Max’s Third and Cody’s Fifth Birthday: 2003

I know what you’re all thinking. And you’re right. There is no spoon. Oh, that’s not what you were thinking? Maybe you were thinking, “WTF? Andy, you let your 5- and 3-year-old watch the Matrix movies!?!” No. But they were so taken by the previews, and because I’m such a nerdy geek… actually, I guess that pretty much covers the explanation.

When you’ve got two boys and a theme like The Matrix to work with for a custom birthday card, you’ve got a problem. A couple of problems.

The first is, of course, “Who gets to be Neo?” If you can get past that one, then you’re on to the dilemma of “Who does the boy who isn’t Neo get to be?” Morphius is rad, but turning a white toddler into a wise, samurai-father-like black man just doesn’t seem right. And as strong and cool a supporting heroine as Trinity’s character was, that’s just not right. Leather-encased breasts just don’t look right on any child, boy or girl.

I couldn’t get past either of those brain-busters. So, when I saw that the boys were blown away by the The Matrix Reloaded trailers, I also noticed they were particularly fascinated by the ghost twins. It’s a weird birthday card for such little kids I’ll admit, but when their eyes lit up as they looked at it, I knew I’d made the right choice. Don’t judge.