Photo Every Hour: March 21st

Time to get up!

7:00 My sous chef helping me play short order chef for breakfast--eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, toast, the whole nine yards!

8:00 These two boys are just a little ready for spring--they were clamoring to go outside the minute we got home from school drop off

9:00 Early morning outside play means second breakfast for these hobbits

10:00 Off for a little morning fun!

11:00 We head to a gym for play time with a plethora of toys we don't have at home, and what does this kid do? Spend 45 minutes playing basketball even though we have hoops at home (although not "real" ones, of course)

12:00 So many train tracks and race tracks in this house and I swear my boys' favorite place to drive their cars is on this windowsill

1:00 I got a little lazy enforcing quiet time with this one, and now he spends a portion of Matthew's naptime watching a show. You win some, you lose some

2:00 To be fair, he's also usually pretty good about actually doing quiet activities, just not in his room

3:00 Pretty sure all I do is feed these kids

4:00 And wash their clothes. Ugh. So much laundry, especially after a crazy weekend. I think this is load four or five of the day?

5:00 Washing toys in the dishwasher in preparation for taking them to consignment store tomorrow

6:00 It's normal to have to traipse over a train track to have to clear your dinner table, right?

7:00 See what I mean with the basketball? So glad we drove somewhere this morning so he could get a chance to play #not 

8:00 Apparently there's a sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Audiobook number two for the boys and they are enjoying this one just as much

9:00 A little sad to be getting this ready to consign, but also definitely ready to be done with the whole newborn stage thing

10:00 Apparently the laundry doesn't just put itself away no matter how long I leave it on the bed

11:00 Taking a few minutes to myself after a long weekend and a busy day (and also maybe taking advantage of the fact that Darrell is taking the day off work tomorrow)

Good night!

Photo Every Hour: February 21st

This is entirely too early to be woken up on a day when the older two don't have school...

7:00 Thanks no thanks for the early wake up call Matthew (although I suppose I didn't hate the cuddles)

8:00 Morning stories...

9:00 ...Give way to morning games

10:00 Snack time!

11:00 William tried to teach his brothers how to play "Set", a game he learned in ULE. Garrett actually picked it up pretty well, Connor not so much

12:00 My pokey eater finishing his lunch

1:00 Trying to get caught up on homework from the two sick days he had to take right before the four day weekend

2:00 As close as I get to "down" time to read with all four boys at home

3:00 Trying to get caught up on laundry... I lost count, but I think these were loads three and four for the day (out of a total of five or six)

4:00 Also behind on dishes... So many dirty dishes...

5:00 I was very dubious of this "game" as they were setting it up, but I'll be honest--we didn't have to take anyone to the ER, so I suppose it was a success (also, who would have guessed this kid threw up yesterday? Kids are weird)

6:00 That's a wrap on dinner!

7:30 So I forgot to snag a photo during snack time at 7:00, but this photo is way cuter anyway--the older two recently discovered audiobooks, and Connor and Matthew also enjoyed listening to the book (and turning the pages of whatever random book they could find)

8:00 Bedtime for my favorite silly four year old

9:00 Things I should be doing: balancing the budget, writing the PTO newsletter, working on Matthew's and Garrett's birthday blog posts. What I'm doing instead: randomly looking through old pictures on the laptop. Seems productive, right?

10:00 Proof that I didn't waste the whole night being unproductive 

After William being sick on the 17th and 18th and Garrett getting sick on the 20th, a relatively early bedtime was much needed (after a fairly productive day, if I do say so myself)

Garrett: Seven Years!

Well, we didn't have a global pandemic hit a month before Garrett's seventh birthday (and dare I say the pandemic seems to finally be easing into an endemic?) so I think it's safe to say Garrett's seventh year is off to a pretty solid (and hopefully normal!) start.

I hate that the photographer didn't center this photo, but Darrell didn't think that was reason to retake it. I begrudgingly agreed

Birthday Interview

Age: 7

Height: 3 feet, 9.83 inches

Weight: 45 pounds, 6 ounces

Still a little peanut, but looking like a dapper young lad getting his hair cut with Daddy!

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite animal? Turtle

What is your favorite book? Dog Man

What is your favorite song? Go Tell It on the Mountain

What is your favorite sport? Football

It'll be a good number of years before we'll even consider letting him play organized football, so fortunately he's been content playing other sports as well. Dad (and Grandpa) took him to a golf course for the first time last summer and he definitely enjoyed it

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom? Go outside

We got outside at the Turner County Fair with a kindergarten classmate of his and this kid was a rockstar on the rides! He was a little intimidated by the Ferris Wheel, but not so much so that he wouldn't give it a try

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad? Fish

It needs to be noted that this kid got up at 6 am not one, not two, but three mornings in a row to fish with Daddy and Granddad at the beach. Not only did he last nearly three hours each morning on the pier (despite only catching a handful of things--including a crab!) but he was also able to stay composed and not let the early mornings affect his behavior during the day

At the beach or on the ice, fishing is always on this kid's radar!

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike

Where is your favorite place to go? The beach and lake

Fireworks were a big hit at the lake last summer!

What is your favorite fruit? Strawberry

What is your favorite vegetable? Cauliflower

What is your favorite cereal? Rice Krispies

What is your favorite treat? Fun Dip

What is your favorite meal? Beer Cheese Soup

What makes you happy? Cuddling with my animals and playing outside

He also very much enjoyed checking on "his" sunflowers while playing outside--and believe it or not, this isn't even the full height they got to!

What makes you sad? When I don't catch any fish while fishing

Who are your best friends? Amira and Emmett

What do you want to be when you grow up? A cashier

What was your favorite part about last year? Going to Air Madness

Air Madness was a fun birthday outing for all of us!

What is one thing you want to do this year? Get a pet 

It's no surprise he wants a pet. He's always been our little nurturer, but Mommy and Daddy aren't convinced that he's ready to handle the full-time responsibility of a pet when the cuddling fun is over (and Mommy and Daddy definitely don't want to handle that responsibility themselves right now)

I mentioned it in Garrett's five year post and for reference sake it bears repeating now--our love for this kid is unimaginable, but boy oh boy does he challenge us with his behaviors sometimes. He will still have periodic full-blown tantrums, and though he may be small for his size, he can create quite the big scene (and make himself rather difficult to relocate to a "safe" space like his room). Fortunately, he has the cognitive awareness to limit these behaviors to our house, and as such our pediatrician feels pretty confident that he will outgrow the behavior on his own, but man oh man when he is in the middle of a meltdown I have zero feelings of relief that these behaviors are only happening at home (or confidence that these tantrums will stop). We left his well visit with some strategies to try to implement and a plan for what to do if they get worse and start interfering with life outside the home, but also with the reassurance that while this behavior isn't super common at seven, it isn't outside the realm of normal, especially given everything the pandemic and everything the past few years.

When he isn't challenging us with his behaviors, he is surprising us with his creativity and ingenuity. He has an idea and a plan for everything (from what he wants to sew from a blank piece of fabric to how he's going to make lots of money by having a lemonade stand this summer), and while he doesn't always have the best follow through on this ideas (there are LOTS of half-finished projects around this house), I love his dedication to his ideas and his willingness to put them in motion. Even as a toddler he was the kid who decided to push a chair over to the fridge to pour himself a glass of water because he didn't want to wait for Mommy to get it for him (something his big brother probably never even considered, I might add), so it's really fun to see some of those same habits and tendencies grow with him. I don't always love the half-sown pieces of fabric that I absolutely CAN'T throw away because he'll definitely remember that he wants to finish that project as soon as I do, but getting tangible products that show us a glimpse of how the wheels are spinning in his head is fun nonetheless.

And, because it wouldn't be a birthday post without a photo dump, here goes nothing!

Perhaps one of my favorite church memories to date. Kindergarteners always learn the Lord's Prayer as part of their curriculum, and toward the end of the school year, they recite it in front of the church. Because of the pandemic, Garrett was the only kindergartener in church that morning, and despite being up there by himself (which made me super nervous!) he ROCKED IT. Like--nary a mistake and perfectly clear and audible (even behind his mask)--rocked it. We were SO proud

We were also so proud of this kid for having a wonderfully fantastic kindergarten year despite many weird and unusual circumstances that were out of his control

Not going to lie, I spent waaaay more time than I'm willing to admit trying to figure out if it was William or Garrett in this photo. Ultimately I decided it was Garrett--and decided that as a result it needed to make his post

He tackled pumpkin carving like he does everything else--by jumping in and doing it. No plan, no sketch, nothing but an idea in his head. And you know what--it turned out pretty darn awesome (and aside from scooping out the guts, he did basically all of it by himself!)

Also--decorating a gingerbread house requires the same amount of focus and concentration as carving a pumpkin (note the tongue sticking out in both pictures!)

Happy Birthday kiddo! You may not have loved the flavor of the pink bubblegum Mario cake you "had" to have, but you didn't complain at all and actually seemed to enjoy watching your brothers and cousins really enjoy the cake. May you never lose your kind, caring, sweet heart!

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!