Dear Maggie,
This should
have been your 2-year old letter, but I’ve been a little slow, as you are
currently 28 months old.
Every once in a while, I look at you, and all-of-a-sudden, you
look older. Your baby fat is almost all gone, and what’s left is tiny knobby
knees on a little girl who loves the outdoors and hiking but who also has a
very girly side. You love your “pity des” (pretty dress). You make parenthood
look uncharacteristically easy – well, so far. You surprise me every day of the
week and twice on Sundays.
The other day I was bathing your baby sister Willow, and
you started to take off your clothes. I said, “No, Maggie, you don’t get a
bath right now”, so you calmly walked away. Later I found you half naked in our
bathroom trying to pull up your pants and diaper because you had just used the
potty all by yourself for the 1st time – I was in shock! You have probably
tee-teed in the potty maybe 5 times so far, but I have always been there to
wait and cheer you on. So you just owning it like a boss all by yourself was a
bit out of the ordinary and uncharacteristic of a toddler. Weird.
When I put you to bed that night, I told you to come get me when
you had to potty. 30 minutes later, you strolled into my room to tell me you
had to potty (again a 1st), and we only missed it because you had to
stop to grab a glow-in-the-dark bouncy cow. So basically I think you are
awesome for this. It’s the little victories that make me so happy.
Putting you to bed in general is also super easy. You just crawl
up there and go to bed, and you gibber along as you say your prayers- really
only Jesus could understand you. Twinkie sleeps with you in your bed, and you
both insist on snuggling at night.
You love reading, and you will come get us by our hands, drag us
to the couch, insist that we “sit down” and read you a “book”. You even sleep
with your toddler bible.
You are so
fun to watch as you explore your surroundings, test your limits, and figure
stuff out. Everyday is an adventure, and most of the time, I can’t help but
smile. Even when I’m having a really bad day and my soul is feeling bitter, I
come home to see you and your sister running/crawling towards me, and my bad
day melts away. You have special powers like that. You know how to test mine
and your dad’s patience, but you can erase that all with a hug and a cuddle.
The biggest
improvement and milestone you’ve made in the last 4 months is that you’re
speaking so much now. You don’t use complete sentences, and your pronunciation is
more than a little off, but you can now communicate with us. Though this
doesn’t stop the grunting and whining, you are learning tons of words. I love
watching you try out a new word to see if we understand you. Sometimes you just
blurt out a word and just keep going like you “nailed It”. Just in the last
week, you have been really using “tank ooo” (thank you). You are finally
calling me Mama, after a very long stint of me being “Bobby” because you
couldn’t pronounce your M’s. You are
also starting to say your name- “Battie”…. Um, well kinda. You are still
working on your M’s, & G’s.
You do all
the fun (and not so fun things) that 2-years olds do:
• You hug
randomly and tightly, and you even do this finger tapping thing when you hug
that is far too cute.
• Singing
(kinda) and dancing with me; and when I dance with your sister you run to grab
your doll and do circles with her.
• You stand
next to me while I cook and constantly ask for cereal and cheese. Which tests
my patience.
• You are
becoming picky with your food, but you have finally learned to use a fork. Your
favorite foods are cheese, cereal, crackers, sausage, and apples.
• Dora the Explorer is your favorite show.
You love to play along with the TV show, and you love wearing your backpack
around the house.
• You love
using my phone, and you insist on seeing the “pitours” (pictures).
• You love coloring
on walls. Recently I discovered that you love cleaning up the mess after
coloring on the walls more.
• You still
breast feed your baby doll when I nurse Willow. You lift up your shirt, put the
babies head near your tummy, and then just sit there looking around.
But by far
my happiest daily moment is seeing you and your sister playing together. There
is something truly special about being a mom and witnessing the beginning of
your lifelong friendship. I pray that you and your sister will be able to look
past your differences in later years and become rock solid best friends.
Love ya,
Mom
