(Not so) New dad...

Grammar expert

2012-01-30T20:28:00.000Z

Before going to work I walked into the Lounge this morning, where Louise and Matthew were watching the telly, and said "Goodbye everyone!". Matthew replied "But there are only two of us here!".

Hands behind the back

2012-01-29T20:48:00.000Z

Matthew has recently started standing with his hands folded behind his back. Louise has noticed this as a trait of her late Great Uncle, who used to live with her and is the only member of Matthew's family to do this that we are aware of. I'm not sure if it is genetic, though, or whether he is just aspiring to one of his heroes:
Louise to Matthew: Why have you got your hands behind your back?
Matthew's reply: Because that's what the Fat Controller does!

We had some sleet here this afternoon, and occasional bursts of wet snow which didn't stick on the ground. I was in work, but Matthew apparently told Louise this afternoon that it was "raining snow! I've never seen that before".

Matthew has also developed what is probably his first mouth ulcer. He has a large one underneath his front teeth, and he also has a bruise in a similar position on his chin so it is probably a result of knocking his face. He's been complaining about the ulcer hurting this weekend, and hasn't eaten all his food but Louise thinks he might be ill as he is also coughing a bit and hasn't seemed quite his usual self. He has had a few accidents lately; he fell three times yesterday while running through the kitchen from the hall to the lounge. We're trying to teach him to be careful!

Chinese New Year

2012-01-24T22:07:00.001Z

Matthew came home from nursery with a paper Chinese lantern yesterday which they had made to celebrate the Chinese New Year. They are obviously making quite a theme of it, as on Saturday in the car Matthew said to me "It's New Year isn't it Daddy?" and after some questioning it turns out he was talking about the Chinese New Year and must have heard about it at nursery on Friday. Maybe it's because this is the year of the dragon - the national emblem of Wales!Edit 29/1/12: He also had Chinese food at Cylch on both Wednesday and Thursday last week, and came home from Nursery with a red dragon picture. They really do like the Chinese New Year in these places, don't they?!

Artwork

2012-01-22T20:04:00.000Z

After a phase when Matthew didn't even want to pick up a pen, he has now started to spend a lot of time drawing. This might be because he used to find it difficult to draw anything recognisable, and so got frustrated, while now he can draw a person, and simple shapes. He also enjoys trying to write his name, and can write "Matt" and "w" but struggles with the "he"; strangely enough he doesn't always write the letters in the right place, so although he writes them in the correct order he will often draw the "a" to the left of the "M". It just makes to realise how much there is to learn about the act of writing, which seems so simple to adults.

Here is some of Matthew's artwork. The first pictures were drawn for two of Louise's friends last week. Note the complete lack of a body on the left one, and the large square body on the right. He can show an eye for a surprising level of detail when he puts his mind to it; look at the brown hair in the left pic and black hair in the right, and the attempt to add fingers to the right pic too.

Pictures drawn for Louise's friends

This is a picture Matthew drew today of Mummy and Daddy; if you look carefully you can also see a tiny face on the far left which is supposed to be Matthew himself. Check out the hair - as far as I know, when he refers to "Daddy" he is talking about me and I'm not actually raising a son of Jedward.

Mummy (left) and Daddy (right).

I was very impressed with this last picture. He drew all the elements himself without any prompting; green grass, blue sky, yellow sun and, for some reason, a pink Daddy!

Green grass, blue sky, yellow sun and pink Daddy

On a separate note, Louise measured Matthew today and he is now 104cm, an increase of 2cm on last time.

Dinosaur shoes again!

2012-01-19T21:56:00.004Z

Matthew had his feet measured again today and his feet are now 8½G, so he's gone up half a size. The only shoes in the shop were in a very similar dinosaur design to his last pair, or with lights. Matthew didn't want the lights, so he now has a pair of brown shoes with green dinosaurs on the bottom. He also went with Louise to the bank for an appointment to discuss his savings account, and embarrassed her when he interrupted the discussion with "Mummy, I need a poo". Apparently he giggled while Louise talked about his account, and he came home with a balloon from the bank!

Louise has bought a children's Welsh word book with pictures, because Matthew is often asking us to translate words into Welsh. His Cylch and nursery are both Welsh, so he picks up some of the language there, and enjoys correcting people when they get the Welsh wrong (particularly my Mum, and our next door neighbour Val). Although he enjoys translating words he doesn't like it if we attempt to speak Welsh, and when Louise tried to read to him in Welsh earlier today he shouted "No! Speak English!".

We had a good report back from the nursery on Monday. The staff had asked the children to tidy up after a "free reading" session where they were able to choose their own books, and Matthew was the only one who helped. He also came home from Cylch today with a star, but they had drawn it on a piece of paper as they had run out of stickers!

Matthew has made a friend called Joel at his Cylch. They met the first time Matthew went, as Joel was also starting, though they haven't had much of a chance to play together while Matthew only attended for half a day a week. On Wednesday when Louise went to pick Matthew up, Joel kept shouting "Bye Matthew!". They won't spend any more time together even now Matthew is going on Thursday mornings, because Joel doesn't attend on Thursdays.

Extra morning at Cylch

2012-01-15T20:14:00.001Z

Matthew has now started in cylch meithrin (pre-school) two mornings a week, Wednesday and Thursday, and we no longer have to pay since he was already three at the start of term. Hopefully the extra morning will help him get used to cylch as he was only going on Wednesday mornings last term which didn't give him a lot of time to make friends or become familiar with the staff. As a result, it took a while for him to settle down and until recently he used to cry when he was taken there.

Now he's 'officially' in cylch we've been given a booklet about the Foundation Phase - the Welsh curriculum for 3 - 7 year olds - including what is taught, and how this is assessed. I can't see him having any problems as he seems very intelligent at home; my only concern is that, like me, he's quite shy and I wonder if he will be confident enough to participate in all the activities and show the staff his ability.

Louise changes her work schedule in April, so that will mean another change to Matthew's cylch (and Nursery) hours, but the next big move is when he starts full time school in September.

Matthew also had another visit to the dentist last week, and his teeth were fine. He can now brush his teeth well, though doesn't always brush the back and top teeth properly so still needs assistance. Lately he has wanted to apply the toothpaste to the brush himself, which usually means too much. He also had a musical Thomas and Friends handwash for Christmas which has created a new found enthusiasm for washing hands - very useful, but I wonder what will happen when it runs out!

On Friday evening I came home to find Matthew had coloured in part of the television! Fortunately it came off very easily. I don't think he realised it isn't good behaviour; he was keen to point out his scribbles to me and it turned out he had tried to colour in George from Peppa Pig, who he was watching at the time. We have told him not to do it again so will have to see if he can resist the temptation.

He has been more enthusiastic about colouring in lately. I bought him a Thomas magazine in the Co-Op yesterday and he has spent more time than usual doing the activities over the weekend, especially colouring in.

Christmas

2011-12-25T22:52:00.001Z

If last year Matthew was able to understand enough to enjoy Christmas, this year has been the first time he has properly been able to join in the fun. For the first time he left out a mince pie for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer last night (with Louise's assistance), and understood when he went to bed that Christmas was coming today. Despite this, he still didn't wake us early this morning, though as he's still frightened of Santa and has yet to leave his bedroom unaided during the night this isn't really surprising.

The big difference to last year was the speed which Matthew took to unwrap his presents - he'd opened the three big presents that Father Christmas had left for him in the lounge within five minutes and we'd opened everything well before 10am. Last year, although Matthew probably did have a few more gifts, we had to help him a lot more and we were still opening presents when we were due to leave to go and see the family. This year, Matthew had a good chance to play with a few of his new toys before we left, including his new Jungle Junction set (the present he wanted most, and was delighted to open first), his Big City Garage, Thomas Take and Play Dieselworks and his Gator Golf. I had to help him with the Gator Golf, as he found it quite difficult. A lot of Matthew's presents were self-assembly, which did cause a bit of dissapointment as we didn't have time to set everything up before we left, though he behaved quite well considering (his Jungle Junction and Big City Garage were pre-assembled and wrapped so he could play with those).

We called in to see Louise's family first, and Matthew received some clothes from Louise's aunt and uncle. We then went to my parents for dinner, which Matthew really enjoyed. On arrival, Matthew told us all that Grandma was making a sausage dinner for Christmas - sausages being his favourite - though he enjoyed some roast chicken, carrots and peas as well as sausages. After lunch, we opened presents from my family and Matthew was excited by his new Bob the Builder construction set which he played with for the rest of the afternoon. He also received some books, clothes and other toys including a tumbling snowman and Santa that he enjoyed watching climb down the lounge door.

Mid-afternoon we returned to Louise's family to see Matthew's Gramps who had returned home. Matthew was delighted to receive Red Rover and Pig Goes Pop toys from Gramps - he'd asked Santa for Red Rover though hadn't expressed any disappointment at not receiving it in the morning. Gramps also bought him a farm, which he initially said that he didn't want but changed his mind when he arrived home and wanted me to set it up. I was a bit too tired to do the whole self-assembly thing again by then, so managed to persuade him to wait!

Matthew's behaviour throughout the day was generally excellent - he moaned a few times but we had no full-on tantrums, which considering the excitement of the day is a major achievement. I can remember causing a lot more aggro than Matthew has today at Christmas when I was young (but probably a bit older than 3), so credit where it is due! Having said that, it has been an exhausting day trying to entertain a 3 year old and prevent any unnecessary fuss...

Thomas Land

2011-12-23T21:06:00.000Z

A while ago, we received our usual clubcard vouchers courtesy of Tesco and instead of just getting discount on our shopping we decided to exchange them for vouchers for Drayton Manor, the home of Thomas Land. Matthew has been asking to go to Thomas Land for a while, and we told him that he could go after he turned three. As I had the day off, and Drayton Manor are running a "Magical Christmas" event at the moment, we decided to go yesterday.

We kept it a surprise, and didn't mention anything to Matthew (just in case we had to cancel) . Fortunately everything went to plan, and we even managed to have fine weather, so we told Matthew we were going on a trip but didn't say where. When we arrived, Matthew saw the sign outside with Thomas and started to get excited so we told him where we were.

During the day we went on trains behind both Percy and Thomas, saw the original model railway set from the Thomas TV show, and I took Matthew on a lot of rides including Sodor's Classic Cars, Diesel's Locomotion Mayhem, Rockin' Bulstrode (quite wild - Matthew enjoyed this), Jeremy's Flying Academy, Blue Mountain Engines, and Lady's Carousel (very tame compared to the other rides, but Matthew still enjoyed). He also had a go at Terrence's Driving School, which featured model tractors with a foot accelerator pedal and a real steering wheel. He was the youngest on these and we weren't sure if he would get the hang of it, but he did remarkably well and after several crashes was able to steer reasonably well by the time he finished. He wasn't the only little boy crashing!

We couldn't avoid the "biggest Thomas shop in the World" and came away with a toy D199 diesel which Matthew chose, a Mega Blocks James, an apron for painting, and a door hanger for Matthew's room.

Matthew was very good throughout the day - the only incident came when we had to leave Emily's Adventure Play area, and threw a tantrum because he didn't want to leave; this was understandable under the circumstances as we were only allowed 15 minutes of play and Matthew is used to an hour or more when he goes to Funtazia.

There were a few rides which we thought would be too scary for Matthew, such as the Troublesome Trucks Rollercoaster and Cranky's Drop Tower, and surprisingly Matthew also declined the opportunity to go on Harold's Heli-Tours and Crazy Bertie Bus, and didn't want to go in th 4D Cinema. We didn't push him to go in the cinema when we discovered they weren't showing a Thomas film, as we were running out of time by that point. After Thomas Land, we took Matthew in to Santa's Magical Workshop where elves blew bubbles on him, and he saw a snowman and some (model) reindeer. He had a chance to sit with Santa but declined this as he's still a bit frightened of him, so Santa just called his name and waved to him. He then took away a free gift of a Thomas activity book.

Before going home, we had a delicious meal at the attached Grill restaurant, where I had one of the best steak, chips and beer-battered onion rings I have ever tasted!

Reading

2011-12-21T21:04:00.000Z

Matthew showed the first signs of starting to read today. I wrote his name on his blackboard, and asked him what it said. He replied "Matthew" - good, but he may have guessed that's what I would write.

I then wrote "Daddy" and he correctly told me what I had written. I wrote "Mummy" and initially he thought it said "Matthew" again, but when I said "no", he correctly identified it as "Mummy". Finally I wrote "John", and he said "Joel" (a friend at his Cylch). I was impressed with this because he obviously recognised the start of the word even if he didn't get it right.

He had a chance to dress up in his green dog costume again yesterday when he went to the fancy dress Jambori party. He loves the costume and it's proving good value for money.

Portable North Pole

2011-12-19T20:24:00.004Z

A friend at work told me about this great website where your child can receive a personal message from Santa. I showed Matthew his message this evening and he seemed pleased with it: http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/mD01tQqM24i_BYGI1ydOGmQ

I'm not sure if he understood much of the message as he can't yet read, but he did enjoy seeing the pictures of himself in Santa's book!

Father Christmas calls by

2011-12-18T21:08:00.000Z

Matthew had a surprise this afternoon when there was a knock on the door. Louise was asleep on the couch, and Matthew woke her up saying "there's someone at the door" and eventually, I'll answer it!". When Louise and Matthew answered the door, Father Christmas was outside on his sleigh, playing Christmas music.

Matthew was a bit frightened but came outside without crying to see Father Christmas, and received a lollipop. Father Christmas asked Matthew what he would like for the big day, but Matthew was too shy to reply so Louise told Father Christmas that he wanted the Jungle Junction toy he has been asking for.

The Father Christmas was organised by the Round Table who were collecting for charity. The sleigh, lit with lots of fairy lights, was being pulled by a 4x4, so I explained to Matthew the reason for the this was because the sleigh can't drive by itself without any snow.

We took Matthew to church for a Christmas Carol service this evening which my parents were participating in, although this proved to be a mistake. He was good to start with, and excited to see my parents, but started to get bored and tried to push me out of my seat and then threw the hymn books on the floor. Louise took him out of the service, but he then proceeded to scream loudly in the vestibule so she had to take him out to the forecourt. I could still hear him screaming in the distance so I left early as well and we then had to drag him, screaming, back to the car. Apart from the second time we took him to see Thomas, it's probably the worst he's ever behaved, so he ended up going on the naughty step when he arrived home and then went straight to bed.

Pine cones

2011-12-03T20:56:00.001Z

Matthew 'helped' us to put up and decorate the Christmas tree today. Once I had put on the lights he decided to add the tinsel and proceeded to drape loads of pieces of different coloured tinsel over the same branches at the bottom corner of the tree. He then found some pine cones in a box, and took one out shouting "coconuts!".
We didn't retain his unique take on decorating, feeling it may prove to be too radical for any guests who may call round over Christmas.

Matthew was delighted to retrieve the singing toy Christmas tree from the cupboard which Louise's Dad bought for him a couple of years ago, and we heard it at least ten consecutive times before he was made to give it a rest. He's also started to try singing along to the words, and if the batteries don't die I wouldn't be surprised if he can recite the entire chorus of "Rocking around the Christmas tree" by the big day itself.

Is that Gary Speed?

2011-12-01T20:07:00.001Z

We had another reminder how much young children pick up today, when Matthew was watching the One Show and pointed to one of the guests asking "Is that Gary Speed?". When we said no, and asked him where he had heard the name Gary Speed, he said "mummy, on your mobile".

It turns out Matthew had overheard Louise's conversation with her dad about the sad and untimely death of the Wales football manager at the weekend, and though he hasn't said anything since then, he must have remembered Gary Speed's name. What made him associate it with the guests on tonight's One Show is anybody's guess!

Plaster disaster

2011-11-22T20:00:00.001Z

Matthew cut his hand this evening just before going to bed, after having his bath. He was obviously in quite a bit of pain, but didn't really start screaming until we suggested that he wear a plaster.

He last had a plaster when he cut his knee in the summer playing outside. He didn't particularly like plasters then, so we bought some Peppa Pig plasters to try and make wearing one more fun. Unfortunately these didn't go down too well tonight, and it took two of us holding him and prising his hand open to cover his cut!

After finally securing the plaster, the screaming gradually calmed down though he was still not keen. I think he associates plasters with pain, as he remembered the last time he wore one.

Other random news: earlier this month we discarded Matthew's pushchair as he's now too big for it and the bottom of his shoes reach the pavement. We have been using it less and less, though I had still taken it with us when he had a haircut last month and my Mum has been using it until fairly recently. My Mum now finds Matthew too heavy to push, so we asked Matthew if he still wanted the pushchair and he said that he is happy to walk. The back wheels are now practically bare, the rubber having worn out from use, so it was definitely a good investment.

Telling the truth

2011-11-21T20:02:00.001Z

We have to watch what we say to Matthew now. I had the day off work today, but when Louise took Matthew to nursery this morning and he asked about me, she told him I was going to work. He replied that I wasn't going to work, saying "Daddy has the day off "! He then told Louise that she had the day off too, and she replied that she didn't. He said "Yes, you're going to Home Bargains!"

Walking in the water

2011-11-20T21:15:00.001Z

I took Matthew swimming this morning, for the first time in a while, but unlike previous times he wasn't frightened of the water and was happy to let go of my hand once he'd got used to the temperature of the water.

He wasn't keen on trying to swim today but enjoyed walking across the pool from one end to the other, which he did for most of our time there. We also chased each other, which he found hilarious, and towards the end I did hold him up in a swimming position and carried him across the water really quickly while trying to encourage him to kick his legs and splash his arms which he also thought was fun. I was hoping this might encourage him to swim and let go of him at one point but he just reverted to walking.

It's still progress from his last visit to the pool, though, as he was much more independent today.

Fancy dress

2011-11-18T20:06:00.001Z

Matthew had to dress up again today for nursery, the second time in three weeks following Hallowe'en. This time it was for Children In Need and Matthew had to pay a donation of £1. We looked for a Woody (Toy Story) costume for him, but the ones available didn't have a real hat, just a two-dimensional paper one, so Louise bought a green dog costume from Home Bargains.

The dog has a tail at the back (not shown in the picture) and a hood-style head, but is otherwise just a top so Matthew was able to wear his own trousers.

During the day, Matthew met Pudsey Bear and had his photograph taken with the group, which apparently will appear in the Guardian newspaper next week!

NB The dog costume also has a padded tummy - Matthew's not actually that fat!

Face

2011-11-12T20:43:00.001Z

So far, Matthew's attempts at drawing have mainly involved scribbling lines and dots on pieces of paper - he often comes home with scribbles in different colours from nursery without any discernable pictures - and he hasn't shown much enthusiasm for trying to draw or write anything legible.

That has changed a little this week, as Matthew has started to show more of an interest in drawing and writing. On Thursday he drew a face on his magnetic Thomas drawing book (shown left), complete with dot eyes, smiley mouth towards the bottom left of the picture, curly hair, ears,and even arms and legs. He has omitted the body but I was still very impressed considering I've never seen him try to draw a face before except when attempting a circle with two dots for eyes. He also spent some time copying numbers and got quite good at it.

He can also now do pretty much all of his jigsaws on his own and also his caterpillar shape stacker, on which he has to fit different shapes onto appropriately shaped tower blocks. He can do all of his "Find the Rhyme" puzzles as well, where he has to match the start and end of an animal rhyme with pictures, such as "A fly in the sky"; "A cat in a hat" etc.

Fireworks!

2011-11-06T21:11:00.000Z

As Matthew enjoyed the fireworks we saw from the house last year we thought he would be old enough to go with us to a display this time around, and he spent the last week getting excited about it. We decided to take him to the annual display in town, held yesterday on Bonfire Night, and arrived just in time for the 6:30pm entrance. As we walked in, a loudspeaker announced that the first display would be at 7pm with the second starting at 7:30pm, and I bought Matthew a red lightsaber from a fairground stand after he saw some children running around with them.

Having been in the past we're used to them running a little late, but someone seemed to have been given the wrong information as 7pm came and went without any fireworks. We managed to get a good place to stand opposite the display, so didn't want to move, and had to wait while the radio announcer played music and eventually mentioned that the display would begin at 7:30pm (the event was being broadcast on local radio with live acts). Matthew's bed-time is 7:30pm so he was understandably getting tired by the time the first display started, and this probably wasn't helped by the fact he was awake early, but he seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Unfortunately this was probably the worst display I've ever seen - it seemed to go wrong half way through after a firework careered towards the crowd and then the backing music continued without any fireworks going off.

The interval seemed to last longer than usual with another guest singer performing at least four songs, during which Matthew started yawning heavily. He also didn't want to stand up by then, which is understandable as he had been waiting over an hour. By the time the second display was underway it all became too much for him, and somehow amid all the loud bangs and thumping music he fell asleep! This was a shame as the second display more than made up for the first; it was one of the best I've seen, going on for five songs rather than the usual three, and with some truly spectacular pyrotechnics. Matthew did wake up a few times and see some of the fireworks, and was able to stay awake to walk back to the car (he was carried some of the way) and said he enjoyed the fireworks but that they were "very loud!" and he was impressed that they played a Take That song he recognised (Louise's influence, not mine!).

He fell asleep again in the car, and at home he fell asleep almost instantly after sitting on the sofa while waiting for his bedtime milk.

Sadly there were no Catherine Wheels this year, and as at recent events there was no bonfire, probably both victims of the over-zealous health and safety enthusiasts who have no respect for centuries of tradition and revel in ruining events like Bonfire Night. A few people who had brought sparklers were chastised by the announcers and told to put them out immediately. You have to wonder what it will be like when Matthew reaches our age: his family will probably have to watch it in 3D on the Internet while someone clad in fireproof overalls lights some government approved fireworks in a self-contained, underground bunker.

Spider-Matthew

2011-10-31T20:06:00.000Z

Spider-Matthew

The nursery had a fancy dress day today for Hallowe'en, and Louise had ordered Matthew a Casper ghost costume from Woolworths online after Matthew said he'd like to dress up as a ghost. He often puts his towel over his head after he's had a bath and pretends to be a ghost and actually does the scary noises very well for his age, so we thought this would be a good choice.

Unfortunately, when Louise checked her online account with Woolworths last week to see when it would be delivered, she saw that the costume was now out of stock even though she had not received any email notification. Maybe this explains why the chain went bankrupt if Woolworths' high street stores had the same level of service! As a result, Louise had to order an "emergency" costume last week from a different retailer and pay for fast delivery to make sure it arrived on time. The one she chose was a black spider costume, complete with black hood and little purple hat.

Matthew liked the costume and tried it on as soon as it arrived last week. He wore it all day in nursery, and was still in it when he came home this evening. As I had the day off work, I went with Louise to the nursery to drop him off, and he cried when we left him (this is normal, apparently; he has started crying again ever since he started going to Cylch). The others did seem excited to see him, though, and one little boy called "Matthew!" when he arrived. He was all smiles when we went to collect him. The other children were all dress up, and one was wearing a Dracula costume.

Royal Family v Disney Pixar

2011-10-30T20:44:00.001Z

I told Matthew a bad joke this morning, "Why doesn't the Queen wave with this hand?" (waving my left hand) "Because it's my hand". His reply? "Queen has no hands... (Lightning) McQueen has tyres!"

Royal Family -- 0
Disney Pixar Cars -- 1

Matthew put his "Wheels on the bus" jigsaw together on his own correctly today, which is more difficult than some of his others because all the pieces are the same size. Louise was impressed that he wanted to stay upstairs to play in his room for a short while this afternoon though, as I pointed out, we might be struggling in ten year's time to get him out of his bedroom to come and see us! While I was out in the kitchen getting dinner this evening he came out with the packet for his fruit squeezy that he'd finished, opened the cupboard, put the empty packet in the bin, closed the cupboard and walked out of the kitchen and back to the lounge without saying anything. Who needs parents?

Rugby

2011-10-21T20:17:00.001+01:00

Matthew went to nursery in a Welsh rugby top today as they were all watching the World Cup third-place play off, which was on at 8:30am our time. My Mum bought Matthew the rugby top on Tuesday after we found out that the nursery would be showing the game, and when he put it on this morning it turned out to be huge! Maybe it will last him until the next Rugby World Cup!

In the barber's chair

2011-10-15T21:05:00.003+01:00

Having his hair cut on his own!

Matthew came with me for a haircut this morning as usual, but instead of sitting on my lap after I'd had my hair cut, he was offered the chance to sit next to me on his own chair and have his hair cut at the same time with a different hairdresser whose appointment hadn't turned up. I wasn't sure how he'd react to this, and he didn't look sure to begin with, but he ended up having fun. He gets on well with the staff, and one made him laugh by telling him that he was going to "beat Daddy" and finish first while another cut his hair. He's still happy to have the clippers, and was better at staying still on his own than he usually is on my lap. He even wore a gown today for the first time - he usually throws it off.

After being very good lately, we were fooled into thinking Matthew's tantrum days had become less frequent. This week, he's been quite trying, moaning and crying often. On Tuesday he tried to leave the house when Louise told him off, and so we have to be careful to keep the front door locked.

We went to stay with my family in Cheshire last weekend, to celebrate my Aunt's 60th birthday. Matthew was generally very good in the car journey and didn't complain this time about me driving too fast. I wonder if this is to do with my car, as I was driving Louise's car which has a better fitting car seat. When I took Matthew to the beach, he told me to slow down so much I was driving at 35mph and he still thought I was going "too fast Daddy!".

After being shy to start with, Matthew had a good time at my Aunt's party, and ate lots of the buffet food. He was comical during my cousin's speech and laughed very loudly when everyone else laughed, and clapped when everyone else clapped.

Rainbow Reflection game

Another development this week is that Matthew has started to correctly play his Rainbow Reflections game, where he has to stack coloured blocks in the same order as shown on a card. He used to stack them in any order, but on Thursday Louise taught him to try and follow the card and while he was paying attention he managed to do it several times. He can already play his card game "Nosh!" correctly, which is meant for children 4+, and has learned how to play dominos (though often takes extra turns if he loses his concentration or gets too excited). He hasn't done so many jigsaw puzzles recently but can do some of the Chuggington jigsaws he was given for his birthday on his own, seemingly without looking at the box.

Size 8

2011-10-06T21:58:00.001+01:00

Matthew had his feet measured again today, and has come home with new shoes. He's got another pair of dinosaur shoes, though in a different colour. He's now size 8.

October beach trip

2011-10-01T21:26:00.000+01:00

On the hottest October day ever recorded (in England at least), I decided to make the most of the exceptional heatwave and take Matthew to the beach, as we've not had a chance to go this year with the last couple of months being pretty wet. When we arrived just after 10am, the car thermometer read 20C, and the beach was fairly empty considering, though a lot more people had arrived by the time we left.

As the estuary at the beach we visited can be dangerous, we didn't go in the water (though Matthew wanted to), so spent our time building sandcastles, playing ball and climbing on the rocks. Matthew also played on the slide, see-saw and a toy boat in the children's play area.

Yes, it really is October!

Beachball

Building sandcastles decorated with shells

Matthew on the beach

Rock climbing

Matthew's role play has developed over the last few months. He now enjoys reenacting scenes from his DVDs, particularly a scene from a Thomas episode where Thomas gets hit by a giant snowball. I have to pretend to run away as Matthew pelts me with cushions (the giant snowball) and then get 'rescued' by Rocky, a repair crane. He asked Louise earlier this evening to "pretend" to be Ben 10, and I had to "pretend to be a statue" and stand still while being poked!

Bedtime stories and brushing teeth

2011-09-22T20:41:00.001+01:00

Matthew can now brush his teeth properly. He surprised me this evening by grabbing the toothbrush, and brushing back and forth really quickly! He's been brushing for a while, but he used to just run the toothbrush over them really slowly and only do the front bottom teeth.

He's also taken a liking to having bedtime stories again. We haven't done it since I read him a few stories when he was a small baby because he's been so good at going to bed, but Louise read him a story last week and he's been asking for them ever since. This evening I read him "The Enormous Turnip".

Hide & seek

2011-09-18T21:57:00.000+01:00

Matthew has recently started to enjoy playing hide and seek. He plays the game in an unusual way - he tells me where he's going to hide, before I go off to count, and then shouts where he's hiding when I come in to find him. Instead of acknowledging this straight away, I pretend to go round the room looking underneath cushions and behind chairs, which he finds hysterical.

When I hide from him, he tells me where to hide before he starts counting. Sometimes I do as he says, and sometimes I surprise him by hiding somewhere unexpected.

In the bin!

2011-09-10T20:16:00.000+01:00

Louise had intended to try Matthew without a dummy at night next week, and we had prepared him by telling him a while ago that when he is three he would have to throw his dummy in the bin. On Thursday, he surprised us by actually throwing his dummy in the bin before he went to bed and, even more remarkably, sleeping for the whole night without it. Thinking we had overcome what we had expected to be a major hurdle with no problems at all, we discovered otherwise when Louise got Matthew up yesterday morning and he started screaming. It turned out that he wanted his dummy when he woke up, even though he's not had one in the daytime for months.

After calming him down yesterday, we still thought he had dealt with it remarkably well and weren't expecting any problems last night - at least until he woke. Last night, though, Matthew wouldn't go to sleep without his dummy and started screaming as soon as he was put to bed when we told him that he couldn't because he'd put it in the bin. After ten minutes of screaming and no sign of sleep, we gave in and gave him a new dummy. Normally we would have persevered longer, but Louise had to go and visit her Gran who is in hospital, and I was exhausted at the end of a tiring "staff development" week in work, so we will try again soon.

Matthew went to his meithrin for his first day on Wednesday following his trial visit. He cried when Louise left him, but apparently didn't cry for too long afterwards. I heard that he was quite shy, but he did interact with some other children towards the end of his visit. The meithrin is a lot less structured than his nursery and it sounds like the children mainly have free play, so it is good that he still gets a chance to go to nursery twice a week and engage with other toddlers in structured activities.

Matthew is 3

2011-09-05T20:33:00.000+01:00

Matthew's new scooter

We gave Matthew a birthday surprise this morning, having left his main birthday present until today. After he had gone to bed, Louise wheeled Matthew's new Lightning McQueen scooter into the lounge along with matching helmet and knee pads, and when he came downstairs this morning I filmed him when he walked in and discovered it. He'd seen it advertised on the telly and asked for it a few months ago, and he seemed delighted with it. He's been wheeling it round the house this evening as it has been raining outside so he hasn't had a chance to play with it in the garden yet.

Matthew had another surprise this morning, and perhaps not such a welcome one! It was his first visit to his meithrin, and a chance to see the place with Louise before he goes for his first morning on Wednesday. Apparently he was very cautious, and was reluctant to let go of Louise's legs! Anyway, he did start to play with another boy towards the end which is promising, but I don't know how he will react when Louise leaves him there on Wednesday as it will be the first change to his weekly routine for a long time. There was another boy there for the first time too, and he was so confident that, thinking Louise was a member of staff, he said to her "Excuse me! What does this do? (pointing at a toy)". Apparently a lot of children are like Matthew though, and cautious on their first few visits.

After this, Matthew went to his nursery as usual. We took a Thomas birthday cake along for him, and they all sang happy birthday. Instead of three candles we bought one candle in the shape of the number 3 and, after blowing this out, Matthew apparently asked where the other two candles were!

Matthew's alphabet

2011-09-05T20:31:00.001+01:00

Here's a video of Matthew singing the alphabet song, filmed yesterday afternoon while waiting for guests to arrive for his birthday.

Celebrating Matthew's 3rd birthday

2011-09-04T21:02:00.001+01:00

It's Matthew's third birthday tomorrow, but we held the celebrations today as he's in nursery and both Louise and I will be in work. This morning, Matthew went to Funtazia play centre with Louise, and his friends Cerys and Steffan. They had a good time, though Steffan was more confident than Matthew and Cerys, so went running off on his own. Afterwards, Matthew and Cerys went to McDonald's with Louise and her friend (I was being a geek, and stayed at home studying). Matthew had a toy slinky dog from Cerys for his birthday.

Matthew's birthday cake

After lunch, family and friends came round for the afternoon to give Matthew his presents and have a slice of birthday cake. The cake was very cleverly home-made by my mum in the shape of a train, to the same design as the cake I had for my third birthday. Matthew asked us to sing happy birthday and thoroughly enjoyed his slice of cake, finishing it off before everyone else had even had a piece.

Matthew had lots of gifts - several DVDs including Thomas and Winnie the Pooh, lots of games, some jigsaws, Chuggington play set expansion pack, tunnels and bridges and a chug wash, and some more Chuggington trains, some clothes, Disney Cars toys and playmat, a street playmat with vehicles. The most popular, to Louise's relief, was his Fireman Sam fire engine and fire station set. After Louise bought it, she asked Matthew if he liked Fireman Sam and he said "no", so she was worried he wouldn't like it.

Elmo

2011-09-03T20:01:00.001+01:00

I was getting breakfast in the kitchen this morning when Matthew came running in, looking worried and shouting "Elmo's on TV! I don't like him!". Fortunately it was just an advert so there was no harm done, though I'm not sure where the sudden aversion to furry red characters has come from!

On a separate note, I've noticed over the last few weeks how much less mess Matthew makes when he eats his dinner. Today his hands were completely clean, and he didn't have much round his mouth either. Obviously he has mastered the art of using cutlery!

Matthew's also dropped his daytime naps in the last couple of weeks. He used to go without them occasionally, such as in nursery and when he had a day out, but became very grumpy in the evening. Lately this has become less of a problem.

Standing up

2011-09-02T19:47:00.000+01:00

Matthew had a wee standing up this evening in his potty. There was no spillage - his aim was very good considering it was his first time! He has been excited about doing it, as one of his friends at nursery can do it.

Folly Farm again

2011-08-29T22:06:00.004+01:00

Sand Digger

We took Matthew back to Folly Farm again today, the second year in a row we've been on the August Bank Holiday, and probably the last time Matthew will get in for free! It was busier this year because Thomas the Tank Engine put in a guest appearance, which I thought might cause a little too much excitement for Matthew but actually he was very good.

After going round the barn to see the farmyard animals, we decided to see Thomas first as we thought Matthew would be more patient in the morning. The "guest appearance" just meant a large model Thomas engine with a man dressed as the Fat Controller posing for photographs, but even for this we had to queue for 40 minutes. Matthew was very good waiting and didn't moan or cry, though was a little scared of a clown who was handing out balloon toys and animals to children in the queue. He ended up with a balloon sword, but we lost this somewhere in Folly Farm during the day (Matthew didn't notice, so there were no tears). The Fat Controller was very friendly, but Matthew was scared of him too, so wouldn't smile for a photo. He did have a chance to pretend to drive Thomas by climbing in the cab, and he enjoyed this. He was very good leaving, too, and climbed out of Thomas without a fuss.

Desperately trying to pedal

Apart from the Thomas appearance and playing with some toy sand diggers, we mainly visited the attractions we saw last time: the diggers (I was useless this year); visiting the giraffes, zebras, meerkats, camel and other animals; funfair etc. Matthew really enjoyed the miniature tractors again and went on them twice, though this year he left without a fuss both times. He also had a go on the larger pedal tractors, but couldn't work out how to pedal them and after a good 10 - 15 minutes trying to teach him we gave up. He also can't pedal his smart trike at home yet. There were other children there pedalling away who looked of a similar age to Matthew though, as he's tall for his age, they may have been a little older and looking online it seems most children learn around 3½.

One extra thing we did today was go on the racing karts, which we've never done before. This was when Matthew threw his only tantrum of the day, as we had to queue for quite a while (though not as long as for Thomas). Once we were driving round, he seemed to really enjoy it, and because we were in the first kart it looked like we were winning until we were all slowed down because someone had an accident, when a few people passed us.

A little scared of the Fat Controller

Matthew received a pack of dinosaurs from the toy shop for being a good boy during the day, but unfortunately one of them turned out to have a missing arm, and a leg has fallen off one of the others since they came home!

Funny...

2011-08-16T21:28:00.000+01:00

Matthew made me laugh this morning in the car. We were on our way to my mum's house and I had the radio on, and the presenters were talking about films. One of them said something like, "How can Jonathan Ross just sit on TV and tell people what films to watch...". A little voice came from the back of the car, "Sit on TV? That's not a good idea. You might fall!"

As well as making me laugh it also made me realise that in less than two years Matthew has gone from not being able to say any words to being able to talk.

Favourites

2011-08-14T21:03:00.000+01:00

Matthew now seems to understand the concept of favourites. When asked what food he liked best, he said "sausage dinner", which sounds right as loves sausages and when given sausage dinner today he ate all his sausage before touching anything else on the plate! He also said "chocolate".

I also asked Matthew what his favourite TV programme was and he said "Bananas in Pyjamas" which is a new animated show on Five (a remake of an old cartoon series). He gets very excited when this come on, but only gets to see it once a week as it is shown too late for when he goes to nursery or my mother's house.

G&T

2011-08-10T21:35:00.000+01:00

Matthew has learned two more letters of the alphabet - G and T. Louise had taught him that G was for Gordon (in Thomas the Tank), and yesterday he learned the letter T for Thomas. He correctly pointed out the letter T on a van this morning without being prompted while I was driving him to my mum's house.

He also recognises the letter A, and now regularly points out O and W. He often still gets M confused with W, but at least he now seems to recognise letters as being distinct from numbers and hasn't confused Z or S with 2 for a while.

At the moment he only recognises capital letters - the idea of two cases is a little too difficult for him to grasp yet, though we are also showing him words on phonetic flashcards which are in lower case. Last week I brought home an alphabet jigsaw from work for him, which was being taken out of stock, and have been trying to use it to teach him some more letters. He wants to know what they are "for" (like T is for Thomas etc.), but kept asking about U and X which I found a bit difficult!

I've also downloaded an app on my phone which features a game for toddlers where you drag random letters into the correct order to make a word. Matthew really enjoys this, though it is a shame it only features a few words.

Swimming unaided

2011-08-07T20:12:00.001+01:00

We took Matthew swimming again this morning, with just myself and Matthew going in the pool. We've not been for three weeks, and at first I thought we might take a step backwards with Matthew very reluctant to step further into the pool once the water had gone above his waist. Eventually we got in the pool, and it took a while to get him comfortable with the pool again, but after we had been in for about twenty minutes he suddenly had the confidence to let go of me and began to bounce across the pool on his own. After this he also let go of his float as well, though he still had arm bands on, and bounced away from me so he obviously felt comfortable enough in the water. Louise says that he let go in the pool before, but this is the first time I've seen him let go and move away from me for longer than a few seconds.

He still doesn't kick his legs much unless we ask him to, so learning to swim is still a long way off - but we're making progress!

Clippers

2011-07-17T19:57:00.000+01:00

I took Matthew for his haircut yesterday, and this time the hairdresser tried him with the clippers for the first time. I've not asked before as he's always been very good having his hair cut and I haven't wanted to put him off by having a bad experience, as I've heard his friend Steffan hates having his hair cut and tries to get away! Anyway, I had my hair cut first with the clippers and then asked Matthew if he wanted to try them. He was happy to, and thought it was "ticklish". He was very good and let the hairdresser cut all the way around with the clippers, and even kept his cape on most of the time so the hair didn't cover his clothes (but he did take it off towards the end). As usual, he was running around the hairdresser trying to spray people with the water gun before having his hair cut, which isn't my fault as the hairdresser gave him the water spray to play with. I think the staff in there enjoy it!

This morning, we took Matthew swimming again and I tried to encourage him to let go of me in the pool. He didn't like it much, but discovered that when I let go for just a few seconds and then grabbed him again, he enjoyed it and thought it was a game, so maybe this is a good way to teach him. He's happy to 'swim' round with me holding his waist up, but he's not kicking his legs or moving his arms much at the moment.

In The Night Garden Live

2011-07-10T19:53:00.007+01:00

We took Matthew to see In The Night Garden Live today in Bute Park, Cardiff. He's not been so interested in the programme since we booked the tickets, so we weren't sure how he would get on, and whether he would sit still for an hour as he's never been to a show before.

Anyway, we needn't have worried. He was a bit scared to begin with when the lights when down but, after a few minutes when the characters had come out, he became quite excited and started to enjoy it. He sat down nicely all through the show and didn't moan or cry, unlike some of the other children - one in front of us cried and had to be taken out, and another kept running around and wouldn't sit still. The show took the form of an episode, with the theme music at the beginning, and the characters going to bed just before the end. Although Upsy Daisy and Iggle Piggle were played by actors in life-size costumes - identical to those on the show - the remaining characters were puppets operated on stage. We went to see the Ninky Nonk show, and the Ninky Nonk made several appearances rolling across the stage, presumably remote controlled as there was no sign of anyone operating it. The Pinky Ponk also put in an appearance, though this was on a pole operated by one of the puppet-masters.

We bought Matthew a souvenir programme, Pinky Ponk balloon and light-up windmill. The balloon was so big I couldn't see well out of the rear window when driving home! I did expect Matthew to want to watch the programme on TV tonight but he still played up during it, and didn't want to sit through it like he used to. He's more interested in Peppa Pig and Thomas these days.

Storytelling

2011-07-09T20:16:00.000+01:00

Matthew has started to role play stories over the last week or two by mimicking different voices for different characters. He's probably picked this up from me, as I have been pretending his bath toys have different voices and accents when playing with them during his bath time. When we were driving home from Peppa Pig World on Wednesday, Louise bought Matthew a Toy Story book in a service station, and Matthew was happy to look at the pictures and make up his own story (as he can't yet read) while telling it in the voices of the characters. He also did the same with a story in the Disney Cars magazine on the journey too, and again this weekend with his teddy and toy giraffe - giraffe has a high, squeaky voice and teddy has a deeper, growly voice.

Matthew also recognised a letter "A" today, so he now knows at least four letters. Only 22 to go, then!

Legoland and Peppa Pig World

2011-07-07T21:34:00.001+01:00

We're just back from a three day holiday to Legoland and Peppa Pig World. We travelled to Basingstoke on Sunday, stayed overnight there and visited Legoland on Monday and Tuesday, and then Peppa Pig World on Wednesday (yesterday) before coming home.

Unfortunately, Louise caught a bug on Sunday and started to feel ill just as we left in the car, and developed a chill. By the time we arrived, Louise had a fever, headache and a bad throat. The hotel was also far too hot, and not helped by the warm weather (by UK standards, anyway) I only slept for a couple of hours on Sunday night so we both felt worse for wear on Monday. Matthew slept well and was raring to go!

Legoland was great - there's a lot to see and do, even for toddlers, and we were very glad we'd booked two day tickets since we both felt rough on Monday and had to leave early. We did manage to go on a few rides on Monday:

Fairy Tale Brook (a boat ride with fairytale characters, some of which Matthew found a little scary)
Chopper Squadron (a helicopter ride Matthew enjoyed)
Duplo Train (Matthew loved this and cried when we got out of it)
Dino Safari (a ride in a toy jeep around Lego dinosaurs, which Matthew really enjoyed)

We also had a look round Duplo Playtown - a play area for toddlers with splashing water - and the Miniland, which features miniature cities made out of Lego. Matthew had a go with a remote control boat, too.

After a good night's sleep, we all felt better on Tuesday even though Louise was still not 100%. We set off to Legoland a little earlier and made a list of the rides we thought Matthew would enjoy. After working our way round, we had a little time to spare and even managed to go on a couple of Monday's rides again:

Hill Train
Boating School (real boats you steer yourself - we were going to do this Monday but the queue was too long)
Atlantis Submarine Voyage (a ride to see underwater fish in a submarine - Matthew found this a bit scary and cried to get out)
Orient Expedition (a train ride where passengers are sprayed with water)
Balloon School (toy hot air balloons)
Sky Rider (toy rockets which travel in the air on a track above the park)
Dino Safari - again
Duplo Train - again

During the day, Matthew had a go with a remote control truck and saw a 4D Bob the Builder film, which was in 3D and had splashing water, wind and simulation snow falling in the arena, so Matthew got to try 3D glasses for the first time. We also had a look round the Lego models of famous people, and had a go at a car racing game.

Yesterday we went to Peppa Pig World, which has only opened this year and we found impressive, especially considering it is all based around one UK TV cartoon show. All the rides are in keeping with each other and match the theme of the show very well. Matthew wasn't as well behaved as he was at Legoland, but that's probably because he loves Peppa Pig and knew more about the characters and stories than in Legoland. He thoroughly enjoyed the rides but cried in most of the queues, especially the queue for Daddy Pig's car ride which was the longest of the day. We went on all the rides:

Grandpa Pig's Little Train (twice)
Miss Rabbit's Helicopter Flight
Peppa's Big Balloon Ride
Daddy Pig's Car Ride
George's Dinosaur Adventure
Grandpa Pig's Boat Trip
Windy Castle (it rained during this so we got wet)

We also went round Peppa Pig's house, had a look in Madame Gazelle's School House, bought toys in Peppa Pig's Toy Shop, played in George's Spaceship Play Zone - where Matthew enjoyed a really big slide - and had lunch in Daddy Pig's Big Tummy Cafe. I had several goes at trying to win Matthew a toy at Candy Cat's Games Kiosk but failed!

Matthew was generally well behaved during the holiday, and slept well considering he was in the same room as us, but wouldn't go to sleep until we'd turned off the light even though he was happy to just lie on his bed and watch the telly. He got quite excited in the hotel restaurant, though didn't really misbehave except on Monday evening when he wouldn't stay seated and kept wanting our food. He ate with adult cutlery on adult chairs as well, which was a new experience for him, and generally ate all his food. As usual he was great in the car and didn't moan much at all considering the amount of time we spent travelling.

First dentist checkup

2011-07-01T19:58:00.001+01:00

Matthew had his first check-up at the dentist yesterday with Louise. Louise had an appointment, and had her teeth checked first with Matthew lying down on her lap. The dentist then checked Matthew's teeth while lying in the same position, and said that Matthew had a good set of teeth. He behaved very well, which surprised me as when he went with my Mum he didn't like going, even though it was the same dentist and Matthew didn't have his teeth checked then. As he was good, he was given a sticker - and they have him a Mavis (from Thomas and Friends) sticker as the dentist saw that he had a Thomas top on.

Matthew's not been well this week - he went down with a chill on Tuesday afternoon, complaining he was cold and not wanting his food or drink. He was fine when I saw him at lunchtime, but when I took him home from my Mum's I had to carry him to the car as he didn't want to walk. He wasn't himself at all when he came home, and collapsed on the floor asking to go to bed. We didn't hear anything from him on Tuesday night, and he seemed a little better in himself on Wednesday but still didn't want his food, and developed a fever. He also looked very red in the cheeks. When he got up yesterday morning, though, he was back to his normal self and the temperature and rosy cheeks had disappeared, and Louise was told by the staff in Matthew's nursery today that several of the children had also gone down with a fever this week so he probably picked up something there.

Letter chase

2011-06-26T21:40:00.000+01:00

As Matthew has shown no further interest in learning the alphabet over the last few weeks, and has walked away or complained when Louise and I have tried to point out letters or words to him, I tried a new tactic yesterday.

When Matthew was very young I bought a couple of packs of magnetic fridge letters, which I got out recently to show him. Yesterday, I got them out again and, after he poured the pack over my head (which he thought was hilarious) he went to walk off to play with other toys. I grabbed a letter, and then proceeded to chase him around with it while making the appropriate sound. He thought this was great fun, so I carried on, chasing him with different letters and shouting the sounds - and then stuffing them down his T-shirt when I caught him. He was creased up laughing by the end, and enjoyed it so much we did some more this morning.

It's still early days but he was asking for his letters today, so at least it's got him interested in learning them again.

New footwear

2011-06-19T20:16:00.003+01:00

Last Wednesday we took Matthew to have his feet measured again in town as it's been three months since he was last measured. His feet have grown slightly, and one of his feet is now 7½ even though the other is 7, so he needed 7½G shoes. We bought him a pair of dinosaur themed "stomposaurus" shoes which he likes (centre).

This morning we went to buy him new slippers and trainers in size 8 as they don't come in half sizes. He has some George Pig slippers (left) and we bought him the same design of trainers from Next as he had last time, with coloured stripes.

Potty problems and swimming progress

2011-06-17T20:37:00.001+01:00

When I posted last week about Matthew having gone to the toilet in his pants, we were hoping it would turn out to be a one off. Unfortunately he now seems to have taken a liking to it. While he will happily ask for the potty or his toilet seat to have a wee, and once again went throughout the day at nursery today without any accidents, he has now had a poo in his pants every day for the last three days. Who said potty training would be easy? We keep telling him to ask us, and everything we've read suggests that it's best to praise toddlers when they get it right rather than get cross when they do it wrong, but we've been doing this since we started at Easter. Anyway we're going to try a new tactic, and if he goes in the potty or toilet we will be reward him with a small amount of chocolate! My mother said it worked for me!

We have had some progress at swimming, though. Matthew went for his third swimming trip last Sunday since May, and this time he was confident enough to let go of Louise and try and paddle on his own, though he preferred to walk across the baby pool rather than try and swim. Still, this is a very positive step as if we can encourage him to feel comfortable on his own, I'm sure the swimming will come in time.

Edit (2nd July 2011): Over the last week he seems to have dramatically improved and hasn't been in his pants once. He has taken to doing a poo in the toilet before bed in the evening now, rather than use the potty.

Mole

2011-06-14T20:19:00.000+01:00

Matthew's discovered that he has a mole just below his waist, next to his leg. He was sitting on his potty this evening when he pointed to it, and said "What's that? Is it a mole?". We told him that it was and he replied "I don't like moles!".

Louise has told Matthew that when he is three, he will have to give up his dummy. This morning, when I took him to my mum's, he told my mum that "Daddy is thirty two". As it's my birthday tomorrow, I said "only until tomorrow, when I'll be thirty three". Matthew complained that he wanted it to be his birthday, so we told him that he'll be three in September and he replied "and I put my dummy in the bin!".

Full name

2011-06-05T21:22:00.000+01:00

Matthew can now say his full name. When I asked him his name, he said "Matthew" as usual, and then when I asked him what his full name was, he said his middle and last name correctly.

He's also getting good at the days of the week, especially those which have a regular routine like Tuesday and Saturday. He knows them all, but sometimes gets the days mixed up and I don't think he knows the sequence correctly yet.

Yesterday he wanted to play in the lounge but his drawing table was in the way so I suggested moving it and he said "good idea!". He's picking up little phrases all the time at the moment - another one is "isn't it", as in "that's Action Chugger, isn't it Daddy?" - and can also name most household objects. He helped me put the grocery shopping away on Friday and successfully named almost all the products, except cauliflower, which he thought was broccoli. He also thinks kitchen roll is toilet roll.

Matthew's been interested in doing jigsaw puzzles since he had some for his first birthday, and is now very good. He started with his Timmy Time jigsaw set, which features four jigsaws with 6 - 12 pieces, and he's been able to do those alone for quite a while. Yesterday he successfully completed his Thomas & Stephney 35 piece jigsaw (labelled for children ages 3+) with Louise only helping with two pieces and without a picture of the completed image in front of him.

Potty training is generally good now - he's had hardly any accidents lately - but there are still some exceptions. Yesterday he had a number 2 in his pants for the first time ever, something we did think may never happen as he's been so good. Surprisingly, every time he needed to wee, he asked for his potty. Now I would have thought it should be the other way around...

Train again

2011-05-30T22:02:00.001+01:00

As a bank holiday treat for Matthew, and to get us both out of the house while Louise continued redecorating the kitchen, I took him to the Gwili Railway again for a train ride. After our experience at the Thomas day out in September I was a bit apprehensive, but thought he would enjoy going again as he still loves trains. This time, I didn't tell him what we were doing until we arrived, and he got quite excited.

As it wasn't a Thomas day and it was raining, it was quiet so there were only about 12 people on the train we went on, so Matthew was able to run around and look out of the windows. The steam engine had broken down (they were very apologetic) but this didn't bother Matthew who was happy just to go on any train. We had a ride on the miniature railway as well, as the rain stopped just in time.

He was also very good with his potty, and went in his portable potty in the toilets before we got on the train, and then asked to go during the return journey so I set up the portable potty in our compartment (the toilets on the train didn't work). He had no accidents, though did decide he wanted to jump in every puddle in the car park so we still had to change his trousers when we arrived home.

Three Letters

2011-05-29T21:53:00.000+01:00

Matthew can now recognise three letters - W, M and O. "W" was his first letter, which came from me spelling his name and putting the emphasis on the end (he learned to say "W" after I spelled out M A T T H E....). He now recognises "M" also from his name and doesn't seem to confuse it with W as much any more.

He seems to guess at random with the rest, though if a letter looks like a number he thinks it is a number - like Z (he says 2) or S (he says 5). He also thinks A is the number 4. He does now recognise groups of letters as words, and sometimes asks "what does that say?" when he sees words on the TV or on packaging etc. He also pretends to read books out loud himself, but is really just looking at the pictures and either remembering the story or making it up as he goes along.

Potty progress

2011-05-22T20:58:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, Matthew said he needed his potty, so Louise told him that it was in the kitchen and that he would need to pull his trousers and pants down. He successfully managed to do this himself, without either of us getting up, and sat on his potty in the kitchen. He had less success trying to pull up his clothes again, but even so this is a very positive development as he's never been without assistance before.

He's getting good now at waiting for the toilet and has few accidents. On Friday night, he moaned for quite a while (I thought he'd dropped his dummy as I'd already been in his room to retrieve it once) and when I went into his room he told me he wanted his potty. He'd obviously waited to go until I came in, probably because he'd been awake since he'd dropped his dummy and realised he needed the toilet. Despite this he still sleeps in nappies because he can't control his bladder while sleeping so he still usually has a wet nappy when he wakes up.

We took Matthew swimming again this morning - I came in the pool this time as a trial to see how my skin would react - and he enjoyed himself again. He was a little more confident in the water this time but still didn't want us to let go of him, so we took it in turns to hold under his tummy while he 'swam' across the pool. My eczema seems to have behaved itself so I'll have to go swimming with Matthew again.

Swimming / DVD player

2011-05-08T20:44:00.001+01:00

We took Matthew swimming this morning for the first time in a long time. He'd obviously forgotten his last visits and, even though he was excited going to the pool, was scared getting in and then asked to "go home". Louise held on to him and after a while he let her hold his waist and swim him across the baby pool with his float and armbands. I was watching from the cafe as I'm not supposed to go in the pool because of my eczema, so was trying to encourage him through the window! After a while, he started to enjoy it more and began to start kicking his legs too. We'll have to go again soon so that he doesn't forget what he's learned.

Matthew surprised us earlier this week by going to the DVD cabinet, opening the door, turning on the DVD player, pressing the eject button, removing the DVD that was in there and correctly inserting his Peppa Pig DVD which was on top of the player and closing the door! Today he tried to do the same with a video, and was disappointed when the video dropped off the tray when he tried to close the DVD player.

He went back to nursery on Friday after the long Easter break - he only goes on Mondays and Fridays so the last four nursery days have been bank holidays! Surprisingly he didn't kick up too much of a fuss, though he was reluctant to go, and he didn't have any potty accidents. The nursery staff put children who are potty training on their potties at set times, or if the children ask, but don't put children on every few minutes just in case like we were doing with Matthew at home to start with, so they thought Matthew was very good by not having any accidents.

Potty training update

2011-04-29T22:17:00.000+01:00

The potty training has continued this week with some more improvements. On Wednesday, Matthew went through his first whole day without any accidents which was a big step forward, and although he had a couple of accidents yesterday, he went through today without any as well. He has also started to ask for his potty whe he needs it, though not every time so we still have to try and anticipate when he might want it (leg shaking or twitching often gives it away). He still gets excited when he's been and usually shouts "I did it!", which we've been encouraging to try and give him some confidence to carry on!

Louise was trying to watch the royal wedding this morning, but Matthew decided to use his potty during the vows and then kicked up a fuss, complaining "I don't like that"! We did see the ceremony but had to put the subtitles on - and didn't see everything because Matthew parked his Buzz Lightyear deckchair in front of the TV and climbed all over it!

Potty training: days 4 & 5

2011-04-25T20:10:00.001+01:00

After the big improvements of the first three days, progress has slowed over the last couple. As yesterday was Easter Sunday, we went to see Louise's family and then to my family, and Matthew came along without any nappies. He used his potty twice in Louise's Gran's house and once in my parents' house, but also had one accident on my mum's armchair! He also wet himself outside in the garden yesterday morning.

Today felt like a backwards step in some respects. Matthew wet himself three times and also had a number 2 incident in his pants. He did go in his potty 7 times though, and even asked to go once which is a promising sign. Most of the time he's wet himself have been either playing in the garden, but this evening he did it in the lounge which was disappointing after the progress we've made. He also wet his nappy during his afternoon nap, but that's not a problem as we're not worrying about sleeping times or nap times just yet!

Matthew had 3 "Thomas and Friends" Easter eggs, some chocolate bunnies, and a few other chocolates too. We knew he'd get lots of chocolates, so bought him a slide for Easter which he's enjoying in the garden thanks to the hot weather.

Potty training: day #3

2011-04-23T21:13:00.000+01:00

Another improvement today - only one accident, while playing in the garden this afternoon. We've also had our first number 2 incident, which was fortunately done in the potty. He still doesn't ask for his potty though, so the successes we've had so far have been a result of trying to anticipate when he might want to go and putting him on the potty. The one exception was when I took him out to have his hair cut this morning (with a nappy on) and he asked for his potty in the hairdressers!

A huge improvement though in just three days, so he obviously knows what he's supposed to do and tries to wait until the right time. The next thing is to get him to realise when he needs to go and ask for the potty.

Potty training: day #2

2011-04-22T20:22:00.000+01:00

The second day of potty training has been a lot less stressful than the first, though we're still not sure if Matthew is getting the hang of it. Today he only went to the toilet 8 times rather than 17(!), every two hours on average rather than every 25 minutes, and of those 4 were in his potty and 4 were accidents so he's had a 50% success rate. The snag so far is that, although he recognises that going in his potty is a good thing and says "I did it!", he doesn't yet ask to be put on his potty when he needs to go. Louise has put him on the potty every half an hour or so, and that is when he's gone. When he had the accidents, he didn't ask to go, and he doesn't seem to mind too much running around in wet pants.

We wonder whether yesterday he was anxious about using the potty and getting it right, so the reason he went so many times was because when he started to go, he stopped himself. This would be a good sign as it shows he can control his bladder.

Potty training: day #1

2011-04-21T20:14:00.000+01:00

Matthew's potty training began today as Louise is off work for nearly two weeks and due to the bank holidays Matthew won't be in nursery during that time, so there won't be too many disruptions. We weren't expecting things to be easy and were expecting accidents, but what we hadn't realised was how often Matthew actually goes to the toilet. Altogether today Matthew had 17 accidents. We went through all his pants by lunchtime and they were hanging on the line mid-afternoon and being used again by the evening! Fortunately there were no 'number 2' incidents, all were of the 'number 1' type so not too messy to clean up.

By 9am, Matthew had already been through two pairs of pants, and during the day he went to the toilet nearly every 25 minutes, with a break while he had his nap (Louise put him in a nappy for that). One improvement we've made during the course of the day is that Matthew no longer screams the whole time he sits on his potty, and we did get him to go in there a couple of times - which he was rewarded for - but he still went in his pants after this. He did ask to go a couple of times too towards the end of the day but went before he asked, or just after, so we didn't make it in time.

Days of the week, dentists, new toys and new car!

2011-04-20T20:46:00.000+01:00

Matthew surprised me at the weekend by correctly announcing in the car on the way to town "It's Saturday!". I didn't know he even knew the names of the days of the week, so was telling him how clever he was when he interrupted and said "No, it's Thursday!". It turns out that, although he has been learning the days of the week in nursery, he was copying an episode on his Peppa Pig DVD in which Daddy Pig is lounging around reading the paper and when asked if he is going to work, exclaims "it's Saturday!", to which Mummy Pig replies, "No, it's Thursday!". After this incident, we've been trying to teach Matthew the days of the week with some limited success - he knows he goes to see his Grandma on a Tuesday - but whenever asked what day it is he still replies "it's Saturday!". It would be nice if every day was Saturday, but sadly Matthew will need to learn at some point that this isn't actually the case.

My Mum had Matthew this morning and took him with her to the dentist while she had a checkup. Apparently he was very nervous and didn't like the chair so became quite upset. He did come with Louise and I to the dentist once before when he was a bit younger, but probably doesn't remember it. My mum thinks he needs to go a few more times before he has his own teeth checked, which may happen soon as Louise's friend's little girl first had hers checked at the age of 2 and Matthew has been registered with our dentist.

The fine weather has continued this week and Louise has been busy cleaning and putting together some outdoor toys given to her by her cousin. Matthew now has a paddling pool and sandpit, complete with purple and red sand! The paddling pool didn't come with an air pump, but Louise has discovered that the air pump which went with Matthew's old inflatable Thomas bed works, though it has taken her a long time to pump the pool up manually. Matthew enjoyed the sandpit for the first time this afternoon; Louise is still in the process of cleaning the pool as I write this.

Louise bought a new car last Thursday, a red Seat Leon, and Matthew went with her to pick it up. He wasn't too keen on getting into it at first and kicked up a fuss, but now likes "Mummy's red car" and enjoys having his own door to climb into, as her old Renault Clio was a 3 door so he had to be put in the back through the drivers seat. While at the garage, Louise took her car seat out to put in the new car and as a member of staff put the seat into the new car we discovered that we've had the seat installed incorrectly since we first had it! This also applies to my car, as I've got the same car seat.

Up a mountain

2011-04-10T21:07:00.000+01:00

To make the most of the nice weather this weekend, we took Matthew to the Sugarloaf mountain. Although it's quite high up, it's an easy climb to the top which doesn't take a long time from the car park, and we thought Matthew would enjoy the trip out.

He enjoyed running up the mountain path, but found the top a little too steep so I had to carry him which proved to be good exercise now he weighs 2st 6lbs! One unexpected problem was that once he was at the top, he didn't want to come down again so got a little upset. We were able to distract him a bit by demonstrating the echo on the way down the mountain, and we were shouting to try and get our voices to bounce back.

The sunglasses and hat came from Tesco yesterday. I took Matthew shopping, which proved to be challenging as he refused to hold my hand and wanted to pick everything up! He didn't want to sit in the trolley, but in the end I decided it was the best option, and although he wasn't happy to get in, he soon cheered up when we went to look at the sunglasses. We chose a pair of Toy Story glasses which were only £1 - he broke the pair we bought him last year, but he loves wearing glasses so he did get some good use out of them.

Louise also bought Matthew some outdoor toys last week - a wheelbarrow, lawn mower and brush. He really enjoys the lawn mower which has pretend grass bouncing up at the back! We've also taken the parent handle off Matthew's smart trike now, which he had for his first birthday, but he can't pedal it yet.

Sentences, letters and stairs

2011-04-03T21:34:00.001+01:00

Matthew's almost talking properly now, and uses sentences a lot of the time. Over the last few weeks he seems to have started to use more sentences rather than single words or phrases - he doesn't always get the grammar right but he does a surprising amount of the time. Some of his favourites at the moment are "I want to do it!", "Daddy / Mummy bought me that in Leekes" (about a toy bought from a shop), "I don't like it!", "Daddy's got stripes, and Matthew's got stripes" (about a shirt or jumper), "I want to help", "I need new trousers!" (when he's spilled food on them), "Where's my Mummy / ice cream / dummy?", "What colour's that?", "What number's that?", and "Who's that, Daddy / Mummy?".

Matthew can also now recognise the letter "W", which he knows from me trying to teach him the letters in his name. A while ago I bought some alphabet fridge magnets, but he was too young, so I showed them to him for the first time today. He recognised "W", but thought "M" was a "W" the wrong way up, so turned it round - and when I introduced the letter "Z" he said, "No, that's two!". He is getting good at recognising numbers and can now recognise most numbers up to 10 - he associates them with the engines in "Thomas and Friends".

Over the last few weeks, Matthew has started to walk up and down the stairs, rather than crawl or bounce on his bum (though he still enjoys doing this occasionally). He can now walk up and down the stairs while holding the banister without holding my hand.

Plaster!

2011-03-31T20:05:00.000+01:00

Matthew fell on the steps yesterday and cut his knee. As it was bleeding, Louise put a plaster on Matthew's leg, which he's not had before. When I came home, he told me that he had a "hurt one" and showed me his leg. He also didn't want to get into the bath, though this might have been because he was tired rather than because his leg hurt.

Louise took Matthew to have his feet measured again today, and he needed new shoes. He's now a size 7G. His trainers were already size 7, so still fit. When the shop assistant measured Matthew, she thought his feet were 7F, but Louise mentioned that he had always been a G. Once the shop assistant tried the shoes on Matthew's feet she decided he did need a G because he has developed a high instep, like Louise, which would make an F too uncomfortable.

My name is...

2011-03-22T21:46:00.000Z

After weeks of coaxing, Matthew finally said his name when asked at Jambori this morning. The group leader gave him a blue ball to keep as a reward, which he brought home with him! He's been able to say his name at home for a long time - probably about 9 months or longer - but has been reluctant to say it in public until today.

Red Nose Day

2011-03-20T22:26:00.001Z

Matthew wore a red nose t-shirt on Friday for Comic Relief. I bought it a few weeks ago for him, and I wasn't sure if he would wear it as when I first showed it to him he didn't like it as he thought the face (a portrait of Shakespeare) was too scary. On Friday, though, he was happy to wear it when I put on a red nose as he thought the picture was "like Daddy"!

The nursery had arranged a sponsored walk to raise money, and we had been given a sponsor form so had assumed Matthew would be taking part and had asked family and friends to contribute. It turned out that the nursery thought Matthew was too young to do the walk, though, so he ended up joining the younger children for a sponsored dance!

Unlike last time, I couldn't get Matthew to wear a red nose this year, even though I'd bought the set of three monster noses which I thought he'd find entertaining.

School!

2011-03-17T21:35:00.000Z

Louise was worried yesterday after reading online that children need to be booked into their preferred primary school by 31st January the year before they are due to start school. I didn't think it would be a problem as I didn't think children started school until the age of 4, but apparently they start full time school here the term they turn 4, so Matthew will start in September 2012 as he will be 4 between September and December next year.

When Louise phoned the school last year they said we had plenty of time to book Matthew in, which is why I wasn't concerned. Louise phoned them again today and they said that there is still time to book him in, but she will need to fill in a form.

On a related note, Louise finally managed to get hold of the manager of the local preschool ("Meithrin" in Welsh) to book Matthew in from September. She had emailed, phoned several times and even went there twice before managing to speak to anyone! There is quite a log waiting list, but hopefully a place will be available by September. Attendence is optional so he will be able to carry on attending his nursery on Mondays and Fridays, and go to preschool on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for half the day.

Yesterday, Matthew amused me at lunchtime by telling me "don't make a mess Daddy" when I was eating. He then told Louise he "didn't like bed" and said " I don't want to go bed" in the evening! Fortunately he didn't kick up too much of a fuss when Louise put him to sleep. He is still very good at being put to bed and we normally don't hear from him once we close the door.

Talking on the phone

2011-03-08T19:51:00.002Z

Last year I downloaded an app for my phone (for Matthew's benefit) called "Talking Tom Cat", which has an animated cat pulling faces and repeating your words in a high pitched voice. Matthew enjoyed it at first but lost interest after a while, as at the time he was only able to say individual words rather than phrases or sentences. During the last week, however, he's rediscovered it and taken an interest in talking to it and pretending to have a conversation like he's on the phone. This video was taken at the weekend:

We gave Matthew half a pancake today for Shrove Tuesday, and seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully we won't regret it tonight!

Potty books

2011-03-02T20:47:00.000Z

We decided to put off the potty training after our experiences earlier in the week, and instead try and get Matthew used to his potty and toilet seat and hopefully sit on them without crying before encouraging him to actually use them. Louise has bought Matthew a couple of small books designed for children, called "Once upon a potty" and "Pirate Pete's potty", to try and make him more enthusiastic about sitting on a potty. He's enjoyed reading them today, but we'll have to see if they have a positive effect on his potty attitude!

It's just as well we put off the potty training, as Matthew's gone down with a bug today and has had a fever. He didn't seem too bad this evening but has been moaning since being put to bed, and refused both a Fruit Pot and his milk this evening.

Toilet trouble

2011-02-28T19:55:00.000Z

Potty training begins tomorrow. Louise tried sitting Matthew on the toilet this evening on his adaptor seat, but he didn't like it and screamed to "get down!". We're starting to get the feeling it's a bit too early for him... watch this space!

Interestingly, my mum has told Louise that I was toilet trained at Easter. As my birthday is in June, that means that I would have been three or four months older than Matthew will be. Apparently I was bribed with Easter eggs!

Funtasia, playing alone and pants problems

2011-02-27T20:12:00.000Z

I took Matthew to the Funtasia play centre yesterday morning with my friend Andrew. It wasn't busy - we were the first to arrive - so Matthew had his pick of the equipment. After we'd been there a while, a few other small children arrived and Matthew seemed more sociable than the last time we went, speaking to a little girl (who must have been younger than him, and looked like she hadn't been walking long) and following her around. Having Andrew there as well made it easier to play than last week, as one of us was able to go to the top of the slides with Matthew and the other meet him at the bottom. Andrew took Matthew on the large blue slide, which he's not been on before. He seemed to enjoy it, but was a bit wary of a rope bridge he had to cross to get there - he said "don't like it - too wobbly" and Andrew had to carry him over it.

He also had a Fruit Shoot drink, which he took to the till himself with a little prompting. When he'd had enough, he even ran back to the cafe and tried to put the bottle back in the fridge! I stopped him before he managed to open the fridge door, but the woman on the till just saw him walking back to our table with the bottle and thought he'd taken another one, so I had to explain it was the same bottle we'd purchased before.

Matthew is starting to play on his own at home a little. It mainly happens when I'm cooking dinner or just after he's had his dinner, and usually he plays with the Chuggington set that we bought him for Christmas. Yesterday evening I was cooking and heard him playing on his own with his Chuggington toy trains, so assumed he was playing with the Chuggington track until I heard a loud bang and realised he'd knocked over a dining table chair. It turned out that he'd taken his trains underneath the dining table and was playing with them there! We've seen him playing there before - perhaps he likes to pretend it's a den. He still won't play on his own much if we're in the lounge with him, and will try and make us sit on the floor if I'm just sitting down, so this is something we need to work on.

Louise is off work this week and has been considering starting potty training, however we suffered a set-back tonight. Matthew went to the toilet about twenty minutes before he was due to have a bath, so to avoid putting a new nappy on Louise decided to try him in pants for the first time. He seemed to like the pants, but no sooner had he come downstairs he complained of "wet trousers", and when Louise pulled down his trousers to show me the pants, we saw he'd wet them. We took them off and went upstairs for a bath, and he then had a wee on the bath mat! Louise has told him to ask us if he needs to go to the toilet, but perhaps he's not old enough to understand or to know when he is going to go yet.

Eye infection

2011-02-18T20:39:00.000Z

Matthew developed an eye infection on Wednesday, and by the time I came home from work his eye was half closed, looking quite red and had discharge building up in it. Although he looked a little better yesterday, Louise took him to the doctors who prescribed him some eye drops for cojunctivitis. The nursery won't allow children infected with conjunctivitis to attend, so Louise had to keep him home today even though his eye looked much better. Unfortunately Louise is working tonight, and had to miss her usual Friday afternoon sleep given that Matthew was home! Hopefully she will cope alright in work...

Matthew hates the eye drops and has tried a few things to resist then: closing his eyes, shaking his head, and shouting "no, don't like it!", so it's just as well his eye is getting better.

Semi Skimmed

2011-02-13T21:28:00.000Z

Louise phoned the health visitor last week, who told her to give Matthew semi-skimmed milk rather than whole milk, as he's growing well and isn't underweight. When he first saw that he was having the milk with a green top rather than blue top, he told Louise he was having "Daddy's milk"!

Height, hair and hassle

2011-02-06T20:37:00.000Z

Louise measured Matthew's height yesterday - he's now 95cm tall. This is an increase of 4.5cm since September, though now we don't see the health visitor to do the measuring it may not be completely accurate. Louise also measured Matthew a couple of months ago and he was about 93cm, so he's been growing at about 1cm per month lately.

Yesterday was a stressful day. I took Matthew to have his hair cut and parked in the multi-storey car park. As I had Matthew in his pushchair I needed to use the lift, but the one I usually use was out of order and displayed a sign to use another lift. When I got to that lift, it was also out of order. In the end I had to get Matthew out of the pushchair and hold one of his hands while he walked down the stairs, trying to manouevre the pushchair with the other. After that, Matthew didn't want to go back in the pushchair or hold my hand, and decided that he wanted to run in the opposite direction to the hairdressers.

He enjoyed having his haircut, although the hairdresser gave him a water spray to play with so we all got soaked! He also decided it would be fun to throw all the magazines on the floor while I was having mine cut.

After the haircut, we were walking round the shops when Matthew told me he had been to the toilet. I couldn't find a changing area near where we were, and I had planned on going to the car wash at the local Tesco (Matthew enjoys the car wash, and I'd promised him we'd go) so I thought we'd go to the changing room there. It took a while to find the changing room in the store as we've not been in there before, and when we finally got in there I discovered that there were no baby wipes in Matthew's changing bag! There was a set of drawers labelled "nappies" and "wipes" in the cubicle, but these had been vandalised and contained only one nappy and no wipes, so I had to get him dressed again and then find some wipes in the store.

Tesco currently have a "buy 2 get 1 free" offer on wipes, which I'd taken advantage of just the day before, so I picked up another 3 packs to add to the 6 we already have at home, and then headed to the self-serve checkout. After scanning the wipes, the checkout displayed an error asking for assistance, and while we were waiting Matthew decided it would be fun to climb in the shopping baskets! By the time we got back to the changing room I was quite stressed, and in the course of taking Matthew's nappy off I managed to get some of the contents onto one of his socks. In the changing bag there was a spare top, trousers and nappies but no socks, so I had to clean it as best as I could (at least I didn't have a shortage of wipes) and then put his shoes back on.

Fortunately the car wash passed without incident. Matthew doesn't like being washed in the bath, so last night I managed to get him to wash by pretending we were in the car wash!

Matthew has also been exhausting today - he's been running round shouting. He also doesn't stop talking. We took him to town this morning just to get out of the house, and to be fair he was quite good. He particularly enjoyed running around B&Q, though I had to apologise to a few people he nearly ran into. He also enjoyed going into Costa Coffee, where he had a raisin and oat biscuit and fruit shoot drink. This evening he amused me by copying the dancers on "Dancing On Ice", which I've not seen him do before. He also loved being swung round in the air pretending to dance.

Drawing

2011-02-04T20:04:00.000Z

Matthew has started to try and draw properly instead of just scribbling manically. This evening he drew a circle shape on his magnetic drawing board, and also scribbled two circles joining each other and said it was a butterfly.

He's also learned a new phrase this week - "I can't"! When he couldn't pull one of the shapes out of his drawing board he told me "I can't do it". He's said it a few times over the last couple of days and also said it to my mum too.

We've tried to get Matthew to drink from a cup again this week instead of a beaker. He can be quite good at it, but he tends to drink while walking around or watching TV, and if he does this he causes a mess.

Whose name?

2011-01-29T21:06:00.000Z

While driving him to my mum's house on Tuesday morning, I taught Matthew the names of people in the family by saying "Daddy's name is John, Mummy's name is Louise...." etc. He already knew my name and Louise's name, and by the time he arrived he knew his Grandma and Grandad's (my parents) names, and Gran and Gramps' (Louise's Gran and Dad's) names. My dad answered the door, and was greeted by Matthew who immediately prodded him and said "Martin". Despite this, he was still too shy to say his own name in Jambori. He will tell you his name if you ask him outside of Jambori, in English or Welsh!

For a while now Matthew has liked to point to pictures of anyone or anything he doesn't recognise and ask "who's that?", and he also says "whose name?" when he wants to know someone's name.

Matthew's language development continues to impress - today he told me "I want a drink, Daddy". He also said "sit on that chair Daddy" and a few other sentences correctly this morning. He now uses "I" correctly and has started to say "I want..." instead of "I need..." over the last couple of weeks.

The return of Father Christmas

2011-01-22T20:35:00.000Z

Louise took Matthew round to our neighbour's house this afternoon, and while they were there her ex-husband called in, who has a large grey beard. Matthew started crying when he came in, so Louise asked him what the matter was, to which he replied "Father Christmas!"

I'm sure many children would be delighted to see Father Christmas, but perhaps he's been the source of Matthew's recent nightmares! He cried out "no!" several times in the night last night while he was asleep, and has already started crying tonight even though he's only been in bed for less than an hour.

I took Matthew to the park this morning, and while he was on the small slide some other children went on the big slide. Matthew tried to copy them but the step was too large for him, and he told me, in a correct sentence, "I can't reach that slide".

Matthew has been back on the naughty step this evening after throwing his Mega Blox - one hit Louise in the face. He then proceeded to grab my glass of water and pour it on my dinner plate, splashing me with water and gravy. Fortunately I'd finished my dinner.

Snooker

2011-01-17T20:42:00.000Z

Matthew saw me watching some of the snooker on telly last week. As a snooker fan, I was a bit disappointed when he told me "no snooker! Turn it off!" and then turned off the telly! Yesterday, though, when the flag came off his Thomas The Tank flagpole (which he had from the Day out with Thomas event), instead of asking me to fix it he pretended it was a snooker cue. He then spent quite a while pretending to play snooker by knocking a ball around the lounge with it!

We took Matthew yesterday to Funtasia, a local soft play centre. Matthew has been there before with Louise, but it was the first time I've been there and was quite impressed. It was a bit larger than the Hoodles play centre we went to in Scotland, but it wasn't as busy, and we were the first people to arrive so Matthew had his choice of all the equipment. He seemed more cautious than in Scotland and refused to do much on his own other than play in the ball pool, so I had to go in with him and help him to go down the slide and up the stairs. He also seemed a bit cautious of the other children running around, which is understandable at his age. When we took him to leave though, he screamed, so he was obviously having a good time.

I mentioned at Christmas that as Matthew isn't yet old enough to understand the concept of "tomorrow" we were able to enjoy a lie-in on Christmas morning because he didn't know it was Christmas Day until we got him up. Well, it turns out that he isn't old enough yet to understand that Christmas is over either, so this evening we were treated to a shouted rendition of "Jingle Bells" and we were then told that there was a Christmas tree on the ceiling with a star on the top.

Nightmares

2011-01-11T20:36:00.000Z

Matthew's night time habits are slowly changing and, just as we've finished the teething stage, we've hit another problem - being frightened. On the plus side, he now talks in the night rather than just scream; last week we woke up to his voice on the monitor saying "change nappy, change nappy". Sure enough, his nappy needed changing and he then went back to sleep again. Last night he said he'd lost his dummy.

We're wondering if he's starting to have nightmares though. This article mentions that experts don't know if children under two can have nightmares, so he would be the right sort of age to start. He has cried on the monitor a little over the last few nights, just briefly, and although we don't know if he's having nightmares he has recently started to become frightened of things he sees in the day and now uses the word "scared" a lot.

Louise used to enjoy watching Emmerdale, which is on just before Matthew goes to bed, and he used to ignore it. In one episode before Christmas, Matthew saw a character vomiting in hospital and when he saw the man again he said in an agitated voice "don't like it - turn it off". We left it a few weeks but when Louise recently put Emmerdale on again, and the same character appeared in a totally different situation and Matthew again got upset and said "don't like it - turn it off - scared - man" so we had to turn it off again.

Matthew used to enjoy Shaun the Sheep, and Granny (my grandmother) bought him the box set of the first series for Christmas. He enjoyed watching the first two DVDs, but on the third there is an episode where the Farmer is ill in bed and vomits. Matthew again reacted badly to this and hasn't watched Shaun the Sheep since. He's not seemed quite as agitated by Shaun the Sheep as with Emmerdale, so we hope he'll be able to enjoy it again soon as long as we avoid that episode. Strangely, there's a Hallowe'en episode which he's seen several times with flying pumpkins and a glove crawling across the floor of its own accord (it turns out there's a mouse in it) but Matthew finds that funny!

Matthew also enjoyed watching Little Bear, but there was an episode with an animated scarecrow dancing which he was frightened of and he hasn't wanted to see Little Bear since.

He might not be having nightmares about things he's seen on the telly, though. He's recently talked a lot about "big monsters", "scary monsters" and "big giants" as if he's genuinely frightened - I'm not sure where he sees them, but he's never shown any sign of being frightened of them in his books.

Me, Myself and I

2011-01-03T20:09:00.000Z

Matthew has over the last week or two started to use "I" instead of referring to himself in the third person, for example "I do it", "I take it" etc. He hasn't learned the words "me" and "my" yet, so still uses his name in some phrases, such as "Matthew's toy". He's also learned to say the word "you", but doesn't always use it correctly. He's been saying "mine" for a while, though, usually as a single word when he wants something I have - "No! Mine!"

I tried putting Matthew on the naughty step again today and it seemed to work well. He didn't try and come back in the lounge until we let him, and when he did come in again he stopped screaming. He even played on his own for a while this afternoon with his Chuggington set - if I'm around he usually wants me to sit with him and play.

Full set of teeth / Locked out

2010-12-31T22:38:00.001Z

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

2010-12-27T15:46:00.000Z

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

2010-12-19T20:55:00.001Z

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!

2010-12-17T22:09:00.001Z

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

2010-12-05T20:06:00.000Z

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.

Naughty boy

2010-11-22T21:46:00.000Z

When Louise picked Matthew up from nursery today, she was told that he had a row for going to kick another boy and take a toy off him, shouting "mine"! It's the first time he's tried to do something like this, and the first time he's had a row at nursery. They told Louise not to worry as most of the other children do it and Matthew is unusual in that he hasn't yet.

He does occasionally try to slap or punch us, especially when we tell him off, though he's never tried to do it to anyone else before, as far as we know. It's difficult to know what to do when he does it, apart from tell him that it's not acceptable, which sounds a bit lame. Louise wonders if we should introduce a "naughty step", but I'm not sure if he's a bit too young yet as he won't understand what we mean.

Wild West Matthew

2010-11-19T21:19:00.000Z

Yee Haa! Is that a cowboy hat?

No, Matthew's put his potty on his head. Fortunately he's not started using it yet!

Children in Need

2010-11-19T21:05:00.000Z

Matthew went to nursery today in his pyjamas for Children in Need day, and came home with his face painted in a Pudsey Bear style. I was surprised that he let them paint his face as he wouldn't join in with the fancy dress last week, but he seemed to enjoy having his face painted and even let me take a photo.

Don't let the smile deceive you though, within minutes of the photo he was crying - he's usually grumpy on Friday evenings for some reason, and he didn't sleep in nursery today either so he was tired.

Monitor off - and other news

2010-11-18T11:31:00.001Z

On Tuesday night, I turned the baby monitor off for the first time. This wasn't something I'd planned to do, but we had a problem with it beeping during the early hours of the morning on Saturday and again on Tuesday and that made me wonder whether we still need it now Matthew is sleeping in his own bed. I had the monitor with me downstairs for the first part of the evening, then turned it off when I went to bed as Matthew's room is next to ours and we can hear him crying without it. We had the monitor on all night again last night as Louise was home and she feels more comfortable with it on.

Originally we had planned to stop using the monitor when Matthew went into his own bed as he could climb out and come into our room if he needed us. As the weather has become colder though we have put Matthew back into a sleeping bag which would make it difficult for him to walk, even if he wanted to, and he's so far shown no inclination of getting up during the night, so we have kept the monitor on.

Matthew's started to develop some personal preferences when watching TV. He no longer enjoys In The Night Garden, which he used to like, and wants the channel changed when it comes on. He still loves Thomas And Friends, but his latest favourite programme is Shaun The Sheep, which he asks to see every evening on CBBC. He has also taken a liking to Little Bear and Roly Poly Olie on the Tiny Pop channel. Generally we try and restrict his TV viewing to first thing in the morning, and just before he goes to bed after dinner, though occasionally he will also watch TV at lunchtime. We only let him watch DVDs occasionally because he always throws a tantrum when they finish and wants to watch them again! He's developed a liking for Chuggington recently as a result of watching a Chuggington DVD he was given, and especially likes the episode which features Action Chugger - a super-chugger who flies like a plane - so I now often have to help him build an Action Chugger with his Mega Bloks.

Matthew's been coming out with some funny phrases recently too. Whenever he sees a picture of Father Christmas, he says "Farmer Christmas"! He's not used to the word "father" as he calls me "daddy", but he is used to "farmer" from his books and from the farmer on Shaun The Sheep. He also thinks that the jingle on the TV advert for "Moonpig.com" is "Moonpig all gone"! Lately he has also developed a tendency to shout orders, like "sit on the floor Daddy!", "sit down Daddy!" and "in the lounge Daddy!". I'm not sure whether obeying is a good thing because while I want to encourage his speech development by showing him he has given me correct instruction, I don't want him to think he can boss us around. He has also recently started to talk about Connor the dog, after not mentioning him for the first couple of weeks after he died: on Monday when he came home from nursery he said "Daddy's not home, Connor's not home" and he also pointed out that the plates on the wall were "like Connor" on Tuesday morning.

In the bath, Matthew has developed a passion for putting the bubbles on his face and my face and pretending he has a beard or a moustache, and then washing them off. He also likes to pretend to wash his bath toys using an old bottle that he uses to pour water over them.

Fireworks Not

2010-11-05T19:54:00.000Z

Louise and I used to always enjoy going to see the fireworks together, but that's something we've had to put on hold for the last couple of years because of Matthew. We did go the year Matthew was born when my Mum looked after him, but he was only two months old at the time and was sleeping irregularly so we were able to leave him at Mum's and collect him afterwards. Now he goes to bed at 7.30pm every night so that wouldn't be an option, and last year Bonfire Night was on a Thursday which is my late night shift at work. Louise works Friday nights, so this year we couldn't go, and since Louise went back to work I've had to stay in to look after Matthew on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays too.

Fortunately we're always treated to a good free display courtesy of the people living in the estate behind our house, and this year has been no exception. Matthew's also been enjoying the fireworks and has been watching intently from the window - crying and asking for "more fireworks!" when they finish. As he's enjoyed them we've been thinking about taking him to see them next year as Bonfire Night will be on a Saturday and he'll be a bit older, though he does seem a bit frightened of the bangs. If he does enjoy them, the other problem might be that he screams when the fireworks finish!

Six and a half

2010-10-30T21:03:00.003+01:00

Matthew's new shoe size is 6½G. Louise took him to have his feet measured on Thursday because he's been complaining of his "feet hurting" recently, and was surprised to find they have grown so much - he was only 5 last time. He now has another pair of smart new shoes, and the price is increasing with the size - these were £34!

He had to wear a Hallowe'en costume to nursery yesterday. Louise bought him an all-in-one costume but he wouldn't wear it, so she ended up getting him a "mummy" style top with a picture of bandages on it which he wore with jeans. Apparently he didn't like walking into the nursery because everyone was wearing costumes!

RIP Connor Dog

2010-10-26T21:29:00.001+01:00

In a cruel twist of fate, Louise rediscovered Matthew's Connor Dog bib at the beginning of last week, which we couldn't use when Matthew was first born as it was far too big. At one point when Matthew was teething badly he used to wear a bib throughout the day, but now he mainly just uses one at mealtimes. Matthew loved the Connor bib, and was delighted to point out that "Connor Dog" was on the bib and in the kitchen!

Only a day or two later, Louise took Connor to the vet and was told that a lump he had developed was getting worse and they couldn't operate because of his liver condition, so unless we wanted to keep him on tablets and watch him deteriorate it was time to put him to sleep. After some discussion, it was decided that it would be best to put him to sleep and an appointment was made with the vet for Monday morning. We made a special trip to the local woodland park on Sunday morning, where we used to take Connor regularly but haven't had much time to go to since Matthew was born. Matthew and Connor both had a great time, and Matthew showed us how much he's developed since we last took him by running round most of the way himself.

It was very sad saying goodbye to Connor before leaving for work yesterday knowing it would be the last time I saw him. Matthew is too young to understand, but surprisingly hasn't asked for Connor and has only mentioned him a couple of times so far. I did take a few photos over the weekend, as I doubt Matthew will remember Connor when he grows up.

Nearly a full set of teeth

2010-10-15T19:54:00.000+01:00

Matthew's latest tooth poked a corner through yesterday - his top left back tooth. That just leaves the bottom left and he will have the full set. He's been quite good at night this time (famous last words) but I'm sure some of his grumpy behaviour in the day recently has been down to teething. The nursery also said today that he looked "flushed" and took his temperature in case he was coming down with something. Although three of his back teeth have come through, it's only one of the four corner points which have come through so far for each, so there could be more pain to come as they're quite large.

Talking of the nursery, they also warned us today that a boy in Matthew's group has caught chickenpox. Matthew was with him on Monday and apparently it is most contagious before the spots come out. Fortunately Louise and I have both had chickenpox, but it won't be very nice for Matthew to catch it.

Screaming

2010-10-10T20:46:00.001+01:00

Over the last couple of days, Matthew has learned the art of screaming deliberately when he has a tantrum. Instead of just crying and screaming uncontrollably as he used to, he takes a deep breath, looks at me, and then screeches at the top of his voice. He then pauses again and repeats the process for maximum volume.

Yesterday was Louise's birthday and also our wedding anniversary, and we went to McArthurGlen shopping centre in Bridgend with Matthew. He was good to begin with, but when we took him out of his pushchair to put a coat on that we'd bought for him, he wouldn't hold our hands so we tried to put him back in. He was very unhappy with this and proceeded to scream for the rest of the afternoon so we had to come home early.

While we were there, Louise did buy a potty, toilet training seat and a toddler step stool for the sink from Mamas and Papas. He's not going to be potty trained just yet (though he enjoyed sitting on the potty and thought it was a toilet), but we now have all the equipment ready to go.

Louise's friend Alison bought Matthew a toy Thomas the Tank, Annie and Clarabel coaches and naughty trucks in the Take Along Thomas range (he already has two Gordons in the same range), which he is thrilled with. He played with them most of the day today.

Bed update

2010-10-08T20:21:00.001+01:00

So far things have gone well with Matthew's new bed. He's slept all night for the first two nights he's been in it, though Louise has been going in to check on him and found that he's kicked the duvet off and been sleeping in just his pyjamas on his pillow. He's not used to sleeping in a duvet as he's been in a baby sleeping bag in his cot which strapped round his arms so he couldn't come out. It's meant to be warm this weekend so he shouldn't get too cold in bed, and hopefully he'll get the hang of having a duvet before the cold weather sets in for the winter!

Another tooth has also started coming through and put in an appearance yesterday - his top right back tooth.

Matthew's been coming out with some new phrases recently. Today in the bath when I tried to wash him with a flannel, he took the flannel off me and said "don't need it". He also told me when asking for his dummy, earlier this week "need it". Earlier this week, he wanted to get to his Thomas The Tank DVD which is up on a shelf on the wall and told me he "can't reach it". Louise also said that he told her his neck was "itchy".

Bed time

2010-10-06T20:14:00.000+01:00

We put Matthew's new Thomas The Tank toddler bed together on Saturday. To be fair, the instructions did say that the parts were a tight fit for safety reasons and that the screws should be kept loose during assembly, but the instructions also gave an estimated assembly time of 45 minutes so knowing my DIY skills I'd estimated maybe an hour to an hour and a half when we started. 2 hours and 20 minutes and several arguments later, the bed was complete!

Matthew's gone into his bed for the first time tonight. Louise showed him the bed earlier this afternoon and he liked it, and she let him play on it so he got used to it being in his room. He was very happy to get into it this evening, and did so before he'd even had his wash. He even attempted to pull the covers over himself.

We'll have to see how he gets on in the bed tonight. It is designed to be low level so Matthew can get in and climb out of the bed easily and, as I mentioned in this post, I'm a bit concerned he'll use his new found freedom to get up and come into our room during the night. He's never shown any sign of trying to get out of his cot, though, except sometimes when we go into his room in the morning.

New tooth

2010-09-30T20:20:00.000+01:00

Right on cue now Matthew is 24 months, his first back tooth (bottom right) put in an appearance today. This is his 17th tooth and just leaves the other three back teeth. If he continues to follow the BabyWorld guide, teething should be all over in the next 5 - 6 months.

It seems that Tuesday's good behaviour with the beaker was a one-off. Tonight he cried when given his milk in a beaker and decided it was a great idea to spill it on my chair. He did drink it eventually, but then cried when he finished it and asked for more. As most of the bottles have gone now though, there's no turning back! On a more positive note, he's been without his dummy every day this week so far except at bedtime and nap-time, and hasn't moaned about it much so far. He did ask for it when he went to bed tonight.

Matthew impressed us tonight by counting to ten in Welsh without any prompting! He was having his nappy changed in his room before bed and looking up at his numbers animal print. We don't speak Welsh, but he does learn it at nursery and at the Jambori sessions he attends on Tuesdays - Louise said that they were counting to ten in Welsh this week. When we asked him to count again, he counted to four in Welsh and stopped. I asked him what comes next and he replied, in English, "five"!

Bottle breakthrough

2010-09-28T21:44:00.000+01:00

Matthew drank all his milk from his beaker this evening without crying, so Louise has finally thrown away most of his baby bottles. We've kept a couple of them for heating up his milk in the microwave.

Next step - to get him to drink the milk out of a cup and not a beaker!

Room redecoration

2010-09-27T20:35:00.000+01:00

Now Matthew's a toddler, Louise has made some changes to his bedroom. The "Snug as a Bug" theme border has been replaced by a Thomas the Tank border, and we've also replaced the plain curtains with a matching Thomas set. These changes are to match Matthew's new Thomas bed, which arrived on Friday but we haven't assembled yet. We're not changing the wallpaper, pictures, flooring or lighting this time, and the new Thomas theme actually goes well with the yellow painted wallpaper so there won't be any need for a repaint! Louise needs to get another roll of border to finish the job, and we're also thinking about getting a Thomas rug and lamp. Matthew loved the changes to his room, and was thrilled to have "Thomas curtains"!

Getting Matthew to give up the bottle and drink his milk from a beaker is proving tricky. He threw a big tantrum tonight, not helped by the fact we're also trying to stop him from using his dummy during the day, so we couldn't use that to clam him down. He did eventually drink his milk after he'd screamed for about 10 minutes. This morning he wouldn't drink his milk so Louise took the beaker into nursery with Matthew.

2 year assessment

2010-09-23T21:41:00.001+01:00

Matthew went to see the health visitor today for his 2 year assessment, the first time he's been since he was 18 months old. The health visitor checked his development by asking him to perform some simple tasks:

A shapes puzzle with different shapes to put in the correct holes,
A puzzle with some fish,
Stacking blocks to form a tower,
Matching similar coloured cards together.

Matthew was able to do all the tasks without any problems at all, though he did want to knock the blocks down after he'd stacked a few!

The health visitor and Louise tried to get Matthew to talk as well to check his language skills, but he was too shy and wouldn't say anything. Apparently this is fairly normal, and the health visitor asked Louise questions instead. Fortunately the health visitor remembered that Matthew had talked about his shoes at his 18 month assessment, so wasn't concerned. His current lisp is normal and should correct itself by the age of four. He does sometimes miss out the "T" when he says "tr.." as in "track", "truck" and so on, and the health visitor did say that if he can't pronounce any letter correctly by the age of 2½ then he would need to see a speech therapist. I don't think this will be a problem as he can say "tr" when he wants - and can correctly name my Aunt's dog "Tresca".

His height and weight were also measured - he's now 90.5cm tall (2 foot 11.6 inches) and weighs 2 stone 5 lbs (or 14.97kg). He's still at the top of the graph, but this isn't a problem as he's at the top for both height and weight, so his weight is right for his size.

The health visitor does want Matthew to start learning to drink from a cup rather than a beaker - our previous attempts haven't been too successful. The next step is to put him in a bed rather than a cot: we've ordered a Thomas The Tank toddler bed which should arrive tomorrow. After that it's potty training, and the health visitor suggested 2½ as a good age to start. Apparently it's not always a good idea to use the specially designed 'pull up pants' as toddlers can't feel they have been to the toilet because they're too absorbent, so the health visitor recommended just putting him in two pairs of normal pants and he should learn more quickly.

Louise was given a pack of books, some crayons and some toothpaste and a toothbrush to take away. Matthew's next health visitor appointment is at the age of three.

Organisation

2010-09-17T20:42:00.000+01:00

Over the last few weeks, Matthew has started to enjoy lining up his toys in a row. He began by lining up his bath toys on the edge of the bath a month or two ago, and more recently has started to line his toy cars and trucks up in the lounge against the door or the chair very precisely. This evening before going to bed he had lined his toy Thomas the Tank, Percy and James engines neatly next to the side of the track.

While the inner librarian in me is delighted that he is taking an organised approach to life at such a young age, I've been a bit worried about whether this is normal or whether it could be a sign of autism. From this forum and other websites it does seem that a lot of toddlers enjoy lining up their toys, which has put my mind at rest. His 2 year assessment with the health visitor is due soon, so hopefully she will pick up on anything abnormal about his behaviour!

Thomas tantrum

2010-09-12T20:17:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday, Louise took Matthew to Waterstones where Matthew entered a drawing competition with a prize draw to win a ticket to ride on Thomas the Tank. We had a call later in the evening to say that Matthew had won the competition and Louise went to collect the tickets earlier this week!

The "Day Out With Thomas" event is on this weekend and next weekend, and we chose to go today as Louise worked Friday night and it's the start of term at the university where I work the week after next. The weather was also good today, so we thought it would be a great chance to experience the event again after our wet Easter trip.

Unfortunately, we had to bring Matthew home after a couple of hours because he behaved so badly. I've never known him to throw so many tantrums when we've been out, and it came as a bit of a shock considering how good he was when we saw Thomas at Easter and how good he was on holiday in Scotland.

We had to park in a different place this time, right next to the train, but had to walk through a muddy field to get there which didn't go down too well with Louise. Matthew was good on the first trip with Thomas, but once we got off the train and went to see the amusements he decided to throw a tantrum as we had to wait in a queue while others had their photo taken with Thomas. Percy then arrived with Toad (a brake van) and we joined the queue for a ride, but we couldn't get on board with the first trip so Matthew threw a tantrum when Percy departed. When we finally got on board, Matthew cried at first because Percy didn't leave straight away, then was ok when Percy left but screamed every time he stopped, and screamed when the ride finished and we had to take him off.

We then took Matthew on a coach with toys, a Thomas video and some colouring tables. He enjoyed this and it kept him entertained for a while, but when we tried to take him away from a Thomas train set he screamed again. We then tried to put him on a bouncy castle, but he refused, and wanted to get off straight away. After this, I was going to take Matthew on the minature train but we had to sit down to wait, and he started screaming again so at this point we decided to take him home.

Although the trip didn't cost us anything, I was very annoyed with Matthew because another family could have won the prize and made a lot more of it than we were able to. He did enjoyed the train rides on Thomas, and he's too young to understand about waiting, but he's usually been good whenever I've taken him out which is why today came as such a disappointment. It was also embarrassing as all the other children seemed to be very well behaved. The staff asked us what was wrong when he was crying after the Percy ride, so we had to say that he didn't want to get off.

Anyway, the summer holidays are over, Matthew's had his birthday, and it's the busiest time of year at my work coming up with no leave until Christmas, so hopefully by the time we go on our next day out he will be a bit more well behaved.

Matthew is 2!

2010-09-06T20:48:00.001+01:00

We celebrated Matthew's 2nd birthday yesterday. Like last year, we just had some friends and family round in the afternoon, after Matthew had woken from his nap at 3pm. Louise had ordered a chocolate cake from Marks and Spencer in the shape of a caterpillar, which was very popular with Matthew who associates birthdays with cake (when I told him last week it would be his birthday at the weekend, he said "birthday cake!"). This year he was able to blow his candle out himself, with a bit of prompting from Louise as to what to do.

Matthew had a lot of presents for his birthday. His favourite seems to be a toy lorry bought by Louise's friend Alison, which he played with most of yesterday afternoon. He also likes the toy fire engine and remote control Noddy's car we bought him. We also got him a Thomas The Tank track with pull back and go engines, which we thought he would like, but he can't work out how to pull them back at the moment and gets very frustrated as he just expects them to whizz around the track like his Noddy train set (which broke a month ago). I'm sure it won't take him long to figure out how it works, though.

Matthew also had his hair cut for the second time on Saturday morning, and was very good again. This time he sat on my lap for the whole time without crying or moaning. He was also good while I had my hair cut and played with his buggy and the toys and books in the hairdressers.