These are letters to Jack, my son, and my daughter, Audrey. You have given me the gift of motherhood. This is just a little gift back. I want to share my experiences with you of your childhood from my perspective of watching you grow - of being your Mom.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Kindergarten

Jack,

This past week marked your rite of passage into Kindergarten. Your first week. It was much anticipated and you weren't nervous at all. I would say the opposite - you were VERY eager for this new phase of life. I could tell you were excited to take on a new challenge. Sunday before your first day of school, I made your lunch and put it all neatly into your lunchbox and packed your AM snack in your backpack. As I went through this routine for the first time - I couldn't believe how choked up I felt. I knew that in your backpack was cash to be loaded onto your lunch account and I know there are days you will eat the lunch I pack and other days when you will buy and that is just amazing to me. It's hard to imagine you getting a lunch tray and walking through a line with all these other kids collecting your own lunch and taking your tray to a table to eat. You are growing up way too fast. My head is spinning. You LOVED your first day of school. It was wonderful - you couldn't WAIT to go back. You made friends, you enjoyed the lunchtime experience and the two recesses. You LOVE your new teacher and everything was new and exciting - the activities, the children, the grown ups! It was a perfect beginning. The first week has passed with flying colors and here we are in week 2. The novelty of the experience is wearing off a little and there are days when you would rather stay home, but you still love Kindergarten and are very glad to be there. Yesterday was a rough day and when I picked you up, your face was red and swollen with tear streaks on your skin. I asked what happened and you talked about how the game that you played in gym was too hard for you and you got upset and then later you fell on the playground and scraped your leg and that it really was the baddest day ever. You were so sad! I hugged you and suggested that we have Spaghetti O's for dinner since you love them. Then we talked on the drive to get Audrey about how we have to have bad days sometimes in order for us to really appreciate the good days. Also, when you are down - there's nowhere to go but UP, so things would be getting better - not worse. The evening was calm and healed all wounds and this AM you were upset about going back, but Daddy had the Midas touch - keeping things light and easy - so that by the time you went to school, you were in a very good place. I anticipate when I pick you up, that it will have been a much better day than yesterday.I love that you are at this point - that you can tell me about how a word sounds and what two numbers equal when you add or subtract them from each other.
You have also reached the milestone of pet owner. You are the very proud owner of your very own hamster named Peanut. He is adorable but you are MORE adorable. You love him more than anything and you bring him everywhere with you. He has come with us to the playground, down the slide, on the swing, and he plays computer with you and plays with your toys with you. He ends up driving cars and scurrying through obstacles from one point to another while you laugh and tell him he is silly and you love him. I just want to grab you up and hug you as I watch you play with this tiny little creature - you are so gentle and kind.

You are growing up to be such a wonderful person, Jack. It's an honor to be your Mom.

Love,

Mommy

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Pretty

See?!?
EVERYONE thinks you are cute! :)
Audrey,

Lately you have turned into SUCH a girly girl!!! You have a jewelry box of bracelets that you like to put on your little arms and then you twist them back and forth with your little hand out and say "pwetty!" as we all admire how good you look!

You love your sparkly pink glasses and bows and hats on your head. You LOVE pretty shoes and that's one of the words you use very frequently as you coo "SHooooooo" and try to jam the pretty thing on your foot. You usually get very angry when it doesn't slide right on due to the interference of a buckle or something, but this doesn't tarnish your opinion of the shoe - it's just something we need to be hollered at about.
You are overall a very happy baby except if - for any reason whatsoever, I have to put you down or attend to something else. You really hate it when I am not with you - even if it's just putting you down so I can pour something to drink or empty the dishwasher. It's all just completely unacceptable. What kind of Mom needs two hands? A good one can make due with one, right? :) I am both loving this close stage and anticipating it's demise. I know it won't last and I'll yearn for your closeness. I wish I could stagger it in wonderful doses! :)
Jack,
You are growing so fast now, it blows my mind. You are also ADDICTED to computer games and would be satisfied to spend the entire day sitting in front of the computer. You are SO addicted that the process of getting your attention when you sit in front of it is simply impossible. We have to put it away for you to listen at all and that only comes about after a screaming fit because the computer is gone and then angry yelling as you make us pay for taking it away from you for at least the next hour.
The house lately has been increasing in volume, but there are so many wonderful things to say about that, too! You are also loving to read chapter stories with me - right now we are reading the Captain Underpants books that are written apparently JUST for you! The jokes are right up your alley and some of the strike you so humorously that we repeat them for days - it's actually quite funny. The two you have enjoyed the most recently is when the boys changed a sign to read: "I shake my big butt when I swim in the toilet" and "mommy, my airplane is swimming in the piano!"
These jokes are SOLID GOLD. You can go from seriously pissed to laughing in seconds if I should utter one of these SOLID GOLD JOKES. :) Good to know, right?
Oh, and another thing - your friends are always right. If they ever state something as fact and you repeat it to us and we dare to try to correct the obvious error in communication, you will tell us so definitively that we are WRONG - that it hardly leaves any room to argue the point with you. You are certain that every one of your young friends are like a million times smarter than your parents.
I didn't expect the teen years yet.
Love,
Mommy

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Same Dress

Audrey,

Same Dress - at one year of age. What do you think?

Audrey - 12 months

Bridget, 12 months
I think we might be related... :)
Love,
Mommy