Photo Every Hour: September 21st

6:30 Rise and shine shower time

7:00 The only time I tolerate being a short-order cook is breakfast. Eggs, yogurt, and oatmeal with peanut butter are offered as protein choices, and it's paired with cereal or bread with jelly for the carbohydrate portion of the meal

8:00 Have a good day at school boys!

9:00 Met up with a friend for a walk right after school drop off--Connor lasted five minutes on the bike and then I pushed it on the stroller for the next hour. Oh well

10:00 Headed to an art museum for a painting class and story time after our walk

11:00 No visit to the museum is ever complete without playing on their big blue blocks

12:00 Lunch time is leftover central in our house!

1:00 Naps aren't a thing any more for this one, and while I wish I was better about enforcing quiet time in his room, I've gotten pretty lazy about it because a lot of day he'll end up doing this (or puzzles, or trains, or race cars) quietly on his own and it's not worth the battle to make him be in his room

2:00 Meal plans and grocery lists. ALWAYS

3:00 Play time at the school after pickup

4:00 So Connor got this dinosaur egg excavation kit for his birthday. I'm pretty sure William and Garrett excavated more dinosaurs than he did. Whatever

5:00 Finishing up the last little bit of dinner prep

6:00 Sweet Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin. Always a win

7:00 Garrett's and William's turn to go to a class--a seed saving class at the Outdoor Campus. Garrett has big ambitions of planting a massive wildflower garden next spring (and collected enough seeds for multiple gardens!), so we'll see how that goes

8:00 Home from class and it's off to bed for these boys!

9:00 Having Darrell edit my PTO Newsletter

10:00 Sending out some PTO emails--and enjoying a drink after checking the newsletter off my to-do list

11:15 Someone was apparently sad that Mommy wasn't home for his bedtime, so I got to grab some quick cuddles before heading to bed myself

 

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!

Photo Every Hour: August 21st

 

7:45 When it's the weekend sometimes I get to sleep in and sometimes I just forget to start taking pictures. I'll let you decide which you think happened today

8:00 Nothing says Saturday like pancakes for breakfast!

9:00 And nothing else says Saturday like needing to grocery shop

10:00 Baking zucchini muffins with the boatload of zucchini I have from my mom's garden also seems like a pretty stellar use of my Saturday

11:00 I honestly don't mind grocery shopping... But I could do without the task of putting it away

12:00 Naptime for lone baby who still naps

1:00 Stealing a little bit of me time mid-afternoon

2:00 Doing some "science" while biggest brother is at soccer practice

3:00 Science experiments turned into outside play because #boys

4:00 Parenting hack: If you want to grab an afternoon beer with your husband grab some cotton candy for the kids from the candy store next door before getting your beer. Just make sure to get out of there before the sugar crash happens!

5:00 Maybe one of these days I'll start making the boys clean BEFORE they are allowed to watch their show #wishfulthinking

6:00 Wrapping up dinner

7:00 Getting some play time in before bed

8:00 Bedtime cuddles with my favorite almost four year old!

9:00 (and 10:00, and up until bedtime apparently because I massively dropped the ball at taking pictures): Trying to be productive with some PTO stuff and photo organization but equally not really wanting to be productive so finding plenty of things to putz around on 

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!