My Big Man

Yesterday was Matthew's birthday. We had a little party for him at Grandma's. Party, meaning Grandma made dinner, I made a cake and Ellie gave him some new sippy cups for a present before Peter left for rehearsals.

His words now consist of: Mommy, Daddy, mama (food), bap (food again), jeejee, ayah, duckie, cheese (chiss), please (eesh), fish (also eesh), bath (ba), baby (bahbee) and bubble (bubby). Sometimes he says Matty, but I don't think it means what it's supposed to mean. Today he said magic, and was pleased to death with himself. We think he sometimes says Ellie, although we can't say that for certain.

He started pretending (mostly that different objects are food), he can feed other people, he can blow on command, he throws away his dirty diapers in the Diaper Champ, and he can do all three verses of If You're Happy and You Know It (clapping, stomping, hooray). Any object rectangular in shape is a phone. He gets mad if there are buttons that he is not allowed to push. His favorite thing is still pulling the cord on the fan at Grandma's house.

Matthew still loves everyone and lets pretty much anyone hold him (although he's started this clingy phase when we're at home that requires me to be in his eyesight at all times). He "hugs" people by resting his head on their shoulder or lap, including his baby friends. He open-mouth kisses, but only when he's in the mood.

He knows what's his and sometimes gets mad at Ellie if she sits in his chair or takes his toys. He loves playing with anything with a microphone. He puts his lips around it and yells at the top of his lungs. His Backyardigans music-playing toy with a microphone is his current favorite toy. Ellie better keep away from it.

He is a complete boy. He loves throwing things (balls, toys, food, etc.) and has a really strong arm. He wants to wrestle all the time and tries to knock Ellie over. He experiments with what items on what surfaces make the loudest noises, then makes them. Repeatedly. All day.

He loves his sister. Anything she does, he has to do, too. Anything she eats, he wants some of. I give him milk in his sippy cup, he will only drink from Ellie's cup. He wants HER to feed him, not Mommy. They crack each other up and get upset if they're not sitting together in the car. He even is starting to mimic her words.

There's more, but since Matthew woke up at 6:15 this morning, depriving me of sleep, I cannot recall them. Sigh. I can't believe my baby is already one! How time flies. So cliche, but so true. I wish I'd enjoyed and really savored his babyhood more. At least I took tons of pictures of him. In that aspect, he was not neglected. I'm looking forward to more of his developments, but I really love the baby stage. I'm sad. Not sad enough to get pregnant again, but sad nonetheless.

Happy birthday, my Matty!

A story about an elephant by Ellie, and I'm tired

Ellie's latest stalling technique is to get us to tell her a story AFTER the two books have been read (or six books, when Daddy's being a sucker). Tonight she decided to tell me a story. I requested one about an elephant. Here it is, as verbatim as I can remember it.

Once upon a time, there was a elephant. And a boy. No, a girl. And the elephant was a boy. And THEN, they decided to eat. And they ate poo. Ewww. And THEN the girl said I'm going to eat food. So she had some fruit. And it was strawberries! And THEN they ate poo. And then some strawberries. Then there was a duckling! It said quack quack. Then back back. It was SUPPOSED to say quack quack, but it said back back. That's so silly!

(Me, interjecting) What's a duckling doing in this story? Where did it come from?

The pond. And THEN they went to the zoo to find a baby! It was a monkey baby! And THEN they saw a caterpillar and it went up and up and up like that. The end.

I don't know about you, but I see future Newberry award-winning author!

So anyway, I'm really tired these days. I think it's partly because I got into the habit of taking a short nap every afternoon while Ellie watched Dora. Now if I don't get that nap, I'm exhausted. The other day I was driving home from the airport around 4:30, and I was swerving and falling asleep the entire time. Ellie was babbling away, and I was responding, but I'm pretty sure most of my responses were fairly incoherent.

This morning, Ellie woke up at 6:15 because she'd peed in her Pull Ups. She's really determined to wear underwear through the night, but I told her she had to wake up with dry Pull Ups 10 times first. She had peed and was all upset about it, so she was at the top of the stairs screaming and crying. So I changed her Pull Ups, put her in the bed with us, and lay there for 40 minutes trying to sleep with the kicking. Then of course Matthew decided to wake up as soon as Ellie fell asleep. I thought I may be able to get him back to sleep and went to his room. He practically leapt to his feet in the crib joyfully, ready to play.

I was so exhausted by 9am, I took the kids to my mom's house, and Matthew and I napped while Ellie was indulged with an hour and a half of TV. I was still out of it all day, having skipped my afternoon nap. Then I started getting a headache around 3 in the afternoon. By 4, I was almost in tears, thinking that I wouldn't be able to survive the rest of our planless evening, especially knowing I had to somehow feed, bathe, and put down the children on my own (Peter's at his rehearsals every night this week). In desperation, I called my mom who came over and entertained and fed the children for a couple of hours. How did I spend the precious free time? Answering emails, folding laundry, and cleaning up toys. Boo.

I think my lack of sleep is just catching up with me. I average about 6 hours of sleep a night, which I'm starting to see is not enough. I probably should start exercising, too. I took one of those Real Age tests onilne. Since I didn't smoke, drink, abuse drugs, or drive recklessly, my real age was looking good. Then I said I didn't exercise at all, and it aged me about 15 years. Sad.

I need to go to bed. Argh. Still so much to do...

Big Baby, Big Girl

I measured the kids last week. Matthew is 50th% in weight, about 93rd% in height. Ellie is 45th% in weight, and 3rd% in height. That's right, 3rd%. My little shorty. I think by 2 years, Matthew will overtake Ellie, which will not go over well with big sister. Oh well. Better a big boy and little girl than vice versa.

So Ellie is now three years old. This was a great development for me, as we now can use the reasoning, "But you're already three!" when negotiating with her. Now that's she's three, she always goes to bed by herself. HUGE step. Those who know us know that putting Ellie to sleep has always been an issue. It started with nursing her to sleep as an infant, rocking her to sleep as a big baby, lying down with her to sleep as a toddler, then lying down outside her open door until recently. Not fun. Time consuming. High maintenance. But HALLELUJAH, because now all she requests is two books, praying, and it's, "See you in the morning, Ellie!" If only we'd used the ploy of, "You're already two!"

New parents, don't fall into our trap. Poor Matthew's been going to sleep by himself since he was 4 months old. Not like he knows any different and resents it, but I still have some guilt about it (me and my guilt issues). But he won't even fall asleep with me next to him. He HAS to be alone, which makes for difficult situations on trips. That's when we hide out in the bathroom of the hotel. Also not fun, but better than what we did with Ellie.

Matthew will be a year old in a few weeks. Where did the time go?!!? He's so gigantic, he doesn't even seem like a baby anymore. Sometimes I get weepy when Ellie starts doing big girl things, and I always tell her I wish she'd be a baby forever. She always says, "Don't cry, Mommy. Be proud. You still have Matthew." But I DON'T, because he's already outgrowing baby-dom. He's not an official toddler yet, since he is determined NEVER to walk, but he's still so big. Sigh. I'm not wistful enough to consider getting pregnant again, but I do love having babies!

Sad. They're so big. Sad.

Here's a video of Ellie's class doing praise. I thought it was hilarious. Mostly Ryan.