The other day, I was thinking, "Matthew sure reminds me of Joseph when he was this age." So I started scouting out old photos, quotes, and videos, and sure enough, there are a lot of similarities. (It actually gave me a moment of panic as I realized that 3 might be a hard age for Matthew for the same reasons it was hard for Joseph, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.)
Then I was curious if Jacob was like Matthew at 8 months, because I honestly have no memory of Matthew being 8 months despite it being just two years ago. I don't know if my brain has room for memories of two babies at once. So I scouted out photos and videos from back then, too.
And sure enough, just as superhero shirts and striped onesies get passed from one brother to the next, a lot of milestones and behaviors show up around the same age. It seems like once one little boy grows out of something, another one is ready to start it up again.
For example . . .
Shuddering
It started with Joseph . . .
Then Matthew . . .
And then we found a food that made Jacob shudder, too!
Knocking things down
Joseph had to learn a lot of patience when Matthew started knocking his creations down all the time.
And now that Jacob is crawling, Matthew's comeuppance has finally come.
(This video doesn't show him knocking anything over. But it happens. It's going to be a long couple of months.)
Clapping
Best milestone ever.
Big sparkly eyes
I guess no one is really passing the baton here because they all still have big, sparkly brown eyes. But it is fun to see more Moon babies joining the brown-eyes ranks.
 |
| Hi Leslie |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| So far, no one has inherited Joseph's Coraline eyes. |
 |
| Thank goodness |
Asparagus
Matthew has passed his limp, green asparagus baton onto Jacob. As in, he won't eat it anymore. But at least we have one child who likes it!
Sounds
We sure love baby sounds, whether it's jabbering, babbling, or squeaking. (Jacob has definitely preferred the high pitched squeaking lately.)
Tackling older brothers
Babies love having other humans around, especially small ones. They are like super fun toys that make noise and shriek when you grab them.
Matthew is a bit scared of Jacob, actually. He starts squealing and running away when Jacob is crawling. Jacob has put up with a lot from Matthew his entire life, so it's sort of funny to see Matthew scared of him now.
Teething
Matthew finally finished getting all his molars!!! (What. an. ordeal. and now if he's grumpy, it's not because his mouth hurts.) But, luckily for us, Jacob has been teething now on and off for several months with only the slightest hints of teeth that I can only feel when he latches on especially hard.
And, if that weren't enough, sometimes I look in Joseph's mouth and see swollen gums where his 6-year-old molars are coming in. He doesn't drool or bite or throw fits about it, thankfully, but it's still not fun.
Handing the teething baton to two brothers. Well played, Matthew.
Imaginative Play
When Joseph was two, he would let me know what stood out in my parenting based on how he played with his toys. "The bear is feeling sad. The meerkat needs a time out." Stuff like that.
Matthew has also been good at mirroring what happens in life in his play. His toys watch general conference and go to the stake center. They talk about taking turns and not hitting. Most days he is really good at entertaining himself . . . but sometimes I'm too entertained to use the time productively!
 |
| Those blocks are a "princess," he's been telling me |
Storytelling
Joseph definitely knew the story of Noah's Ark.
And Matthew definitely knows something resembling the story of Jonah.
ABC's
We heard the ABC Song a lot for a long time.
And thanks to Matthew, we still do! (He's not singing so much in this video, but I promise he does it a lot. Sometimes he throws in words like T-Rex or Superman to change things up a bit.)
Dancing
Joseph passed the baton along, but he's also kept his own baton twirling. Give us a week, and Jacob will get his own baton, too.
Superhero Clothes
Once upon a time, I bought Joseph a Superman shirt.
Over the next 700 days, he wore it probably about 250 times. It got a little bit holey, a little bit short, a little bit worn. We decided he couldn't wear it to kindergarten, especially because he had finally grown into a bigger Superman shirt. So his old Superman shirt went straight into Matthew's drawer . . .
and it was the only shirt he would wear willingly. He learned how to put shirts on just so he could wear it. Kevin and I couldn't handle the idea of dealing with this shirt, so we hid it.
And then, we reminded him of other shirts with superhero names even if they didn't have the logos on them. Captain America shirt. Iron Man shirt. Hulk shirt. Gradually, he expanded his wardrobe.
Another unexpected source of variety came from Paw Patrol characters. We've been used to colors being assigned to various superheroes, but Matthew used Paw Patrol characters to assign colors for all sorts of things. For example, I made a marinade with some oil, chili powder, and cumin, among other things. Matthew looked at it and told me, "That's a Zuma cake." Why? Because it was orange. It works for clothes sometimes, too!
He still thanks Heavenly Father for his Superman shirt in most prayers, but at least he doesn't have to wear it.
Meanwhile, Joseph's done a pretty good job of passing the baton along. He still likes to wear his superhero shirts with designated pants, but if there's a reason to wear something else then he's fine with it. Hooray!
Mispronunciations
Without having ever watched this video of Joseph,
Matthew has still figured out how to say "Swanich" (not quite swanwich like Joseph) with the exact same inflection.
(Oh, and speaking of kids learning from each other, if you ever make the mistake of taking the crusts off your child's bread, you've just doomed yourself to a life sentence for not only that child, but for all of their siblings too once they figure it out. Sigh.)
And how did he pick up Joseph's pronunciation of "regular"? I think I actually twitched when he said "regury" because I heard it so much for so long. I think he's figuring out the regular way to say it, thankfully.
Joseph went through a pretty intense Buzz Lightyear phase right after Matthew was born.
So far, Matthew hasn't picked up the Buzz Lightyear baton quite as thoroughly as Joseph did. But nonetheless, we've had a few funny quotes.
Me: "Bye Joseph, I love you!"
Matthew: "Bye Joseph, I love your Buzz Lightyear!"
and
Me: "I sure love you, Matthew."
Matthew: "Uh-huh. I sure love Buzz Lightyear."
And, come to think of it, he has liked our Toy Story shirts more than Joseph did. We'll keep you posted with what will happen on the Buzz Lightyear front.
Of course, Kevin and I pass the baton along where we can here and there.
Kevin is teaching his children to think critically and strategically, so he is teaching Joseph chess.
I have not had such lofty aims, so I decided to pass the baton along of Barney. In my defense, it was on Amazon Prime, it's not scary, and they love it.
And hey, it's fun to have them singing classic kids songs, even if their intent is negated by a certain toddler. For example:
-"I don't like to eat, eat, eat healthy food at dinner. I like to eat, eat, eat cookies and no crusts."
-"Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please go away."
-"I'm not growing, I don't do it every day."
-"Oh we don't take turns. We don't take turns. When we play with friends"
-"I love T-Rex, you love T-Rex, we're a happy family."
. . . Maybe this wasn't the best baton to pass on after all.
And speaking of intergenerational baton passing, let me tell you a story!
Once upon a time there was a young woman who married a young man majoring in electrical engineering at BYU. They were married right after winter semester shortly before the young woman turned 20. Two years later she had her first child, and then her husband went to grad school. Following his postgraduate work, he got a job.
At Utah State.
 |
| Cool paper from 1998, right? It didn't mention that those children would watch Barney and play chess, but they would. |
Way to pass the baton along, Mom.
And way to go, Kevin! He's going to be an assistant professor at Utah State in the math and stats department!
We're so excited to be going back to Cache Valley! It just might be the best baton I pass along to my kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment