Tweenager!

 Happy 12th Birthday!

Height: 5ft (67th percentile)

Weight: 81lbs 9oz (31.6th percentile)

One more year before we have a teenager here!  I cannot even believe how fast the 12 years have gone by - I still remember the day he was born like it was yesterday....only it was 12 years ago!  Latest happenings in this tweenager's life: Currently playing soccer with team Dynamo, Coach Jay and assistant Coach Dad!  He was pretty disappointed that our neighbor Zach ended up not being able to play on the same team but having dad as the assistant coach made things better.  And even though the team hasn't won any games yet, Matthew has improved so much since the beginning of the season!  Video games is definitely still a part of life - I want to say Minecraft, Clash Royal and Rocket League is what he usually plays.  There's a new chat thing called Discord that I see him using on his phone where he chats with various friends from school about games/homework/and nothing of much importance (at least to me, anyways!).  

He's been a really good sport about life with Covid.  I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and his immediate response was "Well, there's Covid so I can't really do anything with a group of friends".  I really appreciate his maturity and ability to be thoughtful about what's happening around us rather than just being a selfish kid. What he really wanted to do was go to a ropes course with his friends so I tried to find a place that would allow us to do it as a family but Madeline is too young.  So instead, I took him to try rock climbing during one of his days off school where Madeline was still in school.  He had a nice time and it came pretty easy to him but I don't think he loved it enough to want to do it often.

He still has his expensive taste buds and prefers to eat meals that include steak and seafood.  His original birthday dinner was take out from UwU Sushi because there was a Hampton fundraiser on the day of his birthday but then on the weekend, I ended up making steak, mussels, broccolini, mushrooms, onions and baked potato as his birthday meal.  For his birthday, Pat and I purchased him a cooking class at Sur La Table over the summer that's he pretty excited about attending!  With the pandemic, he's had more opportunity to cook - he enjoys it when he's in the mood to cook (instead of playing video games!).  Many times after school, he'll come home and make a "tong yuen" snack for himself - he's so much more comfortable around the stove now.  There was one evening when I had make everything for our dinner that night and he did great!  Didn't need to ask for much help at all.  Granted, it was a frozen meal, veggies and rice but I was happy to see he's self sufficient enough to make something more substantial than instant cup noodle!  At least I know he won't starve when he goes off to college!

I know we still have a few years before that happens but at this rate, it will feel like he'll be off in a blink of the eye!  Happy birthday Chef Matthew!  We love you and are so proud of the kid you are!