One thing that has surprised me, though, has been that the way I see Matthew changed almost immediately after Isabelle arrived, and I've come to love and appreciate him in new ways. For one thing, he immediately seemed much older and much bigger, just by comparison. He's also been amazing as a big brother so far. I haven't really seen any jealously or more impatience than usual, and he's really good with her. He's constantly telling us how cute she is, and last night when I was holding her on our bed, Matthew came over and gave her a very soft hug and a kiss on the head.
Isabelle might look a bit like Matthew did, but she's different in a lot of ways from how Matthew was as a baby. So far she's fairly mellow, and it will be interesting to see if that continues. Mellow has never been a term I've used to describe Matthew, and although sometimes his independent, stubborn side drives us a little crazy, he's a lot of fun to have around and makes us laugh a lot.
Today, for example, he crammed all of his fruit snacks into his mouth at once, and of course once we laughed he cheesed it up as much as possible.
After dinner (which he barely touched), I took him out for a walk to feed the ducks. He said the rule was "one for the ducks, and one for me (Matthew)," but in reality the ducks didn't walk away with much. I think he was making up for dinner.
Matthew loves to pick up rocks and sticks wherever he goes, and today he found this one, which served as a walking stick for a while and then as a sword (at which point we had to take it away to protect all involved).
Once we got home, we ran around in the yard for a while, and that was enough to finally wear him out, I guess. After eating a whole can of mandarin oranges, he curled up on our glider and fell asleep.
Now that I do see him as a bit older thanks to Isabelle, I have to admit that I'm tired of changing his diapers. This is a kid who can now use a computer mouse and (without help) open Internet Explorer, open the link to his Playhouse Disney games, and start playing, and yet he can't go to the bathroom. I shouldn't say that he can't, because I know he knows how, but he's being pretty stubborn about it. We're trying not to be too annoying about it, but he now is only allowed to play computer games when he goes in the potty. Surprisingly, he's chosen to stay in his diapers rather than play computer games. We'll see how long this lasts - I saw Ray and EmmaLee follow a pretty similar strategy with James a year or two ago, and he made pretty much the same choice for a while. Like most things, I think he just wants to do it on his own terms.
On a quick side-note, it looks like we'll actually get some limes out of our lime tree. We'll see how edible they are, but they're popping up all over our tree right now. Our orange tree isn't fairing quite so well, unfortunately, but it has a few little oranges starting to grow on it. I'm pleasantly surprised, anyway, because I thought it would be a few years before we saw any fruit.
4 comments:
It's good to hear Matthew is adjusting well. We're excited to get to know Isabelle better, and I want some limeade.
Those are some great pictures. Glad to hear Matthew is loving his sister.
Matthews eyes are to die for!
sorry to hear about the potty trouble. I too have a stubborn one, so I was sure to I start the potty stuff before he even understood what I was trying to get him to do. All I can say is hold your ground and stay consistent with the computer privilege always reminding him that it is 'his choice' to earn computer. he will get it soon, and in a month from now you will have forgotten how frustrating it all was.
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