Dear Matthew,
here we are again, one year older and one year smarter. This will be your last birthday in the single digits. It is hard to believe you will be ten next year.
School has been a bit challenging at times. Due to COVID your school closed once again after Christmas. This meant it was back to home schooling. Your daddy did a great job helping you with your work every day. You were both a great team. Homework was completed within two hours max and you got to spend the rest of your day playing with your sister Chloe and watching TV. Thankfully we didn’t have any more school closures since March so you have been enjoying seeing your friends in class again.
I really don’t think I need to comment on your eating habits on a yearly basis anymore. You are a brilliant eater (unlike your sister) and there is nothing that you have turned down. I mentioned in my last letter to you that you don’t like mushrooms. However since then, you have been trying mushrooms in creche and you seem to like them, too. Nothing is stopping you now food wise. Your lunch box is in school is always coming home empty which is great to see. Though you are not the biggest sandwich eater. I have started making you cold pasta and you seem to enjoy this. Fruit is still your best friend though. You are a big fruit monster and consume a lot of fruit on a daily basis.
Luckily this year we could hold your birthday party in our house with a few of your friends from school and creche. As you enjoyed the bouncy castle so much last year, we ordered one for your birthday this year, too. We got great use out of the bouncy castle as we had for over three days. You friends enjoyed it and the cousins the next day had fun on it, too. You couldn’t have asked for better weather as well and so when the cousins came over, instead of cooking a dinner, we had a last minute change of plans and mammy did a BBQ instead.
It was quite obvious what you wanted for your birthday. Since school returned last year, most of your friends in class, as well as people are big into Pokemon. Everything is Pokemon. I am glad you are into it though as it teaches you how to read and of course it involves a bit of maths. You are big into collecting your Pokemon cards now. And mammy might be into it too helping you collect all the sets and sort them all in numeric order. You must have over 600 cards now at this stage. I think Real Breaking Nate on You Tube is your idol. lol It is an enjoyable hobby to have.
This years holiday was still in Ireland. We had a lovely Summer holiday in Cork and Clare. It was very hot so we timed it perfect. Though at times, it was nearly too hot. You loved the times we went to the pool. For next year we have an actual Summer holiday abroad booked which will bring us to Mallorca on the Balearic Islands. It is going to be so much fun. Apart from our Summer holiday this year, we did a lot of day trips. One brought us Clare Lara Fun Park and another day we went to Tayto Park. Both days you really enjoyed but I do think you enjoyed Tayto Park the most as you got a massive Eevee as a prize in one of the carnival games.
During your Summer holiday you went to a tennis Summer camp for two weeks. Now that school is back, group lessons are also back. It is something that you really enjoy and I am happy you have a sport you like. The GAA or soccer is just not for you, but we will give soccer another go. We are quite happy with you playing tennis all the time and take it on as a sport where you might even get to enter tournaments in the near future. Thankfully swimming lessons are also back. In the next few days we will be going down to the club to assess your swimming. Then we will be back to swimming lessons and hopefully you will be able to swim by the time we go on our Summer holiday next year.
Apart from sports another big hobby of yours is Pokemon. It has become quite an obsession. You must have collected over 600 Pokemon cards to date and your friends enjoy the same passion so it is nice to see you all sharing the same interest. The cards are somewhat educational as they teach you how to read difficult words as well as do maths on all the different moves. Mammy has been helping you sorting all the cards in numeric order. And to be honest I enjoy it quite a lot myself. When mammy was a similar age to yours, I used to collect and trade cards in the yard in school, too. So this brings back great memories.
This October you will be finally doing your first communion. A celebration we are going to end with a lovely meal at your favourite place.. the Spanish Tapas restaurant.
Clothes wise you are now a shoe size 2. Most t-shirts still fit you in a size 8-9 but jackets we changed to size 10. You have grown a lot over the Summer actually. We can particularly see it in the length of you tracksuit bottoms.
This brings me to the end of my letter. We hope you have a lovely and memorable time in third class with all your friends in the next coming year and hopefully there will not be any disruption.
Until then… we love you very much bestie.
Mammy & Daddy xxx
(and Chloe and Tilly)
