Sorry, this post somehow fell through the cracks during our busy November!
The Monday after his birthday Matthew had his 4-year physical. He is in good health, which is no surprise to us. He weighed 38 lb 12.8 oz (17.6 kg), which is around the 75th percentile. And he measured 3' 6.13" (107 cm), which is in the 80s for percentile. He was brave getting shots, although he was not happy with the stinging sensation the one left for a little while, but he recovered relatively quickly from that. Developmentally he is right where or a little bit ahead of where he should be, and the doctor is pleased with his growth.
Matt remains funny, fun, imaginative, talkative, intelligent, focused, silly, affectionate, exuberant, vocal, goofy, helpful, smart, and sometimes stubborn. He can be emotional and a bit dramatic, especially when tired and/or hungry; if he falls down and hurts himself, he is just as likely to brush it off as he is to threaten to fall apart. He is becoming more independent. He has long been able to dress himself and been fully potty trained. Now Matt is much better at putting his shoes on the correct foot and putting on his jackets and zipping them up all by himself. Buttons and then tying shoes are on our agenda of things to work on.
Matt talks up a storm and is doing well there. A couple of months ago his speech became even clearer. He still has a little trouble with "th" and double consonants, specifically those beginning with s- (sm-, sp-, etc.), and he can stumble a little when he gets ahead of himself with a really big sentence. Irregular verbs can still trip him up - even adults have trouble with many of those - but he doesn't make a lot of serious grammatical errors. His vocabulary and sentence structure as well as understanding are very good, though.
Matt is into vehicles of all kinds, dinosaurs, and space. (He told me a few weeks ago he wants to be the first person to visit Saturn.) He still likes Winnie the Pooh, Curious George, Thomas the Train, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Pete the Cat, and Dr. Seuss. But he really likes Lightning McQueen and the Disney Pixar Cars these days. He is also a big fan of The Magic School Bus books and TV series. He still likes watching The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That, and he wants to get into Dinosaur Train (which is one of those TV shows engineered to capture kids' attention). He likes things with the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles (or, as he calls them, N-ja Turtles) and the Paw Patrol dogs on them, but he doesn't get to watch those shows or movies. He has been enjoying reading The Magic Tree House books with Jon, but with all that's going on he has taken a short break from those.
Matt still enjoys puzzles, but he seems to be more into building things with Legos, magnetic blocks, etc., these days instead. (There are a lot of great building kits out there these days, and he may have to get a few more for Christmas.) He likes to put things together from pictures, but if there is no guide he can come up with interesting creations of his own. Matt loves playing games of all kinds, especially with Dada. He insists on winning or at least proclaiming he has won, however. Matt enjoys dressing up in costumes. (We raided some after Halloween sales and stocked up the costume box with all sorts of superheroes, occupations, and animals.) And he still loves reading. Matt also enjoys playing outdoors. At playgrounds he prefers to play with friends to playing on the equipment much of the time, but he does enjoy slides, swings, and sandboxes. He is also starting to enjoy climbing challenges more.
Matt is doing well at school. He runs off and gets right down to playing at drop off, yet he's happy to see us at pick up. He often tells me I come too early and don't give him enough time to play; he'd prefer to be the first dropped off and the last picked up every day. He talks non-stop about everything he did at "nature school" on the way home from Knee High Naturalists. It's been harder to draw out what he did at his "other school," but slowly he is starting to report more than what he had for a snack, which must be what struck him as most important at first. We're starting to hear more about the other kids and the activities of the day.
Matt is starting to outgrow his 5T/boys' size 5 shirts. I'll probably swap out his shirts the first of the year or so. His 4T pants aren't nearly as long as they once were, but he still has some trouble keeping his pants up. Matt doesn't really have a defined waist and his legs are pretty skinny, so there isn't much to hold up pants once he starts running around. Around the first of November we swapped out Matt's shoes to size 11/12 boots and 12 sneakers. His feet seem to have grown very quickly the past couple of months after holding steady for a while.
