pretty poor (lots of dropping unaccented syllables and mashing words together) and we generally have a hard time understanding him. Most of the time when we identify a phrase he is using we realize he's been using it for weeks (or longer!) and we just hadn't figured out what he was trying to say. He also doesn't always need to use a ton of words--everyone knows that when he says "around" it means he wants to play "Ring Around the Rosy", and there's no reason for him to say more. And because he wouldn't be the fourth child without some unusual vocabulary, my favorite words that he's picked up from his brothers are "zombie" (complete with straight arm/leg monster walk) and "heck" (for "what the heck"). 

William may have been the one who started piano lessons this year, but Matthew makes sure he gets plenty of opportunities to "I too" on the piano (and unfortunately his ability to turn it on is stronger than his ability to remember to turn it off so we are forever double checking the power switch on it)

The most surprising element of his vocabulary is his word association abilities. At dinner the other night he was trying to say something, and as we were trying to guess what he was saying one of his brothers said "Jesus", to which he responded (very clearly) "Jesus Bible". And just a few days ago I was getting him dressed in a shirt with a soccer ball and he said "soccer William" (William played soccer last fall and we've started talking about how he'll be playing soccer again this spring). He also knows that "both" is the appropriate word to use when he wants/has two of something. 

He also knows where the screwdrivers are for "fixing" things, although sadly a screwdriver was not going to fix the piece of broken tubing

Some of his word associations/understandings carry over in to his play as well, which is a fun development to watch. He will be driving his cars around and randomly have them stop for a "red light" (which was actually a phrase that Connor figured out first because he saw it being used in context of how Matthew was playing) and when he is done playing he will (correctly!) park "in front" of or "behind" other cars. 

And of course my child knows his way around a chemistry set ;-)

Parts of Matthew may still be an enigma to us as he learns how to communicate/express them to us and we learn how to understand the information he is giving us, but one thing remains certain--the kid is a goofball and we are Here.For.It. Maybe our emotions are heightened because we know he is our baby so everything with him seems more significant (I still have his pacifiers tucked away in one of my drawers because I can't bring myself to throw them away yet!), but honestly, I'll be shocked if he doesn't end up as the class clown, because he seems to thrive being in environments where people are laughing--and loves being the cause of said laughter!

I mean seriously. The kid knows when he's being silly and he loves it

Those eyelashes though...

Boy: A noise with dirt on it (also--see that smirk? Such a handful this one)

So proud of himself--and we're so proud of all he's accomplished in the past two years and can't wait to see all the moments of pride in the years to come!