Matteo Update: 2.5 Years

What I love about Matteo is that what you see is what you get.  For instance, he does NOT like to be woken up before he's ready and will bury his head in his pillow like a grumpy teenager, and it's clear, DO NOT DISTURB.  But once he's slept, he'll wake up ready to start his day and there's no question he's happy.  He shrieks with happiness when he sees something he likes and dives right in to playing.

Luckily he's a mostly happy, fun-loving kid.  He's a typical two-and-a-half-year-old who's into what you would expect a child this age to be into, like blocks, cars and playing outside.  He even tries building with Legos with his brothers even if his attention span and fine motor skills aren't quite there yet. 

I love how much this kid loves books!  He still hasn't figured out how to hold a book right side up, but he loves looking at them nonetheless.  He's got the  bedtime routine down.  He knows to go pick out a book and that whoever books Mommy or Daddy is reading, that's who gets to sit in Mommy or Daddy's lap.  I took him to story time earlier this week and he loved it.  I don't think he would have been able to stay engaged if all the librarian had done was read a book, but it was a very interactive story time with songs and movement along with the stories and he actively participated nearly every minute of it.  We sang "If You're Happy and You Know it (Clap Your Hands)" and he enthusiastically clapped through the whole song, even when we changed to stomping and then turning in circles.

One thing he does not like though are swings.  He's interested in them, to the point you think he wants to sit on the swing, but then you push him and it's clear he's terrified.  Even with a gentle push, he has that "stomach-dropping" look that you normally get during the downward plunge on a roller coaster.

Matteo still isn't saying any discernible words. I've noticed he no longer says that one Chinese word anyone could discipher ("ay-ya", which kind of means "yay!") and now mainly yells, "Ma!" at everything that excites him or when he's trying to get your attention.  His ear tube surgery went well, but we haven't noticed whether he hears more than he did before.  He goes in for another audiology test in a few weeks and all we can do for now is keep our fingers crossed that his hearing has been restored.

Despite his lack of speech, Matteo makes his needs and desires known, mostly through a lot of pointing.  He will also come up to me and pat me on the arm to get my attention if he wants to show me something. 

We had Matteo in diapers for two weeks while he recovered from surgery.  The liquid diet was causing him to wake two to three times a night as it was.  It got pretty ugly during those midnight bathroom breaks because Matteo is otherwise a deep sleeper and does not like to be awake if he's tired.  There were so many times we wished he'd just go in his diaper, because he probably would have been happier than he was when he needed to use the toilet.  Unfortunately, we got our wish - right when we decided to put him back in underwear.  It took a couple of days of pretty much non-stop laundry, (we're also in the process of potty-training Kiera) but we might have gotten him back on track.

Matteo is adjusting well to his glasses.  When he first put them on, he touched the glass and pulled them on and off his nose.  I was told that's normal as they just get used to them.  That first afternoon with the glasses he kept pulling them down his nose or tried touching the glass and needed reminders to keep them on and leave them alone, but ever since then, he pays them no notice.  He lets us put them on him in the morning and goes about his day without a complaint.  We haven't seen any evidence he sees better with them, but we were told if he "high steps" (which I thought he did a bit), this would probably disappear.

When we named our newest son Matteo, we intended for his nickname to be Matt, a name I love.  And maybe that will be one of his nicknames someday, but right now his dad and brothers call him Tao Tao (his Chinese nickname) and Kiera calls him Teo because she can't pronounce Matteo yet.  That's fine with me because I think nicknames need to develop organically and that makes Teo and Tao Tao that much more special.