Matthew's 3rd Birthday

Ready to take his cake to school for celebrating
with his school friends on Friday the 6th. 

It's hard to believe our sweet boy is already three.

He requested a "horsey cake
with a chocolate horse."
Mama obliged. 

His birthday fell at the beginning of Emmy's fall break, so we decided to wait and have his party a little later. That way, we were able to take advantage of the opportunity to travel for the break to the U.K. More on that later.

Matthew makes us laugh a lot. He still loves horses and cowboys. Anything is subject to being a target of his "lasso." You'll hear him playing on his rocking horse or with some of his toy horses saying "yah, yah, yah!"

His love of Bubble Guppies and Sofia the First (he loved the flying horses) has waned, he now likes Scooby Doo and he's recently seen the Cars movies over a couple of sick days and he's now a big fan of Lightening McQueen and the other characters from the movie. 

Friday afternoon was "Pasowanie", the official
welcome into the class for the year. Matthew is
in Biedronek class this year, Ladybug class. 

One of his favorite books is Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, and he'll be sure to point out any bulldozers or "diggers" he sees when we are out and about. I love to hear him "read" some of his other favorites to me, which include Brown Bear, Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Dragons Love Tacos, just to name a few. Like his big sister he really loves to be read to. Stories are a sacred part of bedtime in this house!

He loves his school. He moved up this summer to the next class, so now he's in the "Biedronek" (Ladybird/Ladybug) class in the other school building. He gets to take karate and dancing at school and they do lots of crafts. He learns German (and they have English lessons but he's pretty set with English, haha). His teachers are very sweet, they don't speak much English this year but I know they love him. Agnieszka told me that they asked him recently "Matthew, do you love Ms. Agnieszka" and he said "noooo" and they said "Do you love Ms. Magda" and he said "Noooo" and they they asked "Well, who do you love?" and he said "Mama!" Which is totally not true, but it gave us all a laugh. He is a Mama's boy! But he also loves his Daddy and wants Daddy to play all the things with him.

He is  really interested in letters and sounds. He's good at remembering things. He already is alternating feet when he goes up and down stairs some when the stairs aren't too wide for him, and he's starting to skip (both are which are precursors to reading). He's very advanced, haha. He's also stubborn. Really, really stubborn. Gee, I have no idea where he gets that from!  He's not potty trained because he just refuses to use the potty. He knows, and he'll ask for a clean diaper just so he can potty in it. It is SO frustrating and I'm trying really hard to be patient because I know he'll do it one day. I just wish it would be soon. 

Trying to capture one of his "explantion" faces.

He makes hilarious faces when he's talking to you about things. He has all sorts of stories to tell and opinions to give.  Mostly he talks to us in English, with some Polish mixed in or a little Danish or German if he's around people speaking those languages. "Thank you" and "please" are almost always in Polish. He is so Polish now he doesn't like his milk cold (Poles don't give kids cold drinks, they think it will make them sick or something). It was funny at first, now it's super annoying, but we do it because we love him and it's just one of those things that's easier not to argue about.

Birthday present time! 

Matthew loves his big sister, and she loves him. I absolutely love watching their relationship grow and I hope they will continue to be friends. Sure, I know they'll argue and disagree and have different interests as they grow up, but I hope this bond lasts and they can support each other and be friends.

We sure do love this boy of ours, he continues to bring us loads of joy. This next year is going to bring lot of transitions for him, Moving back to the U.S. will be a big deal for all of us, but for him, he'll be leaving the only country he's really known as home! It's strange, but exciting at the same time.

New fences and a new horse and accessories. So exciting! 

In one of the malls near us, a few days before his birthday. Charles said he was getting ready for our U.K. adventure! 

Our little traveler on the evening of his birthday, getting ready to fly to London!