A Very Merry Christmas

What better way to spread the holiday cheer than to tell our family and friends that we were expecting a second baby?

We wanted Matthew to be part of the surprise so we ordered him a t-shirt that said, “I’m going to be a big brother” to wear under his sweater on Christmas Eve. When the timing was right he would take off his sweater and reveal the surprise.

 I got pregnant in November. Matthew was fascinated by the logistics of how the baby would come out. We showed him a picture of a baby inside a belly from a maternity book that the hospital gave me. After a brief glance at that photo he decidedly flipped ahead to some of the more telling pages of the maternity book. When we asked what he thought he informed us that he had a baby in his belly too. Imagine the coincidence!

With Christmas approaching we baked cookies, a gingerbread house, and a train. We shopped, wrapped, sent out cards, and planned a menu for our Christmas Eve party.

Christmas Eve approached and Matthew delivered our surprise like a champ. The family was as surprised and happy as we had hoped that they would be.

When the party ended, much later than Matt’s bedtime he protested going to sleep but three minutes after being tucked in he was fast asleep.The next morning he woke up to a pile of presents under the tree.
 

Three is such a fun age to be around at Christmas. “Special crayons!” Matt exclaimed pulling a box out of his stocking. “I was looking for these!” Or “Oh yeah! A new garbage truck!” His excitement was contagious.

Despicable Me

“My mommy is going to pick me up from school right after snack time,” Matt told his teacher the second he took off his coat and stepped into the classroom.

“Despackable me,” I heard him telling a playmate when I picked him up.

“Desicklable me?” The boy inquired.

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Matthew concluded. Noticing my arrival then he threw the stamp roller aside, flung the picture he made at me, and began pulling me by the hand towards the cubbies. “Are you taking me to the movie theatre now?”

“Yes of course.”

The movie theater reminds me of the old one we used to go to while on vacation when I was a child. There is one step to indicate the upper and lower levels, the seats are wide and comfortable despite the fact that they do not recline, and tickets are only $3.50 for a matinee.  There are no brain teasers, advertisements, or behind the scenes features before the movie starts. The screen is dark and peaceful until that moment of excitement when the previews to the movie come on.

“I don’t want anyone sitting next to me,” Matthew putting his legs up on the back of the seat in front of us to block the aisle.

 “You shouldn’t worry about that.” Aside from us the only other people there are a family of four sitting on the other side of the theater.

The movie begins and halfway through Matthew whispers that he is three-years old.

“Did you say you have to pee?” I whisper back.

“No, I’m three!” He counts on his fingers, starting with his thumb, “One. Two. Three!”

.

When the movie was over Matthew was amazed by the change to a moonlit sky. “Was that movie on forever ago? Am I four?”

Later at bedtime he throws himself into my arms, “Thank you for taking me to the movies to see Despackable Me at apartment number four!" Suddenly I wish it wasn’t his bedtime already. 

Edaville Railroad

This winter Matthew has fallen in love with the move The Polar Express.

We waited an hour in traffic to get into the train themed park but he didn't mind the wait.

During the train ride a conductor came around and punched our tickets, which pleased Matt because it was just like in the Polar Express movie. Later he would tell me that his favorite part of the trip was when we were on the train and they played a song from the movie. 

After the train ride we ate dinner at a table outside. Matthew is sitting with me right now and asked me to tell you that he had a hot dog, french fries, and chocolate milk. After dinner, we walked over to the kiddie rides and ran into our friends, Stella, and Sargon. Sargon and Matt went on some rides together, and ran around exploring. To them it could have been a warm night in August or a cold night in December and they would have still had the same amount of fun.

Halloween Eve

Matthew had Banana Who since he was born. She dragged along with him when he learned to crawl, took his first steps, and made transitions easier to daycare, a bed, sleepovers in hotels during vacations, and his first day of school.

“Have you seen my ‘nana Who?” Matthew appears at our bedside holding a framed picture of his blankie, Banana Who.

“Let’s get you back to bed,” I tell him as I had last night and the night before that.

We think that we lost her at a department store. I called the store twice to ask them to check their lost and found, but each time the store assistant returned to the phone empty handed.





 It helped that Halloween was approaching and we had a lot of activities planned. Halloween gingerbread houses, decoration crafts, pumpkin painting and carving, ghostly cupcakes and cookies, pumpkin muffins, boo bags, candy corn pancakes, caramel apples, a school parade and party.

I was a parent volunteer at the school party and got to witness the fun first hand. When we arrived to school a little girl dressed as Jessie from Toy Story hugged my leg. Another boy dressed as Woody asked me to help him put on his shoes. Matt dressed as Buzz Lightyear left me to find his friends. I didn’t see him again until the kids lined up for a parade.

Dressed in costumes the kids marched around the outside of the school twice. Then they were split into groups, to attend different activity stations the teachers set up.

When it was time for the parents to leave, he respectfully thanked me for coming to his party and told me he would see me soon.



Then today we were outside raking leaves when Bob called Matthew over to see something. In his hands was none other than the long lost Banana Who!

Adventures In Pumpkin Bowling

Look Matt, the cops! We better hide!” Sarah points to a cruiser on the side of the road.

“Actually, we taught him that the police are his friends,” I interrupt.

“Really,” Sarah tone conveys disappointment.

This past weekend we went to Vermont.

“This moose is so cute,” Matt told me before bed, holding a stuffed moose that belonged to Sarah but by the end of the weekend would belong to him.

“You’re cute too,” I told him.

“But I’m not furry!” he giggled in response.

In the morning he wanted to visit Santa because a couple trips ago we took him to a place called Santa’s Village. I told him that we had something else planned and maybe next time we could go there. “I need to ask Santa to get a basketball game for Woody!” He argued, as though he didn’t have his own list of reasons to sit on Santa’s lap.

He quickly got over this when he realized we were going to a train museum.

At the train museum we rode the train and spent the morning observing and playing with train exhibits and toys. Matt was very excited to spend the morning doing what he loves most.

The next day we visited a farm. Matthew won a ribbon for pumpkin bowling. He also peeled an apple, make pumpkin ice cream, and learned about chickens. We went on a wagon ride pulled by horses and he tried to eat an apple from a string. It was a great note to end our weekend getaway on.

“Can we go back tomorrow?” Matthew asked me after the two and a half hour drive home.

1st Day Of Preschool

Approximately twenty minutes after we put him to bed, Matthew came strolling back to our bedroom. “I’m really excited for school!”

“That is great,” I enthuse and moved over to make room for him in the bed. “Is there anything that you are not looking forward to at school tomorrow?”

“I’m not looking forward to the other kids hitting me,” he replied after thinking about it for a moment.

“No one is allowed to hit you,” I tell him sternly. “If they do I want you to look them in the eye and to tell them not to hit you again. If they hit you again than you should tell the teacher.”

“And then what will happen?”

“The teacher will give them a time out because hitting is not allowed at school.” This seems to soothe his first day jitters and he goes off to bed without another visit to our room.

The next day when I dropped him off he had a big smile on his face and waved to me before walking into the classroom without an extra nudge from me.

He had these two things to say when asked about his first day of school, "No kids hit me this year." and “It was good. The teacher said that I could come back tomorrow!”

The school year is off to a good start.

The Subway To Sea Lions

Bob and I took Friday off from work as it was the last weekday before Matthew would be starting preschool. We took him to Boston for the day. It would have been quicker to drive, but took the train in as a treat. This was his first time on a subway train and he named them after Thomas trains, based on their colors. The red line was James, and when we switched to the orange line he yelled, “There is Murdoch!” when it arrived. The blue line was Hiro, which took us to our first destination, the aquarium.

Matthew wanted to see his favorites, the sea lions, first. At home he often pretends to be a sea lion and I have to feed him imaginary fish to encourage him to stop barking at my feet. At the aquarium he spent a lot of time conversing with the sea lions, “Arf, Arf, Arf!” I imagine if sea lions had eyebrows they would have looked over his head at me and raised one.


After the aquarium we walked to Faneuil Hall to have lunch at our favorite restaurant. Bob and I ate there together before we were dating, and a few times while we were dating, but this was Matthew’s first time there with us.

“Did you ever think that we would come back here with our child someday?” Bob asks me after the waiter takes our order. We think back and recall the very first time we ate here.

We were across the city and I mentioned I liked this restaurant but it wouldn’t break my heart if we didn’t eat there that night. “I would never break your heart,” Bob replied. I wondered if he misheard me or if he was just stating a fact. We bought subway tokens, which no longer exist, to take the train to the closest stop. We ate there and got lost on our walk back to the train station. A homeless man heckled Bob to hold my hand, but he didn’t because it wasn’t like we were two people dating on a date or anything.

“Can I buy a toy after lunch?” Matthew asks bringing us back to present day.

“The day is your present, we brought you here as a treat,” Bob answers.

“A treat is something you eat,” he argues. “I like toys.”

“Yes a treat can be something you eat, but it can also be getting to ride the train and to go to fun places,” I explain.

This sinks in a little while later when leave empty handed from the toy shop that we agreed to let him go in to look around.

We stop at the Children’s Museum before heading home. We usually go in the mornings but the afternoons are a lot less crowded so Matthew got to play on the exhibits a lot longer than usual. Then we took the red line, James, home to the station where our car was parked.

Banana Sandwiches

Of course I’ve still been keeping tabs on the funny things Matt has said lately:

“Excuse me I’m listening!” When he overheard us talking about him.

“Like it or no?” As in like it or not?

“I’m redecorating.” After he dragged his truck rug to our bedroom and hung stands of tape on his toy box and shelves.

“My muscles are tired. Can we go to you car to snuggle?” At work with me on Children’s Day.


“Take this off, I don’t need it” About his thumb getting in the way of his shadow puppets.

“I don’t want to make banana bread; I want to make banana sandwiches.”

“One more toy!” Meaning him after handing me all his bath toys.

And my personal favorite:

“I’m really handsome, but I need a haircut.”

House Number 4

Along the way to our annual trip to Maine we stopped at the zoo. The highlights were feeding the llamas, “boat paddling” as Matt called it, and learning that there was such a bird called The White Belly Go Away Bird.

When unpacking in our new temporary home, “House Number 4”, Matthew declared that this was Buzz Lightyear town. Maine was the amusement park in the center of town. Once settled, we walked down over to the beach. Bob, who had earlier identified himself with the White Belly Go Away Bird, transformed into vacation mode and chased and splashed in the waves with Matt, even though he was only wearing his clothes instead of bathing suit.






The best dinning experience of the trip would have had to been The Clambake. There were seats in the back of the dinner which the windows slid open. On the pavement under those windows were mobs of seagulls waiting for you to drop food through those windows. It was the perfect dinning experience for a three-year-old with unruly restaurant manners.

We spent our nights next to the pier in ‘Maine’. Matthew went on all the kiddie rides a dozen times or so, as we learned our lesson from last year and just bought the wristband instead of tickets this year. He had the unfortunate luck to get seated next to older kids on the teacups. They spun him to the point where he could no longer hold his head up. Bob and I watched in horror as he hit his head on either side of the teacup and then stumbled over when the ride stopped. This has been one of Matthew’s favorite tales to tell from our vacation although his recollection of events includes the Evil Emperor Zurg having something to do with it.

“Where did dad go?” Matthew asked me when we took a break from the rides.
“To get ice cream,” I answer him.
“No!” He frowns at me. “When I say dad you say nothing. Say that!” After a pause he prompts in a friendlier tone, “Where did Woody go?”
I say nothing.
Another frown.
“Jessie? Where did Woody go?”
“To get ice cream?”
“Oh! Thanks Jessie.”

The best kept secret of the trip was the Train Museum in Portland. I had found it online but kept it a surprise for Matthew until we arrived there. The building itself was filled with trains and toys for him to explore. There was a train movie similar to one he has at home playing the entire time. Matthew would have spent the whole day there if we let him but we had a train ride to catch. The train rode along the coast of Casco Bay.

“This train is awesome. It’s going to Maine.” Matthew said during the ride. It was the first time he used the word awesome in a sentence.

The train stopped to let the passengers get out to stretch and take pictures. The engineer offered to allow the kids to take a tour of the cab but when asked Matthew politely declined that only the train conductor could sit there.

When we got back to the train station the skies were starting to cloud over. There had been weather advisory for thunderstorms so we took one last quick look around the train museum and then left to make it to our next destination before the rain started.

Mackworth Island is a flat hiking trail cut in the middle of the woods on cliffs above the ocean. It is also home to fairy houses build by visitors of the island. We set off with the intention of hiking the entire trail but as the sky got darker and it started to thunder we turned around about halfway through. It would be appropriate to say that our plans for the island were derailed.





Unbeknownst to us, there were not just thunderstorm warnings but now tornado warnings too. We stopped at the mall and went to dinner before heading home. On the car radio we heard the warnings and turned the television on to the weather channel as soon as we got inside. Outside the sky grew darker and darker until it was eventually pitch black, despite that there were hours of daylight left in the day. The tornado did not come through to Buzz Lightyear town but we did get pouring rains and severe thunderstorms that night.

The next morning Matthew I woke up early and walked on the beach to look for seashells and crabs. On the way back we take the road back to look for train crossing signs. The Amtrak runs at all hours of the day behind House Number 4, which I imagine would be a low selling point to families without small train obsessed children.

“Look, it’s Santa’s house!” Matthew stops to admire a hotel sign with a picture of King Neptune on it. “Santa lives there!”

Our vacation was also filled with reminders of things I might forget to appreciate during the day to day of our lives. For example the way Matt’s hair curls in the back when he is overdo for a haircut and how Bob learns both the direct and scenic routes to every destination that we visit.