Happy Birthday Matthew!!! Eight years ago today, on a chilly Superbowl Sunday, my lil’ boy was born. 3:00 in the afternoon…early enough to ensure that Daddy made it home for the big game, thus endearing himself to his father for life (as if bearing his name and being his first born son wasn’t enough). I know I always say this, but time sure does fly! Being at the apartment and watching Matthew and Caitlin play on the married-housing playground as babies seems like just yesterday, and now here he is…eight years old!
While we did not celebrate today, we still tried to make today special for him…birthday wishes from family (an aside: can I just tell you how much I love facetime? Because I do. I LOVE the kids being able to see family face to face in spite of the many miles that separate us…so awesome!) “birthday waffles”, (whipped cream on top of frozen waffles. Which I created on the fly when I realized that I did not have anything special for birthday breakfast. Turns out whipped cream waffles fit the bill. Gonna have to remember that one), and spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. He was a pretty happy camper.
I think I’ll repeat what I did for Caitlin and do eight wonderful things about Matthew in honor of the big day…so here goes:
1. Matthew is still a racing fanatic. He still races every day on the playground, and every day we still get the reports about the race. He vacillates between being the 2nd and 3rd fastest among the second graders. This is actually the only thing we hear about school so I am very grateful for parent teacher conferences to fill in the rest.
2. He is a hoarder. MAJOR hoarder. Like, once a week I have to go into his room and remove the deconstructed contents of the recycling bin from his room. Which he has used to create some elaborate tree house/football training camp for his animals. And in spite of the clutter it creates, I am so proud of his ability to find something useful in supposed garbage. I can’t wait to see what he does with this gift as he grows up.
3. He has the metabolism of..well…an eight year old boy. This means two things; Firstly we literally sign our entire paycheck over to Kroger to keep the boy fed. The other day I packed him the equivalent of two lunches for him to take to school, one for lunch and one for snack. And of course he came home hungry. Secondly this means that you can always tell when he hasn’t eaten. Because it’s like those snickers commercials, where the guy turns into Roseanne when he needs a snickers. That’s Matthew. As long as he’s fed though, he’s a happy man.
4. His favorite activity is playing with his friends. Luckily one of his best friends lives right across the street so he gets to spend a lot of time playing. It’s very endearing to watch the two of them together.
5. He cannot wait for Ben to grow up so he will have someone to wrestle with. They play really well together now, but after a while it becomes Matthew having to appease the whims of a two year old, and Matthew doesn’t last long in this capacity. He talks a lot about how great it will be when Ben is older. I hope they become great friends.
6. He is a sensitive kid. A double edged sword…on the one hand he is quick to get his feelings hurt. On the other hand, Matthew is the most compassionate, caring kid I’ve ever been around. The minute someone is hurt or being picked on, he is right there to fix the situation. He always makes sure that the outdoor kitty has food, water and a cozy place to sleep. He’s definitely a caretaker.
7. Baseball is still his favorite. He loves throwing a football around with Matt, but I think when it comes to organized sports, he’s always going to be drawn to baseball. Matt is a great coach for him and has really helped him to develop his skills.
8. Pickles and Gum. This is the answer I got when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted (by the way there is no such cake…I checked). They are his two very favorite foods. He usually has a piece of gum in his mouth and pickles never last long around here.
So there you have it. In case you can’t tell, Matt and I are ridiculously proud of him and love him more and more every day.
