Happy Birthday Baby

Our baby boy is one today. Wow. It's been quite a year and has gone by so quickly. At the same time, I can't imagine life without our little Matthew. Here are a few thoughts about our special guy on his big day.

Matthew - your name means gift from God and you have been a precious one to our family.

Although you are the baby of the family, you are growing and will soon be a 'big boy' like your brother. You are wearing 12-18 month clothing and are crawling (one knee, one foot) everywhere. You love to stand up and do it constantly. For the last week or two you have also started to enjoy walking around the house holding onto mom or dad's hands. It won't be long before you take your first unassisted steps.

You are an easygoing, content and smiley boy and have a very mischievous grin. You love getting in on whatever action is taking place in the house - usually this involves following your brother around and trying to join in whatever games he's playing. You have an infectious giggle. You are very ticklish.

On the eating front, you now eat everything at the table although you are particular and seem to pick different foods to shun on different days. A couple of things you always love are yoghurt, cheese, bread and fruit. You have eight teeth to help you in the process and you are not a happy teether.

Every night, you sleep about nine or ten hours before waking up for a little snuggle time with mommy and then will usually go back to sleep for another two. During the day you are mostly just having one nap in the afternoons now and will sleep for about two hours. We're all thankful you like to sleep on a pretty regular cycle.

We are constantly surprised by the things you are learning each day. You are a determined boy and spend time at each activity until you figure it out. You have learned how to stick lego pieces together and can also stack a couple of wooden blocks. You love stories as long as they are pretty short. You like to play peek-a-boo and get pretty happy when we play along with you. You are starting to wiggle in time to music. You like to clap and shake rattles.

Although you're not speaking yet, you have said a couple of words like ma-ma, da-da, uh-oh, ya and meow. You are constantly letting us know what you want by pointing and making insistent sounds.

You are relatively outgoing, but don't like mom and dad to be out of sight. As long as we're around, you are smiley and playful with other adults and children.

A few things you really don't like are being put to bed when there is still activity happening in the house, being left alone or being restrained when you're trying to get to something (you get quite annoyed when I stop you from pulling the covers off the electrical sockets or playing in your brother's potty!)

Matthew - you are a wonderful part of our family. We have so loved getting to know you this year and are all excited to see what amazing things you will learn and do next.

Happy Birthday.