Letters to our baby girl, part 1

My sweet baby girl:

You are two today! What a fun, challenging—but mostly fun—year it has been. I can’t tell you how much joy and adventure you brought into our lives this past year. I feel like we got to know you more and more this year, and you are so sweet, so gentle, so beautiful. Of course, I know that who you are right now is not necessarily who you will always be, and I will love you no matter what. Loving you brings me a joy I still can hardly wrap my head around.

This year brought a couple of huge milestones: mobility and communication. You are now a walking, talking, Barney-watching little person. You are still pretty easygoing, but you are asserting your independence more and more. You now say, “I self!” multiple times per day. “I hold it!” and “No!” are also favorites. Fortunately for us, you also say things like “I love you, too,” and “I want Mama/Dada” and “Yes, please.”

When I look back at this past year, there were definitely some points where my patience was tried and my fuse was short. Although I miss the chubbier little baby cheeks and the willingness to be held for longer periods of time, I don’t miss the stage where you whiiiiiiiined a lot in a really high pitch because you couldn’t communicate your needs. I don’t particularly miss when you had no impulse control at all. You still don’t have a whole lot, but now if I say “no” you’re likely at least to pause a little bit. I do miss the longer cuddles, though.

What do I want to say to you on your second birthday? My baby girl, I love you more than words can say. You bring such joy into our lives. I love watching you walk, talk, play, sing, grow. I love your sweet little disposition, and I will love you still if and when you become feisty. As your little baby brother or sister grows inside of me, I worry about what this change will mean for you, but I also know you’ll be a wonderful big sister and that a sibling will be a blessing for the rest of your life. I still thank God for you every night, and I cannot imagine a time will come when I won’t.

From now until the end of time, I will love you, and you will be my baby. I love you, sweet baby girl, and I look forward to another year of watching you grow and change as you become the person you were born to be. I love you, I love you, I love you—now and forever.

Love,

Mommy

When the BFF comes to town...

My best friend Anna came to visit from Maryland recently. She came for her cousin's wedding and stayed an extra week so she'd have plenty of time to visit with her extended family and with yours truly. We had grand plans. We were going to hang out every single day and possibly even throw in a trip to Disneyland!

And then, as it so often does, life happened.

First, Anna's little boy got sick. Then Sara was sick. Then Anna's daughter was sick. Then I was sick. In a cruel turn of events, it seemed like someone was constantly suffering from something. Aside from the discomfort all around (especially for Anna and her kiddos), this threw a major wrench into our plans. We stayed away from each other for several days, and then we only did a few park playdates, where the air could circulate and hopefully minimize the germ transfer.



Despite the challenges, it was so wonderful to see my BFF and her beautiful children. I know Sara enjoyed them all, as she quickly identified them all by name: "Anna. Sophie (pronounced Fo-see). Sammy." I can only hope that our next chance to visit will come quickly and involve healthy parties all around!

Twenty-three months old

In just a few short weeks our little baby girl will be two! She's certainly starting to act it now and then, asserting her independence and occasionally flipping her lid if I dare to help her do something she can do herself: "I SELF!"

Sara's spunk and personality started to shine a bit more this month. She has taken to dancing around the living room while she watches Barney or while "Pop Goes the Weasel" plays on her electronic toy. She likes to "jump" on the "Pop!" part of the song. Her jump is holding at a little stagger-step jump at the moment, which is pretty cute to watch. I have tried to videotape her, but once she hears the camera turn on the dancing and jumping stop.

Her newest favorite sentence is, "What's that, Mommy?" so I spend a lot of time identifying things for her. She has also started to identify some colors with increasing accuracy, especially blue, green, and pink. She likes to count and can count all the way to about fifteen, but a lot of times now she'll say, "One, two, three, six!"

After months of absolutely no interest, Sara is starting to occasionally scribble or play with some of her fine-motor toys a bit more. Maybe her body has finally decided that it's time to develop that part of her brain a bit more.

In any case, all this growing and changing sure is fun to watch!

Baby Blake

On Tuesday, September 22nd, I had the extraordinary opportunity to witness Tanja's induction and the speedy birth of my newest nephew Blake. Tanja elected to be induced because her fast labor with Ryan had her worried that she might not make it to the hospital on time or might miss her chance for the epidural.

At about 9:45 a.m., the pitocin was started. Not quite four hours later, after just a few pushes, Blake made his arrival. What a sweet little baby boy he is.

Baby Leo

On August 27th our good friends the Rosas welcomed their son Leonard William (Leo) into the world. A week-and-a-half later they were gracious enough to allow us to come by for a family visit. We had a wonderful couple of hours. Leo slept blissfully on his mommy's chest and our girls (Sara and Zoey) played beautifully together.



Congratulations to the Rosas! Leo is gorgeous!

Sick days

It has been a frustrating ten-or-so days around here.

On Tuesday, September 22nd, I got to witness the amazing birth of my newest beautiful nephew, Blake Eric Tyner. He is adorable, and he looks like a pink version of his older brother. I will devote another blog post to some pictures and a couple of details about his arrival.



Unfortunately, when Blake was three days old, Sara spiked a 103 fever and has been sick ever since. The doctors have told me it's just an upper respiratory infection, but that doesn't mean I want her snot or her scary-sounding cough anywhere near a precious newborn baby--not to mention Baby Kyle, who is almost two months old, or Baby Leo (the Rosas' newest addition), who is only a month old.

In fact, my best friend Anna has been visiting from Maryland (a post on that will follow, too), and between her sick kids and my sick kid, we didn't see each other at all for several days, and our visits have been limited to outdoors, where at least the germs don't recirculate around the room.

Now I'm sick, and though it's just Sara's cold that she has shared with me, it's no fun. Here's hoping we all feel better soon!

The time I locked you in the car with the engine running

I have a feeling this is one of those family stories I'll be repeating for the next few decades.

Sara, you and I went to Walmart yesterday. It was a pretty uneventful trip. I only picked up a couple of things, and of course we stopped to look at the fish before checking out.

We got out to the truck, and I put you on the backseat and told you to climb into your car seat, as I usually do these days. I shut the door behind you to make sure you didn't accidentally fall backward out of the car, which is a fear of mine. I went to the back hatch to pack my purchases; I went to the front to start the car and the AC and to put away my purse. I shut the front door and went to the back door so I could strap you into your car seat... and it was locked. All the doors were locked.

The sun was beating down, but I knew the air was on in the car, but I also knew it doesn't get very cool until the car starts to move. There I stood with no cell phone, nothing. A Walmart parking lot feels awfully lonely at a time like that. A kind Indian man nearby in the parking lot took out his AAA card for the number and let me use his phone (a fancy Blackberry-type one) to call. Did I ever feel panicky! My hands and my voice were shaking. While the customer service rep was expediting my service call, you played happily in the backseat--you never had climbed into your car seat, cheeky girl--and you started rolling down the window! I ran over to the truck and cheered you on as you pressed the button a few more times. You rolled down the window enough for me to reach my arm in and unlock the door and... voila! Crisis over--not that you were even remotely aware that there had been a crisis in the first place.

Those were five of the longest minutes of my life. And yes, I must have unconsciously locked the doors when I went in front to start the car. That makes no sense to me, because I never do that in the truck, but that appears to be what I did. Silly mommy. Oh well. A few deep breaths and extra hugs and kisses later, and we were on our way.