Dear Matthew
A few weeks ago we caught up with Aunty Bec, Aunty Pia, uncle Rod, Aunty Alysia and Thatcher, Marlow and Oliver at John Oldham Park in the city. Your dad was in Sydney with your grandad so we just went along together.
You had a grand old time on the giant slide, the cool playground and watching the ducks with the boys. Was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon and the mums had a good chance to catch up too. You're catching up to the boys in height despite them both being over a year older than you.
I'm so happy you're loving catching up with other kids and being social, I don't know what I'd do if you were shy :)
Love,
Mum xxx
Dear Matthew
When we had your 18 month check up lately with the child health nurse she did her usual measurements- weight, head circumference, height etc and turns out you are officially off the charts for height (see below). We always thought you were tall and of course were expected to be because of your genes but this was the first time you'd measured beyond the 97th percentile (most kids sit somewhere in the 3rd to 97th percentile range). At gymbakids you're the youngest but tallest in the class and at 19 months a size 3 fits you perfectly (size is usually correlated to age in kids).
Hopefully you like a sport that values height such as rowing, basketball or rugby, and are happy to live on bread so that we're not eaten out of house and home as you grow!
Can't believe that one day I will physically have to look up to your face when right now I can carry you around in my hip with just one arm (although you help to keep you there by gripping with your legs and one hand on my arm). Hopefully the time between now and then doesn't disappear too quickly.
Love you my big bubba,
Mum xxx
P.S. I took the footprints photo after a family walk on a wintery day last weekend. The footprints belong to you, your dad and Soda.
Dear Matthew
Unfortunately for the past couple of days you have had croup, so we have been stuck inside where it's warm watching tv, playing blocks and drawing with your crayons. It started last Sunday with a horrible fever which continued through Monday. We thought you were getting over it so I went to work on Tuesday and left you with your Nanna and Darryl as usual but when Darryl called me to come home in the afternoon because of your chesty cough and the fact that you were inconsolable (even by Nanna! Crazy!) I knew we were in for it. Lo and behold the after hours GP confirmed what your Nanna guessed it was- croup.
So you've been sounding like a very cute little seal since then and have slept on top of me the last four nights but tonight (Thursday) you had a feed and then rolled over on the mattress and fell asleep yourself so that's a good sign that you're on the mend.
Below is a photo I took of you during your nap that I sent your dad showing my successful transfer after you fell asleep in my arms and many a photo of you devouring a mint slice chocolate biscuit while we waited for the GP on Tuesday because mummy can't handle you being in pain. Also one from Monday night when you needed to stay cuddled up to me all night long just to get some rest, my poor bub.
Yay for your immunity but boo for you being in pain my darling boy.
Love you,
Mum xxx
Dear Matthew
This time last year I took some gorgeous photos of you in the leaves outside grandma and gramps' house. I said to myself that I couldn't wait till the following year because I knew we'd run through them together then.
A few weeks ago we did just that, and it made me so so happy. I've realised I'm much more of a kid-mum than a baby-mum, and while having a newborn and baby is beautiful, it's also exceptionally hard, and at times extremely lonely. Now that you're a toddler we can do fun things together and we can have ACTUAL CONVERSATIONS haha! So important to your chatterbox of a mother. Your vocabulary is extraordinary, you're forming lots of two and three word sentences and this morning you waved and said hi which was the last thing you needed to learn by 18 months according to your purple child health book (you waved to the Cars movie playing on tv but whatever!).
So! Here's a few snippets of you in the lovely autumn leaves this year. Another tradition continues :)
Love you Matteus,
Mum xxx
Dear Matthew
I just had to quickly jot this down. Because it was a real 'my kid will never do that because I'm the perfect parent' failure. And it's funny.
We were out the back and I was trying to hussle you inside so we could take Soda to the park. I picked you up to speed things up but somehow managed to drop your dummy while doing so. Without thinking I said 'shit!' It wasn't done loudly, just a passing comment at the situation. And lo and behold, what comes out of my little parrot's mouth but a very certain 'shit'. And I couldn't very well tell you off about it because hash tag hypocrite. So I just laughed silently to myself and carried on. I figure I don't swear often so I doubt you'll say it again but if you do I can only blame myself (or your dad, but mostly he just screams obscenities at the tv when the Eagles are playing).
Speaking of surprising language, you also tried to sing row, row, row your boat to me tonight and have a vocabulary of about 120 words (I stopped counting at 100). Not bad for 18 months! Not surprised we raised a chatterbox though, and over the moon about it. I love being able to communicate with you! Makes life so much easier. You're also starting to acquire quite a few two word sentences such as 'all gone', 'some more' and 'where's gone?' So proud of my little genius :)
Love you monkey Matthew,
Mum xxx
P.S. Random (mostly) recent photos below. Just because.
