Mathew at 11

Mathew is turning 11 in under 2 weeks.

He has requested a replica of William Wallace's sword and a medieval shield for his birthday. And a digital camera (if that's not too much to ask)....and....maybe a shark's tooth necklace inlaid with mother of pearl?

You know....whatever.

He is a reader. And I mean, a READER. He devours books and he can read aloud with the best of them. Voices, inflection, enunciation...emotion even! He was born with it.

He is a watcher. I catch him watching me as I negotiate the parenting challenges that come my way and he seems to be taking my emotional temperature....ready to jump in and offer support in the form of a hug or a back rub. It's pretty great.

Many times I hear him organizing his siblings to say a big "Thank you, Mom!" in chorus.

His favorite color is clear. But he has a lot of blue stuff.

He loves to take baths. We can't seem to convince him to switch to showers despite the ick factor.

He started the tradition of asking each person, "How was your day? What was your favorite part?" around the table. He also loves games that involve naming as many foods as you can that start with each letter of the alphabet, or rhyming games or taking turns telling the person to your left one thing you love about them. He is the master of keeping dinner conversations going.

He loves video games.

He really truly madly deeply loves video games.

He has a natural ability with computers. He navigates easily and seems to know stuff that I don't....just the other day when I passed him my ipad so he could read a couple scripture verses during family scripture study, he quickly pulled up a little menu from the bottom of the screen and increased the display's brightness. I promise you I have been performing a 7 step process to do the same thing since....since I've owned the ipad. **head smack**

While cleaning out his room, I found 6 rotten bananas under his bed.

He plays the trombone.

His favorite meal is spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread. No canned corn, please.

He went to the library every chance he got to help the librarian re shelve books and help in any way he could. She was so appreciative that she sent him a letter and a gift card to Barnes and Noble.

He bears his testimony every single month and he does his best to get up there first.

He writes a comic called "One Crazy Pig"

He will join any and all clubs. Last year he was in Sunrunners, CSI Science club, Mathwings, BLAST, Special Chorus, SPLASH, and Band. He is mostly in it for the pizza parties at the end of the year.

If he accidentally finds one of my candy stashes, he will come tell me to move it because he doesn't trust himself.  Considering I have found many empty stashes in the last couple years, he's probably right.

He can quote movies with the best of them.

The other night we had a friendly game of Yahtzee after the other kids went to bed and he beat me...403 to 169.  Ouch.

He is a really fantastic person.