Letter to My Munchkin

(Sorry if this letter is a little disjointed or choppy. . .I wrote it while exhausted, and still don't have the energy to go back through and edit it at the moment, ha ha. I wanted to post it yesterday, but didn't finish it until late last night and so I put off posting it until today. . . .)

Dearest Munchkin,

Happy 3rd Birthday!!! It really doesn’t seem like that much time has passed since I first laid eyes on you and instantly fell in love.

This morning we celebrated your birthday with Daddy over Skype--which was lots of fun! You opened your presents and then we sang “Happy Birthday” or “The Cake Song” as you decided to call it (you asked us to sing it to you periodically while you ate your frosting--along with a little bit of the actual cake--after we’d finish singing you’d blow on your cake as though you were blowing out your candle again, ha ha!), then you blew out your candle like a pro, and it was time to eat cake! Your cake was a layered yellow cake with chocolate frosting and tons of sprinkles (you were so excited about the sprinkles!). Daddy had cake too and Uncle Tony even dropped by Daddy’s room for a few minutes to get some cake and to wish you a happy birthday. =) You had fun playing with your new train set and trying to figure out what the pieces of your doctor’s ‘kit’ were for while Daddy watched. It was definitely a fun morning and I think we all enjoyed ourselves quite a bit!

This past year has been an interesting one to say the least. The “Terrible Two’s” hit with full force not long after you turned two and it’s been a battle of wills ever since. You’ve also gone from a vocabulary consisting of about 5 words to speaking in broken sentences 90 miles an hour. You say some of the funniest things and make me wonder where you come up with this stuff.

Along those same lines, your imagination has really blossomed this year. You are always imagining that your ‘friends’ (Bob the Builder, Thomas the Engine, the bear, skunk, robot, shark, t-rex, etc.) are either playing with you, joining us for a meal,or chasing you while trying to bite you.

You finally started sleeping through the night. There are still occasions where you wake up and need some help going back to sleep, but those are a rarity now (for which Mommy has been very grateful, ha ha).

This was the first year that you really got a chance to play in the snow, and you had a BLAST...so did I--it was a lot of fun running around and playing in the winter wonderland with you.

This year has been different from your first two, because this year it’s mostly just been you and me. We said goodbye to Daddy on New Year’s Day this year and he headed back to Afghanistan for a year. I was worried about how you might react to Daddy’s absence, but as always you have been a little trooper and have been so brave while Daddy’s been away.

I wasn’t sure how you were going to react when Daddy came home for 15 days of R&R at the end of May, but God answered my prayers and the reunion was more beautiful than I could have imagined. I hadn’t told you that Daddy was coming home, but once we’d arrived at the airport you started saying, “Daddy? Daddy?” I think you may have recognized it as the place where we’d last seen him. . . . It came as quite a surprise to me all the same though. Once we’d made it into the airport and had gone up the escalators we could see Daddy’s camouflage uniform at the end of the long passageway and you immediately started saying, “Daddy! Daddy!” Daddy spotted us also and we met somewhere in the middle where you instantly went to him and wanted to hug him and hold his hand.

On the way home from the airport you kept opening your arms out wide and saying, “Hunk” (which translated as: “hug”)--you were so happy to have Daddy home you didn’t want to let him go! Also on the way home that day you put three words together for the first time--you’d been playing with Daddy’s sunglasses and kept taking the head strap thingy off and then saying, “I did it!”

Ever since that day your vocabulary and communication skills started to take off and improve by leaps and bounds--which has been incredible to look back on and see how far you’ve come. Now you are speaking in long sentences (they don’t always make sense, but usually they do....) and using big words like: “obstacles” and “telescope”.

Back in August you tripped while playing a game of tag/chase with Grandma and you hit your right cheek on the edge of your wooden rocking chair--which left a gash about a half inch long which required a trip to the hospital. . . . The doctor said you could get 1 or 2 stitches, or we could have it glued. We chose the glue to ease any further ‘trauma’ on you. Just like the first time you gashed your head open, once you’d gotten past the initial pain from it (about 5-10 of crying) you were back to your normal self and wanted to bounce around. You were so well behaved for the doctors and sat so still for them. I was proud of you for being so brave!

As I said before, this year has been interesting to say the least! I am looking forward to this coming year--especially knowing that Daddy will be coming home soon to share it with us! I just can’t wait to see the way you light up when you realize Daddy is home! Soon My Baby. . .soon.

Mommy loves you and can’t wait to see what this new year holds!

Love always,
Mommy

Letter to Munchkin

I meant to post this earlier, but didn't get a chance to until now....

Dearest Munchkin,

It is so hard to believe that you are turning two already! You’ve grown and changed so much over the last year--from just beginning to be confident with walking alone to running, jumping, and climbing on/over everything (including your baby gate a couple of days ago--which you are now a pro at doing--even after I raised it a couple of inches off the ground).

Just a couple of weeks ago you started having a ‘vocabulary explosion’ of sorts, and since then you’ve made leaps and bounds in your verbal skills. While you still have a long way to go before you get there, I can’t wait for the day that you say “I love you, Mommy” back to me. For now though, we are trying to convince you that “bus” is really not pronounced “butt”. :)

This past year has held many firsts for you: your first set of stitches (and hopefully it will be the only one for a very long time!), your first night in a toddler bed, your first time in a pool (it was a kiddie pool, but you LOVE it--especially the sprinkler that it has built into it :), your first cookie, and soon your first bite of cake.

You’ve become a very independent (in situations that you are comfortable in anyhow, you still prefer to observe new things from familiar arms) and strong-willed little fella, but to be honest we were kind of expecting that. Most of the time when we say “No.” it becomes some sort of a challenge or a game to you and you just grin and do what we’ve said not to do. I have to admit, that has been really frustrating at times. However, I know eventually you will be able to comprehend the reasons behind our instructions (and that we aren’t trying to prevent you from having ‘fun’, but are instead trying to protect you and keep you safe). Until then though, I have to constantly stay on top of you otherwise the next thing I know you’ll have gone into the laundry room and brought the broom back out and started “sweeping” the floors or something else mischievous or unsafe.

You are such a goofball! You love to take pictures with my phone of yourself making goofy faces. Oh, and speaking of phones, over the last month and a half or so you have been making ridiculously cute make-believe phone calls on your cell phone. I love it when you pretend to have a conversation with someone and will pause as though listening to a reply before you carry on and then eventually end with a quick “Bye!” and close your phone.

I can’t wait to see what this next year will bring (though I’m fervently hoping your Terrible Two’s stage won’t be too bad or last too long--especially since you’ve already been showing some signs of it for the last couple of months already!!), and I’m excited to see you change and grow. Maybe sometime soon I will hear: “I love you, Mommy.”

I love you my Little One--forever and always!

Love,
Mommy

Happy Birthday Peanut Butter Cup!

My Dearest Peanut Butter Cup,

Today is your first birthday! How has the time passed by so quickly? It seems like just yesterday that I was waiting anxiously to see you for the second time (for longer than a few seconds this time!), and hold you for the first time. The minutes seemed to crawl by as I waited in our hospital room for you and Daddy to come back to me after the nurses said I was ready. When Daddy and the nurses finally brought you in, it was so surreal getting to really meet you and hold you for the first time.

I don’t think one can ever truly understand the depth of a mother’s love until they experience it firsthand for themselves. Hearing you cry for the first time overwhelmed me with emotions I didn’t even know existed! From the first time I saw you I was completely head over heels in love with you! You were perfect in every way and oh so precious!

You were the cutest baby I’d ever seen and made me wonder how I could ever love another baby as much as I love you (which is something I still wonder, though I imagine it will be a lot like it was with you).

You have always been in such a hurry to grow up! When you were two days old I was holding you and you pushed up into a standing position with your legs, and almost from the start you could hold your head up for short periods of time. I remember thinking, “Gosh, I don’t know much about babies yet, but I don’t think you are supposed to be doing that already!”

Over the past year you have brought us so much joy (and exhaustion as you still haven’t learned to sleep through the night, ha ha)! We’ve laughed, smiled, cried, and been confused quite a bit over the last year (though not so much of the crying . . . at least not on Mommy and Daddy’s part!). The past twelve months have been filled with all of us learning, changing, and growing--both individually as well as together.

Though we can scarcely believe that a year has already passed since you were that helpless little baby swaddled in the hospital blanket, so much has changed since then that it is sometimes hard to believe that it has only been one year.

We love you Sweetie--oh so very much! May God’s blessings fill this coming year!

Love always--now and forever,
Mommy

First Trip to the Beach

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Dearest Peanut Butter Cup,
    Today was your first trip to the beach! How excited I was about you getting to experience the ocean! You love your baths, so I had been wondering if you would enjoy the waters of the Pacific just as much (even though there would be a big difference in temperature).
    We set out for Ko’Olina after running a few errands after lunchtime. The drive was pretty short--though we had to drive around to look for parking for a while. Eventually we were able to get a spot in the “Lagoon 4” parking lot (though we ended up walking down to “Lagoon 3” as there were fewer people there, so it was a LOT less crowded). After parking, I fed you and then Daddy changed you into your special swim diaper and put your little blue swim trunks on. I then slathered you with sunscreen as I didn’t want you to get sunburned on your first trip to the beach.
    After shuffling things around in the designated ‘beach bag’ and blowing up your froggy floaty we were ready to go! You were so excited and curious as we were getting ready to leave the car and on our walk from there to the beach. Halfway there I realized you were still clutching the swim diaper I had given you to hold while Daddy was changing you, I tugged on it gently and you smiled. How I love those sweet moments! You continued holding the diaper until after we’d picked a spot out on the beach and I had spread out a towel for you to sit on. Daddy put you down on the towel to let you explore as you liked; at first you seemed somewhat befuddled at to what was surrounding us (the sand), then you decided to reach out and touch it. Daddy talked to you about you froggy floaty and you crept to the edge of the towel and perched there on your knees for a moment. 

    Then it happened. You crawled off the towel and put your legs in the sand--your reaction was instantaneous: confusion, fear, and surprise, which--when combined with your tiredness from not having taken a very long nap earlier--resulted in your dissolving into tears and screaming about the sand clinging to your legs. Daddy scooped you up and took you to the water to see if that would distract you as you love the water in the bathtub so much. You had hardly gotten wet when you decided that this strangely large, communal bathtub was the last place you wanted to be! After a minute of waiting to see if you would come around and like the water, Daddy gave you to me to see if I could convince you it was safe. 

    We waded out into the water that was only up to midway past my knees, but as soon as I tried to dip your feet in you began screaming again and would pull your legs and feet up as far away from the water as you could manage. After about four minutes of trying to convince you that the water in the ocean was just as much fun as the water in the bathtub, we decided that today just wasn’t the day you were going to enjoy swimming or playing in the sand.
    Daddy suggested that we go sit in the grass in the shade just up the hill. So, we gathered up all of our stuff and trudged up the hill--once again spreading out the towel to sit on. This time though I was thinking, “Surely you will enjoy playing in the grass--since you’ve loved it every other time you had a chance to be in it!” With that in mind I sat down directly on the grass and stood you up on it. No sooner had your feet touched the ground then you began to scream again and pull your feet up to keep them from touching the ground again.
    We sat there for a few minutes, you sobbing and clinging to me for dear life, until you eventually calmed down. Daddy held you for a few minutes as well, but each time something changed (like when you were passed between us--or when whichever one of us was holding you went from standing to sitting down), you would immediately dissolve into tears once again. 

    A random man came up the hill to show us a little-bitty, baby sand crab he’d caught. You looked at it, but not with your normal enthusiasm. Even when Daddy tried showing it to you again after the man had left you still didn’t really want to have anything to do with it. 

    After a couple more times of trying to convince you that the grass was a fun place to be--and failing miserably in our attempts to do so--we decided to head back to the car to drop off some of our stuff and then go in search of the Black Pearl (the ship from the movie The Pirates of the Caribbean), which Daddy had seen docked nearby when he’d been there the morning before for PT.
    Back at the car we put you in your stroller, and then set off to find the Pearl. After a bit of walking we did find the ship--though it was across the marina and we didn’t have an entirely clear view of it. I snapped some photos of it nonetheless for posterity, and then we continued walking trying to find a better, more un-obstructed view of it while you sat contentedly (for the most part!) in your stroller and took in the sights from it’s safety and familiarity. 

    You were tired, however, which eventually caused you to begin fussing. At which point we turned around and made a beeline for the car and then home. 

    Today’s trip may not have gone exactly as I had envisioned it, but I know you will eventually change your mind about the ‘sand and surf’ and will then be able to enjoy both. I had the same reaction to sand when I was your age, so I guess you may have gotten that from me. I’m looking forward to the day when we will build sandcastles together, look for shells, and chase the little fish in the water that come close to the shore! Until then though, we will keep chasing those fish in the bathtub!

    Mommy loves you Dearest--now and forever!
    Love always,
        Mommy