Full set of teeth / Locked out

We discovered yesterday that Matthew's last tooth (bottom left) has appeared, so he will be starting the new year with a full set of teeth.  It's been a long journey, it was 21 months ago that his first tooth appeared and we've been blaming teething for some of his illnesses and tantrums so we'll soon find out whether it did make things worse or not now there are no more to come through!  He has shown some signs of dribbling over the past week and his cheek was quite red just before Christmas, and he has also had cold symptoms recently though this may have been due to a normal bug.   Generally though he seems to have been quite good with his last few teeth and hasn't woken excessively during the night or moaned about his teeth hurting - often when his cheeks have been red we've asked him if his teeth are hurting and he's said "no".  He's also now much better at having his teeth brushed, doesn't cry every time, and will try and brush them himself.

For any parents out there, I've been following this guide to teething which has been pretty accurate for timing, though of course all children are different: http://www.babyworld.co.uk/information/baby/teeth/order_appearance_teeth.asp
According to the site, the final back molars usually appear between 24 and 30 months, and Matthew's all appeared between 24 and 28 months old (he'll be 28 months next week).

Matthew locked Louise out on Wednesday!  I went to town with a friend, and Louise went outside to put the rubbish out, shutting the back door but leaving the key in the lock inside - which is where we've always kept it.  After she'd gone out, Matthew turned the key.  He knows keys can open doors, as he often picks up keys when he wants to go outside, so we think he was probably trying to go outside to join Louise.  When she realised what he had done, she tried to get him to unlock the door by mimicking an action of turning a key, and although he turned it, he didn't unlock the door.  Fortunately I'd not locked the front door so Louise was able to get back in once she realised, and having learned our lesson the key is now kept hidden in a safe place and no longer in the door!

Christmas

This is Matthew's third Christmas, and the first one where he has really been able to get into the celebrations properly. It was also his first 'white' Christmas with snow on the ground, though we haven't had any more snow recently.  Matthew can now correctly identify Father Christmas, reindeer, stockings, christmas trees and presents and has enjoyed pointing them all out when he sees them. He's scared of Father Christmas, and said "no" when I asked if he wanted Father Christmas to bring him presents, and even seemed a little scared coming downstairs on Christmas morning as we'd told him Father Christmas had left him some gifts.

Fortunately he's not yet old enough to understand the concept of "tomorrow" so he didn't wake us up early on Christmas morning even though we told him it would be Christmas Day the day before. Louise's friend did struggle to put her daughter, who will be 4 next month, to bed on Christmas Eve so this could be the last year of blissful ignorance! Matthew did seem a little unsure about opening his presents at first, but soon got into ripping off the wrapping paper - the first year he's been able to take it off himself. He had lots of presents - we bought him a Crazy Coupe car, interactive Chuggington set, some more die-cast Thomas toys, and some trucks, and he also had clothes, books, puzzles, a Shaun the Sheep DVD set and some more Chuggington toys off other people.

His favourite present is the model Action Chugger we bought him to go with his Chuggington set, which has also gone down very well. He's enjoying his new Gruffalo book too, and keeps getting into his Crazy Coupe car though he's finding it hard to manoeuvre round the kitchen at the moment.



On Christmas Day, we followed our usual routine of opening gifts first before going to see Louise's family at her Gran's house (her aunt and uncle were there) and then going to my parents' for dinner.  Matthew was very well behaved and ate all his dinner without a fuss.  He also enjoyed my mum's home-made ice cream!  He had fun opening more gifts from the family, and had a Thomas train from my parents to play with on my old Brio train set which he likes.  He got frustrated that Thomas didn't connect to the coaches the way he wanted, though.

We went back to Louise's Gran after this where Matthew was a bit tired and grumpy as he'd not been able to have a nap.  He still enjoyed opening his gifts from Gramps (Louise's Dad) - Gramps had bought him a ride-on toy digger which we liked but got frustrated as the included yellow hard hat was a bit big for him and kept falling off his head!  He also had a Little Tykes play set with cars and a train.

Gramps came to our house for Boxing Day dinner yesterday and walked in on a tantrum which Matthew was having as I was cooking the turkey and couldn't play with him.  He had been screaming for a long time so I decided to try introducing a "naughty step" but my timing could have been better.  I told him that he couldn't leave the step until he stopped screaming, and was expecting it to take a while so had put him back on the step a few times but he hadn't stopped by the time Gramps arrived when Louise picked him up anyway.  This made me a bit angry, as I thought taking Matthew off the step when he was still screaming wasn't giving him the right message, but it couldn't really be helped as Gramps wanted to see him.  Matthew did then fortunately calm down, but I'm not sure if he's got the right idea about the naughty step as he then asked me if I wanted him to go and sit on it again!  I will definitely try it again when Matthew has a bad tantrum, but will try and time it so that nobody interrupts.

Matthew enjoyed pulling his cracker with his Boxing Day dinner but ripped his paper hat in half by accident so we had to give him another one!  He was well behaved for the rest of the day and we enjoyed playing with his Chuggington set together.

White - but not yet Christmas

We've had fun this weekend enjoying the snow, despite not being able to buy a sledge from the local store ("we've sold out and aren't expecting any more until the end of January").  I helped Matthew build his first proper snowman, or rather triangular-snow-mound-with-a-face, which proved tricky as the snow is so fine and powdery it was hard to form into a ball for the head.  Louise finished him off with a scarf, chalk nose - the carrot wouldn't stay - and bolt eyes.

Matthew has a large number of icicles hanging outside his windowsill which are steadily growing; an impressive if slightly scary sight!

Matthew's conversation continues to entertain us.  At dinner time I thought he was trying to tell us a joke when he suddenly said "knock knock".  I replied, "who's there?" to which he said "Val".  I asked "Val who?" and he said "Val mop!".  Val is our next door neighbour, and I'm sure she would be impressed being called that!

I think he is developing a sense of humour too.  At bedtime, Louise told him to say "night night Daddy" and he looked at me, and then to his bottle of milk sitting on the arm of my chair, and said "night night milk"!

Chaos!

Just one week to Christmas and things have started to get slightly chaotic.  Louise had a call earlier in the week to say that the nursery would be closed today due to a suspected swine flu outbreak!  I'd forgotten all about swine flu; it was all over the news last year but haven't heard anything about it for ages so assumed it was no longer a major threat.  Fortunately none of the children have been affected so far, but they didn't have enough staff to open so Matthew had to stay at home today leaving Louise to wonder how cope with her night shift without any sleep.

Step in Jack Frost, as we woke to nearly 6" of snow this morning!  It was forecast, and as I normally do the weekly food shop on a Friday I'd deliberately done the shopping Wednesday night, but I still wasn't expecting anywhere near that amount.  It had also rained yesterday and frozen overnight, and only 4x4s seemed to be venturing out onto the road.  Fortunately, my boss had also been affected and had sent me an email to say that I could work from home, which prevented me from agonising over whether to try and risk making the journey or buy a sledge.  In case you're wondering where Matthew fits in to all this, it meant that I was able to watch Matthew for an hour or so this afternoon while Louise had a nap, as her work aren't as nice as mine and threaten to send a 4x4 to fetch her if she doesn't turn up because of the weather!

We didn't risk taking Matthew out in the snow, which would probably have covered his wellies, even though he was getting very excited looking out of the window.  At this rate he'll grow up thinking snow is as common as muck!

Matthew was very chatty this afternoon and has started coming out with longer phrases such as "Mummy's got red grapes" (this wasn't his first attempt at a rude joke, she was eating red grapes at the time).  He's currently obsessed by my salad dressing as it has a picture of a "man on it!".  Louise's friend brought her 3 year old daughter round last weekend, who kept trying to hold Matthew's hand, and after a while he got fed up with this and pulled it away, shouting "no hand! no hand!".  Otherwise they played very well together, and Matthew even let her play with a few of his toys, though not the model Tin Top car he'd received from Father Christmas at his nursery!

The Fireman Sam incident

We took Matthew to Matalan this morning and while going round the store Matthew asked to have a Fireman Sam activity book, so Louise gave it to him.  Before going to the checkout, Louise put it back on the shelf and told Matthew she was "going to pay for it".  I then wheeled Matthew around the store in his pushchair while Louise paid for her shopping, but was concered when he said "Mummy getting Fireman Sam". 

He did mention it once in the car, but didn't kick up a fuss - until we got home, when he asked for "Fireman Sam" as soon as we walked through the door!  Louise said that she'd "forgotten it", but this didn't help as he went to look in the shopping bag and burst into tears when the book wasn't there.  My attempts to distract him by encouraging him to play with this Thomas trains didn't work, until Louise said she would "go and find it" - and he was then quite content to play trains with me, though after 20 minutes he smiled and said "Mummy getting Fireman Sam".  Fortunately Louise walked in shortly after that with the book, having been able to get a copy in Leekes. So we've learned today that Matthew now remembers things well and can understand a lot of what we're saying (and also that lying doesn't pay!).

We put the Christmas decorations up last Wednesday.  This year, Matthew has taken more of an interest, especially in the lights and the baubles.  He likes to touch the lights but hasn't tried yet to take them off the tree.  He's also been good so far with the baubles and although he likes to touch them and spin them round, he hasn't tried to remove them.  He does like to play with the ornaments though, like the model Santa he keeps taking off the windowsill (identifying his beard, moustache and glasses). 

The weather has taken an early seasonal turn - we had snow last week which Matthew enjoyed playing in.  On Friday at nursey, the staff put the children in all-in-one suits and went out to play in the snow, and while some of the children were a bit apprehensive, apparently Matthew had a fantastic time.