Dear Zachary – tomorrow you are three – Mummascribbles

Dear Zachary,

At the time this post goes live, you will be upstairs with your daddy, falling into a sleep on your last night as a two year. I will be busying myself in the kitchen in the prep of making your birthday cake. That is unless Tesco’s have failed to deliver the required ingredients in which case I may be crying!

When you wake up you will be three. THREE!

You know it.

You are so aware of your birthday this year, it is truly wonderful. I can’t tell you how exciting it makes it to know that you are excited. You keep telling people that you are going to be three. You keep holding three fingers up, as if it needs to be proved visually. When I asked you this morning what day it is tomorrow, you giggled a lot (as you so do when I ask you a question like that) and answered with ‘it’s my birthday’. It’s a beautiful moment to watch you excited. It’s something a parent dreams about, that year when their child fully understands for the first time what is going on. You are so aware that you know cards have been flooding through the letterbox and when parcels have arrived, you haven’t queried any further when I have said what they are for. Usually you would be pressing me to open such packages but you simply haven’t, because you know they are for your special day.

Tomorrow you are three. I’ve been saying it a lot recently and yet it still doesn’t seem real. I can’t believe that three years ago I was sitting nervously at home knowing that the following morning I would be going in to hospital to have you. I wrote my birth story some time ago and it is still so fresh in my mind, that moment when they lifted you out and you screamed the theatre down, the moment I cried when I heard your screams and that moment I saw you for the first time. God you were beautiful. And you know what? Nothing has changed. You are quite simply the most incredible little boy and I am so proud to call you my son and even more proud to be your mum. Every moment of your little life so far has been amazing but this last year has been incredible.

It’s hard to believe that only a year ago you were really starting to try and talk. You had such a few amount of words that I was a little worried you were behind on your speech. And now? Now we can’t stop you talking and your speech is so concise that I often forget how young you are.  You very rarely get stuck on a word but when you do you say to me, ‘I don’t know that word mummy’. Just these last couple of weeks you have taken talking to a whole new level and I don’t think there is a quiet moment from you. You are suddenly demanding for our attention – repeating mummy, mummy, mum, daddy, daddy dad until we look at you. Just paying you attention isn’t enough, you have to have us looking at you with our full attention.

You are so interested in everything. They say a child’s brain is like a sponge and it’s so true. I can constantly see you taking everything in, remembering it and then three weeks later, talking about it. Just last week you asked me where clouds come from and how does it rain? I was a little shocked to be getting such questions from you but it turns out that it was something that you learnt with Nannie before she went on holiday and you remembered and needed it clarifying again. When I got some information up on Youtube, especially for young children, you watched it with fascinated eyes, trying to remember it all. You are such a clever, bright little boy.

You love bouncy castles. There is one at the pub round the corner and every single day you talk about it. First thing in the morning driving to the end of the road you ask if it’s going to be up, even though you know it’s too early. When I’ve told you a million times that it’s not up because of the rain, it stops raining and you say to me, ‘maybe the bouncy castle will be up now because it’s not raining’. When it is up you are desperate to go on it, asking us if we can go to the pub for lunch with the knowledge that if we are eating there, we’ll be there longer, so more bouncing can happen. And when you are on it, the absolute sheer joy on your face. You just love bouncing! We even bought you a trampoline to try and help with your love but it’s just not as good as the bouncy castle in your eyes!

You love girls. Don’t get me wrong, you love children in general but you are such a flirt that sometimes it’s a little embarrassing. Your eyes will draw to the little blonde girl, she’s normally at least a couple of years older than you and that’s it, she can’t get rid of you! She will always play with you, she will humour you and make you laugh because you are such a charmer and you just love it. You love attention but especially the attention of pretty blonde girls. I’d better watch you in years to come!

You love your family. Even those who we don’t see on a regular basis, you are always talking about. All four of your cousins are the absolute bees knees to you and as for your grandparents, well you just adore them. It is so wonderful to see the pure love that spreads across your face when you see any one of them.

You can almost count to twenty now. 1-10 came really easy to you but ten to twenty has been a bit trickier. You get a little confused in the high teens but you are getting there. Your letters knowledge is coming along too and you do recognise most letters now. I still love that when we drive past McDonalds you look at the big ‘M’ and say ‘M for mummy. You have no idea what McDonalds is yet (and I’m trying to keep it that way!) but I love that you associate that letter with me. Just like D is for Daddy and Z is for Zachary. You love spotting the letter Z because it’s the letter of your name.

You still love Thomas the Tank Engine but your absolute favourite programme is Sooty. Seriously, Sooty is on all the time and we have about 50 episodes stored on the Sky planner! You also love Mister Maker and Time for School. But nothing can beat your love of Sooty!

There are still a couple of things that haven’t changed. You still hate your hair being washed and whilst the majority of bath time is fun, you have this new scream that you do when hair washing is happening. It’s hurts my ears! You also still hugely dislike your teeth being brushed. Sorry baby, but we aren’t going to stop either of these things ever so please, if you could just learn to get used to it, it would be so helpful!

You are still obsessed with trains. Play trains, real trains, just trains. You adore them. When I was off with you last week, we went for a walk to the country park where the railway lines are and you made me stand holding you for about twenty minutes to watch all the trains pass by. It was rush hour so there were lots of them. You were waving to the passengers with a massive smile spread across your face. And when you are on one, well, you are in your element! You do also love buses and are always happy any time Daddy takes you to nursery because it means a bus day!

You don’t stop growing. Seriously, I cannot believe how much you have grown over the past couple of months. You have a height chart in your room now and love measuring yourself against it. Every single time you step in front of it, you are taller! You are just over 95cm now but are striving to reach the top, excitedly pointing to it saying ‘I want to be that tall’. One day baby boy, one day.

You are still hilarious and I am still convinced that you are going to be a comedian. You try to make us laugh all the time and succeed. You are so funny and clever at the same time, you know just what to do to have us in stitches.

You love nursery and have just moved up to the pre-school room. These next two years are going to be major in your development and getting you ready for school. You love all the children and the staff. Sometimes you pretend you don’t want to go but I know you are fibbing because you always have the best days! When I pick you up though, that smile on your face? It just makes my day! I walk into the room and you stop still, look at me, smile and say, ‘that’s my mummy, that’s my mummy’. I love it!

You are quite simply the most charming, caring, loving, funny, intelligent little man and every day is just the best with you in it. Even when I’m having a bad day, or week as this one has been, you brighten up my day with your cuddles and your ‘I love you mummy’s’. Of course, there are times when you are infuriating. When you won’t listen or want your own way. When you are in one of ‘those moods’ that could only be comparable to that of your thirteen year old cousin’s! But they are so infrequent and on such a small scale, that every day is just a wonder. I always long for the weekends when I get to spend time with you and see what you love doing for myself. When we go to the park, for a walk, out on an adventure, to the bouncy castle or simply staying at home painting rainbows, I just love the weekends. Quite often the house is a mess, the floor may need cleaning, the washing may need to be hung up, but it all gets forgotten because the weekends are all about you. All about us. The three of us together.

Zachary, tomorrow you are three. You are such a big boy and I am so proud of you. Your Daddy and I love you so much. We adore you. You are our precious boy and I cannot remember a life without you. Ok maybe I can remember a bit more sleep than we are getting now but none of that matters. You are my life, my world. Happy birthday baby boy.

Happy birthday Zachary.