3 years

 Dear Gideon, 

Happy THREE years! This last year has been incredibly difficult in a lot of ways, but you have been such a bright spot through it all. We have endured a pandemic where the world has changed drastically as we all have known it. You have taken all of it in stride and been the most flexible of us all. You have taught me so much about living with happiness and loving our family. 

From the beginning you were obedient in wearing a mask even though you turned two right at the beginning of the pandemic. You have always been pretty good about wearing a mask. Sometimes you put in in your mouth and make it wet so that you can take it off, but you have gotten better about that. 

You still love basketball and love playing HORSE as a family. You pick that as your family activity when you are in charge. You also like to pick "cars" which is where we each get a car and slide it down the kid slide we got for Christmas. You also like sliding down the slide with both of your sisters. It has kept you busy during this past winter when there were not many places to go. 

You love to look at cars and buses. When you would wake up early Dad would take you to the bus depot in the mornings and sometimes get you McDonalds pancakes and it would make you so happy to sit in the front seat and watch all the buses with a pancake in your hand. We did that very thing on your birthday last month. You have been very into the movie Cars and then Cars 2. You haven't made it to Cars 3 yet but you probably will soon. For your birthday we got you a lot of the Disney Cars from the movie. You especially like Finn McMissile and Francesco Bernoulli. 

Since the weather has warmed up, you have liked going outside to parks. You are brave and climb way higher than I ever would as a child. You did a dance class this past year which you seemed to enjoy. At the beginning there were other boys in your class but by the end you seemed to have notice you were the only boy. You were always really good at following the teacher and you are pretty athletic for your age and were by far the best jumper in class. However, you asked your dad one day after dance class, "Dad, do you not let me do basketball and soccer because I am too little?" Dad said that once you turned three then we would have you play soccer. For your third birthday we got you shin guards, a soccer ball, and signed you and Juliet up to be on the same team this summer. We are excited for you to try a sport with a ball since you are finally old enough!

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