Three has seemed easier – most of the time. We have our moments (like tonight where we just had to laugh at ourselves. At dinner, we had Jacob and Jonathan both screaming. I had Jacob, David had the baby. I am trying to hold Jacob and calm him, and selfishly try to eat before it all gets cold. David was walking around, and had given up on eating. Matthew is sitting at the table, going back and forth between complaining that he doesn’t like what’s on his plate and talking about random nonsense like someone is listening to him. We ate in shifts, with the final person finally deciding to finish his plate as he went to bed around 8. I’m sure that was yummy…and cold. But he chose to do it…anyway….) We love being a family of five.
Here’s a little of sight into each of our kids.
Matthew: The first thing I think of with him is how much he adores Jonathan. It’s truly amazing how he is always so eager to be with him and help him in anyway. Anytime I ask for help that is ultimately for Jonathan, he jumps at the chance. He loves to “babysit” while I go do something around the house. I just genuinely loves him.
Matthew is really starting to build his overall confidence about so many things. He is beginning to read. For so long he was almost scared to try. He tends to be one that if he feels like he won’t do something well, he won’t even try it. I also think that he was scared it would change his world too much – like he thought we wouldn’t read to him anymore. But slowly he is starting to catch on to sight words and sounding things out. He surprises us all the time with figuring out what things say. We are so proud of him. I have also seen his growing confidence at dance. I am his dance teacher. And all last year, if I threw a new step at him without first showing him how to do it at home, he would get so upset. He was so afraid to try and fail. But now he has no problem attempting something, and usually doing quite well at it. In fact, he has been known to come home and tell me he was the best one….might have to work on the opposite side of the spectrum with pride ;) But for now, we’ll just let him be confident and feel good about himself.
Jacob: The first thing that comes to mind with Jacob is his servant’s heart. Jacob is always trying to help out. He amazes me how he can see a need before I do. I won’t realize something needs to be done, and he’s already doing it. Today when some friends were leaving our house, he asked the mom if he could help her get out to the car. I made a comment tonight about some crumbs he had gotten on the carpet (that I had just vacuumed….) He offered to get his vacuum out and clean up. I told him to do it in the morning because Jonathan was already asleep. He said he’d close the door…ever the problem solver, whether we want him to or not. We can often ask him to do something and he joyfully will start at it. (Although let me remind you that he is 3…he’s not perfect!) I am so thankful for his model. I need to learn from it because I am not always joyful in my serving of others.
Jonathan: Oh his dimples. When he smiles, it’s so contagious. And it’s easy to get him to smile. He’s a sweet guy and we love him. He’s starting to really respond to things around him. He has recently started trying to reach things he sees and pick them up. Today he was playing under his baby gym, which has toys dangling over his head. He really reached and pulled at things (and did a complete 360 turn like a clock! He lifts his little bottom up and scoots around) He really wants to play, but isn’t quite at the point where he can do a whole lot, so he gets frustrated. He is a great sleeper at night. He has been sleeping 11 hours since about 2 ½ months. Amazing. However, he is a horrible napper. I NEVER would have done this with my first (okay, or my second), but he almost always naps in his swing or carseat. It’s that, or he doesn’t nap. I was and advocate of crying it out with the first two, but when we’ve attempted it with Jonathan, it ruins his day. He will cry for the rest of the day.
I told David earlier that I have noticed two little quirks about Jonathan. 1. He hates it when I talk loudly (or yell) when he’s eating. He’ll either stop eating and cry, or shoot me a disgruntled look and then resume. 2. He can’t handle overstimulation at bedtime. I ruins his evening. We’ve had people over around bedtime and he has such a hard time going to bed. Normally he will eat and go right down. But usually he’ll cry and cry and not eat well if too much goes on. If we are out too late (like after 8 pm) he’ll do the same. He’s so laid back most of the time, so I feel like I owe it to him to stick to his one consistent part of his routine!
So pictures. I had high hopes of posting a bunch. But we have super slow, horrible internet. So after typing all this, only one picture has uploaded. If I had known only one was going to make it, I would have picked a different one. Oh well. Maybe another time I’ll do more. I love my snuggles with my baby. I learned the hard way with 1 and 2 that the snuggles go away so quickly. So I snuggle all I can. And I look horrible in this picture…so we might get a wee bit tired occasionally ;)
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