May 1998.

Matthew can now say around thirty words. At present they are all nouns, but I am pleased that he is doing so well. His talking has suddenly taken off, and he is almost ahead of his peers now! Silly mum: shouldn't have worried! He is adding to his vocabulary by a new word every two days at the moment.

He continues to teeth, but his health has got better: I think his body is just getting used to the idea. He has finally got his first bottom molars showing, but I think it will still be a few weeks before he is finished, and his gums have become red around his top canines... poor little chap, will it ever end? He likes having teeth though, and loves brushing them at night. I worry about keeping his teeth healthy becuse mostly he won't let me brush his teeth. I try to brush my own teeth at the same time so Matthew can copy, and I just think the contact with toothpaste is better than nothing. When he is in a good mood I get to brush them myself - about once a week. I try to ensure that he only has sweets occasionally, both for his teeth and for his general health... I would prefer he gets used to eating proper food - but Karl and I are both temped once in a while and it would be unfair if Matthew wasn't given something. I give him the "fun size" bars, or sometimes I can get hold of dried fruit in sweetie like packets which are a great alternative.

Now Matthew is over his cold we are finally going for his MMR. I have given up on waiting for him to finish teething. He had a full checkup and weighs 12kg/26lbs. He didn't even notice the jab, being too busy playing with the doctors toys! In fact he only cried when we had to leave, because he was having such a good time. I had chosen a week when I could take time off work quite easily in case Matthew was ill at all, but again I didn't give him any medicine "just in case", and he was absoulutely fine.

Matthew has an initial appointment with the eye specialist because he had a slight squint when he was younger, but it has cleared up completely. We are a little worried about the fact he has had lots of eye infections and has a tear in his right eye all the time. I have read that this could be a blocked tear duct.

My school friend Louise got married, and we all went to the wedding. I dressed Matthew in a waistcoat and he looked really smart. He was dead good throughout: eating his way through the four course meal without any problem. He really enjoyed the speaches too, laughing and clapping when everyone else did. He is so sociable, and enjoyed meeting all my old school friends. Luckily though, he was happy to go to bed at eight o'clock as usual. We put him in a travel cot in one of the hotel rooms and he was completely happy about this. It is really a godsend that we can put him down to sleep so easily, even away from his own cot and his normal routine.