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! 

Matthew is 18 months old!

Matthew is 16, 17, 18 months old!

So, as usual, I began this post weeks ago, preparing to do a nice little update on our little dude. Fast forward, and he turned 18 months old this week!

Adorable bear outside my window one cold January day. 

I love morning snuggles with this boy. They don't happen so often any more now that he is not nursing.
It is a bittersweet end. 

He frequently joins us in the bathroom and sits on the step stool.

He went through a phase in January when he'd learned how to turn the lights switches off and on, so he did it frequently. A friend kept him one evening for me and she said our neighbors must have thought we were trying to communicate through Morse code. 

Dying laughing at his sister. No one can make him laugh quite like she can. 

This captures his personality so well. 

Sick baby snuggles. He brought me the wrap so he could have ups. 

Why yes, that is a bag of dog food he's spilled on the floor. At least he tried to help clean it up? 

Shopping at Castorama. 

He loves the playground at Emmy's school. 

He has been such a good baby and now toddler, but like all kids, he has his grumpy moments.

Being silly with Daddy.

Friday night pizza and movie night. He looked so grow up to me on this night, sitting on the footstool and eating his pizza like a big boy.

Baby-wearing. He's going to be such a great daddy some day! He loves to play in Emmy's room with her dolls.

"Helping" with the laundry. I had brought his hamper downstairs to wash and it was in the hallway and he emptied it and brought his clothes into the living room. He kept putting the clothes on the little footstool and they kept falling off. 

The boy loves a hat. Even fancy pink hats. 

He gets in the the pantry and rearranges things for me. Clearly, it needs some help. 

I found him adding pepper to his snack. 

Then he climbed on up onto the table, of course. 

I adore that I caught this face. 

So silly. 

I rock him to sleep as often
as he will let me. 

It may be cliche and I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I cannot believe how fast they grow up. Maybe it is because he is my last baby, maybe it is partly because of losing Sara Hawley, but I'm extremely emotional about this boy growing up. Plus, he's really sweet and I want him to stay this way FOREVER.

So, at now 18 months, Matthew loves balls, balloons, playing outside and picking up rocks and tiny pinecones.

He loves his red shoes! 

He adores his big sister.

He loves the dog.

He loves his red shoes.

He likes to wear hats, and he wears them well.

He does this adorable little shoulder shimmy shake when he asks to watch Bubble Guppies. 

He loves to read and he will happily sit there while you read to him.

His love of balls shines when he shows off his throwing and kicking skills.

He gives really great hugs.

He loves putting on chapstick and hand lotion.

Bedtime stories with Daddy 26 Feb.

When Charles went away in February, all of the sudden he
became VERY clingy to me. At first I did not realize why, but now I'm pretty sure it was because Charles left for a week, then another week, and then he was gone again in March for a week. It has gotten better, but it was to the point that even when the baby-sitters came (whom he adores) he would not stay in another room and play with them while I did some work. It made getting anything accomplished difficult. Fortunately, it is a lot better now.

He is in LOVE with his DaDa. He always has been happy with either of us, but he seems more enamored with Charles lately.  Whenever we drive onto the Barracks for any reason, he realizes where we are and he immediately says DADA!! When Charles came back from one of his trips, he arrived back at work around midday, so he changed into his uniform and worked until we came to pick Emmy up from the bus. He was so happy to see Charles, and when Charles started to head back into his building to change into civilian clothes to go home, Matthew SCREAMED. He had to go in with Daddy, would not let him out of his sight. Most nights we tag-team bedtime and I read a chapter book with Emmy and he puts Matthew to bed. The other night I decided I wanted some Matty snuggles at bedtime and tried to put him down and after a few minutes, it was obvious that I would not do, Daddy needed to come. He is happy with me all day, he goes down for naps just fine for me, but at night if Daddy is home, he wants only Daddy!


He has been signing for several months, and he signs more, milk, water, please, down (when he wants you to put him down or to go downstairs), bath, sleep, Mama, thank you, book/read, all done and probably a few more I'm forgetting.

He is definitely talking a good bit and repeating things. "Ball" was his first word besides Mama or Dada. Then came balloon, Rags, Emmy (or what sounds kind of like it), more, bottle ("ba-ba"), please,, this. We know says outside, shoes, "Bubbles" for Bubble Guppies, his favorite show, hat, book, eyes, hair, and he repeats things frequently. More and more there is something new that we can distinguish that he says independently. Charles says his Southern roots show when he manages to make one syllable words, like "ball," multi-syllabic.

He also says "tak", which is Polish for "yes", and instead of saying no, he says "naj", which is Danish (sounds like n-eye). Remember, his best pal Claire is Danish! He has also picked up "mere" which is "more" in Danish and "den der" which is "that one".

He has entered that toddler phase of not eating much, or at least not eating consistently. This is super frustrating, but I guess we should not be surprised. He has gotten a little pickier, so we hope this will level back off and not be come as bad as Emmy (who will not eat any vegetables, and rarely wills he voluntarily try something new/ prepared differently than she is used to).

I would say his favorite foods are clementines, peanut butter, spinach (when he's in the right mood, he does love the spinach pizza from our favorite pizza places and spinach pierogis), eggs, beans, mushrooms, jam or jelly, and ketchup. That's not all he eats, mind you, but those are his faves. I think his absolute favorite food is probably ketchup, which should make Aunt Mary Ann proud.

He does not seem to be a big fan of potatoes, so Charles and I are not sure he is really ours. Ha! Matthew's current has reminded us of how much we dislike this age when it comes to eating. I asked Charles what foods Matthew really doesn't like and he looked at me with a blank stare and said "it varies from one bite to the next, you know that."  I laughed, but it's true! The boy will eat something for a few bites, then decide a bite is no good and spit it out, which is so annoying. I do not like the spitting out food phase.

Just hanging around in a fun new t-shirt from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Lucas. 

Oh how this boy has my heart! 

Talking on his new "phone" (it's really a remote control) that Aunt Beth and Uncle Griff sent him. 

Picking up pinecones and handing them to Mama.

He likes to take bottles out of the pantry, then put them back in. 

Fancy hat and necklace are appropriate snack-eating attire.

It's been a delightful 18th months with this boy so far. A piece of our family will always be missing, but Mr. Matthew certainly has filled a huge void and brought us so much joy!

Matthew is one year old!

Matthew is one! Since his birthday was on a Wednesday, Emmy had school and Charles had work, of course. Not only that, Charles had an exercise at work, so he was at work longer than usual.

But we sang to him in the morning. A friend came over after lunch and hung out with us while I made cupcakes. I made chicken and potatoes and his favorite green beans for supper (he really loves green beans). The we opened presents that had arrived by mail and the present from us, and we Skyped with SuSu and Big Daddy while we sang happy birthday and had cupcakes. And they had a cake at their house. I think they just really wanted cake. Haha.

Trying to get photos this time was nutty. At least we had fun! Or he did...haha.

Emmy jumped in to try and help. 

Birthday supper! This is in our kitchen, by the way. 

Opening presents

Wearing his new hat and showing off his new book from Aunt Sarah

Holding on tight to his new ball (and monkeys - it's a monkey bowling set)

New clothes aren't as impressive, apparently. 

Ooo, stacking boxes! 

Happy Birthday to Matthew! 

Yummy cupcake! 

Skyping with SuSu and Big Daddy, and their cake and sign (SuSu's photo below). 

Birthday boy getting a lift from his Daddy - AKA Charles and his min-me.

Bedtime story: the new book from Aunt Sarah! 

I'd originally written this post to include his party a few days later, but it was very long so I split it into two, so you'll see that next!

We can't believe our sweet boy, our rainbow baby, is now one. He is really such a wonderful, delightful child. Everyone says he is such a happy guy, and he really is. What a blessing he has been to our whole family! Happy Birthday, Matthew!