Happy Day

Happy Mother's Day to all. I hope it is a wonderful day for everyone! My little boy also turns 26 years old today. That is just so hard for me to believe! I have always said that if Matti had been my first...he would have been my only. :) It isn't that he was a terrible child...just a bit more challenging than the other two.

Irv was so excited when Matt was born, because after two blue eyed blonds, Matti had dark hair and brown eyes like his dad. The dark hair didn't last, but oh those pretty eyes.

Matt has always been smart and adventurous. There were no little boys in our neighborhood his age, so he always tried to tag along with Michael and his friends who were all three years older. A week before he turned four, he told us to take the training wheels off his bike because he couldn't keep up with the big kids when they rode on the dirt trails that ran through the empty lots in our neighborhood. We took them off and after a few really hard falls and a lot of angry tears, off he went as happy as could be!

We use to call Matti, Hector the Collector. He was the boy with the full pockets...and you never knew what you might find in them. He couldn't pass up anything he considered "cool", and it was all cool to Matt.

Matt loved soccer and baseball. He even tried some wrestling and played some basketball. It was fun to watch him doing tricks on his roller blades, and he just couldn't get enough of the great outdoors.

We had a four foot deep above ground pool and he loved it from the first time we put him in it. He would slap on a pair of goggles and jump in, swim to the bottom and bring up anything that had been tossed in.

Matti got his first stitches when he was little in a very delicate male area....he slid on his butt down a hill and met up with a stick that was firmly planted in the ground. The next stitches were in his forehead when he flipped over the handlebars of his bike and landed on his face. Have you ever seen how much a facial cut bleeds? Yikes!

He broke his wrist clean through at soccer practice one year. I was sitting in the car reading and the kids came running to get me. When I got to the field, the coach still had him laying on his belly on the field. The coach raised up Matti's sleeve very gently and there was his wrist at a 45 degree angle, only the angle wasn't at his wrist...it was a couple of inches above it. It was SOOOO gross!!

Matti's love for action and adventure has left him bruised, battered and scarred, but what fun he has and how happy he is!
High school was a little intense. It wasn't that he did anything different than my other two did...he just managed to always get caught! Isn't that right Matti? Short hair, long hair, bleached hair, dread locked hair, pierced ears, eyebrow, lip, tattoos...we've seen it all, but the boy inside never changed.

Matt is very opinionated, just like his mom. He has a difficult time allowing other people to have their own opinion when discussing something he is passionate about. He is right and they are wrong. He is learning though as I have learned...to allow each person to have their opinion...even if their opinion is WRONG!! HAHA!
Matt is an amazing teacher according to the parents of his students. His love of all people and of nature warms my heart. He is caring and compassionate and makes me so very proud. He takes such pride in everything he does and tries to make the world a better place for all. He is passionate about life.

His siblings call him a "tree hugger". He rides his bike to work every day rather than drive his car. He sent me what he called a "lame" card, but the selection was minimal in ones that weren't wrapped in plastic.

One of his very best friends is his beautiful border collie Luna. She accompanies him everywhere he goes, and that includes hiking, camping, rock climbing and snowboarding!

I know you are off climbing that 350 foot "rock" today Matti, but Happy 26th Birthday Baby Boy! I love and miss you so much!