Starting Summer Together

Dear Brooklyn,

It's 11 p.m. on Saturday, May 26th, 2012.  You're almost 10 months old and growing up way too fast.  Your hair is still red and your eyes are still blue.  Yesterday, you stood up all by yourself for the first time without holding on to anything.  You still haven't learned to walk yet, but you're very, very close.  You've cruised around furniture with ease since you were about seven months old.  Your very first steps are going to be any day now, and then I wonder how your dad and I are possibly going to keep up with you! :)

You like to be outside.  Every time the front door opens, you beeline it right outside so that you can crawl around on the porch.

We bought your your own little one-ring swimming pool for this summer with plans to set it up on the porch next to the patio chairs so that we can all be together while you're playing in the water. We haven't set it up outside yet, but I blew it up in the house so that we could look at it.  You had fun playing with it even in the house!  You crawled inside and kicked your little feet and laughed.  I think you crawled over every inch of that little swimming pool!

And I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but we use cloth diapers (I think it will be interesting to see what disposable diapers look like when you're older).  A month or so ago, your daddy and I sat down and picked out a bunch of prints to order and they came yesterday.  I think you had just as much fun opening the box as your dad and I did!

I'm actually up washing your cloth diapers right now, as I'm writing this blog post and watching Futurama.  It's my favorite show. :) 

It's finally Mommy's summer vacation too!  My last day for the year at the Head Start was Friday the 19th.  This summer is already turning out to be amazing.  I love being able to be home and spend time with you!  I've worked so much that it feels like I've missed large chunks of your little life already.  I hate being away from you!  Although, when I've been at work, you've been home with your Daddy, which makes it a little easier on me to be gone (I trust your Daddy to the moon and back with everything, even you, the thing that I love most in life).  But now we're together more.  Except for a few random evenings each week when I'm working at Wal-mart (no more than 10 hours a week!), I get the privilege of waking up to your smiling face and tucking you into bed and kissing your little forehead at night.

Now that I have more time off, me, you, and Daddy found time to walk together to the park together the other day!  You swung in the baby swings, went down the slide with Daddy, 'rode' on the park motorcycle, we blew bubbles (you tried to eat the bubble wands!), and your Daddy took so many pictures that he ran the camera right out of batteries!  But I believe this picture may be my favorite picture of you ever (so far!)

I want to leave this story for you.  Your dad works at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning.  You fell asleep at about 9 p.m. tonight.  Shortly after your dad went to bed, I went to put the diaper pail back in the bathroom after putting your diapers in the wash.  The bathroom door tends to stick in the spring for some reason, so it made a loud noise when I opened it.  It must have woken you up, because a few seconds later (just enough time for me to get back out to the living room), you started screaming at the top of your lungs!  I knew what had happened and that you weren't hurt or anything, so I didn't run back there quite as quickly as I could have, but it didn't matter, because your dad was in your room so fast!  I didn't even have time to get to the hallway and he was already in your room with the lights on, holding and consoling you.  He was clearly a little shaken, he told me that he thought that he had heard your Angel Care monitor going off as well.  I don't think I've ever seen your dad move quite so fast!  I think that he was probably half asleep when you started crying, but your Daddy was right there to make sure that you were okay!  

You should see the way your dad's face lights up when he sees you.  He's so in love with you.  We love each other too, but it's a different kind of love.  He can be frustrated with me and smiling at you all in the same sentence.  It's impossible to be mad at your beautiful, trusting little face.  I'm sure that will change over time (especially once we hit those teenage years!), but right now, our whole world rises and sets with you.  As you get older, when you're sad, when you're lonely, when you're angry, when you think that your parents are the weirdest people on the whole planet, please remember baby girl, that we love you more than I could possibly put into words.  You are loved.

To My Daughter

Dear Brooklyn,

Today, you are nine months, one week, and five days old.  It's 10:17 p.m. and I just laid you down to sleep in your little two-piece pajamas, the ones with ice cream cones on them.  I'm starting this, because when you are older, I want you to remember, to realize exactly how much we love you, how very, very special you are.  So this, my child, will be the first of many, many letters, all written to you.

Right now, we live in Crookston.  I work as a Head Start teacher and your Daddy is a security guard at Concordia.  I also work part-time cashiering at Wal-mart and run a very small business selling hand-crocheted items.  We live in a house that you probably won't ever remember (or if you do, it will be in the faintest of your memories) on Sunflower street, right on the corner.

I cannot believe how much you have changed already since we met you.  At your nine month check-up, just yesterday, you weighed 20 lbs., 8 oz. and were 28.5" long.  Nine short months ago, when you were born, you weighed in at 7 lbs., 12.7 oz. and were 18"  long!  Oh how you've grown!  You knew how to hold your head up before we even left the hospital, were rolling over by four months, were crawling at six months, and now at just over nine months, you are so very close to walking!  My precocious, amazing little girl!  You stand by yourself, you just haven't quite figured out how to move those feet yet!

I work days on Monday through Thursday and about two evenings a week.  Your daddy works days on the weekends and evenings on Mondays.  That means, right now, you're typically home either with me or your daddy.  No child care for you!  At least not yet.  It makes it so much easier for me to be at work, knowing that your safe in your daddy's hands when I'm gone!

Right now, you have the same bright red hair and deep blue eyes that you were born with.  I'm starting to wonder if they will change at all.  You're the most beautiful baby that I've ever met.  Every day, I stare at you in amazement and wonder how your father and I could possibly have produced such a perfect little human being!

Today was Saturday and your daddy worked, like he does every Saturday right now, so it was just me and you home. You woke me up just after eight and we had breakfast, played with your blocks (I built them up and you knocked them down!), and you explored.  You're a wonderful explorer, as I suppose most babies are.  And you love to put everything in your mouth!  Think about this when you're older, when you were a baby, we had to keep the shoes all put away because otherwise you would chew on them!  Yuck!  You napped from noon to two or so, and then when you work up, we walked to the park and played on the swings and blew bubbles.

After we came home, you finger painted pictures for your grandmas for Mother's Day tomorrow!  And I only had to remind you not to eat the paint off of your fingers twice, lol!  I wasn't sure how you'd do, but you actually really got into it!

And, naturally, I had to take pictures, because your Grandma Gail took this picture of me when I was little. :)

If you couldn't tell, it's pretty much agreed that you look more like your Dad than like me right now. :)

I can't promise that I'll update this daily or anything.  But there will definitely be more letters to you, my darling daughter, because I have a lifetime of things to tell you. I love you.