Letters to my Daughter #2

Dear Sweet Pea,

What a month it’s been! You’re 17 months old now- almost a year and a half. I can’t quite believe it! You’ve grown so much, even since last month. And it seems I’m forever sweeping your hair out of your eyes! I do wish you’d let me put some clips in your hair to hold it back, but it just doesn’t jive with your sense of style I guess. 😉

This month we went on a great adventure to Arizona to visit your Nanna and Grandpa, and Grauntie Pat and Uncle Ron. They were delighted to have us all stay for ten days! Your Nanna was so happy to see you when we arrived that she teared right up- you certainly have that effect on people. You proved to be quite the stoic air traveler, much to our relief, and I’m sure the relief of all the other passengers in the planes! I know it was a tough sentence for you to be stuck on my lap for almost 5 hours, but we got through it, and you had a grand old time charming the flight attendants in the galley at the back of the plane. Not that you’d let them keep their labels on the carts though…

Your dad and I have decided that you must be a sun baby. You just burst out of your shell in Arizona! You took everything head on- the play structure across the street, the trails at the Arboretum, the splash pool at the house, you even took to the aisles at Macy’s like you owned the place- nothing was going to stop you! You learned to run while we were away too! But when it was time to check in and make sure that you still had your Mum when you needed me, there was no getting out of your grasp. You became at once fiercely independent and incredibly clingy. We were back to nights like we had when you were a few months old, when you wouldn’t sleep other than on me, and even then it wasn’t a guarantee. We spent almost a whole night up together, from 2am till 7am when Dad came to find us. Then there were the two nights when we had to drive around in the desert to get you to sleep. You certainly do have the courage of your convictions! It’s a wonder you were able to take everything on with so little sleep!

We’ve had a lot of fun noticing the new words you say. You’re really clear now with Mum and Daddy, and you talk about your brother all the time, too. You will pick up something if his and bring it to me saying “Bruba!”, and when we go to pick him up from school you just about launch yourself out of my arms into his. It’s really sweet to see how much he loves you too, and reaches for you and looks after you. Tonight you actually went over to him and wrapped your arms around his legs, rested your head on his thigh and went “Mmmmmmm”. You’re so glad to be back with him! Your big bro loves to teach you the names of your body parts, proudly telling us that he taught you “shoulder” or “chin”… You seem fascinated with eyes these days, and will always point out eyes in photographs, drawings, logos, our faces, your face… noses are in favour with you too, though it still sounds like “no”. A few times you’ve reached up and put your finger *in* my nose, which is pretty funny, but maybe we’ll not do that in public, ‘k? Of all the things you say now I think our favourite is from our day at the Phoenix Zoo when you picked up “Momo” for Monkey! Since we’ve been home you found Dad’s stuffed Gibbons Mojo and Nobo, and have taken a definite shine to them. I’ll have to catch a photo of you cuddling up with them. 🙂 Not to worry though, they haven’t taken over from Lily- she’s still your number one.

Sweetheart you really are a neat kid. I know it sounds silly to say that, but I think it’s true. You’re this neat little package of energy and determination, and ingenuity (did I mention you can unscrew and replace bottle tops? ) and spunk ( you’ve figured out going down the stairs, backwards, all by yourself thankyouverymuch), with a fun sense of humour (when you let it out) and a boatload of charm. You absolutely charmed everyone you met while we were away, and you do it at home to. When we’re out and about you’re happy as a clam making eyes at people. Or running and shouting, but we’re working on that… I think you’re going to keep us on our toes when it comes to guiding you along, but we know it’ll be more than worth it.

Love you love you love you my Chublet. Always and forever.

Mum xoxo

There’s more love to go ’round! I’d love to hear from you in the comments, then I invite you to click on over to my friend Susie DeSha’s blog to check out her letter to her son. She’s a photographer in Kansas City, Missouri, and does lovely work!