For Aunt Ruth

Matthew with his card, smiling BIG!

When I told him to smile "normal" he did this.

Today while we were coloring, Matthew randomly told me that he wanted to make a card for Aunt Ruth. He cut a shape of paper out and wrote MATTHEW on it (in his own way). Then he decided he wanted to put string on it and asked me to help him punch holes all around it so he could decorate it with string. I helped him tie the string at the end. Then he told me he wanted to send it in a box to Ruth and put some toys in there for her. This is what he said about it:

When Aunt Ruth gets the box she will say (in a high voice) "Oh my gosh, who sent us a package!" Then she will open it and say, "Oh my goodness it's a box! It's from Okinawa! It's from Matthew! I'm so surprised!" And then she will see my card and she will be so impressed!

He also read his card to me. He told me it said this (as I furiously tried to write it down):

Dear Aunt Ruth,
*We have some dishes for you. They are from the store. They are for Aunt Ruth.
Love, Aunt Ruth.
You are far away in (where does Aunt Ruth live in?) You live in Washington and that is far away.
And I know that is true.
This card says M-A-T-T-H-E-W. Matthew made this card and he was a good maker.
I know that you don't know me, 'cause you are far away in Washington.
We got the dishes from the store, from the Make Man store and the dustpan is for us so we won't send that to you.
This card says "LOVE **VIGIL KEEPING."
I saw you go to Washington and I cut out a kitty shape and I'm going to cut another one, but I'm going to wait until the ant goes away.
Love, Aunt Ruth in Washington
(I think he meant Love, Matthew).

*After Matthew started making the card for her I told him I was going to send her some dishes we got for her too.
** A line from the lullaby All Through the Night

It made me laugh. I guess she won't be surprised now, since I told her about it in this blog post. Sorry. Not to be outdone Anna had to make a card for Aunt Ruth too.

Anna's card

Then she "folded" it up special

And a few days ago...

After playing in the water, Anna came to me for help getting her wet jammies off. When we had a little trouble getting them off, I commented that they might be getting too small. This was Anna's response:

That's ok. Aunt Ruth will get a new one for me when she comes to our house. She will say (switching to a high voice) "These ones are wet! Don't worry, I will get some new ones for you!"

I guess she thinks Aunt Ruth will solve her small pajama problems. :)

Aunt Ruth doesn't really have a high squeaky voice like Matthew and Anna's impressions of her. But I thought it was funny.
We're thinking about you Ruth!! You can expect an awesome card in the mail soon...and expect to be impressed!

Scott, me, my sister, Ruth, and her husband Dana
Christmas 2006