Letter to Matthew - Today Is Your 3rd Birthday

Dear Matthew you are now 3 years old. When you turned two last year it was a definitely a turning point in your life. Firstly, almost exactly one month after your birthday you were totally out of diapers. It took little longer for the breastfeeding. I had to wait until you fully understood that breastfeeding is for babies only, and you did. It was little emotional moment for both of us and for the record 2 years and 10 months exactly. No worries, breastfeeding is very healthy and getting more popular in Canada, and also you were not the only one to go that far.



Matthew, the last 12 months was a great learning experience for you and for me and your daddy. You brought smiles and true happiness, and every day we love you more and more – you are a true miracle baby, oh I forgot, you are not anymore. I had to take notes on things you learned, played with, experienced, and said to us – there is no way I could remember all. This letter will only outline few things, because the last 12 months it is a book by itself.



Learning How to Spell and Read … I have to tell you, you are just one great student. This year you learned concept of spelling and reading, and every day we saw and keep seeing great progress while you spell everything you see, and slowly also memorized spelling for words like on, no, yes, off, play are just some on the list. You forced yourself to remember the difficult ones, like pingu (your favourite cartoon show) and iron man (your favourite super hero). This is because you wanted to Google them. When I read newspaper beside you, you try to read titles, you find words you know.



Learning How to Draw, Color and Trace … I introduced school to you, and you loved it, but then you realized that you were doing all the work and I was just sitting and demanding. You decided to switch with me. You told me once that ‘Matthew be teacher, Mommy be student’ – and you yelled at me ‘Mommy write!’ You are good at tracing, but you stopped at letter J. You made few greeting cards for your friends. You coloured nice winter snowflakes and Easter eggs. You can also draw faces. This year you got introduced to play-dough and painting. Sometimes you don’t like too many instructions, and you caught me by surprise with your little demand. When I was telling you to wash the brush before you put into different color paint, you told me: ‘Mommy go away'.



Story Telling … Throughout the year you enjoyed our stories to you about you. You were always a main character in our stories, and you loved them all. On your first treat or trick adventure, our neighbour gave you little pumpkin man on the bike. This pumpkin became your favourite character and friend in every story, especially this year – he is the famous pumpkin Pupi.



Reading Books … It all started few months ago when we switched from storytelling to bed time reading. The Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book made great impression on you, along with the Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. Matthew you practically memorized all the lines in both, and not to mention the author and who illustrated the book. You enjoy the Robert Munsch Books and now you are into Dr. Sues series. It is amazing to hear you talking and giving us the outline of each book we read.



Computer Skills … You know it all. You turn your computer ON; you type access code and go to Google Chrome or Firefox (you prefer Firefox). You Google for your favourite things (pingu, iron man, treehouse, tvokids, fotoflexer). You play educational games, and I am always amazed how sometimes you figure out how to do it by yourself. When you are done playing, you shut down.

Eating … You were and are a good eater. It was just about three months ago when your first molars showed up. At no time you figured out what they were for, and I did not have to make special meals just for you. For each parent these days it’s a blessing when a child eats vegetables – and we are definitely blessed. You eat carrots, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, cucumbers, mushrooms and lettuce. You don’t like very salty and sweet, but just like your daddy you love chocolate. One day when we arrived at the shoe store, out of blue you said: ‘I am chocolate-holic’. I guess you remembered when we told you that you were chocoholic. You learned from TV about McDonalds. We would take you there for small fries we share among three of us. You always ask for hamburger, but never eat it. But I always come prepared with my home made meals for you in the thermos. Your other favourite place is Tim Hortons, and because of you, few times we ended up with a free coffee. Going out with you is always fun, it is not really about eating. You get to press the handicapped door button, order your favourites and pay. Your honesty always amazes us. Once when you saw the handicapped sign on the washroom door – you laughed and said ‘that man is doing poo-poo’. Now you know what it is. I am sure you will always remember your first lollypop from the A&W man. Matthew I am always thankful to see you eating all my home cooked food I always prepare for you at home and when we hit the road. Lastly, I don’t have to tell you how much you love eating chicken soup.



Daily Adventures … Always weather permitting we spent lot of time outside. Our town has boardwalks, trails and lot of nice playgrounds. You also got to see your first fireworks last summer. We took you to the zoo first time, but when we came back it looked like you enjoyed the backyard pool much more. It is amazing to see you walk long distances, especially the last couple of months. Last summer I had stroller with me, but I used it only half of the time. This spring, I don’t even take a stroller and we walk around the town sometimes as much as 2 ½ hours. I don’t know how you do it. The best is to see you collect stones, flowers and sticks that you throw into the pond or creek. You stop and look at the garbage people throw, ‘what’s that crazy man doing’ – you say. Sometimes I wonder, do you really need toys – because you really enjoy exploring the nature. You know I like taking pictures of birdies, sometimes you lean on me when I click, and sometimes you run on purpose to scare them. It is a real fun to watch you talking to the birds – ‘hey bird come here, come here to Matthew’. Or ‘what are you doing bird, you silly bird, don’t run away’. The past winter was a blast and thank you for all the help with snow shovelling? I am sure you will also remember your first snowman you made with Daddy.



Toys … The hit toys this year are characters from Cars. You got lot of super hero toys such as Iron Man and Spider Man – may be too much. When we play, I have to be Pepper Pots hundreds times a day to deliver your iron man suite in the briefcase, just like in the Iron Man 2. You have the pretend kitchen, and I am glad to share some of my kitchen tools with you – and I know where to find them too. You cook for me all the time and we very much enjoy all the ‘stinky’ doughnuts you make for us. You started to build with mega blocks. You got all the possible handyman tools with which you build and fix the iron man suite. Whatever I forgot to mention, I am sure we will see on the photographs by you. You own pretend phones - I love hearing you when you have conversations with fireman, police, handyman, iron man and the 'electricity man', Ivan Vanko, the bad man from the Iron Man 2. You also talk on the real phone with telemarketers, and unfortunately they on the timer, so they hang on on you. But then when Daddy calls, you tell him everything you did during the day and you ask him 'Daddy can you come home?'



Signing … let just say, you love signing. You even hum songs when you walk outside, or play with your toys. Lately you started to play piano and sing, and I have to play this silly guitar. I hate to tell you but we would never make the American Idol with our musical band. I don’t want to make a separate category, but you love to dance too. Your moves kills us every time we watch you.



Friends … You got many of all ages, some not in neighborhood anymore, but here are some of their names - Ryan (gone to school), Ashley (you two hug on hi and bey but never play), Brendon (a very nice older kid who likes you a lot), Riley (see her very little lately), Emily (gone from the neighborhood), Melody (you continue to win her heart, by sharing, dancing for her, as she continues to ignore you), Logan (you two are buddies, talk like old man, even though he is older by almost 2 years), Daniel (neighbor and you saw him last fall), Dimitri and Sofia (brother and sister and your neighbors who like you very much, they are almost teenagers). You make friends with everyone in the area, people wave from buses to you in the car - you never a miss a person to say hi to. You call your Daddy your friend - 'I am going downstairs with my new friend Daddy', and 'I am playing with my new friend Daddy'.



Should I go on … As I told you if I don’t stop now, this could be a book of hundreds and hundreds pages. I will conclude here, but just few more things about your demands and affection. Well, what can I say you are very demanding little boy. The other day I was washing dishes and making too much noise, ‘Mommy can you stop washing dishes and not make any noise’. Then while you were playing on my computer and trying to access some of the software, I kept saying ‘Matthew no, no’. ‘Mommy can you stop saying no to Matthew, I am running some programs’. Sometimes I demand some love from you, ‘Can you say you love Mommy Matthew?’. ‘I love you!’- you yelled the other day, but Daddy thought it was for him. ‘I love you too’ – Daddy replied. ‘Daddy no, can you not say I love you. Matthew says I love you to Mommy’. Well, Daddy did not hear this since he was washing dishes. Yes love is very important, and I know we don’t have to demand that from you. You are very spontaneous, out of blue you will always give us hugs and kisses, you will say I love you, and you enjoy saying ‘Oh we are family’, and you spread your arms and hugs both of us. When you cry at night, and when you realize that it is just a nightmare, you turn around grab my cheeks with both hands and say ‘Mommy I love you’ or kiss me, and then you follow a sleep’. My heart breaks when you call me or Daddy ‘oh sweetheart, are you okay?’



Matthew my dear little boy, I and Daddy love you so much – how much, ‘that that much’, same ‘much much’ you love us. We love every moment you are with us, and we love seeing you enjoy your ‘little’ life, but as you can see in this letter it isn’t that little.

You are the greatest miracle gift a mother could get for the Mother’s day and for my birthday too. Happy Birthday Matthew! You are now three years old and zero months.