To Matt, age 4, to be read when you turn 13

Nina says, KAYA!

I've been holding on to these photos of Matt's 3rd birthday for an entire year. I had no idea how to scrap them until this challenge came along and yet it still took me a month to think about it. Thanks, Lee, for the inspiration!

P.S. Pasensya na po sa mala-nobela na sulat. =p


Hidden Letter reads: Envelope reads To be opened on April 3, 2017

Dearest Matt,
Happy birthday! By this time, you’re probably tired of your Mom writing you letters and making you mini-books and scrapbook pages. Indulge me now as I write you a letter from the past.
The photos on this scrapbook page are of you on your third birthday. It was a simple affair. We brought you to Mall of Asia at night, ‘coz Dada had to work during the day, and we let you do your favorite pastime, “roll the ball, shoot the ball” you call it or Timezone. Your birthday treat was your favorite 3-cheese pizza at Delifrance and four seasons juice. Your usual chocolate birthday cake from Red Ribbon was at home.
Let me tell you a little of this past year when you were 3. It was a crazy year for you and for all of us.
You went to toddler school at a school near our place in Parañaque. You loved going to school and after 4 short months could sing the alphabet and count 1 to 10 (most of the time, although you still think 9 comes after 4).
You cried like crazy the first few days of toddler school but soon grew attached to your teacher, the teaching assistant and your classmates.
But I also saw a wild side of your that I didn’t know how to deal with. You picked up a friendship with the rowdiest boys in class and I could see that you loved being rowdy just as much as learning.
Of course I felt bad and felt it was my and your Dada’s faults for being too strict on you. You were such a well-behaved toddler and always followed us without question.
Within 4 short months, school was having a bad effect on you. It didn’t help that your first teacher resigned and there was then a never ending change of teachers who couldn’t handle your class of 10.
We pulled you out of school and, thankfully, you were okay with the decision.
Why am I telling all of these details to you now?
Because I wanted to let you know that at 3, you are a very smart boy but you can also choose the wrong kind of people as your friends. Because at 3, you have learned to stand up and refuse to follow Dada and I simply because you feel like it. At 3, although you love learning new things and being read to, you can also get distracted easily and even start making trouble because you’re bored.
Ever since you were a baby, you were your own person. You let the world know if you didn’t like something and absolutely refused to do anything you didn’t want to.
That’s the fierce, independent, strong spirit that you are.
But then, Dada would leave for his business trips abroad and you’d cling to me like a safety blanket and refuse to let me out of your sight.
Sometimes it’s too much for me and I scold you or take out my anger on you and I’m really, really sorry for that.
But I do hope that the closeness we have now will always remind you that I’m here for you no matter what and I love you very much.
As you enter your teenage years, I have the sneaking suspicion I’ll see a lot of who you were when you were 3. And I know there’ll be times we won’t see eye-to-eye or that you’ll feel that your Dada and I are too strict on you.
I hope you forgive us for the times you’ll feel alone and that we can’t understand you. But I hope you’ll also give us the chance to try by talking to us and telling us how you are or any other concerns on your mind.
As early as now, I know that you will have to fight your own battles and make hard decisions for yourself. But that’s what being a teenager is all about.
You are a very smart, kind and sweet person. I know that you’ll make smart decisions.
If you stumble some of the time, there will be times you’ll have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off.
Always, your Dada and I are here for you.
And if you can’t talk to us, God is always there for you, watching and taking care of you.
We love you, Matt. May God always be with you.
Love, Mom

Materials used: Cardstock - Bazzill; Patterned paper - Bam Pop, Junkitz, Rhonna Farrer for Autumn Leaves, All About Scrapbooking (clocks); journaling die-cut - Bam Pop; others - playing cards, Dymo tape, photo corners, buttons, pen, ink, envelope and typewriting paper.

About ME:
I'm 29 years old, turning 30 in May, and a stay-at-home mom to 4-year-old Matt.

I got bitten by the scrapbooking bug in March 2006.

You can check out my blog at Creating in Solitude.