Hey Baby Girl – my brilliant, insightful, sensitive, passionate, athletic, FUN, snuggly girl –

I am so very sorry for this 3-month delay in writing to you. I have written posts to you in my head MANY times, saying things like, “Wow! You are growing up SO quickly – I need to tell you all of the amazing things you are doing so you can remember later.”

Last night we had the sweetest exchange before you fell asleep which began with my putting my nose about 3 inches from yours, looking right into those baby blues of yours and listing ALL the ways you bring such JOY to my day and my life. Some of this list included:
* How much I LOVE the stories you tell me (with a big smile, you interrupted my list to tell me of the BIG bug you saw today at school, it was brown, we decided to name it Harvey. You told me it flew away to go sleep with its family.)
* How you teach me how to appreciate rocks, sticks and bugs more and more every day.
* How you make me laugh out loud with so many things you do.
* How kind you are to your friends as well as random strangers.
* How much you enjoy people and animals… especially “tiny babies!”
* How much fun it is to sing with you everywhere we go – in the stroller to day and from daycare or VeggieTales in the car.
* How great you are with manners.
* How patient you are with my mistakes.
* How great your memory is.
* How proud I am of all the things you can do now that you are a big girl – dress yourself, go potty, help put things away, etc.

Here’s a fun story from about a week ago. I handed you your PJ’s and said, “Go upstairs, please, and get nakedy” (this is one of your favorite words these days… nakedy). You grab the nightgown and say firmly, “Mom, I can do it myself” and headed straight for the stairwell. I followed you up in case I could be helpful. You walked immediatley into the bathroom, pausing to look over your shoulder to remind me, “MOM! I SAID I can do it MYSELF” and you shut the bathroom door behind you.
*warm smile* With a small sigh I decide to sit on the side of my bed and await your return.
After a few minutes I called out, “Maya? You okay in there?”
You call back, “I am fine, Mom. Why don’t you choose a book for us to read.” (I totally cracked up – my 3-year old is multitasking and designating… awesome.) So I obediently choose a book. You come out of the bathroom, fully dressed in your PJ’s (I’m impressed). You look over at me and the book I chose and promptly and tearfully protested, “I DIDN’T WANT THAT ONE!!!” (Whew! You ARE still three. Thank goodness!! 🙂 ) I could NOT love you more Peanut Butter.

Let’s see – let me tell you a few more things that you are doing these days:
* You love to sing, and you love even more listening to me sing.
* You LOVE ice cream and now, gilato… Hehehe… I’m going to try to record you telling me that you want to go get gelato. So very sweet.
* You are coloring shapes now – lots of circles.
* You say “Mommi” about 72,985 times a day. And sometimes, “Mommi, look at me please.”
* You are acutely aware of the things going on around you – and you are very comfortable sharing your observations – I love it. (examples? the missing tooth in the smile of a man who might want to pave our driveway… just for example.)
* You are pretending to be other people and things. For example, last night you held your Mommy duck and Baby duck. Baby duck hit Mommy duck (both in your hands). You notify me, “Mommi, Baby duck just hit her Mommy. She needs to have a time out.” I said, “sounds right.” You said, “You do it Mommi.” So I put Baby duck in time out for 2 minutes reminding it that we do not hit people and that she needs to think about what she’s done. After 2 minutes, you decided Mommy duck should go speak with Baby duck to let her out of time out. This morning when I woke up and came in your bedroom, I heard you being both voices (Baby and Mommy Duck) – playing out their interactions.
* Last night you asked Grandma Judy (Jim’s Mom) if she would hook the hose up to your pool. She said, “We’ll have to ask your Mommy.” You promptly responded, “She’ll say ‘later.'” *Sigh* You’re probably right.
* You LOVE your friends from school: Chavon, April, Marlie, Elsa, Natalie, Olivia. And if I try to say “Levi? Rudy? Jaydon?” you respond, “No, Mommi, no boys.” When we were thinking about who we would share our toys with, you said, “No monsters, people, or boys.”
* You still LOOOOVE being outside! The other night we came home from swimming and you invited me to lay down in the front yard to watch the trees and the sky, so we did. My head by your feet, your head by mine. We laid there and watched the trees and the sky at dusk on a wonderful summer day. I just LOVE being with you!

Check out all the personality packed in the wonderful little person!

I am enjoying you so very much!! Thank you for being so wonderfully you!

Loving my Peanut Butter,
*Mommi

I swear you grow up OVER night, Baby Girl!! It’s crazy!

This morning we followed our regular routine where you come and tell me that it’s “wake-up time” at 6:30am and we tease back and forth about how dark it is and whether or not it REALLY is wake-up time… and we giggle.

After I set our clothes for both of us and I took a shower, you came left your TV show and walked over to me and said, “Mommi, I have to go potty.” “Great, let’s go!” You then went poopies on the potty! (Big deal!! NICE!) After adequate celebration, I went back to getting ready….

Next thing I know, I turn around and you had COMPLETELY dressed yourself – taken off your pj’s and put on your shirt, big-girl-underwear, pants, and socks!! All by yourself! CRAZY! Where did my baby girl go? You are such a big little girl…

Quite a day!
I love you, Peanut. I continue to be amazed by you more and more each day….

Growing

Checking in with your school to make sure you’re doing fine there, I asked your teacher to give me a report. This is what she wrote today:

As time has gone by, I’ve noticed that Maya has grown in so many ways. She loves being taught new things. She enjoys Circle Time and doing art projects. We worked on a “Me & Myself” theme. This project was a focus on herself and what she is able to do. During this time, Maya started potty training. She sings our song, “See what I can do all by myself” every time she goes potty. She is always so lovable that there is no way you can keep yourself from loving her. Her independence is growing. Maya loves to do things on her own. Dressing and cleaning up after herself are just some of the things she does on her own. He beautiful smile lights up the classroom every day. -Maritza

I agree with your teachers! I can SEE your growth EVERY day, and it is SO much fun. You and I have full conversations now. You love to help me do whatever it is that I’m working on – whether it’s cooking, cleaning, working on my computer, or taking a shower 😉 . You have the BIGGEST heart in ALL of the world. Lately, you have given me a TON of sweet kisses and words of encouragement! Today you sat behind me and rubbed my shoulders. Last week, at dinner, you took my face in your little hands and said, “Mama, you are so pretty!” Tonight while we were rocking to sleep, you leaned up and gently kissed my cheek about 7 times. What a sweet, lovable girl.

And you ARE doing so many things on your own. You can get dressed by yourself. You are going pee pee and (occasionally) poo poo on the potty. You decide every morning when it is “wake-up time” (sometimes, much to my chagrin); today declaring it so by turning on the light in my bedroom.

Other sweet things?
You refer to your big bed as your “cozy bed” and my bed as my “cozy bed,” while your toddler bed you call your “special bed.” You eat a number of butter and jelly sandwiches on wheat bread every morning. You LOVE to watch for the three “big trucks” (the garbage trucks) come every Thursday morning. The trash people even watch for you and wave to you! It’s very sweet. As I said, you LOVE snow! You love to eat snow… which has been somewhat problematic, as I have had to help you differentiate between “clean” snow from outside and dirty snow tracked in from the bottom of our shoes. You’ll often pick some off the floor and say, “Mama, was this on your shoe?” “Yes, Sweetie, don’t eat it.” When I leave your bedroom at night, you always grab a hold of me, look me straight in my eyes and say, “Mama, stay for ONE more song!” Even sometimes when music isn’t playing and you want me to stay, you’ll look me deep in the eyes and say, “Mama, stay for just ONE more song…” and of course, I do.

We snuggle every morning and discuss whether or not it is “wake-up time” with many, many giggles. And we snuggle every night as we watch what our family still refers to as “P.T.” (instead of TV) and as we rock before bedtime. We chase each other around the house with ice packs, and we have a blast playing with playdough.

You are growing, and it is SO MUCH FUN!! I love you Peanut Butter!

Yesterday, one week after your 2.5 year birthday, you went pee pee on the potty THREE times and poo poo on the potty one time! You had a great potty training day today at daycare, so we made a special family trip to the store to buy toddler underwear and a new potty seat.

We are so happy for you and so proud of you!

tonight you are still my sweet little one-year old. Tomorrow you are 2. Strange, huh? Who decided that it should be so exact? so precise? I’m not a big fan of birthdays, by the way… at least I’m not such a fan of the label – “2 year old” or “forty year old” or whatever. It shouldn’t matter as much as it does. You are you… and you are developmentally exactly where you should be. Your birthday does give us license to CELEBRATE YOU – I love that part!!

I just came down from snuggling with you while you were sleeping. Have I told you lately how much I love being your Mom? I truly do.

These are my words of “wisdom” for the tonight – You get to choose who you give power to in your life, Baby Girl… People can’t truly hurt you unless you give them persmission. I certainly encourage you to be in relationships with all kinds of people – and be in them fully. However, that said, be careful to give that “power” only to people you respect and trust. People who share similar vision and values with you. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still get blindsighted sometimes, and it will hurt, but that is energy that is worth giving…because people we love and respect and admire will still hurt us. We are imperfect souls, and we all make mistakes. I just don’t want you to waste your precious, beautiful and wonderful energy and spirit on being angry at or healing hurts from decisions made by people whose opinion you don’t really respect.

On the eve of your birthday, I get to again reflect on the JOY you have brought in my life. It hasn’t all been easy – balancing everything. But I would not trade my life with you for the WORLD! You inspire me to be a better person; you make me look at my world differently, you bring SO much laughter to my day, you challenge me to grow. Thank you for being so wonderfully you!!

A quick story or two – you love to be naked. Tonight you were running away from me, stark naked, wearing only your Easter bonnet. (I should’ve taken a picture!) I laughed and laughed and you did too. Which reminds me of bedtime two nights ago – we were both BEAT after getting home from Gospel Choir practice late. We had read books and brushed teeth, and we were trying to calm down to fall asleep and we both got the giggles – it was infectious!! I think we laughed outloud for 10 minutes!! Belly laughs. What a PERFECT way to end a day!

I love you Peanut Butter – forever….
*Mommy