Ollie's 3rd Birthday Letter

 

Hi Oliver, 

Happy Third Birthday! You've had an amazing year with soo much growth, learning, joy and are full of more personality than ever!

You are thriving at school and around November you finally opened up and started talking at school and telling your teachers things  you needed, how you felt, etc. From the videos from school, it looks like you sit down and listen very well. You love to do PE class and throw balls, run and follow directions closely. 

 

A few months before your 3rd birthday, you started up in swimming classes with Mr Renato. All of your classmates are older than you are but you fit right in and caught up with them in a heartbeat. You have no fear of water and love to jump in, and go down in the water before we can pick you up! You also have no fear in the park or of heights. You are an amazing climber and love to jump. You can balance really well on one foot and love to jump on and off the sofa. 

You really love hot wheels like your big brother and keep yourself entertained for a long time. You are also amazing at making a mess! You love to get things out and then as soon as every piece is out, you move on to make a new mess leaving that one behind. You might dump out a full puzzle on the ground, then a few minutes later decide it's time for legos where you dump out the entire lego collection. Then it might be time to head to your kitchen where you cook up a five course meal and leave every piece of your kitchen, outside the kitchen.   You are an adorable chef though, you and Luke love to play restaurant. You work as a team, Luke creates a menu and writes it on paper and then cook it. You take turns who is the server and who is the chef. You also love to make everyone coffee.   You love to play with real items instead of toy ones, so sometimes I come to see your kitchen full of all the stuff from my kitchen. You might even grab out the coffee, or rice and put some inside your dishes. 

You are incredible at riding your balance bike and every morning, ride it to school and Luke walks or runs along side you. 

This Halloween you dressed up as cookie monster and I was your good friend Elmo. :) 

You spent your first Christmas in America. Once again, you did a great job on the flight. You didn't sleep a single minute on the long flight from Lisbon to Philadelphia but then you did sleep from Philly to Orlando where we were flying to hang out with Grandpa Nick and Cindy for a few days before continuing west. You loved hanging out with Grandpa, he told you all sorts of funny stories and jokes. You also loved his dog, Romeo. Great Grandpa Nick's friends got a kick out of you and Luke at our brunch with them on Sunday morning. You especially loved riding around his neighborhood in the golf cart. We surprised you with a day at Legoland. We had so much fun, you loved all the driving of boats, fire trucks, cars, and tractors. You also loved the different playground areas, carousels, and lego building rooms. We went on a Monday in December and there were no lines for anything, the longest we would have to wait was for the people on the ride to finish. That was such a blessing and definitely made our experience much more fun and exciting. 

Then we headed out west to Marana, AZ to see Grammy and Grandpa's new house! First stop of course was some In n Out Burger which you loved and ate the entire burger! You loved playing with Ryder and Violet, though sometimes the big cousins would hang together and you were doing your own thing. You didn't want Santa to come inside the house, so he had to leave the presents outside the door and Papa could bring them in, the next morning. You had slept well in Grammy's super cousin sleeping room with all your cousins together. 

You also got to visit snow for the first time in your life. I took you on the sled with me, but unfortunately we crashed as we went around a little turn, so you didn't want to go on the sled after that. You did love throwing snowballs, making snow angels, and just stomping around in the white stuff, and even making some yellow snow! We didn't exactly have snow clothing so we couldn't stay for too long but you loved it. 

You went to your first professional sporting event, A Valley Suns Game where the mascot was determined to get a high five from you, but you weren't budging and resisted stranger danger!! You had fun watching the game, and everything around you, especially with Uncle Cody and Alexis. You also got to swim in Grammy and Grandpa's old swimming pool with Mindy, slept over at Jeanette's house, and a few nights with Cody and Alexis. You were a super traveler on the way back and slept most of the night flight from Phoenix to London. It was a ten hour flight and I think you slept for at least 8 hours. Thank goodness because the entertainment system was broken and I was not prepared with anything on my phone or tablet! 

Thanks to the encouragement of friends, we celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in a big Airbnb house with 3 other American families and we made quite the feast!! You hid in the huge house without telling us and we thought you were lost a few times, or worst, had wandered into the pool or the pond on the property. Luckily you were just in the laundry room or bathroom. 

Potty training finally stuck, Poo was pretty easy, but you would do a few drops of pee in your undies before realizing you needed to get to the potty, but we were always impressed you could stop yourself mid pee and get to the potty. 

You and Luke make an awesome team in the garden, where you love to collect snails and bugs and put them in your tractor trailer and give them some leaves to eat. You also love anything nature related, sticks, rocks, grass, pulling weeds, smelling flowers. As soon as you are outside, you are entertained with something. 

You and Luke are the cutest of friends and brothers (most of the time! :P ). As soon as we enter school, you request that Luke hold your hand and you get a hug from him before he goes into his classroom. Sometimes Luke gets excited and runs inside and we have to tell him to come back out.  You guys do some amazing lego building or magna tile building together as well. Sometimes though it's a war! With hitting and screaming. We are always working on teaching you guys to handle conflict effectively and share nicely but it's a work in progress. 

You love to drum on our backs. You like to add "com pa" with sticks onto the end of your sentences.   Before our trip to America, you were speaking to me sometimes in PT, but after our trip you got out of that habit. Once in a while you still throw in a PT word in the sentence, but the sentence structure is still in English. You get beyond excited to see trains and sing your train song all the time. Painting feels impossible with you because within the first minute you've gotten all the paint all over you. 

After our trip to America, you have stopped napping when you aren't at school. You don't seem to need the nap really, except once in a while. When you do have a nap at school, you have a very hard time falling asleep at night and sometimes are even awake in bed until 10pm. Then you seem to wake up more during the night, when you have had a nap. On the weekends when you don't nap, you usually fall asleep right away, earlier and sleep through the whole night. 

You love Bluey, and the Bluey books you got for Christmas have just added to your adoration of Bluey and Bingo. You also like shows like Blippi, Sesame Street, and Llama Llama. I don't think you really have a favorite book, but you go through phases of wanting to read the same book every night for what feels like ages, then suddenly, it changes to a new book. You did get a mini CD player for Christmas with childrens songs and you love to play the music and sing along. 

Your birthday celebration this year was at home. Sandy and Ryan brough their bouncy house, and we played pass the parcel and made your a bluey cake. You had so much fun with your friends and it was an amazing day. You also tried to watch me finish my half marathon but didn't see me passing by. Oopsies. 

You are very curious and love to ask a million questions even when I have no idea the answer to lots of them. You challenge us as parents in ways we have never been pushed before but we love you for that! You keep us on your toes with your hiding, playing queitly while secretly making a huge mess, and are just an all around JOY to be with. You make people smile with your wildness but love your cuddles and hugs and mommys belly button scratches still.   Your little (big) belly is disappearing but your legs and arms keep growing stronger and stronger every day. Never stop adventuring, exploring and loving on people around you. You are our sunshine and never forget that. 

Love always and always, Mom. 

 

 

Last day of Schol July 2025