Matthew at 22 months

Matthew will be 22 months old in 12 days. He is such a friendly little person who loves to laugh and loves attention. Everything he does needs to be seen by Mommy. And he calls for me when he wakes up, when he can’t see me and when he wants to show me something.

He has 12 teeth so far with his 4 canines making an appearance soon. He had his first haircut on 4 November and it was a bit of a disaster. I followed hubby’s instructions of wetting his hair and then just cutting the front straight. Well, anyway, the front is very short and the one side is a bit skew. He moved at the last minute and the scissors slipped. Oh well, next time, I’m doing it my way and I’m sure it will turn out better. He still has his long curls at the back and I refuse to cut it, although the temptation to do so is great.

He can say a few more words now but nothing too significant. At least we can communicate better with him and he seems to understand loads. His current vocabulary consists of:

Yo – yoghurt

Bis – biscuit

Fiss – fish

Biyte – bike

Duse – juice

Ball

Hallo

Mama (calls everyone this)

Daddy

I got you

I don’t know

There are a few more that I can’t remember just now

He loves his bike and ball and as soon as the backdoor opens, he just runs inside and fetches his bike so that he can ride outside. He loves watching The Lorax and Animal Planet and can sit quietly for more than half an hour watching these programs. He loves dancing and as soon as he hears one of his favourite songs, breaks out in this funny little dance. He does what we call a half chicken dance. One arm flaps at his side, while his legs move side to side and he does a bit of a bop. Ha! It’s the funniest and cutest thing ever!

He eats very well and loves yoghurt, viennas, rice dishes and anything meaty (chicken, steak, chops). He loves chocolate and biscuits and goes gaga over jelly sweets. The only luxury he doesn’t eat is chips. Won’t touch the stuff. (funny child)

We started to wean him off the dummy but I keep forgetting and it’s been 4 weeks since we started and he’s still on it. I tried doing the weaning where you cut the dummy. There is only half a teat but he still sucks/bites it. Although, he now only has his dummy at night and seems content to leave it by the bed when he gets up in the morning. I need to put in more effort where this concerned. I was going to start weaning him out of our bed this month, but we need to move again and I don’t think he will adapt very well. But I think we should do it anyway. He starts out in his cot but when he wakes in the middle of the night, we put him in our bed instead of making him fall asleep again on his own. This is something that hubby and I must do together.

Overall, Matthew is a wonderful child, full of life and laughter and really a joy to have around. He throws the odd tantrum but nothing that we haven’t been able to handle. Tantrums are short-lived and quickly diffused.

                                                                                       Creche pic