Mateo's five year letter

Dear Mateo,
You turned five today!  Five seems like a big milestone in a lot of ways.  It's amazing for us to think back to the day you were born and how much you've grown since then.  Of course, some things haven't changed.  At this time five years ago, Mama and Mommy were working very hard to bring you into this world as you slumbered in Mama's belly.  At this time today, you are slumbering again, worn out by all the celebration of your fifth birthday!

Mateo, you have learned so much in this last year.  We'll just go in order of what comes to mind, so we'll start with your favorite things.  Probably your two favorite things are in a tie:  reading and playing with cars from the movie, Cars.  You read like a maniac, devouring picture books and chapter books alike.  You read signs aloud and easily sound out words you don't even know - like today, we were in Mommy's classroom and you said "Mama, does that binder say developmental reading?"  It was awesome.  You always want to go to the library, and when we do, you come home and go into a kind of a book coma, reading and reading and reading.

Your other favorite thing is the movie, Cars.  To say that you love it would be the understatement of the year.  You've actually only seen the movie once, but it is as if you have seen it thousands of times.  Your baby sister brought you a haul of Cars cars when she came home from the hospital and you have been focused on adding to your collection ever since.  You haven't seen Cars 2 because you think it would be too scary (and it probably would be - you're pretty sensitive about any kind of scary stuff in videos and such), but you have most of the cast of characters and can narrate the whole plot of the movie to anyone who seems interested.  You recently got even more Cars stuff for your birthday and have spent the past 24 hours cuddling your Lightening McQueen pillow and playing with your new Cars gear.

Another favorite lately is writing.  As with many things, you went from zero to sixty in about ten seconds with writing - well, not that fast, but it was pretty quick.  We went from being a little worried about your lack of interest and ability in writing to amazed at how fast you picked it up.  We credit the Funnix math program that you've been doing, as it not only taught you how to write your numbers but also sparked the desire to write letters, too.  The other day, you wrote Mama a letter completely on your own that said:  "Dear Mama, I love you.  I wish we had a dog.  Love, Mateo"  Ok, I added in the punctuation, but you spelled everything right and I just about died from the cuteness of it.  We're not getting a dog, though, so I hope you're happy with our cat!

 You love to be silly and especially so in front of a camera.  Here's proof:

 Other things you like to do include playing lots of games of pretend with Tali, most of which involve being a family of something - animals, babies, you name it.  You've even pretended to be a family of worms before!  You and your sister get along pretty well for the most part.  When you are playing well together, you are the best of friends and have a wonderful time.  Conversely, when you are having trouble getting along, you really have trouble getting along!  Typical sibling stuff.

You and Rosa are pretty infatuated with each other right now, which is very cute to see.  She smiles for you like you hung the moon and you gently grab her cheeks and patiently wait for an adult to move her when she gets into your toys.

Oh, and your teeth!  You just lost two of them!  They came out within days of your fifth birthday, which we all thought was pretty cool.

Mateo, we could go on and on, but it's late on Halloween and your mama is worn out after all the celebrating!  At five, you are a loving boy who gives lots of hugs and kisses and snuggles, a kid who still struggles with sleep and ends up in our bed more nights than not, an adventurous preschooler who makes friends easily and loves to run around, and, most of all, a son who we love more than words could ever say.  We wish you the best of being five years old and a year full of growing and learning new things.

We'll close with a story about you from tonight.  You went out to dinner with Apa and came back full of energy and ready to go trick-or-treating.  You zoomed into your ant costume and practically dragged your moms out the door (with many thanks to Grammy, who watched the house and your two sleeping sisters).  You marched us all over the neighborhood, knocking on doors and proudly informing several people that it was, in fact, also your birthday (that got you a lot more candy, by the way).  It was awesome to see you so confident and excited.  It made us excited about the adventures we're going to have with five-year-old you!

with all our love,
Mama and Mommy

PS:  How cool is it that this is the 1000th post on this blog, which we started right before you were born?  Very cool, that's what it is.