Dear Matthew (six days removed),
Time to briefly stop the hands of time and figure out just where you've been. This entry comes a few days later than your 8th birthday because we were in Canada - a place you've often heard us talk about, but you have seldom seen. In a way, the whole trip was the perfect microcosm of you.
You are brave. Whether it was taking on the larger competition pool in your swim lessons last summer, or tubing behind a power boat in the middle of a lake in Canada this summer, you've shown no fear - or at least you've done a heck of a good job of hiding it. You might hesitate for a moment to assess a situation, but then you plunge right in. I'm so glad that I've been able to avoid filling you up with all those fears that I was filled with when I was your age.
You are incredibly patient. Flight layovers, changes of plans, waiting in line at Customs, or being climbed all over by a hyperactive 5 year old - you are a rock that won't erode into tears or tantrums, even though I myself am less than exemplary with my ability to wait at times. I often wondered what was going through that little mind waiting for the adults to decide which end was up this past week.
You are a reader. You wouldn't be ours if you weren't. You've learned the importance of having a book handy just about anywhere you go. You've taken to reading the comics to me every morning, sometimes taping my arm when you know I'm looking at the sports page so that I can get the visual joke that's occurring. Though you can't read them yet, the Harry Potter books read to you often fill our nights before you go to bed. Makes me wonder just what we're going to do when we finally finish the series (We are almost finished with book 5).
You love sports, particularly baseball, soccer, and hockey. You've had fun playing the former two, and enjoyed watching many a game on tv of the latter. You seemed to talk of nothing but visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame before our recent trip - and it seems as if you were not disappointed at all. I hope you can see the underlying importance of teamwork and perserverence amid all the high-price salaries and egos.
You are also quite funny, in your own 8 year old way. Total goof ball, just like me, making up silly rhymes and songs, can't wait to tell the latest jokes from your kid magazines. You have a sense of humor about you. Don't lose it - it will keep you sane in the most insane of times.
Legos are still your passion. I don't mind because I love putting them together too.
Other than sports, you watch approximately two shows "Fetch!" and "Arthur" - both PBS shows. Although, you've seem to have taken up "The Waltons" with Mom, curiously enough.
Last school year, you were a 2/3 combo, much to my initial apprehension, but like anything else I've worried about with you, you never cease to show us how little there was to be worried about in the first place.
And yet for all this bravery, strength, maturity, and seemingly "old soul" world vision, I hope you remember that you don't have to be the pillar of patience all the time. You can be a little boy for as long as you want, even on the inside when you're older (just ask your old man).
So happy birthday to my awesome 8. In some ways you are me, and in some ways you are way above me, as it should be.
You are brave. Whether it was taking on the larger competition pool in your swim lessons last summer, or tubing behind a power boat in the middle of a lake in Canada this summer, you've shown no fear - or at least you've done a heck of a good job of hiding it. You might hesitate for a moment to assess a situation, but then you plunge right in. I'm so glad that I've been able to avoid filling you up with all those fears that I was filled with when I was your age.
You are incredibly patient. Flight layovers, changes of plans, waiting in line at Customs, or being climbed all over by a hyperactive 5 year old - you are a rock that won't erode into tears or tantrums, even though I myself am less than exemplary with my ability to wait at times. I often wondered what was going through that little mind waiting for the adults to decide which end was up this past week.
You are a reader. You wouldn't be ours if you weren't. You've learned the importance of having a book handy just about anywhere you go. You've taken to reading the comics to me every morning, sometimes taping my arm when you know I'm looking at the sports page so that I can get the visual joke that's occurring. Though you can't read them yet, the Harry Potter books read to you often fill our nights before you go to bed. Makes me wonder just what we're going to do when we finally finish the series (We are almost finished with book 5).
You love sports, particularly baseball, soccer, and hockey. You've had fun playing the former two, and enjoyed watching many a game on tv of the latter. You seemed to talk of nothing but visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame before our recent trip - and it seems as if you were not disappointed at all. I hope you can see the underlying importance of teamwork and perserverence amid all the high-price salaries and egos.
You are also quite funny, in your own 8 year old way. Total goof ball, just like me, making up silly rhymes and songs, can't wait to tell the latest jokes from your kid magazines. You have a sense of humor about you. Don't lose it - it will keep you sane in the most insane of times.
Legos are still your passion. I don't mind because I love putting them together too.
Other than sports, you watch approximately two shows "Fetch!" and "Arthur" - both PBS shows. Although, you've seem to have taken up "The Waltons" with Mom, curiously enough.
Last school year, you were a 2/3 combo, much to my initial apprehension, but like anything else I've worried about with you, you never cease to show us how little there was to be worried about in the first place.
And yet for all this bravery, strength, maturity, and seemingly "old soul" world vision, I hope you remember that you don't have to be the pillar of patience all the time. You can be a little boy for as long as you want, even on the inside when you're older (just ask your old man).
So happy birthday to my awesome 8. In some ways you are me, and in some ways you are way above me, as it should be.