Matthew's World

Matthew spends his time doing some most interesting and unusual things for a 5 year old boy. Is he active? Well this picture may suggest that he is physically active, but in reality he is more mentally active than anything. He does love his razor scooter. He zips around the patio on that thing talking to himself about roads and speed limits and when the light is going to turn red. I have sketched I don't know how many road signs in sidewalk chalk out there. If I even step a toe outside and he's cruising around on that scooter he says, "Momma, can you draw me some signs? I need a new stoplight over here." So I'm pretty awesome at drawing that stuff now. No right turn? You got it. Detour ahead? Sure. One afternoon he asked me to draw 10 different speed limit signs. He slows and speeds up accordingly for them all. And our patio isn't that big, so imagine that!

Matthew sees the world in maps and intersecting lines. He was outside one day over by the fence lining up sticks into a road. We were eating dinner one night and he took the shredded cheese on his plate and made a road out of it on his placemat. When I pick him up from Bible Study or church I look at his coloring sheets or activity pages and he leaves the coloring side blank, but when you flip it over you will find a very intricate map. When Matt wakes up in the morning he is allowed to emerge from his room only after 7:00. His first stop after the restroom is to the computer where he opens up Google maps and goes exploring. This is all while the rest of us are still in bed on most days. He knows how to navigate all over that thing, it's incredible to watch. He even puts the little man on there and goes to street view. That way he can see the dead ends in their entirety. He's got all of Austin memorized I think; at least our central area that we live in. He's always telling me where a street begins and where it ends. And the creepy part is that he's right. Not surprisingly his favorite streets are the numbered ones and the avenues that are lettered. I told him one day to explore Manhattan and his head nearly exploded when he looked at it. Now he goes all over the globe looking at street names and roads, it's fascinating.

Often times you will find Matthew in "letter land" as we have come to call it. This can take place on any side of the refrigerator, the floor, his room, or by the computer. He will line them up in orderly rows that can either spell words or be complete nonsense.

Lately he likes to connect them all to make a maze. On the rug in the living room you will find letters. Street names from our neighborhood will be spelled out and found in every room in the house. He likes to line up his numbers in front of the computer, too. Lately, he's been fixated on the differing lengths of songs, so in iTunes he goes to his playlist and selects a song and then puts the song length next to the keyboard. He goes on down the list doing this. The other day he had written out the entire name of a song on the fridge with his letters and put the time right beside it. Wee-oooo.

What else? I have NO idea how he got started on this, but he loves reading nutrition facts on any label on any food he can get his hands on. Anything I pull out of the fridge or from a cabinet that is out of his reach he jerks from my hands before I can even set it on the counter so he can read the nutrition facts. He's very interested in knowing what foods are good for you and what it is that is in them that makes them good for you. He examines labels for their calorie count, fat content, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals, the whole bit. It still makes me giggle listening to him read a label out loud. He got hold of a package of tuna one day and about flipped his lid..."Oh Momma!! 22 grams of protein!!" He mentioned all the other awesome things about tuna and then decided that would be his lunch that day. He finished eating and then asked me to measure him to see if he'd grown. So funny. I chatted with is preschool teacher recently and she told me that she & Matt talk nutrition at lunch time. Matt reads the labels on everyone's lunch items and apparently they have the best time talking about sodium and sugar content while the other kids could care less. No wonder my son can't finish eating his lunch in a timely manner! That and he's endlessly wiggly.

Recently Matt found a can of something...I can't remember...but he started to spell out the nutrition facts on the fridge. He was so proud of himself. Steven & I just shook our heads in wonder. He was complaining that he was running out of letters so to nerd it up just another notch Steven taught him the element abbreviations for sodium and calcium. The nerdness is thick around here, folks. But then there's Will zipping along on his little bike all throughout the house wearing a ball cap and sunglasses. I love these boys!