Ear infection

Matthew has an ear infection.  After not being himself on Sunday, he complained about his ear yesterday morning and also had a fever so Louise took him to the doctor who confirmed that he has an infection.  Matthew has been given antibiotics, and according to Louise has been more his usual self today - he hasn't stopped talking and even our next door neighbour Val, who came to babysit while Louise went to the midwife, commented on his non-stop commentary.  He's been off Cylch for a couple of days due to his ear infection.

Apparently, while Matthew was in the surgery, he kept asking Louise questions loudly about the other people in waiting room, much to Louise's embarrassment.  He wanted to know why a boy had a blue drink, and commented on how many children one lady had.

Olympic torch

We took Matthew to see the Olympic torch relay today in Carmarthen.  As I wasn't sure how easy it would be to park, we arrived early and didn't have any problems getting to where I had hoped we could stand.  The weather was excellent, if a little hot, though not as hot as yesterday when we went to the beach and decided to come home early because of the heat.

We had to wait about 50 minutes, and Matthew was very good, but said he wanted to go home about 10 minutes before it was due to arrive.  As it turned out, he didn't seem too well this afternoon, complaining of a headache and not being himself, so we wonder if that was the reason.  The procession arrived on time, and after a few open-topped buses with mascots the torchbearer ran past.  I had bought Matthew a union flag yesterday and he waved it quite happily when we first arrived, but wasn't so enthusiastic when the procession actually came past, so Louise ended up waving it!

Height increase

Matthew has had a surprise growth spurt: my parents measured him today because they've fitted a car booster seat to Dad's car and he's now 107cm.  Last time we measured him he was 104cm, but Louise measured him today at home and agreed with Dad's measurement. 

My Dad is off work this week, so both my parents picked Matthew up from Cylch today using the new booster seat and took him to the botanic gardens to make the most of the summer weather which started this week after a prolonged wet spell. Matthew had fun; he had sausages for lunch (his favourite) and chocolate ice-cream, and played ball in the gardens.  He's still in his original car seats in my car and Louise's car, so this is the first time he's been strapped in using the adult seatbelt!  I wasn't sure how he would react as he likes to be strapped in tightly and asks us to slow down if he moves about, but apparently the booster seat worked well in this respect - I guess because it can't move as much as a full seat.

Matthew has become a Toy Story fan over the last couple of weeks, and has now seen both the first and second film several times.  The second film is his favourite.  We don't yet have the third film, but he has today watched Monsters, Inc. for the first time as it had the Toy Story logo on the cover ("Why does it say Toy Story? It should say Monsters Inc"). He also watched Finding Nemo a couple of weeks ago, and although he enjoyed it I'm not sure he understood the story very well.  He's seen a lot less of Thomas recently as it's not been on at a good time in the morning on the Milkshake schedule this year, which is probably a good thing as he's become interested in other characters.  As well as Toy Story, his latest favourite is Mike The Knight which he's seen on CBeebies and we bought him a Mike The Knight DVD for Easter.  

We've noticed that although Matthew is never reluctant to tell us when he wants something ("I want a DVD") he's often quite shy at telling us exactly what he wants - for example, he obviously wanted to watch Toy Story on Monday night and asked for a film, but I had to name the films and when I got to Toy Story, his eyes lit up and he said "Yes!"

Flashing shoes

We took Matthew to have his feet measured again yesterday.  For the first time, he was big enough to use the automatic measuring machine, which he enjoyed.  It scanned an image of his feet to find out his size, so there was no physical measuring being done.  He's grown again and is now a size 9F.  At his request, we bought him a pair of shoes with flashing lights in the heel, which are actually a bit more like trainers.

Sports Day

Matthew competed yesterday in a sports day for all the Cylchs in the area.  It was held in a sports hall, which was just as well as it was very wet! Matthew got very excited about it in the morning and told me that he was going to win.

Second place certificate

Louise took Matthew as I was in work, and they had to wait quite a long time before Matthew's race, which was right at the end.  The children were divided into groups by age, and raced in heats.   Matthew came second in his heat, so went through to the final for the 3½ - 4 age group.  Considering he is nearer 3½ than 4, we thought this was quite impressive and is more than I ever got at sports day during the whole of my school days, although Matthew was disappointed he didn't win.  He didn't win anything in the final but did get a certificate for coming second in his race.  While Louise was there, she spoke to one of the staff at Cylch, who said that Matthew has come out of himself more at Cylch recently and talks more.  As he's now one of the oldest children who haven't yet gone to school there aren't many children of his age left there.

When Louise collected Matthew today from nursery, she was talking to one of the staff and saw Matthew try and talk to a couple of his friends through the glass door - apparently he pointed at Louise and said "I've got to go now.  My mummy is here."

Dive!

Matthew has learned a worrying new game which means we currently have to keep a very close eye on him in the bath.  When I gave him a bath last week he decided to pretend to "dive" by sticking his face in the water.  He lined up his toys along the side of the bath to watch.  Afterwards he stood up and proceeded to take a bow!

We're going to have to make sure he doesn't make a habit of this so will have to find other safer ways to keep him entertained in the bath.  On the positive side, it does mean that he's not afraid to get his face wet which should help in the swimming pool in the longer term, especially as we've not been able to go swimming for a while.

Confidence

The nursery have told Louise that Matthew has started to really come out of his shell lately.  Today, he sang a song in circle time and told everyone where he lived. 

We had a Tesco home shopping delivery today, which we don't normally do, and when the delivery man knocked the door Matthew got really excited.  He opened the door before I could get there and then proceeded to ask the man questions and shout on the doorstep while he went to fetch the groceries.  While we were unpacking, he said in front of the man "Look!  He's brought me more big boy pants!", referring to his Dry Nites nappies.

At home, he's recently taken a liking to shouting rather than talking, which can be frustrating, not just because of the volume because he's harder to understand when he's shouting.  

School success - and new routine

We finally had the letter yesterday to confirm that Matthew has been given a place at the school we wanted.  We still need to send back a letter, so I'm not going to pretend that this is the end to the saga in case this goes missing or something, but it is now looking promising that he will be able to attend the closest school.

Our new routine started last week.  Louise is now working Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, instead of Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, as she wanted to work three nights in a row.  As a result, Matthew now attends nursery on Thursday and Friday instead of Monday and Friday, and now attends Cylch on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings instead of Wednesday and Thursday mornings.  He has an extra third morning at Cylch and will only spend half a day on Wednesdays with his Grandma instead of the whole day on Tuesday.  Due to the Easter break, we've been able to ease into the new routine gradually - Matthew's first day back at Cylch was today, so he's not yet had to do three in a row.  Sadly, we think his friend Joel has left Cylch to go to school this term, and Matthew is now one of the oldest (if not the oldest) child left.

As last week was the change-over week and there was no Cylch,  Matthew spent the day with his Grandma and Grandad on the Tuesdsay, stayed overnight and then came home on Wednesday afternoon.  It is only the second time he's not been with us at night - he stayed once with my Mum when he was a small baby - and the first time he can remember staying away from home.  He was actually really good, and even asked to go to bed at 7pm, waking up sometime between 6am and 7am, so caused no problems.  Louise bought him a new Finn McMissile duvet to take with him which he enjoyed taking to bed.

Today, my Mum asked Matthew to eat his carrots, and he replied "but I'm fed up of carrots!".  Mum then said that carrots can help you to see, to which Matthew replied "but I can see already!".  She then explained that carrots can help your eyesight in the dark, and Matthew's answer to that was "but if I put carrots in my eyes I won't be able to see at all!".

Edit 10/5/12: it turns out Joel has moved away to live in England

The other side

Last Friday when Louise went to collect Matthew from nursery, they told her that Matthew had stamped his feet and caused a scene when he didn't win at musical chairs during a leaving party for some of the children who will be starting school after Easter.  They said they had never seen that side of him before, as he's always behaved well and is usually one of very few children who actually listen and do as they are told!  I don't think he had a row as they managed to calm him down.

He's showing the signs of being a bad loser like his Dad!  As well as this incident, he gets upset if he doesn't win when he plays games at home of dominoes and snap.

Thesaurus

Louise, attempting to teach Matthew to read this afternoon, jokingly said to me, "I was reading a thesaurus by the time I was three".

Matthew heard this and asked me, "Thesaurus?  Does Mummy like dinosaurs?"