Parenthood - 2022-02-11 Matthew turns 9

February 11, 2022

For his birthday, Matthew asked to come home before lunch so I picked him up and took him to get sushi (his choice). He had McDonald's for supper (also his choice, but popular with siblings).

At nine Matthew is more impulsive and independent than his sister was at the same age. A good example: he wanted to talk to his friend but couldn't connect using his school gmail account and didn't know his personal account password. So he just created his own account. He likes to poke around on the computer and figure things out. He especially enjoys playing computer games like minecraft but also random internet games (crazygames being especially popular). Minecraft still his preference but only if he can play with someone else on zoom. He likes to collect his younger siblings around him to watch, and sometimes also play together.

Nine is the year we let him have his own alarm code for the house, and a key. There was debate about whether he was "ready" but ultimately we decided that we'd already made him wait an extra year. He was very excited and proud to have this proof of growing up, and so far has not abused the privilege.

At nine Matthew seems reasonably popular with kids in his class but only seems to enjoy the company of his best friend Leo. For his birthday he really wanted to do a pool party but since Dovercourt isn't doing such things he decided he wouldn't have a birthday party at all right now. "Maybe we can do it in a few months".

He likes his teacher at school, although school is more tolerated than enjoyed. His favourite subjects are gym and recess, where he likes to walk around and chat. Or if he's feeling anti-social - to "walk around and think".

He is a natural night owl, preferring to stay up past 9pm and get up around 9am. We started watching Star Trek together. He finds it very interesting but doesn't like the aliens, which he calls "ooga loogas" and a source of nightmares. Star Wars is less frightening and he is very happy to have finally watched a couple of the movies.

Building things is fun and he especially likes to play with Lego technic. Likes to build with tools as well but can't quite be trusted to show good judgement unsupervised so doesn't get to do this as often as he'd like.

He is very unenthused about piano practice, but shows great musicality. Still greatly enjoys cooking and can be counted on to help make dinner in a pinch. Still a very sensitive and empathetic kid, he especially loves reading BDs and graphic novels.

Overall he has grown up a great deal his year and we look forward to seeing what kind of tween he will be.