Thatcher's 10 Month Update

Well Thatcher started off his eleventh month with a trip to the ENT this morning. He weighed in at twenty five pounds and he'll be getting ear tubes on Monday. Hopefully we can stay healthy until then and our ear troubles of the last two months will soon be over. The doctor was amazed that he was talking and walking so well with him having so much fluid built up in his ears. He truly has been a great sport through all the shorts and multiple rounds of antibiotics. It has taken a toll on his wonderful sleeping abilities, so hopefully once we get tubes we can get him back to his old, good sleeping habits.



His tenth month flew by with not a ton of new developments. He worked on his walking, which he had mastered the previous month. He is getting quicker and is chasing after his brothers all the time now. He has been enjoying some new toys we got down from the attic and put in rotation, the slide and the little big red push train have been his favorite this month. We've also realized this month that Thatcher is a huge fan of pushing cars around. This may not seem ground breaking to anyone, but Zane never played with cars as they were intended to be played with. I think Rowan did, but I don't remember him doing it when he was this young. T's favorite cars are the light up ones Grammie gave Ro and Zane for Christmas.





 

 

He has mastered sliding down the tiny slide this month, which is the most adorable thing in the world, except when he slides into the fireplace which has happened a few times.

 

 

There have been a few nice days this month so we were able to get Thatcher outside and let him toddle around the backyard. He loves it and now frequently stands at the back door hitting the window. We try to bundle up at least once a day, but most days are still pretty chilly. He enjoys his lawn mower some days, other days he will refuse to push it. We hung up a baby swing so he can swing with the big boys, I should say so the big boys can argue over who gets to push him. They also push him around the yard in the big fire truck which T loves. Thatcher has learned how to play baby catch this month, which is a dream come true for Zane, actually playing with baby T is the best.



 

 

 

 

 

 

Poor baby T has been pretty sad a lot the month with his ears never being fully healed. So he spent a lot of time in search of blankets, crying in downward dog, or just giving up and laying on the floor perfectly still. When I fold clothes he finds all his blankets and toddles around the room with them. He eats them, wipes his boogers on them, and rubs his tiny ears with them. I can't imagine how happy and playful this guy is going to be when he's actually well.







 

His big brothers took great care of him when he was sad. Here's Zane cuddling him during movie night.





 Rowan introduced him to the joy of go gurt, feeding him it to him on the kitchen floor most days, making a huge mess, but it's just so dang cute.



 New cute hat of the month, that I fought to keep over his years every day.

 Thatcher learned how to hold his bottle by himself this month, much to my dismay. No I did not try to help  him learn how to do this. I want to feed my baby, because HE'S A BABY!!! Right?? No he is decidedly a big boy and it breaks my heart on a daily basis.

 
 Oh he also learned the joy of tools and fixing things this month. How is it that boys just know how to pretend to fix things? Thatcher picked up this drill one day and went right to work trying to "fix" his food truck. We moved the little tool bench out to the play room so he can hammer, drill, and fix things all the time. I love seeing the stages of boy fun starting all over with Thatcher.

 

We ended his tenth month with another big boy hair cut. His hair was becoming quite mullet like in the back so when it was hair cut day for all the other boys we added him in the mix. Now his little face looks quite a bit different, older, bigger, definitely taking that turn towards a one year old. Cue my tears.

 

 

 

 





Brotherly Love

One of the things I was hoping to accomplish by waiting four years between my last two children was to avoid that period where the older siblings are angry that there is a new baby. Angry probably isn't the right word to describe a two year old, but they are jealous that a new little creature is getting mommy and daddy's attention and they just simply don't understand what is going on. When the older sibling is two they also can't really do anything with the baby, they get in trouble every time they come near the baby, and the tiny human really doesn't become fun to play with for years. I love how close in age my sibling and I are now, so I may live to regret this age difference in the long run, but currently I am loving it.



From the moment we brought Thatcher home the older boys have been nothing but excited to have a new baby brother. They got it. They knew he was little and couldn't do anything. They knew they needed to be gentle and quiet around him. They would jump into help when he was too small for them to actually do things with. They would lay beside him and talk to him before he could move. They coached him on how to roll over and crawl. Now they both hold his little hands while he toddles around the house. They are the first ones  to let me know when he's awake and the first ones to question why I didn't go in his room sooner. "How could you leave him alone Mamma?" They bring him blankets when he cries and give him pats to calm him down. They look out for him, protect him, and have a constant eye on where he is all day. It's lovely.

 



 



Now that he's older and more fun to play with this love for their little brother is so much more adorable and just an absolute joy to watch. While Zane is at school T and Ro have all sorts of fun. If we're in the car Rowan is constantly talking to T. At home they "wrestle" and chase each other. Basically Rowan lays on the ground and Thatcher jumps on him then Rowan crawls away and Thatcher follows in his super fast crawl. It's the cutest thing. Rowan will watch him and make sure he's not eating stuff off the floor, he brings him things to play with, and follows him around the house so I have a constant play by play of what T is doing at any given time. I even can take a shower while Rowan plays with T and not be concerned they might both die, they'll be in the living room rolling a ball back and forth when I get out. This a stark contrast from Zane's response to Rowan being born which for the most part involved pooping his pants at the most inopportune times, throwing huge fits, and waking up multiple times during the night for pretty much the first year.



 





For as good as Rowan is with T Zane is that much more helpful. He can get him out of bed, he walks all over the house holding his little hand. He can cuddle him with his blanket and get him to calm down when he's upset, he can remove him  from dangerous situations. He reads to him, he will wrestle with him, they play catch, they giggle at each other, and Thatcher's face lights up when Zane walks in the door in the afternoon. I can see glimpses of our future with a fourteen year old and a seven year old. Thatcher is going to think Zane hung the moon and I pray Zane can be a good role model for his little brother. Zane is never annoyed by Thatcher and nothing can cheer that kid up faster than talking to T. I was so worried he would be crazy around him and accidentally hurt him, but ninety nine percent of the time he's so gentle and calm whenever T is around.

 

 





With all that being said about the big boys love for their little brother, Zane and Rowan can drive each other crazy!!! Zane is constantly annoyed with every single thing Rowan does. Rowan could say the sky is blue and Zane would come back with a super angry "No it's not Rowan!!!!" Rowan has picked up on this and tries to act annoyed with Zane over random things as well, which leads to them arguing about every tiny nit picky thing. Zane is just disgusted by how young Rowan is, he doesn't know anything, he's not even in kindergarten for God's sake. He can't read, he doesn't know math, he's shorter, he's smaller, and on and on. When it's time to go to sleep Zane is just so annoyed because Rowan won't stop talking, but obviously little Zane is laying in there silent as a mouse, false!
This current phase of life they are in, and from what I can gleam will be in for awhile, drives me insane. If there is an actual argument or dispute to settle I'm happy to jump in and we can work out our difference in opinion but if you get in a knock down drag out, crying fit, argument about who gets to put a cup in the sink you're out of our mind.

So my newest way to deal with this is my go to, love. When it comes down to it they do truly adore each other. Rowan cannot wait for Zane to get home and once they get over their bickering they have a blast doing all sorts of things together. They love each other, they are best friends, and they will be each other's closest companion for the foreseeable future. So when they start arguing and not being able to pull their lives together they get to hug it out for as long as it takes for them to dissolve into giggles and admit how much they love the other one. Then they get to say three things they love about the other one. To be clear the thing they love about each usually go something like this, "Rowan I love that you're so tiny and wear skinny jeans." Just facts about Rowan, but we do all love them. Rowan will come back with "Zane I love you because you're so huge."

 You can't not smile and giggle uncontrollably when your hugging your brother.

 This usually is also a great time to discuss how to properly huge someone, not around their neck trying to choke them to death.

 Then they end up like this, loving each other, laughing, and forgetting whatever insane thing they were arguing about in the first place.



Watching these three grow up together is going to be an absolute joy!



Pinewood Derby 2018: Race Day

Yesterday was race day and Triper had a great showing. In the morning we put the finishing touches on the car, all the random stuff was put on the wheels, alignment was double checked, then Triper was boxed up and ready to go. We had numerous conversations about how the fun is in the racing and making the car not taking home a trophy. Then it was time to put on his Class A uniform and head to the races.

 Rowan could not wait to go see the races with Zane so I headed up to the school with the little boys sooner than I would have liked. Look at these adorable race car shoes that I found just in time for race day!

 Here are almost all of the cars, I think three had yet to weigh in at this point. Once again the majority of the cars were in the Star Wars category. I was slightly disappointed in the number of just straight up cars, with little no design beyond a paint job. There were a few good ones though, my personal favorite, besides Triper, was probably the peas in the pod (which was a grown up's entry) or Lightening McQueen who was a fellow Tiger Den member.

 When the little boys and I got there I was not surprised to find Zach being trained on the racing software. The guy who runs it currently hasn't had a Cub Scout for a while, but there was never anyone else who knew how to do it. I'm guessing Zach will be taking that over next year. This year he was watching, learning, and in charge of all the sound effects from his little computer, very entertaining.



 Waiting for the race to start, there is a solid hour of weighing in and registering before anything happens. Rowan sat with the scouts this year like a big kid.

 Rowan spent a large portion of time sitting with the Bear troop (who are I think third graders). He obviously doesn't know any of them, but sat quietly with them, watching the races, cheering on Triper, calm as could be. Such a great mix of Zane's no fear, never met a stranger personality, and his own calm personality. Meanwhile Zane was running around talking to everyone.

 Grandma joined in on the fun this year. She watched pretty much all of prelims.

 Cheering on the races!

 

At the end of prelims I think Zane was in 17th place and they took the top eighteen cars to the finals. This meant Triper got to race a six more times against the other fastest car. We had a good showing, with our fastest time being the first time down the track. Zane got to race against all his fellow den members and our old neighbor Peyton, who got second in the Lion Den. Triper won a bunch of races, and had pretty good times, ending up 13th overall and second in the Tiger Den. Everyone cheered on everyone else's car, there was lots of running around, chanting car names, and having a blast. I think it was more enjoyable for everyone involved this year since we actually knew what to expect as far as being there all day and the randomized, computer generated racing situation.

 

Triper is in the middle lane and our friend Peyton's car was in the far right lane.

Here's probably half of the Tiger Den ready to cheer each other on.

 Thatcher toddled around the gym then passed out for a solid hour nap. There was another little boy toddling around who was exactly T's size, but fifteen months old. Yep, his our big version for sure.

 The other added bonus of Zach being part of the technical team was that he could tell where Zane had finished within the den standings after prelims. I didn't tell Zane that he had finished second, but it did take some of the stress off of me as a parents concerned that he'd once again not win any trophies.

 I was excited that the people who won within our den this year had not won anything last year so the trophies got spread around a bit. The kid who I think won three different things last year didn't get anything this year, it all evens out and everyone has a great time. The kids who won the overall races were sons of the guy who entered into the adult, no rules, category and was obviously a little crazy about making derby cars. My goal is not rock over into crazy town during our multiple years of derbies we have coming up. I was disappointed to learn that some people just buy cars that are already cut out, with all the work done, and just paint them. That seems less fun and not fair and those cars won some categories so I don't support it.

Here is Zane getting his second place trophy and explaining why he made a snake car when there wasn't an animal category. 1. Because he has an amazing imagination and thinks outside of the box (which would have been my answer) 2. Because it's his favorite answer (which was his actual answer). I do think an animal category would be a great idea. I might just need to be on the Derby committee next year.

Here are the first and second place finishers for the Tiger Den. I was very excited for Bryce, this was his first Derby and could definitely use a win!

 After a long afternoon of racing fun we came home with all our loot to enjoy the gorgeous weather. The boys started brainstorming cars for next year while Zach and I brainstormed where to display all our cars, how many more years will be doing this, and how to get multiple cars made quickly. Tons of fun being had in our new Scouting life.