The Life of Matthew

After dinner tonight I brought one of my books over to Mummy and asked if we could count. Mummy started me off and I counted to ten all on my own! This was in Danish don’t forget - I always talk to Mummy in Danish. I made a few mistakes but the mark from the Danish judge was 7/10.

I then did my numbers with Daddy in English and again counted to ten on my own. The mark from the English judge was 9/10 (I always seem to forget five).

I’m not worried about my Danish marks but I blame Mormor. Whenever we count together she always misses out syv (7). This naturally throws me. Daddy says that I’m being unfair; the number seven wasn’t invented when Mormor was a little girl!

The picture on this page gives a clue to my high score in English. I’m playing with Puppy, my friend that sings songs and teaches me things, and yes, one of those things is counting to ten. There is another reason that I’m good at counting to ten and it’s my favourite game but that’s for another time (can you guess what it is)?

Anyway. The two marks combined give me a total score of 16/20 or 80% which, if I were to do a degree in counting at university, would give me a First. I knew I was clever!

Until next time, bye, bye.

This school malarkey is absolutely exhausting and I haven’t even spent a whole morning there yet!

I thought that I would be spending all morning with Mummy or Daddy until I got used to the whole thing but so far we have only been spending an hour at a time there although today Mummy left the room for ten minutes to see how I would react. I was very good.

We are not too sure how long it will take until I can spend all morning at my nursery but to be honest with you, I’m not too sure that I can stick the pace. I’m shattered by the time I get home and go straight to sleep - and only after an hour in class. Daddy says that this is normal and not to worry. Apparently I’m training to be a student!

Until next time, bye bye.

I’m feeling much better now. My cough has cleared up and my nose is back to behaving itself and not leaking.

This means that I’m now well enough to start nursery school on Friday. I was a bit nervous about it but the great news is that Mummy is going to spend the day with me! What happens is that Mummy will be with me (Daddy is at work) so that I can see everything is all right and that there is nothing to be afraid of. On Monday, Daddy will be with me although at some point he will leave the school for a while so that I can get used to being without him. After that we will see how it goes. Some children may need longer to get used to the school whilst others don’t. I wonder which I’ll be?

Lots to look forward to then. My only hope is that the two teeth that are coming through at the moment get on with it. Mummy and Daddy want to give a medal to the person who invented teething gel!

Until next time, bye bye.

Last Saturday morning we all went to the market. For lunch we had pizza in a very nice restaurant and I really enjoyed myself. I fell asleep in my high-chair and woke up just as we were getting home. I was out of the high-chair by then. I woke up with a stinking cold and hacking cough! It was that quick.

For the last two days I’ve been feeling awful. The cold I can deal with; after all that’s what Mummies and Daddies are for - wiping up snot - but I can’t deal with the cough. It’s a dry couch and it hurts. Every time it hurts I cry and that makes me cough even more.

Mummy and Daddy have been really good and they are making me nice food that is soothing and easy to swallow. I’ve been allowed to sleep in their bed which is very comforting and I seem to be able to do what I want. Except stand on the coffee table or play with the plugs. I’m REALLY not allowed to do those things!

Hopefully I’ll feel better soon. I’ve got a big day ahead of me on Friday when I go to playgroup for the first time and I don’t want to miss that (I don’t think).

Until next time, bye bye.

Well! This afternoon proved to be very exciting for me. All of a sudden it seems I am going to nursery school. Nobody told me about this!

Mummy made an appointment yesterday to go and speak to the local nursery school and so off we went this afternoon. Mummy and Daddy think it’s a nice place, there is only room for 13 children and at the moment they only have one available place. The lady says that they play and tell stories and have little bicycles and make pirate costumes for the carnival. Upstairs is a room for babies but I am a big boy and would be with the children aged from 1 - 3.

Lately I have begun taking an interest in other children (apparently there are lots of little people like me out there) so Mummy and Daddy feel it will be good for me to go out and be with them. I will only be going from 9 - 12pm and then I can come home and play with Mummy. It will be good for Mummy too because she can then go to the office and Daddy can also go to work.

Seems like I will be starting in February. Mummy and Daddy will come with me to see that I get settled. I think Mummy is feeling a little sad at the idea of sending me off but she can see that it’s in my best interests. We’ll just have to play extra much when I get home!

Until next time, bye bye

It’s Daddy’s birthday today and we are off to France for the day. As we have a new camera, there might be some photos to come!

Happy birthday Daddy - you don’t look a day older.

Until next time, bye bye.

I can’t believe how quickly the last month has gone. I’ve so much to catch up on but at the moment I’ve got lots of things to do so here’s an early New Year’s resolution - I’ll write more often after Christmas.

Christmas gets under way for me today. Danish people (including Mummy) celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve so later on we are going to be opening presents and having Christmas Dinner Part 1 (Duck). Tomorrow we will be celebrating Daddy’s Christmas and I will be opening more presents and eating Christmas Dinner Part 2 (Turkey).

Although I don’t understand Christmas 100% I’m looking forward to it very much.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Until next time, bye, bye.

I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last post. Time really flies when you’re a little boy learning so many new things.

Check-Up

Last Friday I had my 15 month check-up. The doctor was happy with my development. I wasn’t happy with my doctor. The minute I say her I started screaming and crying and hardly stopped for the whole visit.

Mind you, I had plenty to cry about: I had two injections, one for meningitis and the big one, MMR. I’m sure you remember all the fuss a while ago about the possible link with the MMR vaccination and autism? (I don’t - I wasn’t born but Mummy and Daddy were talking about it). When Mummy and Daddy raised their fears with my doctor she said everything was fine and that there was no link at all. So that’s OK then.

For the record I now 12.06kg weigh and am 83.5cms tall. A big boy although the doctor said another kilogram wouldn’t hurt. Daddy said that chips are now on the menu! (Mummy said they’re not).

Being Sick

Not connected with the vaccinations (I hope), I had my first bout of sickness last night. I don’t know what caused it but being sick is fun! I can get the stuff everywhere!

The first time I managed to be ill all over myself and my bedding. Even though it was 2.40am I was very impressed with Mummy and Daddy’s reaction time. Within seconds of the first unusual sound they were up and by my side. After changing me and my bed clothes I was having a snuggle with Daddy when I was sick again; this time over me and Daddy’s trousers (I somehow missed his top). After getting changed again it was decided that Mummy would go back to bed and Daddy would sit up with me as Mummy had to go to work early but Daddy could go back to bed later. The third time I was sick I managed to keep it off myself. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for Daddy’s top!

That seemed to be it for the rest of the night and I went back to bed at 5:00. An hour before Mummy and Daddy had to get up again. Being sick didn’t bother or upset me at all and I don’t seem to have any other symptoms. Maybe I eat something funny last night (Mummy was cooking after all)!

Until next time, bye bye.

If you remember from my post A Stitch in Time… the doctor told Mummy and Daddy to take the plaster off after two days to let air get to the cut. Sure enough, after two days the plaster is off and here is my stitch in all its glory.

Until next time, bye bye.

Well! Did we have an eventful evening yesterday?

I was walking around the house as I usually do when I fell over. Normally this is not a problem but this time I banged my head against the corner of a wall. I didn’t like this and I’m not ashamed to admit that I started to cry. Mummy came to pick me up and we discovered that red stuff was pouring out of my head! Mummy passed me to Daddy who tried to calm me down whilst Mummy fetched a cold compress. During this time Daddy and I both got covered in red stuff. Daddy held the compress to my head and after a couple of minutes I stopped crying and the red stuff stopped leaking out of me.

Mummy and Daddy decided to take me to the local health centre as they thought I might need stitches. At the health centre we were told that they didn’t do paediatrics and that we should go to the health centre in the next town. We all thought that this was fair enough as our centre is only small and I wasn’t leaking any more.

At the next health centre we patiently cued (as English people are wont to do - though Mummy and Daddy would have pushed in if there was a problem) when the lady in front said we could go ahead of her. Next minute it was our turn when out of the blue, and travelling at a surprising rate of knots, a little old lady pushed in front of us. Mummy and Daddy were shocked and just stood there looking at each other when our Catalan friend behind us waded in and told the old lady off saying things like “can’t you see this baby is hurt?” After an argument our friend was declared the winner on a technical knock-out and we got seen by the receptionist. We were told to go upstairs and wait outside Room 4 were we would be called when the doctor was free. We hadn’t even got to the door when my name was called out. Now that is fast.

The doctor looked at my wound and said that I would need a stitch. He didn’t want to give an anasthetic something to numb me as it would hurt more than the stitch would. He proceed to operate on me whilst I was sitting on Daddy’s lap and the whole thing was over before I really got crying. The doctor put a plaster on me, gave another to Mummy with instructions to change it tomorrow, remove the plaster in two days and come in eight days to have the stitch taken out.

We then went home. The time taken between falling over to getting back to our house was one and a half hours. Not bad considering we went to two clinics.

I had a good night’s sleep and as you can see by the picture, the whole episode hasn’t ruined my appetite for my breakfast.

Until next time, bye bye.