Letter to Matthew - Today Is Your 4th Birthday

Dear Matthew today is your 4th birthday. I don't even know where to start it has been such a busy year for you. You have grown a lot. You are much taller. You are much smarter. You ask questions, you tell us stories, you sing and hum songs, you try to read, write and color and most of all you have lot of fun always. You have friends. You are a little boy who will be going to school in September.



I have to warn you that I may keep this letter short, as one day I am sure you will discover somewhere in the house all the notes I wrote about you in 2012.

This year was year of superheros. Iron Man continued to be your favorite, but them came along the Superman.

Whenever you wear your Iron Man shoes to the library you ask the librarians - 'Do you know who I am?'. Of course they don't, and you tell them you are the Iron Man. Whenever you wear your Superman shirt to the library you ask the librarians - 'Do you know who I am?' Of course they do, 'Oh hello Superman', they reply and you stand there proud with both hands on your hips not to mention the precious smile. My heart melts every time I see so much happiness in you.


Speaking of the library, this year we introduced you to the library and you got your own library card. You love the ride in the elevator, until one day we ended up in the basement of the library. We both got scared and laughed at each other when it was just someone down there waiting. When we ended up in the basement again, I thought you pressed the wrong button, 'no I didn't I only pressed 2' you replied surprised. Now we take stairs.

We read lot of books, obviously the superhero ones, but then there was The Cat In The Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. Because of you I discovered some great children books I never had a chance to read. I lost a count how many times I read the Green Eggs and Ham book for you.



We took you to the cinema three times for Cars 2, Smurfs and The Lorax. To keep you preoccupied longer we would wait and get popcorn later. It worked with the first movie, a bit with second movie and on for the third movie you said 'but every one else has popcorn here but me'.

You love shopping for toys. I think I may have to stop taking you grocery shopping because we always end up buying toys. You are so stubborn and it is so hard to walk out empty handed.



When comes to electronics you seems to be an expert - you can take pictures and delete pictures from my camera (good thing I got all these recovery tools), you can operate the TV and DVD players, you insisted on the BluRay player (now we got one), you can play Nintendo 3DS and now you are a big fan of Mario. Daddy finally got himself PS3 and you claim it is yours. You operate the electric piano but I was really happy to hear that you started to play some little tunes.

So finally you don't mix all the paint colors together. You can draw nice things like sun and people, and you can write M very well, and then with our help you can write your name. You can write Mom and Dad from your head. You can color so well, and most of all your attention span is much much longer when you come to Mommy's School.



One day we went for an orientation to your potential school. When we arrived at the parking lot of the school you asked 'but where is my big box of food?'. You didn't understand the orientation concept so you really thought that you were going to school that day and we forgot your lunch box. You never wanted to come back to this school and you will not.

We are sending you to Northern Lights and I will give you big box of food, chicken soup included as per your request. I asked you one day what will I do without you when you go to school, your reply was 'you will cook and wait for me'.



Dear Matthew I can sit here all night and write about you but may be from now on I will leave you with photo memories, and I think you will remember those moments better. Just remember no matter what I love you more and more every day.



You are starting to develop your own character and I am always amazed how determined you are to accomplish something that you want to accomplish, even if it is to get a new toy; and if that does not work by asking and sometimes telling me why you need this toy, then you turn around, you look into my eyes and say 'but I love you'.



And you really do love us both, because sometimes when we are sitting together and have a good time and lots of fun, you grab our both necks, hug us and say 'oh we are family', and we are even better family now because of you our dear Matthew.

Matthew, our little boy, we love you so much and we wish you all the best. Hopefully you will have another 'amazing' and 'fantastic' year filled with learning and new adventures.

Winter Fun Fun And More Fun, Canon Lens Lots Of Fun

Creation of the snow was such a blessing for children. I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoy watching Matthew playing in the snow. This little busy bee enjoys himself to the fullest - making snowman, throwing snowballs, making giant snowballs, making snow angles, removing snow, cleaning cars with the broom, mowing snow (yes just like cutting grass) and tobogganing.

Its been snowing here on and off. Last couple of days snowed but guaranteed that this snow will be gone by next week - warmer temperatures are in the forecast. Just a repeat of the last week.

Well Matthew is not the only one having fun. I finally decided on the new lens but came out from the store with two lenses, and I am very happy camper with empty pockets. I am glad that I fixed my Canon 20D because I don't have to do lot of lens switching. It gets heavy to carry both, but I don't mind at all. Canon 20D is past few generations but it is still a good camera.

Since I am Canon shooter, I decided to stick with Canon lenses. I bet you are curious and already know that one of them must be a macro lens, and it is - Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens. I also treated myself with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. Both are excellent lenses. I have not been able to use the macro lens as I cannot find anything tiny small (may be microscopic) to photograph, meaning small creatures (probably hibernating at this moment), however, this lens is great for portraits.

The photos below of Matthew are using macro lens.