Letters To My Children | July 2018
Letters To My Children | July 2018
monday , july 16, 2018
dear babies,
it seems like time is getting shorter and shorter between these letters, as the days go faster and faster. last night i spent some time walking down memory lane, looking at baby pictures. it seems like i just became a new mom and it’s hard to believe it’s already almost been two and a half years of motherhood. there has been so much beautiful change in our life in the past couple of years and it’s all because of the both of you. i love that you will never know life without the one another. every memory you will have with include your sister and daddy and i are so thrilled at how beautiful your relationship is. we wanted to give you each the gift of a sibling, and you are cherishing that gift each and every day. i can’t wait to see you two together in the years to come. you make sisterhood look so easy.
to my oldest:
you are mama’s helper! my goodness, do you love to help! whether it is handing me clean things from the dishwasher to put away, taking the bib off of your sister after she is done eating, helping to wash her face or running towards a fallen toy and rescuing it for your little sister, you are the best helper a mama could ever dream of. at only 2 years and 3 months, you are my right hand during the day! and because we have such a strict schedule, you always know what happens next during the day and are ready to tackle the next activity.
daddy and i insist that you have experienced a vocabulary explosion within the past couple of months. you are learning at least 2-3 words each day and you love to look around the room and name everything you know. you can say your name and age now, and you love to count…we are now working on getting those numbers in the right order. you like saying every other number with mama, so when mama starts at 1, you will say 2, i will say 3, you will say 4, i will say 5, you will say 6, i will say 7, you will say 8… you are very good at your even numbers! you also love the letter E, but we aren’t sure why. you point it out every time you see it and exclaim, “E!” whether you see it in your name or you see it on the Target sign when we are walking up.
we love being outside with you and your sister, this summer! you got a new tricycle and you are getting better and better at it each time we play. you really love your bubble machine and we are going through a ton of bubbles this summer! you love to stand right in front of the bubble machine when it is on and the bubbles surround you. we have learned to only use the bubble machine on bath day because you are coated in sticky soap after your bubble fun. grandma jokes that you don’t need any soap during your bath because you are already covered in it! just add water!
one of your favorite things to do with mama is the drawing game. you have a really fun new magna doodle and you love handing it to mama and saying, “mama, color!” what you mean is, you want me to draw pictures and have you tell me what they are. mama has gotten really good at drawing a lot of things and you have flattered me when guessing my drawings correctly! especially car! mama has a hard time drawing car, but you get it every time! your favorite things that mama draws are bear, butterfly, circle, triangle, diamond, heart, star, moon, tree, cloud, house, door, windows, people (and all their body parts), happy, sun, flower, car, train, oval, coffee, two, and bee. we have been known to spend most of your sister’s nap time drawing together.
we have taken up bird watching at our house! mama originally bought a really pretty ceramic birdhouse, but the birds didn’t like it too much. after a couple days of watching, daddy saw us looking at our empty birdhouse from the window and said, “i’ll be right back.” he went to the local wild bird store and said, “i’ve got some girls that want to see birds, load me up!” and the lady at the store found him the perfect feeder and seed to do the trick. daddy came up and surprised us with some fancy new bird things and we have been watching the birds ever since! we have seen red birds, blue birds, and yellow birds so far and daddy thinks we need to make a print out of all the birds to put next to the window so we can identify them. we are taking our bird watching seriously around here.
you are starting to learn how to dress yourself now and can get your shirt on over your head properly, but need a little help finding the holes to put your arms through. you can name all the clothes and after you a dress you say, “shoes!” and “bow!” you know that you are never fully dressed without a bow. when mama puts a pony tail in your hair, you like to hold the little pony tail elastic in your hands while i fix your hair and say, “circle!” you are so so smart!
in addition to learning shapes and numbers and weather and everything else, we have introduced responsibility and helpfulness. which, you have taken to effortlessly. you help mama open the window shades in the morning, you take your plate and cup to the sink after done eating, and you take such pride in doing such helpful things. the other day, i watched you finish a cup of milk and then get up and walk your cup to the kitchen sink, without being asked to! you now know that after you are finished, you help by cleaning up after yourself. mama and daddy are so impressed!
we finally convinced you to try a popsicle, after weeks of trying. mama told you it was a watermelon in order to get you to try it (slight fib), but once you realized it wasn’t, you also realized that it was really yummy! you still prefer ice cream, and daddy has taken us on a lot of ice cream dates so far this summer. you like to share vanilla peanut butter with mama and we like to sit outside and each it before it melts!
every morning, you exclaim, “mama!” when i walk in to get you up and it makes me smile! you also spend your day saying, “bless you!” to anyone who coughs or sneezes, including yourself. everything about you is pure sweet and smart and you are turning into more of a little girl each day. i told you last night that you have to give mama a kiss every 15 minutes so i can savor you all day long. and when i say, “mama kiss!” you run to me, with your lips all puckered up! i just love you so so so so so so so much!
to my littlest:
happy half birthday, happy girl! oh my goodness, you are half way to 1! yesterday we went on a family ice cream date to celebrate your half birthday and, even though you technically didn’t get any ice cream, you were all smiles while we were celebrating with you! you are completely adored and we can’t get enough of you. your sister thinks you are the sweetest little thing and she loves to help you in any way that she can. remember that, as you grow. your sister will always be there for you, especially to help. mama still calls her sisters regularly to talk and share advice with one another and having a sister is the best. i am so happy you girls get to experience sisterhood.
even though you love to chew on everything and want to bring everything to your mouth, you still don’t have any teeth! we are so surprised! any day now we are going to see, or mama is going to feel, a little tooth! for now we are savoring your sweet little gummy smile.
you sure love to eat! you really love oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and sweet potato/squash purees. you also eat peas, avocado and rice cereal. you have become really eager about food in the last couple of weeks and really open your mouth when you see the spoon coming. you are so happy all the time that you are trying to master smiling and eating, without losing your food! mama will put a spoonful of food in your mouth and then you will smile at your sister and, half of your food ends up on your chin! the same with breastfeeding! you are so darn happy all the time, but haven’t figured out how to manage smiling and feeding at the same time. mama has to look elsewhere when you feed because, if we lock eyes, you will start smiling away and plop!…the boob slips out.
you are sleeping pretty good, these days! you wake up at least once a night for a feed, but are quick to fall back asleep once i lay you in your crib again. ironically, on the weekends you skip your midnight snack and sleep through the night. but on the weekdays, you really like a 2:00am feed. you must know that we are going to have lots of adventures with daddy on the weekend, so you are catching up on your rest.
you really love books! just like your sister! you really enjoy reading with mama before bedtime and your favorite is “peek a who!?” your sister loves reading books to you too and you are always trying to grab them while she is turning the pages. every once in awhile, you will get the corner of the book in your mouth and you both start laughing. honestly, seeing you both have so much fun already is the sweetest sight.
you have your doctor check up on friday and we can’t wait to see how much you have grown! while we have a scale at home, your pediatrician told mama to stop weighing you between check ups because it was making me too worried. he told me that it was time to put the scale in the attic for if/when another baby comes, but that you were perfectly on track with your weight and there was no reason to monitor it between appointments. i listened and haven’t weighted you in about 6 weeks so we are so excited to get you on the scale this week! you are right on track for all of your milestones! you are practically crawling and we are sure you will be crawling before we know it. you are so so strong and tummy time is your favorite. your sister loves to surround you will your favorite toys on your play mat so you can have fun.
this summer is proving to be a lot of fun with the two of you! between stories, birds, drawing, tummy time, bicycle riding, bubble fun and lots of picture taking, we are making the most out of each and every day. i love everything about our days together and, as you are both getting older and older, we are really finding some fun activities that we enjoy during our daytime together.
we can’t wait for the adventures that are still to come and we love you more and more each day.
love, mama