November 1998

We had a wonderful evening last night with our little vampire son, at the nursery halloween party. Matthew had so much fun with his little friends, and he even had his photo taken by a press-person so maybe he will be in the papers next week. I love to watch toddlers free-playing together, they seem to have a game which they all play. First they "hit" (fairly gently) each other until someone appears to be declared the winner, then the winner runs off and everyone chases after him. When they catch up they pull each other over into a heap on the floor. Its amazing, there are obviously definite "rules" to the game, but I can't figure them out. It looks so funny.

Matthew seems to enjoy being at home with me, now I am on Maternity leave. (I can only afford to keep him at nursery three afternoons a week whilst I'm on leave) On Friday, though, he asked to go to nursery. In some ways I was pleased because it means he is happy there. I think he misses other toddler company. Matthew definitely has a different lifestyle when he is with me, I went to pick Matthew up from Nursery the other day and they were all over the moon telling me about all the new things he could do, things he had been practicing at home with me. He has been colour-sorting bricks, he can now name most colours pretty accurately. They were also impressed by his ability to do simple jigsaws... I have to admit to being pretty impressed by that one myself. Matthew is bright and he constantly wants to learn new things.

Matthew continues to sleep badly and has now taken a strong dislike to cots. He climbed out of his a couple of times. I tried to encourage him to sleep in his own bed by removing the sides of his cot so it is more like a "big bed", but all he would do is look at it saying "oh no, cot broken" and "mummy broke the cot", so he is still sleeping in my bed. We decided that it was time to buy a big bed, and hopefully get Matthew sleeping again. We bought him a junior bed, although it will only last until he is about five it fits into the shared nursery more easily. It is also very low to the ground, and has a half-rail along one side to help him not fall out, it is ideal for such a small boy. Matthew ceremonally help us to "break" his cot and put it away, and then install the "big bed". He immediately liked it and started bouncing on it. The first night we read him a story and he fell asleep straight away - Bliss! - I had to pick a little confused bundle off the floor and put him back to bed, but he is happy, and I'm sure he will get used to not falling out!

Getting Matthew to sleep is becoming my daily dread at present... He has endless energy and unfortunately he will only get into his "big bed" when he is ready to drop, I long for the days when I could put him down in his cot AWAKE! Last night he went down at 10:30, tonight it was 11:30, and he is always up around 7:30. At least he is sleeping through now though. Boy was I naive when I though that moving Matthew to a big bed was just about getting him used to not falling out! There's a whole new set of skills involved, not least getting the hang of a duvet. It seems he doesn't like pillows either, he was wriggling down past his pillow and falling out, but since I stopped giving one he has been more settled. We had a couple of weeks that were hard, but finally got a bedtime ritual sorted out. After tea he plays for half an hour then he goes upstairs. He has a bath and a story then goes to bed. We are having to lie with him until he drops off but he is going to bed nicely at about 9pm. I was getting a little worried that the new baby was going to arrive before we had this sorted out, but luckily I am still pregnant! Matthew is very much used to the idea that a new baby will be arriving "soon": today he asked me "is the baby at work?" How sweet! We have explaned to him that the baby is "hiding" for now, and we always refer to it as "his baby", to try to get him adjusted to the idea.

Normally I work to the principle of Christams in December, and only December, but I decided to make the Chirstmas cake with Matthew so that I wouldn't have to worry later on. We also made some mince pies to put in the freezer, Matthew is loving cooking, and it is a geat activity for him on the days when he isn't at nursery. I have been finding going swimming too much lately, so we have had to stop that, but I have been investigating lots of other toddler groups for Matthew to attend.