Matthew is...

Persistent. Vocal. Tough. Opinionated. And to be completely honest, I'm a little afraid of him. Although he isn't as defiant as Sam was at that age (like he hardly ever says no), he has some tendencies which are difficult to deal with, so I do my best to avoid them. For example, he throws these crazy fits (generally short, but nonetheless crazy) when he can't find blankie. So I frantically run around trying to find blankie. Anything to stop the madness which is Matthew in distress. He screams, waves his arms around, throws things, stomps, jumps and goes crazy. When he was a baby I used to call him "Crazy Matthew" and say that he's a pistol. Well, now that little pistol is almost two and although he's grown taller and more imposing (I'm joking...seriously...) he has retained his craziness and it has, shall we say, matured.

It is getting worse too. I read the other day that kids his age can get easily frustrated when they can't accomplish something they want to and they show their frustration in toddlerish ways such as tantrums. Matthew, being quite independent, likes to do everything by himself, but he gets extremely frustrated when he can't do what he wants to. Then he throws things, screams, waves his arms, stomps and jumps and goes crazy. For some reason, though, it's not too aggravating (although I am a little afraid of it), it's somewhat amusing and it means I'm having to learn some other parenting skills. Really, Sam just didn't get frustrated in this way, and although he threw tantrums (and occasionally does sometimes), they mostly related to not getting something he wanted (like more TV or snack) and I found ignoring or having him go to his room to complete his tantrum worked perfectly well. Not for Matthew, though. I have to intervene. I have to diffuse. I have to help him without doing it for him, but provide appropriate guidance so as to allow him to keep trying to do things on his own. It's really quite a challenge.

Playing with Sam has presented special challenges related to "sharing" toys. When Matthew was little, there wasn't a problem as Sam could take his toys without retaliation, but now that Matthew knows better, Sam taking his toys is a big problem. And it causes Matthew to scream, throw toys, flail around, hit, and scream, scream, scream. So I have to quickly intervene so no one gets hurt (usually Sam). The thing is, it's not really a tantrum in the sense that "Matthew didn't get candy at the grocery store", but it's just pure, unchecked, raw toddler emotion. Wow.

About Matthew's persistence. I remember when we were weaning him at night and I thought he was very persistent in his crying. That's when I started keeping ear plugs at my bedside. Really, doesn't he just get it that he's not getting any more night-time snacks and give it up? But no. He was very persistent and tried my patience to the fullest (I write that now, knowing full well that my patience will likely be tried even more in later years...oh dear). Little does Matthew know that I am also very persistent and once I decided he wasn't getting anymore night-time snacks, HE WASN'T GETTING ANY MORE NIGHT-TIME SNACKS! Anyway, now he will occasionally cry out at night for whatever reason and also for whatever reason, he cries out "WANT MOMMY! WANT MOMMY! WANT MOMMY!" over and over and will not be consoled by Jason. He will continue to cry out "want mommy" a hundred times or more, for 5 or 10 minutes until I acquiesce or Jason is able to convince him to stop. One night, a few weeks ago, Matthew was having a want mommy fit and Jason eventually told him forcefully that Mommy wasn't coming. Matthew then screamed "WANT HORSEY!" (he's been sleeping with a white and purple that Abby got from a friend of ours). Jason handed him Horsey, Matthew said "thank you" and went to bed.

The funny thing about Matthew's fits is that one moment he is going crazy and the next moment he is saying "thank you" and is completely calm. He is really a polite boy, nice boy when he's not crazy. Oh Matthew, Matthew, Matthew. Always keeping us on our toes. I can't wait to see what challenges Abby will bring down the road.

New bike

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I have been 1) knitting like crazy to finish up a lightweight sweater for myself, 2) reading a 19th century murder mystery, 3) spring cleaning, 4) enjoying nice weather and 5) working (at my other job)...therefore, I'm not blogging.

So here's the story about Sam's new bike. We had been thinking he needed a bike since going to a friends house a few weeks ago and he did awesome job riding their little bike with training wheels. So on Saturday Matthew exclaimed that he had to go poopy. He rarely wants to try the potty chair (and I'm really not encouraging it right now), but he was ready and willing so I stripped him down and he sat on the chair. And he sat and sat and sat. I was working in the kitchen so I could check in on him, but he was doing fine and apparently wanted some privacy because at one point he reached over and closed the door. After around 5 minutes he started crying, dismayed at what appeared on his hands when he tried to wipe himself. I was dismayed too, but put on a happy face to show my excitement at what Matthew had produced on the potty chair. We were all in a celebratory mood and as I was cleaning up myself and Matthew, Jason told Matthew he would get to pick out a toy at the store to mark the special occasion. Sam then asked if he got a toy too. I was distracted by frantically trying to clean Matthew's hands and then my own before the mess got anywhere else that I uttered a "Yes!" and Sam was very happy.

Later when things calmed down some, we talked about going to the store to get a new toy. Sam again asked if he got a toy too and I asked him "What did you do to earn the toy?" He became very down. He did not cry or throw a fit, but his shoulders sunk, his head went down and he frowned in complete sadness. Oh. My poor child. Indeed, I did promise him a toy, so I remedied the situation by saying so and suggesting that we go to the store after dinner. I then told Sam he would get to pick out a new bike. See, we had already been planning to get him a bike and we wanted to kick off the potty training season with a strong impression, so it really isn't bribing.

Ok. So after dinner we went to Wal-Mart, Matthew happily picked up some Elmo books and Sam chose a bike. They only had 2 little kids bikes left, one was pink and one was white and purple. We left with the white and purple one, but after we got home Jason shunned the bike and so I went to another Wal-Mart after the kids were in bed and we got him the bike seen in the picture. Sam loves riding his bike and Matthew is starting to get a hang of the trike, although potty training isn't going anywhere.

Matthew, although he is happy with the trike, is also a little sad that he can't ride the bike.

So then he went and inspected the plants. 

Abby was content to play on the blanket while the boys rode around...

Until Sam started harassing her.

Playing outside

We have spent considerable time outside the past few days...I mean 70s and even 80 in March in Minnesota? Wow? Where is it like this year round? I want to move there...So we've been outside for at least 3 hours a day since last Thursday and I've been outside even longer than that as the kids are overlapping on their naps, so I sit on the deck and knit and read. Yes, knit and read at the same time. Jason was joking last night by asking me if I could add another hobby to my simultaneous diversions. I don't think so.

Anyway, all this outside play means that the kids and I are all happier and sleeping better. Abby, by the way, has started sleeping 12 hours at night. Uninterrupted. For 5 nights in a row now? I have woken up before her every time and I check on her and try to go back to sleep, but usually don't have too much success with that. Either way, she's generally in a better mood with her good sleep, so regardless of how much sleep I get we are all happier.

Here are some snaps of our activities yesterday...I wanted to get a pic of the kids with Jason so while waiting for Sam to arrive, I took a few of Matthew...

 Sam persisted in playing with the watering can, pretending to water the grass...

 So I ended up just taking a picture of Matthew, Abby and Jason, but could not get all three of them looking at the camera at the same time,

 So I abandoned my efforts and Abby got to play on the blanket for awhile.

Playing together

This is how the boys chose to watch TV and look at books the other night...(I believe Matthew was the instigator).

And this is one of the moments when the boys were getting along while doing a puzzle. Matthew was not sliding pieces across the table and on the floor. And Sam was not screaming that Matthew was making a mess of the puzzle. It appears that Matthew is helping, but he's really just supervising.

And of course, I could not get both boys looking at the camera at the same time...

Love the thumb

There's Abby engaging in one of her favorite activities these days...sucking her thumb. She started sucking her thumb quite a bit over the past week or so and not surprisingly, she is also sleeping much better too. She has always been a pretty good night sleeper, but she's getting even better and her napping is coming along quite nicely as well.

Brownies

Matthew likes brownies. Sam just never did this. He still doesn't, so I think it's fairly safe to say that he will never behave in this way. We had Oreo brownies for dessert and Matthew squeezed his brownie in his hands for fear that Jason would take it and when he was done, he decided to play peek-a-boo. And thus, he ended up with brownie all over his face. Fortunately it wasn't in his hair which is often where his food ends up (another thing that Sam never did). Jason suggested that Matthew go directly to the bath, without getting a wipe down in the kitchen, but I vetoed that suggestion as I really didn't want soggy brownie stuff all over the bath tub. He was given a cursory rub down, than went up for his bath.

Puddles

Today it was 57. Wonderful. I remember one year during my college spring break putting on my swimsuit and laying out...at the farm in IA. So I guess it must have been warmer than 57 in March that year, but 57 is still pretty nice. After some good naps, everyone got their boots and coats on and we went outside for some puddling and tricycling and whatever else the kids decided to do. Abby was in the sling on my hip which worked pretty well, except that she's still pretty small so a hip carry with her doesn't work too well.

Anyway, the boys had a great time running through the puddles. Matthew (as you can see from the picture above) got pretty well soaked. It started out that he was splashing so much that he got his jeans wet, but then he tripped and belly-flopped into the puddle. He ended up with quite a scrape on his knee (hardly cried at all) and was fully soaked including his face and hair. Fortunately his coat is waterproof so his mid-section wasn't too bad. Sam also ended up getting very wet. While running through the puddle one of his boots came off, so he ended up making his way back to the house with one boot on (see below).

Fortunately, it was 57 so it wasn't a big deal that they were soaked. After the above described mishaps we made out way back to the house, changed clothes and boots and went back out to play some more which is why the kids are wearing different clothes in the next picture. 

After the puddle play, the kids decided to play in the snow some. Sam thought he'd go sit on the "sleeping snowman" (his phrase). It just couldn't stand the heat so it decided to lay down. I tried to get Matthew sit on the snowman too, but he was distracted looking at our neighbor who was walking by at the time. I wandered over to say hellow to our neighbor and during that time, which was about 5 minutes, Sam managed to remove his new boots, dry socks and started complaining that he was cold. Really? Abby was starting to fuss too, so we all made our way back inside, Sam all the while complaining about his cold feet.