Parent Teacher Conference at Bent Tree CDC

Watching the SMU band with Dada

Judson and Matthew at the SMU tailgate

On Tues, Oct 6th Andy and I went to Matthew's parent teacher conference at his new daycare, Bent Tree Child Development Center. Ms. Kelly told us so many interesting things about Matthew. Apparently, he is a leader in the class. Ms. Kelly told us that he listens to instruction very well and he even tells other kids "no" when they do things they shouldn't (walking up the slide, etc). There was a new girl in the classroom and Matthew would hold her hand when the teacher asked him to go get Claire and bring her inside.

Ms. Kelly was almost in tears expressing her joy for Matthew. Let me just start by saying that Andy & I had this conversation with Ms. Kelly while all the kids were sleeping in the classroom with the lights dimmed and soft music playing in the background. Matthew was sleeping on a cot in his sleeping bag holding on to a stuffed animal - it was so cute. I think Andy & I almost teared up a couple of times, too.

Ms. Kelly told us we were lucky to have such a good little boy. She says that she usually only has to tell him "no" once by saying "Matthew" and he will look at her and then proceed with something else. He is able to use a spoon when he eats and he can drink from a regular cup (no sippy cup needed). He can walk backwards and do all the milestones for an 18-month old. Multiple teachers have told us that he is a smart kid. Ms. Kelly mentions the alphabet and Matthew runs over to the alphabet poster and points to the letters. Some of the other kids don't pay attention but when they see Matthew doing it, they start getting engaged. Ms. Kelly says that Matthew makes her job easy.

Matthew loves to dance. Usually Ms. Kelly is the only one dancing while the kids just stare. But Matthew starts dancing and so the other kids follow. We found out that he loves the hookey pookey song. Ms. Kelly says that most kids at that age pick up books and speed through them but Matthew slowly turns each page while paying attention to the details.

The thing that I thought was hilarious is that Matthew plays very different from most boys his age. He is very maticulous and orderly. For example, most little boys enjoy knocking down stacked blocks. But Matthew likes to stack them one by one and if he knocks them down, he picks them right back up and stacks them again. Ms. Kelly was amazed at his neat and orderly personality. She told the other teachers that our house must be immaculate with Matthew's cleanliness. Matthew gets this orderly trait from Andy but he gets the calculated/dantiness from me. When Andy was a kid, he had his shoes in order and everything was picked up in his room to the point that people were amazed. When I was his age, I played with glass jars and I would try to put different lids on each jar as opposed to knocking them down.

We are not sure what Matthew will be when he grows up but it sounds like he may follow in mama and dada's footsteps in that he will be detail-oriented. Grammy thinks that Matthew will grow up to be an engineer given his maticulous play. I bet he will be better at baseball or golf rather than the contact sports - at least that is my preference.

We were surprised to hear that Matthew never has any tantrums in the classroom. Just last week, we were trying to get him to eat broccoli and he threw the biggest tantrum yet. It took a while for him to calm down. After a couple of days of giving him broccoli for dinner first before the other food, he has finally warmed up to it.

On Friday, Nana and Papa came into town around 7pm on their way to Scottsdale. Matthew enjoyed seeing them for a quick visit. They caught a flight out early Saturday so when he woke up, he was saying "Nana", "Papa" but they were gone. On Sunday, they came back through Dallas on their way home and Matthew saw them briefly Monday morning.

On Saturday, Matthew went to the senior citizen home for a party. He was a little sleepy so he didn't run around and dance like he usually does but he was blowing kisses to all the residents and giving high-fives. They were surprised to see how big he has grown. The party was a state fair theme and Matthew liked the queso (I made it with sausage) and he tasted cotton candy for the first time - he loved it! Then we went to the SMU tailgate and game and Matthew had a grand time. He saw the band and played with Arden and Judson. We left the game around half time at 8:20pm to get him to bed before the meltdown occurred. (His normal bedtime is 8pm)

On Tues, Oct 13th Matthew had his 3-month checkup at the doctor.  

His stats are:

height 31 inches - 20%

weight 23.6 lbs - 15%

head circum. 19.3 cm - 85%

He is progressing well with no illnesses lately. He had a cold with a runny nose and cough that has lingered for the past 4 days. But other than that, he has been healthy. He has more teeth than most kids his age and the doctor predicts that he will be around 6 ft tall. The doctor gave us some good advice for the tantrums and veggies. He told us to not give in and just ignore him during the tantrum. Then he said to talk to him afterwards and explain that he has to eat his veggies. The dr said that Matthew will come around. We will give that a try next time.

This upcoming weekend Matthew will be going to Michigan to visit Grammy and Grandpa Durkin and Grandma and Papa Bruce. He will be going solo with Andy this trip. I am going on a trip with my sister, Lori. More updates to follow.