Things are looking up!

I don’t know what I did to earn the good karma, but two great things have happened in two days.

First of all, we did our taxes Thursday night and instead of paying thousands as we have since the kids were born we actually get enough back to pay off 2 of my 3 student loans! I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t make any money until September in 2009.

Then on Friday I got an email from the director of Primo’s preschool and they were able to make room for him to come full time starting in April! He’s so pumped, and now as long as the licensing department from child services approves the short-term ratio discrepancy for Bella she will get to stay at her current dayhome and we’ll only need my mom for the two weeks of maternity leave that our provider is taking.

My mom has offered to switch vehicles with us after Easter until summer break so the BG can transport Primo to school in the mornings and then I’ll pick up both kids after school. (His sports car doesn’t take child seats so we need a new vehicle in the summer. Another thing we can’t afford but will do anyway.)

Yee haw!

Have I mentioned that we’re screwed? That my dayhome provider is pregnant and when she has her baby my kids are out because they put her over-ratio and over the 6 child limit?

Because yeah. That’s our situation.

Every dayhome we’ve called is full before we get there for an interview.

The preschool is full until fall.

We have 6-8 weeks of no care for our children while I finish out the year. It’s looking more and more like the Big Guy will have to take all of his holidays for the year to be home for that time. That’s great – awesome even, for the kids, but screws us out of any family holiday, time together at Christmas, time for the kids to be with him when I go back in the fall 2 weeks before their full-time preschool starts, blah blah blah. Not ideal.

The extra crappy part? The April preschool intake filled up before I got our forms in because I got the flu. I even had them 99% completed and just didn’t take the time to email them in. Totally my fault.

So, that word that rhymes with truck? THAT.

Scene: Bella is eating in her booster seat and knocks her milk onto the floor. The whole family is at the table except for Daddy, who’s a few feet away in the kitchen.

Bella: I NEED MY MILK!

Mommy: Then ask with your best manners and I will get it for you. You need to say “Mommy, can you please get my milk?”

Bella: NO! DADDY WILL GET IT! I don’t WANT you to get it. (insert fake crying here)

Mommy: Are you Daddy’s girl today?

Bella: No, I’m a boy. I have a penis. I HAD a penis. A long time ago. Now I’m a girl. I need my milk. Please. (insert wicked laugh here)

Bella is quickly learning to use the toilet. She is dry most days. She’s been in pan*ties for a week and only had two accidents. (She’s two years and 3 weeks old.)

She generally poops in her crib when she wakes up from her nap before she changes out of her pull-up. She’s gone in the toilet by fluke a few times, but generally has no interest.

Last week she was standing by the dining room bookshelf and I heard grunting so I grabbed her and ran to the bathroom. When I took off her pants, I saw that she’d pooped in her pan*ties and slipped out a very quiet “Oh, crap.”

Fast forward to today…

She woke up dry from her nap and peed in the toilet. I asked her if she had to poop and she said “Not yet.” When I asked her what she would do if she felt poop coming, she said…

“I’ll poop in the toilet, and then you’ll say CRAP!”

Oy.

Dear Bella,

You’re TWO! Oh, so very two! And, honestly, I love every second of it. You’re adorable, stubborn as all get out, and the sweetest, kindest little girl I’ve ever met.

Oh, where to begin?

You are SO smart. You know all of your letters, most of your letter sounds and can count to 14 (which is sometimes followed by 16, some random teens and then 20). You speak as clearly as many three year olds and your grammar and vocabulary far exceed many of them as well. You regularly speak sentences like “Daddy will come home before supper and then we will go to soccer and I will cheer for Primo!” It’s seriously amazing. You do have some of the cute “little kid” speech idiosyncrasies though, like l=w (I will = I wiw; Primo = Pwimo) and th = d/v (they=dey/vey). You can read a few words (a, I, it, the) and love to look through books while making up the story that goes with it. You do so many things that are expected of kindergarten students that you blow my mind on a regular basis.

You love with wild abandon, and you love many many beings. You, of course, love Daddy and I. Primo is definitely your favourite person on the planet. You love your grandparents, and insist on phoning Grandma Betty every day. You love Chloe. “See’s a bootiful cat! I wuv her!” You love Thai & Mavi. “Thai & Mavi awe my BEST fwends! Dey awe so sweet. My sweet puppy fwends. I WUV dem!” You smother us all with hugs & kisses (especially after you pinch or hit us, and also include an “I so sowwy Mommy. I wuv you sooo much!”) I can’t think of anything better in the world that cuddling you and feeling your cute little cheeks pressed against mine. I have no doubt that we will have our struggles as we both deal with the female hormones of different ages & stages (particularly because you got your stubborn streak from yours truly, but know that I will always love you just as much as I do this day. While I can’t imagine loving you more, my love for you does seem to grow daily so perhaps I may even love you more when you’re acting like a moron during your teenage years.

You love – and I do mean love – pink. When I get your clothes ready for you, there must be at least some pink…preferably all pink…or you shout “Dat’s not pink! I WUV pink! I wear pink! It’s my favowit!” When I asked you what kind of birthday party you wanted to have, you replied “Pink. Princess and pink.” When I asked what kind of cake you wanted, you replied “Pink.” When I asked who you wanted to invite, you initially replied “Primo, Daddy, Mommy, Grandma Betty, Taffy and Baby Ty-ah and Pink!” Of course, you added all of your other grandparents and family members and a few other friends as time went on, but you never removed Pink from the list! I think you were just making sure I really understood that your party was to be a pink party no matter who came.

In addition to pink and your family, there are other things that you love. Babies top the list – real ones and play ones. You have more babies than you can play with but you rotate in a fair manner. You put diapers on them (actually, you get me to do it for you), take off their diapers and put them on the potty, get them dressed, feed them, tuck them in for naps, wake them up, take them for a walk in your stroller and then start all over again. You love ponies of all kinds, but especially your My Little Ponies (because there are lots of pink ones).

You have the best laugh, and when you and Primo get going the sound of the two of you cracking up makes my join right in. It brings tears to my eyes to see the two of you having so much fun together every single day. Your laugh is loud, just like mine (which is just like Grandpa Jack’s was). You laugh from the heart, and it shines in your eyes. You love to be tickled, and say so sweetly “Pees tickle me Mommy?” And, of course, I do – just to hear that giggle!

You, of course, play all day long, and you love to do crafts. You love to paint, colour, glue, play with Play Doh, stick stickers and do pretty much everything else that would qualify as crafts.

You are currently rather a crappy sleeper. You go to bed easily but wake up and spout the cutest little “Hi Mommy! I need a cudduw! Pees sing to me?” Therefore, it’s completely our fault that you’re used to coming to bed with us sometime between 11 pm and 3 am every night. You always go right back to sleep once you’re with us, but you generally only last about 10 minutes without crying if we put you back in your bed. I absolutely love to wake up to a smooch and a “Good mo-ning Mommy! I wuv you!” so I’m not really complaining, but it does affect Daddy’s sleep a bit. Just last night we decided we’d better start giving you a little cuddle and putting you back in your crib instead, and you seemed pretty fine with that. You’re still napping – about 45-75 minutes a day at home and anywhere from 2-3 hours when you’re at Michelle’s. (How is that even fair?)

Grandma Betty bought you your first package of big girl panties for Christmas and you’ve had one dry day in them already. You look so darn cute in them that it’s tempting to leave you in them all the time but we aren’t in the frame of mind for that yet. You do super many days but there are still times that you’re too busy to want to go to the potty so you’re obviously not really ready. You won’t poop in the potty yet either. You stand right in the middle of a room to poop in your pants and tell everyone else “I’m pooping. I need pwivacy. Pwees go away?” Maybe Easter vacation – we’ll wait and see when you decide to be ready.

Your second Christmas last month was a big hit. You were so excited about the songs, about Santa, about the presents…everything just thrilled you. You just loved our tree and asked to have the lights turned on as soon as you woke up in the morning. You were deservedly spoiled, but not rotten at all. In fact, when you opened the first pony from your stocking you hugged it and were just thrilled. When I asked if you wanted another, you said “I already got a pony, Mommy!” You loved everything – but more so the things that were pink, of course. We spent Christmas – ten days, actually – at Grandma Betty’s, which was awesome. Grandma Jeet & Grandpa Roger were in India so left gifts for us all at their house and we picked those up early to keep you entertained until Christmas. It was perfect as you and Primo both loved everything they gave you.

Bella, I just can’t imagine a little girl sweeter or cuter than you. I know all mothers are biased, but I know that you’re the most beautiful little girl I’ve ever met. I wish for you a lifetime of uninhibited joy, loud laughter, and dreams come true.

I love you from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the sky, and all the way around the world!

Mommy

She’s two. Already.
I can hardly believe it.
A princess in pink.

I can’t even tell you how much I need a long weekend. I’m not even close to getting everything done that I needed to get done this weekend. I was going to have all of the Christmas presents wrapped and I haven’t even started. I did, however, take my babes swimming Friday with friends instead of doing the grocery shopping.

Saturday morning we went to a town nearby for the annual Santa Claus Parade – our second time going – and the kids had an absolute blast. Primo shouted at “Merry Christmas” at everything that went by ~ “Merry Christmas horse!” “Merry Christmas dog!” “Merry Christmas truck!” We thought the highlight was going to be Santa at the end, but he looked at me and said “but where”s the real Santa? At the North pole, right?” Yeesh. He’s too clever for his own good sometimes. We had the kids all bundled in snowsuits & boots because of the chilly wind and they were toasty except their hands & cheeks. I wore Sorels and Hot Chilis (long johns for winter running) and my winter running shirt under my parka so I was fine, but the Big Guy was chilly in his hiking boots & jeans. We always take Timmy Ho’s out with us so we were all well fed & happy. I don’t let my kids eat candy – particularly candy that’s been on the road – but that didn’t bother them at all. They agree about the whole “food on the road” thing.

After the parade we took Bella home for a nap and Primo & I went to Costco to get some groceries and then to the big Christmas craft show where I bought Bella hair pretties to match her Christmas outfit and Primo spent his money on treats for the dogs. Too sweet. He’s incredibly kind & thoughtful for a three year old sometimes. He loudly interrupted a busy woman at her booth to say “Can you please make a coffee for my Mom?” because he thought we’d waited long enough. And wait until you see his letter to Santa – what he asked for was too cute, and he saved himself for last without me even telling him to ask for things for anyone else. Love that kid, man. I’ll post both of the kids’ letters later this week.

Random Interjection: Bella only peed in her diaper twice all weekend (except during sleeping hours). Whee!

My friend was in town for a quick supper so I dropped Primo off & ran out to meet her & her fiance at BP’s, & then rushed home again for bedtime. After student-led conferences two evenings this week (after school one day and at bedtime another day) and a dinner out with my staff on Friday I’d missed enough quality hours with my babies so it was time to get home and stay home. Saturday night was cuddle time. Sunday morning brought a little Christmas photo session in the living room so I can change out the photos in our entryway frame (results below) and then…I can’t remember what we did for the rest of the day. How is that possible?

Here are the kids in their Halloween costumes before their party on Friday.

Bella, as the fairy princess (“faiwy pwintheth – I PINK!”) and Primo as “Sergeant OurLastName.”

Trick or treating was a HUGE hit. They just loved running to all the neighbours houses and shouting trick or treat as they shoved their buckets in their faces. Neither of them ate any candy though – they came home and devoured cheese, crackers and a veggie tray before bed. They had each had a chocolate earlier in the day and I think they’d had enough. The Halloween Fairy made a very poor choice in bringing Primo an Incredible Hulk toy. He spent the day saying “HULK SMASH” and smashing random things – including his sister. The Hulk now lives on top of our fridge. The pony for his sister was far less violent. Who knew?

Poor orphan children only had four pumpkins each this year:

They each scooped out and designed a jack-o-lantern, made a Mr/Mrs Potato Head with us and painted two mini pumpkins independently (by far their fave).

And some bonus cute that you may not have seen:

Slightly belated, being that they’re 3 1/2 and 1 3/4 now, but better late than never. It’s not like I didn’t have the shirts in time – I just forgot.

Starting them early…they ran in the under 6 age category for the 2 km race. Primo ran much of it and walked probably 0.5 km. Bella ran about 0.5 km, walked about 0.5 km and was carried the other km by the Big Guy. (Who also, coincidentally, carried the pumpkins they got for completing the race all the way to the van. And then his arms fell off. The end.)

We interrupt this riveting week of cleaning out my dad’s toxic chemicals and other random crap to bring you a giveaway of some great organic & natural products that I personally use and love, a review of a product that I’m not 100% sure about, an update on my very glamorous life and a haiku.

My grandmother in law is here (in the city I’m in, visiting my mother in law while I’m at my mom’s – not actually HERE right now – in case you’re into details). She’s here from Vancouver and this week has been the first time she’s met Bella. She was here for Christmas 2007 when I was supposed to have her, but she was so damn stubborn even then that G.G. had to leave before they yanked her kicking and screaming from my uterus in mid-January 2008. She acknowledged her presence the first day we went for a visit and when she came to our house last week, but this week she has completely refused to have anything to do with her. She meets her last living great grandparent and I can’t even get a damn picture. Primo on the other hand? Made her day with hugs & kisses and other such stuff. And I got some pictures of him with her. So, there’s that.

I’ve had a productive few days, completely cleaning out all of the toxic chemicals from my mom’s utility room (to the tune of 15 garbage bags, not full because that crap is HEAVY) that my Dad had a penchant for collecting. After I got rid of all that, I organized and labeled to my hearts content and she now has a whole shelf labeled “light bulbs.” Poison wasn’t the only thing my Dad liked to collect.

Tonight we tackled a small portion of the outside area and added a crapload to the pile of poison to go for proper disposal later this week, and created a whole new pile for the landfill. Sorry, Earth. We’ve salvaged lots for a future garage sale too, and are recycling tires and giving away as much stuff as possible.

Though much of my week has been and will be spent among chemicals and dirty crap, I can only do that stuff when my kids are in bed so we’ve still been enjoying our days. On the weekend the kids went for their first horseback ride (pictures to follow when I get them uploaded). It was super awesome. My mom, the Big Guy and the kids and I went out to my sister in law’s parents farm to feed the horses and have a little ride. They also saw a kitten who had just opened it’s eyes, a bunny and a bunch of dogs. And played with sticks and stepped in horse shit. Ahh, country life. They loved every minute of it.

The next morning, my sister in law & I went back out and saddled up some of their neighbours horses and went for a good long ride. It’s been a long time since I rode, let alone galloped free down the side of a highway, and it was absolutely incredible. I wish I had pictures. Instead I have saddle sores and a mosquito bite on my ass. There’s that glamour shining through again.

Yesterday we ran out of milk.

I mean, like, really out. So “out” that I couldn’t even have a latte this morning. (Until I could get to Starbucks, that is. I’m not that stupid. I wouldn’t have any friends sans caffeine.)

So after our chiropractic appointments we were going to Costco to get some bulk stuff we were out of, and decided to stop at Safeway first to get milk. My kids have never had a drop of milk that wasn’t of the breast or organic variety, and we can’t get either at Costco so we always have to make several stops for groceries. Milk wasn’t on the list, but since that was our primary purpose for stopping at Safeway it should be a no-brainer, right?

I left with three bags full of groceries and no milk. And didn’t notice until the kids were buckled in their carseats.

So? I bought milk at Costco.

The same price for 4 litres as I usually pay for two. But now we’re home and I can’t bring myself to put it in my kids’ cups.

Dumb? Yep.

Canadian non-organic milk doesn’t even have the hormones that American milk does, so it’s not nearly as bad to buy non-organic dairy products here but it still makes me feel horribly guilty to put those chemicals in my babies’ little bodies.

Some families don’t even drink milk after weaning. Many green families, actually. Which is very interesting to me. I haven’t really done my research on it (shocking! I know!) but some things I’ve read are rather shocking.

1. Westerners are the only people who drink milk from another mammal after weaning.
2. We’re also the only society with osteoporosis.

Hmmmm.

I wrestle with giving my children milk at all, but justify it because it’s organic. They get fat and calcium from many other sources (a head of organic broccoli lasts two days around here, and they’re both nuts for nuts) so it’s not like they’d really be missing anything. Vitamin D maybe, but they spend a ton of time outside so probably not. They also have goats milk occasionally, and soy or hemp milk, but they hate almond milk.

So, all that is just to say that I have a ridiculous amount of milk guilt and, though I know it’s totally dumb, I can’t help it and am not sure what I’m going to do about it.

I mean, it’s not like I fed them a hotdog.

We had a fabulous Canada Day.

Yeah, it was over two weeks ago. So what?

That doesn’t make it any less cute.

The outfits? Thanks for asking! Heh. Please Mum has a Canada Day line of clothing that they bring out every spring so I always buy an outfit in the following year’s size when they’re on half price or less.

The storyboard? MCP Magic Print It Boards, which were expensive but worth every penny in the time they’ve cut from my workflow.

Workflow? I’ve been very busy with photo shoots & trying to wrap things up with my sessions so that I can go back to work in mid-August without anything to focus on but my family and a little bit of work. I’ve been busy creating actions in Photoshop and have almost perfected a batch action that I can run on a whole folder of photos which leaves all of the layers open and saves it as a .psd file so I can mess with the layer masks & layer opacities and make it all just perfect. I can get an entire family session done in a couple of weeks, and it used to take me 4-5 weeks. Booyah!

New reviews up this week:

If you’ve got to wash dishes when the maid is on vacation, you should really get these. (with a giveaway!)

Upstairs it’s the foam Elmo & princess chairs they push each other out of, but this is the furniture my kids are fighting over in the basement.

Check out my sort-of-review of a new(ish) natural insect repellant and sunscreen combination.

Be sure to let me know how this review linking thing is working out for you. Inquiring minds want to know!

And how are we all feeling about the switch to purple?

Over and out.

June 11, 2009 (yeah, right)

Dear Bella,

A year and a half has passed since you were yanked out of me holding your head high and your eyes open wide, and you continue to run unabashedly ahead of the pack. (Not that I’m biased or anything – and I’d love you no less if you were…anything else.)

At eighteen months, you know your entire alphabet (except D, which about half the time you call “ABC”), most of your numbers to ten and are reading a few words (a, I, the, by…) on the “Meet The Sight Words” DVD’s before the voice on there says them. You love to sing, and your favourite songs are Twinkle Twinkle, Row Row Row Your Boat (to which you sing “Mewiwee, Mewiwee!” and melt the hearts of everyone around you) and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. You also love when we do “This Little Piggy” and any other rhyme or song that involves your body. Often when we touch you or reach for you, you giggle and say “No tickle Bella!” and at other times you point to your armpit and ask “Tickle Bella?” followed by “Tickle Wah Wah!”

“Wah Wah” happens to be your favourite person on the planet and the two of you are the best of friends. You won’t even take a snack or toy without ensuring “Wah Wah too?” The two of you blame each other for everything, which is completely normal but I think you’re getting started early. You are together from the moment you wake up until the moment you head off to your bedrooms at night, and if one of you is out of the line of sight of the other, it’s mere seconds before you’re looking or asking for each other. One of my favourite moments of the day is when you first see each other in the morning and run with open arms for a hug. You should “HI WAH WAH!” and he says “Hi Bella!” as you hug and he kisses your head. Just typing those words makes me tear up. You two are the best thing that ever happened to your Daddy and I, and you’re just a perfect fit for our family.

You’ve reached the lovely stage of diaper change acrobatics, which is not very entertaining. It’s particularly not entertaining when you kick poop around the room and roll away laughing. Really, really not entertaining, but normal so we’ll just hope the stage ends soon.

Whenever we’re outside, you love to run away giggling and have someone chase you and grab you in a big hug. Always toward the road, of course. It’s a great game to play as long as I’m not holding the leashes of two dogs.

You still have the biggest & brightest smile I’ve ever seen, and you don’t hesitate to share it with those you love. You literally smile all day long. Except when you’re crying. Your crying is fake about 80% of the time – you’ve inherited a dramatic gene from somewhere – and is over when you either get what you want or get distracted and start laughing. If it weren’t so cute it would surely be annoying, but we’re not there yet. It’s so darn cute. You’ve also got the “furrowed brow” thing going on and use it whenever someone talks to you and you don’t feel like answering. It reminds Daddy of the pictures of me when I was a little girl, so I guess you come by it honestly!

You are following in your brother’s footsteps and already talk like you’re a year older than you are. There’s no way I can list the words you say anymore because you’re up to four word sentences. Things like “More mango please, Mommy” and “Go see Daddy doing?” are usual for you. You pick up the phone any time you see it and say “Hi Damma! Hi Damma Betty! Go Damma house?” You adore Grandma and when we’re with her, you aren’t really very concerned with me at all. You love all of your grandparents and also your aunts & uncle & cousins, and are a very lucky little girl to have so many people who love you right back.

I love you from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the sky, and all the way around the world!
Mommy
xoxo

A few pics from the three months since her last letter:

April 11, 2009

Dear Bella,

It’s been three months since I last wrote you a letter and you have changed so much.

You’re an active little girl. You can run fast enough to keep up with Primo and his buddies (though it’s still that adorable bouncy, side-to-side baby run that I love) and you love to be chased, climb up on anything and play on the playgrounds in our back yard and in local parks. Thank God you have a little bit of fear so you don’t dive off edges (yet) and wait for me to help you down, which is nice when I’m trying to play with two children at the same time.

You’re a talker! You learn from the best as your brother and I talk all day long. I can’t even count how many words you say, so I’ll attempt to make a list:

Hi
Bye
Mommy
Daddy
Wah Wah (Primo’s name)
Thai
Mathi/Masi (Mavi)
Co-ee (Chloe)
puppy
dog
cat
ooth (earth – sooo cute!)
guy
fidz (fridge)
dis (this?)
dat (that?)
coat
soos (shoes)
sock
foot
knee
eye
nose
eeee (ear)
dzees (cheese)
muk (milk, accompanied by sign but sign is diminishing)
pees (please, accompanied by sign)
ba-ow (ball)
bath
tub
teeth
mouth
bock (block)
buk (book)
up
off (which also means on, open and close)
out
appoo (apple)
appuh (open)
audey (laundry)
dooty (dirty)
mess/messy
pitty (pretty)
You count with Mommy “uh, two, sree, fuh, fuf, sis, setee, it, nie, tie! Yaaayyyyy!” and you always clap for yourself. (In fact, you clap and cheer for me every time I count too!)
bockie (broccoli)
owie/ow
baby
pants
mo (more, with sign)
fow-ah (flower)
bwu-dah (brother)
si-tah (sister)
boy
gool (girl)
pawk (park)
walk
side (slide)
moo
cow
sit (generally when you’re telling me to sit in the lazyboy because you want to nurse)
no (or, rather, NOOOOOOOOOO!)
Nike (which you learned to read off of my t-shirt just today)
sorry – sign only

I’m sure there are more, but that’s what comes to mind for now. Well over 60 words anyway, which is stunning for a 15 month old child, and you’re learning new ones every day. Obviously, you’re completely amazing. As if there were any doubt. You recognize a few numbers (3, 8, 9) and a few letters (o, x, i) and point them out everywhere you see them. Imagine the surprise on the face of the people standing near us in the huge line at Save-On for 15% Tuesday when a baby points up to aisle nine and shouts “Nine! Mommy! Nine!” It was fantastic.

You can point to your head, hair, eyes, ears, mouth, chest, tummy, knees, back, bum, feet, toes, legs, arms, and elbows. Your neck still confuses you and you think it’s your chest, but I don’t think that’s a huge concern at this point. Perhaps there’s a rare condition called “neck displacement disorder?”

Things you love: Primo, Daddy, Mommy, our animal family, Grandma Betty (who you point to on the wall and ask “Please!” on a regular basis), brushing your teeth, climbing up on the big bathroom stool all by yourself, putting your own clothes in the laundry basket, putting your dirty diaper in the garbage, crawling up the stairs and running away so someone will chase you, being chased anytime & anywhere, walking outside, playing in the back yard, playgrounds, rolling the ball back and forth with Mommy, having Daddy all to yourself on Saturday mornings when Primo & Mommy go to his music class, when Daddy comes home from work, when Primo wakes up in the morning, jumping on Primo’s bed, sitting with Primo on the couch to roll around or read books, pretty much anything to do with Primo, and also anything to do with Daddy, cheese, broccoli, dry Nature’s Path corn flakes, dry cheerios, Lara bars, cheddar bunnies, milk, smoothies, nursing, playing peek a boo, rubbing the dogs’ backs, trying to pet Chloe without her swatting you, anything chocolate, anything Primo will share with you, cucumber, carrots, apples, mandarin oranges, mangoes, rice, noodles, feeding Mavi dog food piece by piece, dumping the dogs’ water all over the floor, having a bath, being carried, emulating anything Primo does (good or not-so-good), going to bed (when you’re healthy & your teeth don’t hurt – the rest of the time you just sleep with me)

Things you’re not so fond of: Getting new teeth, bananas (sometimes), avocados, being alone, not having full access to the boobage (you may, in face, go to kindergarten nursing), when someone leaves the house without you, when someone has something you don’t or can’t have – particularly your brother – and you generally just try to take it, being told ‘no,’ waiting, being restrained when you want to run, and not getting your own way.

Hmmm, more and more it seems like you take after your mother. I like to blame it on Grandpa Jack – he was stubborn too. It will serve you well throughout your life, but can certainly make for a parenting challenge. That’s one of many reasons why I am reading so many parenting books about raising sibling without rivalry, raising daughters in the face of worldwide early sexualization and so many more. Like Grandma Betty’s Aunt Elsie once said about me, “No man is ever going to take advantage of you.” You can hold your own with all of Primo’s friends, even when they’re all here at the same time, but you’re still very much a girlie girl who loves her babies and purses.

I can’t describe how wonderful it is to have a daughter to love – someone I can relate to in a very unique way. You are a precious, precious little girl and may you never forget it. Goodness knows you’ll hear it often enough.

Of all the little girls in the whole wide world, I got the very best one.

Love, Mommy
xoxoxo