Garrett: Six Years!

Oh Garrett, what a year it's been. Who could have guessed how drastically the world would change just a few short weeks after your fifth birthday? Here we are though; we made it another trip around the sun and not only are you another year older, but now you are a kindergartener. And a mighty fine (albeit entirely too grown up looking) one at that.

Birthday Interview

Age: 6

Height: 3 ft, 7.5 in

Weight: 41 lb, 11 oz

(Still my little peanut, but growing steadily so no concerns from the doctor!)

What is your favorite color? Pink

I couldn't begin to tell you where I got a pink tie, but using it as leverage made it a lot easier to get Garrett dressed up for a wedding last summer

What is your favorite animal? Puppy

What is your favorite book? Garfield (I actually think he means Clifford? He's been using them both to refer to what seems like the same thing, plus he talks about reading them in school, and as much as I enjoy a good Garfield comic, I'm a little dubious that they would be part of a kindergarten curriculum) 

What is your favorite song? Yankee Doodle

What is your favorite sport? Kick Ball

We happened to be at the lake the weekend before his birthday, which definitely influenced some of his answers, but... This photo is from the early months of quarantine and kickball at the lake was just as big back then

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom? Bake Stuff

Cheesing out while helping Mama make the frosting for Connor's birthday cake!

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad? Play Kick Ball

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play Football

Just a little outdoor football in November in South Dakota... NBD

Where is your favorite place to go? Lake

And favorite thing to do at the lake? Fishing. The worst part of going down there during the quarantine months (and the few times we made it there this winter) was the fact that he couldn't fish

What is your favorite fruit? Apples

What is your favorite vegetable? Peppers

What is your favorite cereal? Cocoa (basically anything with chocolate: Cocoa Krispies, Peanut Butter Cocoa Spheres, etc)

What is your favorite treat? Cupcakes

A good friend sent Darrell and I anniversary cupcakes in May, and I'm pretty sure the boys were more excited than we were!

What is your favorite meal? Beer Cheese Soup (or, according to his spelling, Bear Cheese Soup)

What makes you happy? Piggy

So Piggy isn't actually in this picture because he is a very recent addition to Garrett's animal menagerie, but you can see Baby Elephant in this picture, who was three (or more!) animals before Piggy. He goes through phases with his "primary" stuffed animal, although Taggie (the small blueish blanket near baby elephant) has been an constant since before he was one

What makes you sad? When I don't make the podium (in Mario Kart--a very recent obsession of both William and Garrett)

Who are you best friends? Aviana

What do you want to be when you grow up? Firefighter

What was your favorite part about last year? Jumping in leaf piles

It goes without saying that anything Garrett likes Matthew likes--or at the very least Matthew is forced to try it because Garrett can't not be around Matthew

What is one thing you want to do this year? Do Mystery Mosaic (a type of color by number book that he's been really in to lately)

And just because it's too fun not to share, Garrett insisted on writing his own answers to his birthday interview (usually I write the answers to make it more of an interview/conversation and less of an independent activity) and his handwriting is just too cute

I feel like there are so many more things I need to say about Garrett as he turns six, and at the same time I can't think of anything at all to say. I think I'll just throw a few more pictures on the post (and inevitably unnecessarily long captions with said photos) and hopefully that will capture at least a portion of the past year with my not-so-little (but definitely still little!) boy.

Less than a week before things shut down I took him to the pottery store for story time and a craft and this pink-loving unicorn-obsessed boy very much every minute of it (and didn't bat his eyes once at being the only boy there) 

One of the sweetest ladies from church sent the boys marigold seeds during quarantine and Garrett got really into the whole gardening thing. He wanted to get more and more stuff to plant (which unfortunately we never did last year because #covid), and when the marigolds started going to seed he made a point to collect as many as he could so that he would have plenty to plant this year

I love, love, love the joy in this picture. We were a little bit nervous about how he would do at the beach since swim lessons got cancelled last spring, but as you can see he did just fine. Kids are resilient 

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have my moments of sadness thinking about all of the "normal" kindergarten experiences Garrett would miss out on because of starting school during a pandemic. But, like so many things this past year, he took it all in stride (and candidly, it's not like he knew any different). We had our fair share of rough morning drop offs (which I'm certain would have happened regardless of the pandemic) but overall he has done so, so well

Nothing to see here, just a silly boy hiding in a tree

Garrett got some air dry clay for Christmas and LOVED it (all things arts and crafts are incredibly popular with him; I can't tell you how many of his school papers come home with doodles on them). He was very intentional about making the animals small so he would have plenty of clay to make lots and lots and lots of them

Check out that tooth! He lost it shortly before his birthday, although it hung out in this weird twisted position--with the shark tooth behind it--for waaay longer than I thought it would. Fortunately there is no shortness of rough play in this house and a wild game tackle game with William was the collision he needed to knock it out.

We were so, so fortunate for a (mostly) mild winter that allowed for plenty of outdoor (aka COVID-friendly) gatherings with Grandma and Grandpa (and cousins, of course!). It may not be the most exciting sledding hill in town, but this Mama sure had fun watching her boys enjoy sledding on the same hill (aka Grandma and Grandpa's front lawn) she grew up on! 

There were so many places that I didn't get to take Garrett to "one last time" before kindergarten because of the pandemic, so being able to rent the Bounce Around Inflatables facility (aka a warehouse with four different inflatables to play on)--and having all of the family view such an arrangement as "safe"--was a blast for everyone

Happy 6th Birthday sweet boy! You may not always remember a lot from the year (plus!) of the pandemic, but I hope you remember that your sixth year was filled with as much fun and love as we could fit in to it--because I know you helped fill our year with the same even (and especially!) when we were feeling overwhelmed with what life looked like outside the walls of this house

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!)

Photo Every Hour: January 21st

6:45 I forgot to snag a picture when my day started (spoiler--it started with me snoozing my alarm and not getting out of bed as early as I planned to), but I figured snagging a picture of this cutie when he got up (and inevitably forced my hand to get out of bed) would suffice

7:00 Feeding time at the zoo

8:00 Feeding time at the zoo round two!

9:00 So this was supposed to be my breakfast, but my three-year-old hobbit decided he needed a second breakfast, so this (and a piece of toast!) became his instead and I had to make more for myself

10:00 Silly games post-nap while Mommy enjoys some hot coffee

11:00 Someone is officially a stair master--up and down!

12:00 Forgot to snag a picture, but it was lunchtime for the boys at noon

1:00 Enjoying a few pre-nap cuddles before this baby turns one tomorrow!

2:00 More coffee and buying diaper genie refills, in case you were wondering how glamorous #momlife is

3:00 Zoom call with my grandpa and a bunch of the other family members (and yes--zoom calls with four kids under eight are as hectic and ridiculous as you can imagine they would be)

4:00 Hmm... Which button should I push first on Mommy's phone? (And yes--his hair is always like that. Always. Kid has some seriously out of control hair)

5:00 Dinner prep!

6:00 More #momlife glamor: Finishing my beer from dinner in the bathroom while trying to get my three-year-old to poop in the potty

7:00 They called this game "volleyball", but it sure looked a lot like "monkey in the middle"...

8:00 Got to make sure that precious cargo gets home safely!

9:00 Making lemon blueberry curd as a filling for Matthew's birthday cupcakes and cooking chicken to marinate for honey lime chicken enchiladas

10:00 Still working on that curd....

Deemed the curd done because we were ready for bed, and even though it ended up being a little on the thin side because I didn't heat it to a high enough temperature, it worked well enough as a filling for the cupcakes (and as a "syrup" for pancakes the next day!)

Matthew: Eleven Months!

 

Height/Weight: Well, I've been to the doctor twice since his last update thanks to some seriously annoying nursing issues (I'm looking at you mastitis), but he hasn't been since just after his ten-month birthday (although he will likely be going in tomorrow due to a rash that he's had all over his body for nearly a week, so there's that). I daresay that his length is catching up the weight gain he had from nine to ten months, but I guess we'll see for sure about that at his one-year well-visit!

Wearing: Mostly twelve month. Maybe all twelve month? I honestly don't know. When we don't go anywhere 90% of the time it's hard to care about what he's wearing and whether or not it fits. Ironically, his church clothes (we've been doing in-person church with masks and social distancing since about September) are the ones I pay attention to the most, and I'm pretty certain those are all twelve month. And I definitely known we've thrown more than one pair of nine month pants in the "too small" pile in the past few weeks, plus he ripped open a seam on one of his pairs of nine month pajamas the other night because they were too snug #whoops. So I suppose it's probably safe to say he's in twelve month clothes--and still size three diapers.

Eating: Of all the categories I do, this one is consistently the biggest broken record from month to month (and even from kid to kid). I guess we should consider that a compliment to the food we cook? I'm not kidding when I say this kid can pack away some serious food and we've yet to see him bat an eye about something. Don't get me wrong, he definitely still has his favorites--and he'll let you know that you are serving the wrong thing by trying to hit it off the spoon (which is definitely not tolerated)--but for the most part he will eat anything and everything. Which maybe explains why nursing has been a bit of a pain lately--he honestly probably isn't all that hungry for milk, and between his water cup and his brothers' water bottles that he is constantly getting his hands on he probably isn't all that thirsty either.

Sleep: Well, if eating is the "broken record" category, this one is definitely the wild card category. Admittedly, for Matthew at least, the majority of the months have been more good than bad (which definitely wasn't the case for his brothers), but it still tends to be all over the place. Naps will be solid but he'll be up multiple times at night (although he hasn't nursed at night in weeks if not months--he'll settle back down without a feeding) or he'll sleep through the night but be a pain for naps. Or he'll be really good on all sleep fronts for like a week but then need someone to sleep in the recliner with him for naps and/or bedtime the following week. It's a total crapshoot. Plus I think this is the area that has suffered most from the pandemic--never before have I had a kid that took a longer nap in the morning than the afternoon, but that's always been because we've been going places in the morning. Since we don't go anywhere though, he's developed a habit of long morning naps, which generally means his afternoon nap (the one that overlaps with Connor!) is crap, which also means he's a pill before bedtime. And it's not even like I can try to make a point to get out of the house even for just a walk every morning to get him that morning catnap like his brothers had because the weather is just garbage this time of year. I suppose my next course of action would be to try to get him to cut his morning nap altogether, but again, since we don't go anywhere, I'm usually just as ready as he is for a nap around 9:00 because I need some sort of a break/change of pace. Oh well. We'll get it figured out. Eventually.

New Stuff: We celebrated his first Thanksgiving in the most unglamorous way possible--not only did we end up cancelling our trip to visit Darrell's family, but then I ended up being in bed all day with mastitis. Super fun. Darrell was a superstar, though, and still ended up making the whole Thanksgiving meal that we had planned (with chicken instead of turkey since it was just the six of us), and Matthew loved every bite of it. Fortunately, he made up for the nursing headaches by starting to say "mama", although I'm not entirely convinced he is saying it with intentional meaning, but whatever. And in the world of "least surprising news ever", Matthew has gotten to be incredibly active the past few months. It's like he has big brothers to keep up with or something. He is climbing on to anything and everything, including the stool in Connor's bathroom (which caused a little bit of a close call one morning when he got up there and grabbed my coffee cup that I set down while helping Connor use the potty. Miraculously he managed to spill it all on the floor and not on himself). He loves balls--or really anything that he can throw easily--and will entertain himself throwing things around and chasing after them (and it's an added bonus when he can get someone to sit and play "catch" with him!). He'll also drive cars around to entertain himself, although he has an amazing knack for playing with the car/toy that Connor needs (aka Connor wants whatever toy Matthew currently has). He gets silly excited when we leave the gate open because he loves to throw stuff down the steps (the bigger and louder the better), and since he actually minds the edge pretty well we tend to oblige him when one of us is around to keep at least half an eye on him. And speaking of getting silly excited about things, he LOVES the dishwasher (which, if I'm not mistaken, has been true of at least one, if not more, of his brothers). He knows the sound of it opening, and I swear he has heard it open from downstairs before and immediately climbed upstairs to get to it. Also, I'm not sure if I'm mentioned this before (and maybe I have because I recall the "Meeko" nickname getting brought up before, but maybe that was for one of his brothers), but he really enjoys putting things into--and taking them out of--containers, including but not limited to garbage cans. We're pretty certain we've sent at least one pacifier to the dump, and who knows what else. Fortunately he also enjoys this game with small toys and mixing bowls, so most of the time we're able to redirect him from the garbage can if we catch it in time. 

I think that about covers it... He did get his second tooth like I anticipated he would last month, and although we've had moments of thinking he was close to cutting another, there's been no signs of anything yet. Which, given all the other nursing headaches we've had, I suppose is a good thing. I generally have mixed feelings about first birthdays, and I had anticipated dreading this one the most since he's our "baby", but with everything that's been going on in the nursing department it's given me at least one silver lining to look forward to in light of his upcoming birthday. As grateful as I am to have been able to nurse my boys for as long as I did, I think I will definitely be ready to be fully done with that aspect of motherhood. 

Photo Every Hour: December 21st

Trying to do better about getting up early... And yet still always snoozing the alarm...

7:00 Reading a quick book before breakfast because why not?

8:00 Someone is unimpressed that I stopped getting his breakfast ready to take this picture

9:00 Getting ready to meet a friend for a walk on this mild day (before winter weather blows in later in the week!)

10:00 Being silly in the car after a very enjoyable--and definitely needed--walk with some adult company for Mom

11:00 Enjoying a little play time before lunch

12:00 Matthew, again, is not impressed about having to wait for his food while I take a picture

1:00 What shall Mom have for lunch??

2:00 It may not be as "civic" as a duty as voting, but I consider donating blood an important responsibility nonetheless!

3:00 Running a few quick errands after school

4:00 Seriously Mom!! Enough with the camera business and just feed me!!

5:00 Garrett has been LOVING this air dry clay set he got from Darrell's parents for Christmas

6:00 There's a 90% chance that I haven't started eating yet #momlife (but at least Matthew was fully fed before I snapped the picture!) 

7:00 A quick run to the toy store before snack time to pick up the LAST gift for the boys. Now to finish the wrapping (but not until Christmas Eve, of course)

8:00 Getting ready to spoil the boys' teachers

9:00 Done. And trying to ignore the rest of my to-do list so I can enjoy some couch time with Darrell

10:00 Why yes, we eat the chips right out of the bag #dontjudge #bedtimesnack