William: Seven Years!

Well, I think it's safe to say that when William grows up and looks back on his year of 1st grade at school and 7th birthday, one main thing will come to mind: Coronavirus. And while he's adapted beautifully to quarantine and everything else, it was a little sad for me to pull pictures for this post because there are so many things he did last year that may not be happening this year. But enough about that--let's focus on my favorite seven year old!

Birthday Interview

Age: 7
Height: 3 feet, 10.75 inches
Weight: 49 lbs, 3 oz
(Measurements are approximate; due to the coronavirus his well visit was cancelled so we had to take his measurements at home)

Coronavirus also meant we didn't get to have the family birthday party that we normally would have, but as a plus we were able to spend the weekend at the lake cabin because everything else was cancelled

What is your favorite color? Blue (this answer has been the same every year since I started this at age five--safe to say that's definitely a favorite)
What is your favorite animal? Zebra (this answer, however, has been different every year. I guess he hasn't officially settled into a true "favorite" animal yet!)
What is your favorite book? Elephant and Piggie (no judgement here. While the reading level is definitely on the easy side, the books are awesome)

Celebrating 100 days of first grade!

What is your favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (sure? why not)
What is your favorite sport? Football (this has also been a fairly consistent answer... Hopefully his interest remains in watching football and playing with his brothers because I'm not sure I actually want him to play competitive football)
What is your favorite thing to do with Mom? Go outside (aka his favorite thing is when Mom gives him permission to go outside)
What is your favorite thing to do with Dad? Play soccer

The boys got soccer goals for Christmas, and one weekend during quarantine Uncle Mike let them into the Avera Sports Dome to play. They were in heaven

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play soccer (see above; it's all he wants to do now that the weather is warm enough to be outside)
Where is your favorite place to go? Bowling alley

It's not the bowling alley, but when "bowling" showed up as an at-home gym assignment during quarantine, I knew we would have no issue getting that accomplished. Connor may have gotten this set for his birthday but his brothers play it just as much as he does

What is your favorite fruit? Apple
What is your favorite vegetable? Carrots (this answer has also stayed the same, which kind of surprises me because he eats all vegetables really well so I would not have expected him to have a favorite three years running)
What is your favorite cereal? Marshmallow Treasures
What is your favorite treat? Hershey's

Hershey's was also his favorite last year, and I can only assume that it's a favorite because it's the chocolate we have in s'mores. I can't really think of any other time when he would have had Hershey's

What is your favorite meal? Tacos
What makes you happy? Getting outside

And--unfortunately for Mommy, the getting outside is not limited to nice weather. Thanks to school and going out for recess in all weather, this kid (and his brothers) have learned to enjoy playing in the snow. I, however, do not enjoy it or the work required to get the boys ready to play outside. But I suppose I'll take this over them wanting to watch TV and play video games all day....

What makes you sad? Getting hurt
Who are your best friends? Kason and Oriya

These names are not new, but what is new is that Kason and Oriya have moved to New Jersey (cue all the tears). However, shortly after the coronavirus stuff started, they came back to their house in Sioux Falls to distance themselves from the New York "hot spot" (long story short--the move was originally temporary, so they were just renting, but they've decided to stay out there permanently). While we haven't been able to play with them (because #quarantine), they did come over and chalk the driveway for William's birthday, which was super fun

What do you want to be when you grow up? Firefighter (typically boy answer)
What was your favorite part about last  year? Going to the beach

I refuse to accept that the beach trip may not happen this year. I refuse to give up hope

What is one thing you want to do this year? Have my birthday outing (Poor kid. All the fun stuff that we would usually discuss doing for his birthday outing is closed, so he's had to wait. Someday we'll get to it though!)


Well, like I said, the Coronavirus will definitely be a defining moment of this past year--especially in a "big picture" perspective. But he's had plenty of other big events this year, even if they are only just big to him. He lost his first tooth last fall (one of the bottom middle ones; he lost the other bottom middle a few months later), and I don't have any good pictures of him with a gap-toothed smile because he never had a gap. The adult tooth grew in behind the baby tooth, and by the time the baby tooth was out the adult tooth was pretty much all the way in. This was also the year he learned how to play the piano--not necessarily the right way, but he does a pretty decent job nonetheless. It all started around Christmas when he tried to copy Mommy and play "Joy to the World" on the piano (pretty much the only song I knew). That progressed into Daddy getting his hymnal out and showing William other songs and giving him a rough intro on reading music, but for the most part he stuck to songs he knew that he could "hear" if he was playing the correctly. From there we bought  him a "teaching" book that has stickers for the keys, and the rest, as they say, is history. He blew through the songs in that book pretty quickly and even learned the music for the "Holden Evening Prayer" service that our church does for Lent after we printed it out for him (by his insistence, of course). I don't know if it will amount to anything long term, and honestly, he makes reading music and notes a mathematical thing (they all have numbers, not letters, to him, which definitely won't translate well to more complex pieces), but I'm going to enjoy it for every minute that it does last.

And now, just for fun, a little bit of a picture dump with a few other fun things about the past year!

He moved up to the all-day camp at the YMCA summer camp, and he loved it! He admitted that he usually avoids the camp photographer when he's out taking pictures (stinker!) but the photographer still managed to snag this one

This kid is a fish. Lake or ocean, he loves the water and is constantly swimming

William is seriously about as left-brained as they come (which is why I'm going to encourage the piano playing--even if he does make it mathematical--for as long as I can). When he discovered Lincoln Logs this summer, he was only interested in building the houses they had pictured on the container. And when I (mistakenly) commented that we could probably find directions for more buildings online, he immediately insisted that we print a handful of them out. He is like this for everything that is a "building" toy--Legos, Magnatiles, etc--he plays best with the toy when he has specific directions to follow and generally loses interest quickly if he has to just free-build with the pieces (which I think is part of the reason he loves puzzles so much--the "directions" for completing them are very systematic and precise!)

William's school had a skate night in the fall, and this was the first time he had been on roller skates. He fell down soooo many times, but always got back up with a smile on his face. I was so proud of how determined he was to learn how to roller skate, and even though I wouldn't say he had it all figured out by the end of the night, he didn't give up or get discouraged once!

For the most part, William is an amazingly patient big brother. He certainly has his moments with Garrett, but with Connor (and now Matthew) he is almost always helpful, understanding, and willing to sacrifice something of his own for them (and this is also true for his younger cousins). I think the biggest issue with Garrett is that they are almost too close in age--William sees him as more of an equal than a "younger" brother, and as such doesn't always treat Garrett with as much compassion as he does the younger two. 

See above caption. This may be one of my favorite things to have come out of this quarantine--William has gotten so much time with Matthew at this young age that he wouldn't have gotten if he had been in school, and I'm so excited for what that will mean down the road for their relationship

#quarantinememories

We love you handsome boy! It's been a big year, and while I certainly hope we don't have to deal with a repeat of all this coronavirus stuff, I know that as you grow every year will continue to be "big" for their own unique and wonderful reasons!

Matthew: Two Months!

Yes, it's another photo of the image from the screen on the back of Darrell's camera. If you're thinking quarantine would be a good time to get things done around the house--like catching up on uploading and editing photos--you'd be wrong. I swear there are fewer hours in the day now than there were pre-quarantine. 

Height/Weight: 12 lbs, 6 oz and 22.5 inches. Roughly a pound lighter and an inch shorter than his brothers at this age--which is enough to have this Mama be a little concerned, even though our pediatrician didn't bat an eye at his stats. I've been doing the super un-official weighing at home to make sure that I'm seeing consistent gains every couple of days and I suppose as long as that is happening I should stop worrying about comparing him to his brothers and just let him be himself (which--let's be honest--I should probably do that regardless).

Wearing: Well, I pulled out his 3-6 month clothes because I *knew* he was going to be needing them by two months (because his brothers did, obviously) and, guess what, we're still rocking pretty much all 0-3 month stuff. Likewise, I started to run out of size one diapers, which was fine, because I *knew* he'd be moving up to size two diapers by two months (because his brothers did, obviously), so when we ran out of size one and slapped on the size two, imagine my surprise when they were a little big. But, we're making do with them because I've been too lazy to get more (plus, you know #quarantine). Fortunately, he isn't prone to explosive blowouts, so the fact that the diapers are perhaps a little big hasn't been a huge issue.

Eating: He eats every 2-3 hours during the day, but he is usually only up once at night(!!), so I'll take it. Plus we introduced a bottle a few weeks ago and he's pretty much taken it like a champ every time. We're continuing to give him a bottle every Saturday and Sunday just to keep him on his A-game, and it seems to be working so far. Granted, we can't exactly go anywhere right now, but when we can, you best believe we will and he'll be darn ready to take that bottle.

Sleep: Well, like I mentioned, he's only waking once at night to eat. It's pretty wonderful... But I honestly still don't feel like I'm getting enough sleep #momlife. We've been able to get him to take probably one nap or so a day in his crib, but generally his best naps are when he is wrapped in his swaddle and laying in the swing. It's not ideal and definitely a short-term solution, but life is pretty much survival mode right now so we're letting it fly. I really don't think there's too much else to say on this front, and honestly, I've probably already said too much and jinxed myself to high heaven. Oh well.

New Stuff: So this is usually the spot where I rattle off all the things we've done as a family over the past month and count it as "new" stuff for Matthew because at only two months old, most everything is still pretty new to him. However, since roughly March 12th, we've been under quarantine due to the Coronavirus. So I guess technically that's "new"--although it entails just being at our house, which is definitely starting to get really old. He did take his first trip to the lake cabin at the end of February for Garrett's birthday party, but other than that it's been a quiet month.

Developmentally, he figured out the smiling thing just shy of six weeks old and has been all over that business ever since. Darrell can even get him to chuckle a little bit and it's pretty wonderful. He's started to pick his head up a little bit during tummy time, but given that his height and weight are in the 30th and 50th percentiles respectively and his head is in the 80th percentile, that is a task that is easier said than done for him. But he's getting there. He's also started to have rather infrequent bowel movements, which isn't inherently concerning, but he spends a solid 12 hours before the poop being super gassy, squirming in apparent discomfort while eating (which makes nursing super fun #not), and sleeping restlessly, and those things make the infrequent bowel movements more of an issue. Our pediatrician recommended him giving him a little bit of apple juice to help get things moving along more smoothly, so we started doing that a few days ago. Unfortunately, it's likely that this is just the way his body is (Connor was the same as an infant, as opposed to both William and Garrett who had multiple dirty diapers a day and way more frequent blowouts), so it's just something we'll all need to get used to. And as long as he keeps flashing those gummy smiles at me on the reg, I think I'll manage just fine forgetting a handful of slightly unpleasant nursing sessions every few days. Because baby smiles just make everything better (including quarantine).

Photo Every Hour: March 21st (Quarantine Edition Part One)

Well, the good news is that since I like to get my posts up in chronological order, the fact that Matthew was born on the 22nd of the month and I take my Photo Every Hour pictures on the 21st means I'll be forced to get these posts up in a timely matter. The bad news is that I don't have anything holding me accountable for getting Matthew's monthly updates posted in a timely manner... Except the next "Photo Every Hour" post nearly a full month later. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Without further ado, welcome to Photo Every Hour #QuarantineEditionPartOne. Because let's be real--this s!%* isn't going to be over by April 21st when I take my next round of photos.

I forgot to take a picture during the feeding (sorry that you missed out on the photo of Matthew's backside), but I'm not even upset when this was his only feeding of the night

Sleeping in, Mom-style

8:00 Time for my first shower of the week #quarantinelife

9:00 Oh, hi empty grocery store shelves. Guess lots of people have decided to use their quarantine time to do some baking. Or, you know, they are probably just hoarding stuff like flour because #panic and #irrationalthinking

10:00 Garrett got some Shrinky Dinks for his birthday and watching them shrink in the oven is apparently awesome

11:00 Apparently I still have to pay the bills in quarantine #lame

12:00 Running a few more errands and soaking up every minute of being out of the house

1:00 I swear I'm not hoarding, this is honestly just (a portion of) how many vegetables I need to buy for a normal week's worth of meals

2:00 Taking a few minutes of R&R while *someone* is supposed to be napping in his swing (but isn't)

3:00 Reason 394,485 why I need so much food in my house--my kids think snacks are appropriate at all hours of the day

4:00 Someone finally fell asleep for his nap--and big(est) brother is entertaining himself with a game of solitaire 

5:00 Game time--I spy with my little eye four boys killing time until dinner!

6:00 Saturdays are for pizza and beer, quarantine or not

7:00 Making smoothies is apparently a very loud process

8:00 The kid is only two months old and he's already giving me attitude #itsgoingtobealong18years 

9:00 Updating the budget to figure out how much money we have to help support small businesses during the quarantine (spoiler--not much #sixpeopleoneincome)

10:00 Still trying to be productive by getting some pictures ready to print off for my grandpa who is stuck in his room in his assisted living facility, but at least I have a drink in my hand and "Friends" on the TV

Quarantine Bedtime is only slightly later than "normal" bedtime--my kids definitely don't understand the concept that they can sleep in if they want to

Matthew: One Month!

Yes, I know, the quality of the picture is terrible. It's a photo of the image on Darrell's camera screen. If I waited to do my post until Darrell got the picture uploaded and edited I'd never get these posts published. Once Darrell gets the picture edited I'll replace this one, but for now consider this your "preview" of the picture to come. Also--how cute is my baby?!? Not to pick favorites or anything, but I'm pretty sure this is the best one-month photo we've gotten of any of the boys (although Connor flipping us the bird in his one-month photo was pretty darn awesome)

Height/Weight: At Matthew's two-week visit, he was *only* weighing in at 9lbs, 8oz. At half a pound over his birth weight, the doctor was more than pleased with that gain, although it's markedly less than most of his brothers had gained at that point. However, at about 3.5 weeks old we did the super official at-home scale method to weigh him, and he clocked in at nearly 12 pounds, which easily puts him on pace to catch up to his brother's weights at two months old. And while we haven't attempted to see how tall he is, we know he is getting taller because all his 0-3 month pants are definitely getting shorter.

Wearing: Nothing new to see here--we used the newborn diapers from the hospital because that's what they provided, otherwise it's been all size one diapers. And we went straight to 0-3 month clothes, some of which were already getting a little snug as he got close to one month old.

Eating: I kind of feel like I could just have copied and pasted the updates from his brothers at one month because seriously, so many things have been exactly the same. Like his brothers, he's a "barracuda" nurser, so he gets in, gets his milk, and is done. The first couple of weeks he probably spent close to 3 hours a day nursing, but that was pretty well down to under two hours by a month old (which is in stark contrast to some kids who spend at least 30 minutes on the breast per nursing session). He pretty consistently eats every two hours during the day, but thankfully he gives us longer stretches than that at night (we've even had a few five hour stretches!)

Sleeping: Is it cliche to say that he sleeps like a baby? When he's sound asleep, he's sound asleep--he can be in his swing with his brothers creating total chaos in the room around him and barely even stir. And, like all babies, he's getting us up two or three times a night to eat (although most nights it's usually just twice, which is awesome). He definitely likes his swaddle (it was pretty much a guaranteed way to calm him down in the hospital), so it's no surprise that he equally likes sleeping while we are holding him, but that's not always doable (although since he's likely my last baby I try to indulge it when I can). Fortunately he has no issue sleeping in his car seat when we are out and about (which, let's face it, is pretty often), he does pretty well in his swing, and nights in his crib haven't been too problematic. So really, no major issues/concerns about sleep. Moving right along then...

New Stuff: Being out of the womb. That pretty much sums up the entirety of his new experiences this past month. So rather than listing basically everything we've done since he was born, I'll just hit on a few fun highlights and some general personality observations.

So, in no particular order, some of the fun "new" things that Matthew has done since being born include going to his first (and then second) Augustana basketball game, attending chimes and choir rehearsals at church with Mommy, having a girls' night at a brewery with Mommy, and going on his first family hike. He's also managed to make it through a few rounds of sickness at the house (including a major one where all of his brothers had fevers and/or were puking in a three-day span) without getting sick himself, so fingers crossed we can keep riding the healthy train until the worst of the flu season is over.

Other fun things to note: Matthew has been a major loose cannon. At the hospital, he peed on Darrell three times, and I silently judged Darrell (because seriously, it's our fourth boy; Darrell should know how to change a diaper without getting peed on). However, the trend continued at home--and we were both getting peed on--plus one time he even pooped before I could get the clean diaper on. Fortunately that only lasted a few weeks; we've been accident free for at least 10 days (minus legitimate blowouts, but there isn't much you can do to prevent those). He's been hit or miss on taking the pacifier, and at night he gets really stubborn and doesn't like to burp, which has made some of the night time awake sessions last longer than I'd like, but I just keep reminding myself that it could be worse. We've been trying to do tummy time daily, although so far it seems like the only thing he cares to do while on tummy time is attempt to suck his thumb, which we definitely want to avoid if for no other reason then we don't want to have to break the habit later. So the tummy time sessions are usually pretty short lived. And honestly, even if we didn't have the concerns over him trying to suck his thumb, the tummy time sessions would probably be short-lived anyway because he has two big brothers who have to constantly be picking him up and holding him and moving him and carrying him. I can't even count how many tantrums Garrett has thrown because he's been told he can't hold Matthew for one reason or another, even though it's rarely been more than two hours since the last time he held Matthew. However, let me make it clear that this is not entirely a complaint--they generally do a really good job of soothing him, so it's a nice break for me to not always be the one who has to go pick him up when he's fussing (of course, as soon as he poops or spits up or if he won't settle down he gets passed over pretty quickly, but I'll take whatever breaks I can get). His youngest big brother, though, is a different story. For the first few weeks, he wanted nothing to do with Matthew. He wouldn't go near him, and wouldn't even go near a parent who was holding him. If, for some reason, he had to refer to Matthew, it was always just "the baby". Fortunately, we've started to see some slow signs of improvement--he's shown interest (on occasion) in knowing where "the baby" is, he's allowed someone to hold him even if they are also holding Matthew, and he's even shown his Lambie (his security "blanket") to Matthew a few times when Matthew has been fussy (he's never actually given Lambie--or anything--to Matthew, but hey, baby steps). Hopefully it won't be long before Connor forgets that he was ever the baby and Matthew will become a normal--and accepted--part of his existence.

One of the most frequent questions we've gotten about Matthew is "Is he a good baby?" While I'm honestly never quite sure how to answer that question (what exactly distinguishes a "good" baby from a "bad" baby?), I can pretty truthfully say that for the most part, Matthew is definitely a good baby. Of course, with three big brothers, he doesn't really have much choice--good baby or bad baby our lives aren't exactly going to slow down for him, so he might as well make himself at home among the chaos and enjoy the ride!

Photo Every Hour: February 21st

My first photo every hour post with four kids! And you know what that means--middle of the night feeding fun (and I actually remembered to document it!)

3:04am Of course, nursing photos are super exciting

5:39am More feeding fun...

Time to get up for the day--although let's be honest, I'm basically still awake from that last feeding session

7:00 Darrell adjusted his work schedule so he can be home longer in the mornings to help me get the boys up and fed before I have to get William to school, and let me tell you, it's been a lifesaver

8:00 My view while I feed Matthew (much more exciting than a picture of Matthew's butt, right?)

9:00 Baby cuddles and coffee--and of course the inevitable second (or sometimes third or fourth) child who is constantly all up in my space

10:00 This is how we make frosting for a birthday cake with a one-month old!

11:00 Reading time before lunch (and I swear, this is totally unstaged. Sometimes my kids are awesome)

12:00 Reading time with Mommy before naps

1:00 Lunch time!

2:00 Matthew actually took a nap at the same time his brothers were having nap time, so I celebrated with a little extra snack and a second cup of coffee

3:00 Play date at a friend's house

4:00 Snack time

5:00 Time to head home--but not before a giant green snake attacks Matthew!

6:00 Time to bake Garrett's birthday cake with my happy little helpers (or really, just one happy helper and two helpless observers--Garrett insisted that since it was his cake he got to "do it all by himself" and his brothers somewhat willing obliged)

7:00 Making an effort to clean up before snack time/bed time

8:00 Okay, I swear I didn't mean to get so many reading pictures in this post. But hey, sometimes that's just what happens, and the book nerd in me totally loves it

9:00 Time for Mama to actually make some progress on the cake without a bunch of little fingers getting in the way

Turns out Mama didn't make too much progress because she went to bed early to try to beat the stomach bug that had been going around the house (spoiler--it didn't quite work)