Terrible Twos?

So a few weeks ago my baby turned two.  The last few months leading up to his birthday I was afraid that Matthew was going to be one of those toddlers who coined the phrase "terrible twos" but since his actual b-day he has mellowed quite a bit- or else we have been too busy for him to pitch fits.  I'm not sure which.
Matthew at two is quite the charmer.  He still has that killer smile and belly laugh and is just so stinking cute if I do say so myself.  He talks non stop and is actually understandable much of the time.  (Although I did leave a translation guide for the babysitter when I left the kids for a couple of days to go to Utah.)  He acts like he is two going on eight.  He thinks he can do anything and everything his biggest brother, Samuel, does.  He has oficially hit tht Thomas the Train stage and is obsessed with his engines and tracks and plays with them all time.  He also still loves all things Mickey Mouse.  My parents sent him a couple of Mickey books for his birthday and now he makes me read one of them to him 10-15 times a day and he sleeps with it for naptime and bedtime.  However, that means he will pleasantly go to sleep without screaming so I am all over that!
For his birthday this year we had a Mickey Mouse party, of course, with family and close friends.  I even attempted a Mickey cake which turned out pretty darn well.  (I am a little cocky this post!)

As for two year old pictures, I usually go to Target because they do a decent job and don't cost an arm and a leg.  Unfortunately, since the last time we went, they started charging a $9.99 sitting fee per person.  Forget that!  I took my awesome camera (a Christmas gift from my amazing husband) and decided to take his two year old pictures myself.  What do you think?

Matthew and spring

Sheer happiness!

longest two minutes of my life

So Matthew and I accompanied James to storytime at the library the other day.  James and 11 other four and five year olds spent half an hour engrossed in the creative story telling of our local children's librarian, Miss Lori.  Even Matthew enjoyed it!  At the end of storytime, Lori set out crafts and puzzels for the kids to work on.  James created a masterpiece of a penguin out of tissue paper and feathers.  I was rushing him out the door so I could go to the store before it was time to pick up Sam when I ran in to Lori and we started chatting about James' art class (a great topic for a future post).  As I talked to Lori, Matthew let go of my hand and toddled off to the next room to look at the board books he loves so much... or so I thought. 
I quickly finished the conversation so I could round up Matthew and James and get going.  I walked over to the board books.  No Matthew.  I walked over to the doll house and puzzles.  No Matthew.  I walked up the stairs which he loves to climb.  No Matthew.  At this point I was getting frantic.  The children's library is not very big and I searched all of it twice.  No Matthew.  I was making a second loop, asking everyone if they had seen my little guy when another Mom came up to me with a teary Matthew in her arms: "I found him on the elevator."
I uttered a heartfelt thanks and sat down on a nearby chair to snuggle Matthew, needing reassurance more than he did.  Another mom came up to me.  "My son did that once.  The elevator button is so low that the babies can reach it.  So scary!"  Yeah, no kidding.  It hit me that I was lucky no one had tried to summon the elevator to another floor while Matthew was inside by himself.  Poor little guy!  It must have been terrifying or at least terribly confusing!  I can just picture him, so proud of himself figuring out how to make the doors open and then so confused why they closed and he couldn't get out.
For future library visits, maybe I will just keep him strapped in the stroller.  From the time I realized he was missing to the time I had him back in my arms it was only a short two minutes.  Although I gotta say, it was the longest two minutes of my life!

brotherly love

One of our biggest anxieties when we had Matthew was how James was going to take it.  James has been Mommy's Boy from day one.  Especially since our move to our new house in 2008 he has been unwilling to be away from me for very long and severely shy of strangers and friends alike.  If he wanted to play with the neighbors (or any other friend) I had to be within a 10 foot radius of where he was playing. 
Not once did John and I even think that Samuel would be upset by the new addition to the family.  Samuel is our independant,  social go getter.  He loves new expereinces and new people and sharing his ideas with the world.
Imagine our surprise when James became instantly enamoured with his new baby brother and Samuel didn't want to have anything to do with him.  I chocked it up to James spending more time with Matthew, since he is only in school three mornings a week, and Sam just being that slightly older age when babies are annoying, not cute.  Samuel also began to revert a little, wanting to be fed and wanting help getting dressed in the morning- both things he can do on his own with no difficulty whatsoever.  We missed all sorts of signs because we weren't worried about our resiliant Sam.

We didn't really get that there was an issue until Samuel sat down with John one night and asked him flat out, "Dad, do you and Mom love Matthew more than you love me?" 
John was flabbergasted!  "No, Samuel.  Of course not!"
"Then how come you do stuff for him, like feed him and dress him, that you won't do for me anymore?"
John explained to Sam that babies can't do those things for themselves and since Samuel is a big boy and can do those things we help him with other things instead, like homework and reading.  To help him feel better, John asked Samuel if there was something he would like to do special with Daddy.  A giant Star Wars battle ensued.  (We are talking 6 days and 50+ action figures taking over the middle level of our house!)  You would have thought Samuel just saw the sun for the first time, he was so relieved and happy to understand that our love for him had not lessened with the new baby.

My older boys are getting so good at expressing themselves and their needs that sometimes I forget how little they still are and how much they still need us to hold their hands.  Of course, I still need my mom, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at all.  Do we ever grow out of needing our parents?

I am happy to report that after that conversation, Samuel has warmed considerably to Matthew.  A few weekends ago he held Matthew for me so I could help John with a project.   And yesterday while James and John were at soccer practice, Samuel spent 45 minutes trying to make Matthew laugh!  It is nice to see the brotherly love developing.

excuse me

I have been working with the boys on manners.  When I was a kid my mom used to read us "Miss Manners" by Judith Martin.  Any and every small rule of behavior was covered in her books.   We grew up constantly hearing "Miss Manner says..."
Anyway, at dinner the other day I was trying to get the boys to chew with their mouths closed and to stop talking with their mouths full.  However, I made the mistake of telling them that if they absolutely HAD to talk that they could cover their mouths so no one could see their partially chewed food.  So now throughout dinner the boys will cover their mouths, mumbling through a mouthful of food, "Mom, look at me!"  Then they will exaggeratedly demonstrate how nicely they chew with their mouths closed.  Not quite what I was going for, but at least they are trying.

Also, James has discovered burping.  He does it quite frequently- not usually on purpose but certainly more than necessary.  Today as he was talking to me he let out a nice big one.

Me: (trying to remind James of his manners) Excuse me.
James:  No.  Excuse ME!

My kids make me laugh every day!

Oh and Matthew is rolling over and saying "Dadadadadadadada".  Why is it they always say dada first?!