Happy Birthday, Maggie! You're TWO!

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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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