Dear Nathan,

Dear Nathan -

This week, you celebrated your third birthday!  It was so exciting!  We went to the beach house, you built a lot of sand castles, played with your cousins, buried your PawPaw in the sand, and just in general, had a fantastic time.  We had a special time at your preschool where the cupcakes that we made together were shared with your friends and we all sang "Happy Birthday!" 

I wanted to write you this letter because this birthday is more special to me than your previous ones (while those were great too, for other reasons) because you "know" that your birthday was this week, you understood what it meant, how old you were and how old you were becoming!  Your understanding of the whole process just brought a whole new depth to the event! 

You are such a special boy - you are so polite, smart, well-mannered, and sweet.  You say "thank you" and "your welcome" on your own and in the most appropriate of circumstances.  You love your sister so much and treat her with respect, already!  You have been potty trained for months with no problems and I am so proud of you for that!!  You have an amazing vocabulary and love to learn new things - always asking questions!  You can easily count to twenty, know all your letters and their sounds - even identify what words start with!  You started preschool a few weeks ago and seem to be loving it (although I am confident you are not napping!).  You play "MawMaw and PawPaw" with your sister and are usually (!) PawPaw, which is so sweet because they are so special to me and I want them to be special to you too!  My current favorite "Nathan-ism" is how you correctly use the word "also" and "of course"! 

I love that you love to go to church, that you learn the songs and listen to the stories.  You love Thomas, Diego, The Wonder Pets.  But DO NOT love "wolvsies" or "foxes".  In fact, you often tell God "no thank you" for those guys.  While you get scared sometimes at night, you are confident in the truth that your daddy (and God) will always keep you safe (and Daddy does not allow wolvsies or foxes in our house).  I also love that you pray with me every night and sing our song when we go to bed.  You still love to sit in my lap and read books before bed. 

I also love that you still say "I want you" when you are upset or tired or scared.  I always want you to "want me" when you feel those things.  I love you so much and am so blessed to have you in my life for the time that I have you.  May you continue to be a wonderful boy to all who know and love you!

I love you so much,
Mommy