Samisms

Sam: (To me one morning at breakfast): "Mommy, if you got up earlier you'd get to say good-bye to Daddy." Jason usually takes the boys down and gets the breakfast started before he leaves for work, then I come when Abby wakes up and finish up breakfast with them.

Jason (trying to leave for work): "Now where did I put my keys?"
Sam: "Daddy, you should hang them on the hook." That's my boy!

Sam: (After we got done cleaning the main level of the house) "Wow, Mommy, we should keep the house this clean all the time!" Later in the day after the boys had left their mark on the space, I commented to Sam that I thought he wanted to keep the house all clean. After looking around the main level and finding a small space that was not scattered with toys, he replied, "I meant over there". Ahh, I see.

Thanksgiving

These pictures are a couple of weeks old, but I had to get something up so you weren't all looking at Jason at 72 anymore. I really can't hardly bear to see him that way either, so here's an Abby's having a crazy hair day picture.

And here's a picture of Matthew engrossed in his blocks. He was building towers and knocking them down (if he could knock them down before Abby, the destroyer, knocked them down. When she destroys towers she doesn't leave a single block unturned...)

Matthew doesn't wear pants after lunch. Those are his own words, "I don't wear pants after lunch" so that's why he is sans pants.

And Sam was into loading the dump truck with blocks and dumping them out.

On another note, we had a happy Thanksgiving with our family in Iowa. Abby really came out of her shell and allowed herself to be held by numerous cousins and aunts and uncles, some of whom she had never met before. My family was wondering what happened to the little one who cried the moment someone other than myself looked at her or tried to hold her. She saved all her wrath for Uncle David. For some reason, she decided early on that he was no good and cried when he came too close to her or she went "frozen" when he came into the room where she was. She would just become completely still as if she was trying to blend into her surroundings so as to not be seen. It was so silly. I've never seen her like that before. But other than her dislike of Uncle David, she was quite pleasant and cuddly toward everyone. The boys were themselves, sometimes quiet and reserved (when we were around unfamiliar family), and other times (ok, most of the time) loud and rambunctious.

Jason spent some time working on his home protection skills while I spent some time enjoying good food and good company. We had a wonderful holiday and certainly have a lot to be thankful for.

Jason at 72

I was mistaken. Jason said I could post his age-progressed photo of him at age 72. He was given a series of photos aging him from his current age until 72 and he, well, looks, um, I don't know how to say this but wow, he starts looking pretty old pretty early. But for your viewing enjoyment, here he is at 72.

Non-naps

The boys didn't have the best day today and this face shows how Jason felt at the end of the day. Actually, Jason had me take this picture a few weeks ago as he had it "aged" to 72 (he didn't want to post that picture for some reason) for a work project. Yeah, for work.

Anyway, after a less than ideal breakfast and morning routine, I was a little unsure of how church would go. However, it went surprisingly well. Matthew didn't hardly make a peep, and he colored and looked at books by himself the whole time. Sam was also very good, coloring and playing with cars. After church we went to a playground to enjoy the warm weather (mid-50s), then home for lunch and naptime. Ah, naptime. Well, naps didn't really happen. Ever since Matthew has been freed from his crib, he often will not take a nap. Before Matthew's emancipation, Sam took a nap most days, missing a nap once or twice a week. But now with the new freedom, the boys prefer to spend their nap time together and they will go to each other's room and read each other books, play with toys, or otherwise run around inside their rooms. Jason and I try to deal with their non-nap activities (as at least Matthew still really needs a nap) in various ways but we have yet to figure out what really works. I sometimes take sentinel duty and sit in the hallway between their doors and while that works, it also means I have to remain on watch and can't do anything else. Like clean up the kitchen or the "accident" Matthew had before naptime. Fortunately, Abby is napping well and naps through the boys' antics. Who would have thought that the time would come when Abby would be the easiest? For now that's the case, although that can easily change and probably will. Each child has his or her time in the spotlight.

So after the boys' non-nap, they were exhibiting symptoms related to non-naps. Like irritability, anger, lack of patience, volatility, etc. While some more outside playtime in the afternoon was positively received by the boys, afterward they resumed their previous non-nap demeanor and it was a rather unpleasant evening. After an interesting dinner, we undertook haircuts and had an early bedtime. And now (8:29PM) Jason is almost asleep on the couch.

Entertainment

A few days ago I had a 4 or 5 yard piece of yarn that I wound up into a little ball. There were a few inches of yarn hanging out of the ball and Sam came across it and was inspired. His first inspiration was that the ball was a wrecking ball, so he took it around bumping it into various things. It's really quite light so there wasn't much wrecking going on. However, what happens when you pull on yarn from a yarn ball is that the yarn unwinds, so after all his wrecking, Sam ended up with a long piece of yarn. This then spurred another thought. Fishing. So Sam and Matthew took turns with the yarn, one would hold onto one end as the fisherman, the other would grab the other end as the caught fish and they would run around the main level in this arrangement. After they bored of that, Sam's next thought about what to do with the yarn went back to the crane. But this time, Sam draped the yarn over the side of the arm of the couch, then he'd attach some kind of load (a toy train or car) and use his crane to lift it up to and over the side of the couch.

Then when the boys tired of the yarn, it was Abby's turn. She picked up the yarn and draped it over her shoulders again and again like a scarf and walked around like a beautiful princess. Everything seems to be for her adornment these days. That kept her occupied for a good 15 minutes or so. Anyway, that was our cheap entertainment lately. So with a nice stretch of yarn I got at least a good hour of entertainment for the boys and some fun for Abby. Now that it's getting colder and we can't play outside much, we'll take whatever form of entertainment we can get, including a scrap of yarn.

Progress

After posting about Matthew's difficulties lately, I thought I'd better write about some of the progress the kids are making these days. Last night I made tater tot casserole for dinner and I thought it would be a good time to have Sam help in the kitchen. He loves to help me out and I admit that I don't give him the opportunity very often. I was feeling especially ambitious a few weeks ago and decided to let Sam try to crack an egg (he had been wanting to do it for awhile) and it actually went pretty well. I let him softly tap the egg and make a crack, then I opened the egg. He tried opening an egg once and got a little dirty, so he was not too anxious to try it again. Matthew also wanted to crack an egg, but he didn't quite understand that you tap gently (so he pretty much just crushed the egg on the counter) thus we ended up with a lot of egg running down the cabinets and on the floor. I knew that was a possibility going into our egg-cracking so I wasn't disappointed or upset. Hey, I let a two- and four-year old crack eggs. What do you expect? They enjoyed it and learned a bit too and we cleaned up the mess and moved on.

So back to tater tots. I remember putting the tater tots on the casserole when I was growing up, so I passed on the torch to Sam. He was excited to help and did a great job.

The picture below is what the kitchen counter looked like after breakfast this morning. The kids have been working on clearing their dishes after they're done eating and while I have to ask them to do so, they are making great progress. Sam is very brave and stacks up all his dishes and carries them at once, while Matthew takes his one by one. Either way, they are growing up! What good little boys!

Independent and opinionated

Those of you who know the kids well will know from the title that today's post is about Matthew. So today I was telling Matthew that he was an independent little boy. He replied, "I'm not d..d..dent! I'm pokey little Matthew!" This was when he was trying to put on his own shoes (which he now does quite well). While that is a good display of Matthew's independence, he has had other displays which haven't been so good. Take church yesterday, for example. Why does it seem that many of the challenges we have with the kids are at church? Well, I guess the most public of our challenges occur at church. Just when we think we're being such good parents, we go to church, and despite not being able to pay attention to the sermon, we leave church more aware of our own weaknesses (and our own sinfulness) as our children likely just put on a display of bad behavior which of course reflects directly on the parents.

Anyway, back to the story. Matthew hasn't been sleeping well as I thought it would be a good idea to convert his crib to a toddler bed. He hasn't been climbing out of his crib, but the doctor said he should probably be out of a crib by now, so we converted it to a toddler bed that he can get in and out of by himself. So he was pretty tired on Sunday despite the "extra" hour of sleep which used to be so fun, but now it just means that your kids will be getting up at 5 or 6 rather than 6 or 7AM. So we went to church with a crabby Matthew. The morning started by getting the boys some busy bags with toys and books. We got to our pew and sat down and Matthew was quite pleased to find a car/truck book in his bag. Church started and (ok, actually church had already started when we walked in, let's be honest) Matthew read his book then put it down. At that point, Sam grabbed it and started looking at it. Then Matthew started screaming "I want my book! I want the book! Ah ah ah ahhhhhhh!" It was very loud. And very embarrassing. I was fortunate enough to be taking care of Sam, while Jason was "managing" Matthew so he had to take the brunt of the screaming and squirming Matthew.  We quickly got the book back and gave it to Matthew, then it was calm for a few minutes.

So then it was time for the children's message. Sam got up and said he wanted Matthew to come with. After Matthew's poor behavior at the children's message in the past, he hasn't been going up lately, but I thought Sam would erupt if Matthew didn't come, so I grabbed Matthew's hand and told him to come up to the children's message. Then he erupted, "I don't want to go! I don't want to go! Ahh ahhh ahhhhh ahhhhhhh!!!" Seriously, I grabbed Sam's had and quickly moved away from the volcanic child and heard him screaming all the way as we walked up to the front from the second to last pew we were sitting in. People were turning around and laughing or glaring. I can laugh about it now, but wow, it was loud and embarrassing. We made it through the rest of church without much difficulty, but the damage had been done and we walked out humiliated.

Let's talk about some more Matthew-induced humiliation. On Saturday I decided to do swim lessons with both Sam and Matthew. Sam is in one class and Matthew in a different class which is a parent-child class. So I got in the water with Matthew and he was a tyrant. He sobbed, screamed and refused to get in the water without extreme fuss. We were right in front of the bleachers filled with happy parents watching their happy children in swimming lessons and I was fighting with my very unhappy child. Ugh. Now, we have gone swimming before. And Matthew likes it. He jumps in (trying not to get his head wet), but has a good time. Not in swim lessons, though. It was terrible. I don't know if we'll go back.

I could go on and on about how Matthew is exerting his independence with his new toddler bed, but I will save that for another time. Now I know that independence and strong convictions will help Matthew out down the road, but it sure can be tough at times! That's our pokey little Matthew.

Abby's check up

Abby had her one-year check up yesterday and Matthew had his 2.5 year check up. The poor little sweet pea had to get 3 shots and have a blood sample taken so she had quite a rough appointment at the end. Otherwise she was cheerful and didn't cry at all. Matthew made quite a turn around from his two-year appointment and he also didn't cry at all. He wasn't too cooperative at times, but he didn't fuss and actually talked to the doctor and looked at her some. Anyway, here are their stats.

Abby's one year stats:
weight: 19 lbs., 25th percentile
height: 29.5 in., 60th percentile

I can't find Sam's one year stats, but Matthew's one year stats were:
Weight: 25 lb, 75th percentile
Height: 32 in., 93rd percentile

I looked back at the boys' stats and Matthew was 19.5 lbs at 6 months. Wow. I'm sure Sam was a little bigger than Abby at 1 year, but smaller than Matthew.

Matthew's stats from 2.5 years are:
Weight: 34 lbs, 90th percentile
Height: 37.5 in, 90th percentile

Apparently if you multiply your child's height at age 2.5 by 2, that is supposed to be a close approximation of their adult height, so Matthew is on track to be 6'3". Whatever he ends up being, he and Abby are growing like crazy and we are blessed to have healthy and happy children!