Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Dear Two-Year-Old,

It was just yesterday that you first locked your deep brown eyes with mine. It was just yesterday that I cut your cord, fed you your very first bottle, changed your first diaper, kissed you for the first time. These past two years have both flown by and felt like an eternity. When I first saw your face, I knew that I would spend my lifetime loving you madly.

I can't believe that you are old enough to be walking, running, hopping, jumping, climbing, prancing, and dancing. I can't believe that you are old enough to sing several of the words to Jesus Loves Me and hum the ones you don't know. I don't know how enough time has passed for you to be able to say okay and I love you and music.

Simply put, I cannot believe you're two.


I also cannot believe that, at your birthday party, you took a bite out of your candle and consumed it. I don't know why this shocks me, you've always liked your food. I think your motto is Keep it coming and keep it coming fast. Maybe next year you will understand that I'm giving you the candle so that you can lick the frosting off--not because the candle is the actual dessert.
We took you and several friends to McDonald's this year. We bought Happy Meals for everyone, played on the toys, and ate cupcakes. Then you opened your presents.

Your cheeseburger and fries were a big hit. Not as big as the ketchup, mind you, but you did enjoy them. You've turned into a quadruple, triple, double dipper. Your favorite foods are condiments and you'll use anything as a dunking utensil. In this case the fries--and then your fingers--worked perfectly.

As I looked through my cupcake cookbook, these "doggies" caught your eye. So Grandma and I slaved over them. Grandma cut the pretzels to resemble ears and mouths. I sliced up fruit belts for tongues and used chocolate chips and M&M's for eyes and noses. They were a big hit. You chose well. Of course, in the end, all you wanted to do was eat the eyes, noses, and mouths off of everybody's cupcake. When I tried to get you to eat the cake you shrieked at me like I was attempting to pour arsenic down your throat.


I did manage to get one picture of you with a frosting face and a smile.
That was on Saturday. This morning, I heard you stirring so I went into your room to snap the first picture of you as a two-year-old. Thank you for being so stinkin' adorable. (Emphasis on adorable. Most of the time. Emphasis on stinkin' several times a day.)
Grandma and Grandpa bought you a really big ball for your birthday. It didn't look quite so big in Costco. It didn't look like it would fill our family room. Grandma wants it stated, for the record, that both mommy and daddy signed off on the beast before they purchased it. You (and your brother) absolutely love it.
This morning you opened your presents from the family. Among the gifts were shoes from Grandpa Gary and Grandma DeDe. You opened them and immediately made daddy put them on. You got lots of books, money, a stuffed elephant from your brother, and Buddy from Dinosaur Train--and many, many others.

Daddy took your annual picture in his dress shirt. You absolutely hate this shirt and spend the majority of the photo shoot attempting to get your arms out of the very long sleeves. I'm hoping that you like it more when you get a little bigger. Daddy still managed to get a few cute ones!

Matthew, I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we are to have you in our family. Daily, I am amazed by the miracle of adoption and the gift of God that you are to me. I promise to spend this upcoming year loving you, caring for you, hugging you, protecting you, praying for you, reading to you, playing with you, teaching you, being there for you...and kissing you.
Happy Birthday big boy!

Love,
Mommy