Letters to our Children // May

I hope this is correct. To close the circle.

Since last month I wrote about Liora, this month I'll write about Mateo.

Mateo likes to describe himself as a "Super sterke, grote jongen." A very strong, big boy. Pretty good description. He looks more like a 5 year old than a 3 year old.

Right now Mateo is on his school field trip which says a lot about this guy. He goes to school 3 full days and 2 half days/week. He LOVES it. You'd think it would wear him out, but it doesn't. He is continually becoming more independent. Yesterday was the first day he let me leave before the bell rang.  Today I asked him what he needed to make sure to bring in the car when we were leaving and he answer, "Mijn boekentas." (backpack). Yes! Progress.

Yesterday afternoon he said that he just had to sleep one night before he could go to the indoor playground. He is starting to understand time. He actually is slightly obsessed with clocks, but he understands one sleep and tomorrow. "Yesterday" means anything that happened before today.

The past 6 months I feel like I have failed in writing down the kids' milestones. Liora turned 1 and it was like I forgot about that.  Mateo has definatly started talking. It was a very slow start.  Now other people besides just his parents can understand him. This week he started saying "Ik denk dat..." (I think...). He is even using the correct sentence structure in Dutch. We practice a bit of English every day by me asking what the words are in English. Often he guesses correctly.  This morning he said, "Mama. Leah is English." I was confused, asked him to repeat. He decided that Mama is Dutch for Leah. Or the opposite...I said Mama=Mama, but he didn't believe me.  Actually the playground they are going to today is called Play Beach. He recognized that it was English and asked what it was in Dutch and I said that was just the name, that it was the same. He wanted to know why...I said because the people liked English better than Dutch ;P

Mateo can ride a two-wheeler. He loves it! Scary for mommy, but I'm proud of him.

2 weeks ago Mateo participted in a Sports Camp. He really enjoyed that.  His cousin went, which was nice. He has actually 7 first cousins and 2 2nd or 3rd cousins that attend his school. I think that is pretty special. He is growing up seeing his family 6 of the 7 days of the week, if not 7/7.  He adores them all.

Last week Mateo and Liora started playing together. She started walking and climbing up the slide. It was cute to see. Finally he wasn't jealous of her or trying to hurt her. That's not every day, but it was nice to see a glimpse of the future.

What I like about this age is that everything is still exciting. We went on Saturday to see blossoms. He enjoyed it and asked this week to go again. I am guessing in 3 years he'll be complaining how boring it is.

And now some photos...

Egg Hunt with his bestie (cousin)

What we look like as a family of five

Mateo learned a bit how to use the camera. He thought it was pretty funny to photograph a sleeping papa

Copying his sister

I just love this one

Biking in the Netherlands

Limburg

We brought a friend along for him

Rain doesn't bother this guy. I think he actually enjoys it because it makes mud.

Lots and lots of blossoms to be seen...