November 29, 2011
Dear Maggie,
Today is my favorite day. It is the day that I take some time to remember the details of the day you came into my life; the day I look at your Dad and say with pride "Look at our beautiful daughter!" It is today that I woke up and couldn't wait to see your face... did it change at all from yesterday? Are you taller??? It is today that I look at the last year and reminisce about the places we went and the things we did and then start to dream of all that is to come in year three.
I am so thankful to have you and you are teaching me so many things! You make my heart melt with your kisses and your pats on the back. You challenge me to be creative and to communicate in new ways. You remind me of the pure joy that is felt when you see something new for the first time. You lift my spirits after a hard day of work. You entice me play - leaving the chores for another day. You are becoming your own person in so many ways every day, and I am in awe of your strength, humor, and sensitivities. I love you, Magpie! Happy Birthday to you, and may you enjoy every second of year three as much or more than year two!
Love, Mommy
*****************
Dear Maggie,
Two years ago today you came into the world and joined our
family. It was the most
exciting/scary/wonderful day of my life.
I’ve never seen such a look of joy on your mother’s face as when she was
handed this tiny little red baby. It was
a look of pure happiness. Everything in
the world was perfect at that very moment.
Over the next few months you and your mother stayed at home
and bonded. You ate, pooped, slept and
grew. You were a pretty good baby. You cried when you were hungry, you cried
when you were dirty and the rest of the time, you slept.
During that time, I wasn’t good for much. I tried to help but you needed mom and I was
just kind of there. I did try to give
your mom time to go out and do some things outside the house. Though, when she left, I made her carry a
phone and never be more than 15 minutes away in case you started crying and I
couldn’t fix whatever was wrong.
Luckily, you were a pretty good baby and the Happiest Baby On The
Block taught me how to swaddle, side, shhh and swing you when you were
crying until you were happy again. It
was probably the only reason I let your mom leave me alone with you!
The next few months were even better. You started to recognize that I was more
than just a blob and that you were connected to me too, not just your mom! You liked to watch football with me and take
naps on my belly as we would watch a game.
You started to be able to sit upright without any help and we started to
see your personality. We figured out
real quick that you had a lot of it!
In no time at all a year went by. You learned how to sit by yourself, you
learned how to roll around, you learned how to crawl, figured out how to stand,
and then you learned how to takes steps while holding on to things. You thought about taking some steps solo but
as with everything else you learned you wanted to wait until you had mastered
the skill before risking a step without support. During the first year you developed a love
for your big bro PJ. He loved you right
back and let you pull on his years, poke his eyes and generally let you do
anything you wanted to him without a single complaint.
After the first year, time really started to fly. In no time you were up and walking and that
barely seemed to happen before you were running. You were making friends at daycare and
playing hard every day.
At some point in the 2nd year, you learned who
mom was and that you could call her that and who dad was, though, you mostly
called me me-momma. Eventually, near
your 2nd birthday you started calling me Lolly. Not quite dad or daddy, but close and much
better than me-momma!
After your first birthday, you started to become very strong
willed. i.e. you wanted what you wanted
and didn’t want what you didn’t want.
And you weren’t afraid to let us know!
In fact, you weren’t afraid to let the entire neighborhood know
sometimes! But even during the worst
breakdowns, you would pop back up and instantly make us laugh by completely
moving on from whatever it was that you were mad at and act like nothing
happened.
You discovered many new things this year. You learned how to communicate more
effectively and started using words and then sentences/phrases. Phrases like “my momma” and “my PJ” and “my
shoes” and “my socks” and “that’s mommas” and “that’s mimi’s”. You really liked to show your understanding
of possession! But you also liked to
show your understanding of what was going on with the world by letting us know
things like “pj is night night”!
This year you loved to eat eggs, cheerios, pears and apples
(you called both apples), cheese (#1 for sure), quesadilla, black beans,
yogurt, grapes, crackers, juice and many other foods. You started eating all by yourself and didn’t
want mom, dad or anyone else to help you.
You sometimes would use a fork or spoon though it often inhibited you
from eating as fast as you wanted. Your
perfect meal this year was a quesadilla with apples, yogurt and juice.
We couldn’t have asked for a better first two years. You are the most beautiful, smart, funny,
caring little girl in the world. You
have more personality in your little finger than most people have in their
entire body. You have enriched both your
mom and my lives to a point that I didn’t even think was possible. We love you more than you can imagine and
can’t wait to watch you grow up and live your life.
I love you with all my heart,
Dad
