Dear Whitney,
You are two years, nine months old now, and you continue to amaze and inspire us every day! In a few short months, you are going to officially become a Big Sister, and while you are more excited than anyone, I want to be sure you know just how much YOU are loved because things are about to get hectic up in here :)
Every morning, I lay in bed listening to you greet the day with a happiness and excitement I wish I could bottle. You start talking to your Bear Blankets (whom you now refer to as "Baby Molly" for some reason) about what day it is, asking them "Do you fink it is Monday? Or is it Tuesday? Or maybe it is Wednesday?" and then you laugh and talk sooo sweetly to whichever animal/baby doll/blanket was lucky enough to snuggle you all night. Every morning I wonder if THIS will be the morning you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and every morning, your sweet conversations assure me that you got a good night's rest and are ready for whatever the world will toss at you that day!
When I go in your room, you are always happily sitting up in bed with a big smile on your face, and you always say, "Mommy! I'm awake!" as if its the most awesome feeling in the world to be awake and given another day to play and learn and grow! You give big hugs and tell me about your dreams and we talk about what our day looks like. You are as excited about a trip to Disney World as you are about a trip to the doctor! Nothing gets you down!
You hop out of bed, get a cup of milk, and our day is started. Lately, you have been asking to go snuggle in Mommy and Daddy's bed, and its been chilly here in the mornings so Im loving this new "tradition" :) You love telling me "Mommy, you dwink your coffee and I will dwink my milk. Cheers!"
We have busy days filled with play dates with your favorite friends (and mine!), trips to visit Mac and Gramps, grocery shopping, school, Awana nights, and lots of unplanned stuff in between. No matter what we toss at you, you are ALWAYS up for the ride. You have been loving school now that you had a 2+ week break for the holidays, and you look forward to Awana on Wednesday nights at church. You talk about all your sweet friends from school and from the nursery at church, and you are getting rave reviews from your teachers and the nursery workers!
Your teachers recently told me that they gave you a mid-year "review", and you know ALL the materials you should know AND all the materials they are going to be teaching through the end of the school year! You are super smart, calling out letters and their sounds, spelling your name, recognizing your first and last name in various places, counting and even starting to understand adding/taking away items/basic math! We knew you were "ahead of the game" when you started preschool in August (well, really, we knew you were ahead of the game when you were about 10 months old and knew all the sounds of the alphabet!), but we really wanted you to get the socialization and to learn how to interact with other kids your age. Not only are you learning how to be a good friend, but you have learned so many prayers and Bible stories, and you have learned the days of the week, the seasons, and sooo much about holidays and manners! You completely blew my mind when you recited the Pledge of Allegiance a few months ago, and I often wonder what else you have bottled up in the brain of yours! I could go on and on and on about all the amazing things you know and memorize (ah, the number of song lyrics in your head is astonishing!) and repeat (you can 'read" sooo many books to us, word-for-word, using the correct inflections and tone...amazing, kid.) and I want you to know that Daddy and I will always be sooo proud of you for all of your academic successes, all the things you work hard to achieve.
But I really want you to know just how proud we are of you as a whole little person. Its nice to be smart and cute, but you are truly a happy, beautiful, nice girl, and that is what makes you even more awesome.
Whitney, you are such a NICE girl. You genuinely, truly want people to be happy. You share nicely and offer toys to other kids in a way I rarely see among the toddler set. You always notice when babies or other kids are crying, and ask why they are crying and, without fail, you say "Deir Mommy will make dem feel all bettuh, wight Mommy?" Like you know that Mommies are supposed to be able to make it all better, all the time. (Im just so grateful that, to this point, I have been able to make "it all better" when something has you down or upset.)
You say "please" and "thank you" without any prompting 98.9% of the time, and you truly MEAN it. Its not like you are just reacting with the "right words". You genuinely mean "THANK YOU" when you say it. You tell Bailey and me that you hope we feel better soon when he came from the vet and I have strep throat. You are just a truly kind spirit who seems to only see the fun, happy, and good in situations everywhere. I hope and pray you never lose that. Its often easy to see the bad side or the not-as-much-fun side of certain situations, but when the monorail is broken at Disney, you are excited to take the boat. Or when we are late to school, you are still excited to sing songs in the car on the way there. And when its time to put toys away and take a nap, you are excited to pick which toy gets to accompany you to your bed. You naturally seem to choose to see the good in life, and that's not an easy outlook to have in a world like this.
You make people laugh and smile EVERYWHERE we go, and I cant tell you how proud that makes us. You recently started asking people questions like "How was your day, Daddy?" and "How was YOUR Christmas, Ms. Martha?" without any prompting or prodding from anyone. You just genuinely care about people and want to know how they are doing and make sure they are happy.
You are the biggest blessing I ever could've imagined. Every mom is supposed to think that THEIR kid is THE BEST kid in the world....but I really, really think YOU ARE the best kid in the world! You are meant to do big things...whether you'll change a classroom of students as their classmate and friend, or change a classroom of students as the teacher someday. Or maybe you will grow up to be the next Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey or some crazy-smart doctor who cures a bunch of diseases...We obviously hope you use your intelligence and good looks for good and not evil, haha. We will always be proud to be your Mommy and Daddy, and we know you will only bring happiness and smiles wherever you go.
You will always be our baby girl, our first born, and the baby we prayed for and loved before we even laid eyes on you. It will be fun to have a little brother. I wouldnt know from experience, but I know you and I know you will make it fun, even if its not awesome all the time. You will always be the first baby who stole my heart and had your Daddy wrapped around your pinky before we were even out the hospital doors. You make parenthood seem easy most days! Thanks for continually making me look good, because Im having fun watching you learn and grow and experience life every single day.
Thank you for teaching me about patience, and for bringing me closer to God, closer to your Daddy, my parents/your Mac and Gramps, and for reminding all of us to slow down and appreciate the littlest things.
Thank you for teaching me all about the Disney Princesses and the things that make them happy and sad and scared and wonderful. You are currently on a Snow White hiatus and havent asked to watch the movie or dress up like her in several days. You are now an equal-opportunity Princess Lover these days, spending time feeding your Ariel doll, brushing Rapunzel's hair, or dancing and reading with Belle....all things I can see you doing with Grady in the near future.
You still love to be read to all day, and I think I had some second graders who couldnt answer some of the higher-level comprehension questions you breeze through! You still talk about the Big Bad Wolf, but are easily relaxed when we remind you that he is just pretend and only in books. You love saying "hi" and "good night" to Tinkerbell (the green light on the smoke detector in your room), and you say good morning to her most days before I get to your room.
You have started asking "Mommy will you snuggle wiff me?" each night after we say prayers and read books, and I am eating it up! We lay in your big girl bed, face to face, and you ALWAYS start the conversation with, "Mommy, maybe I can be a cowgirl and Gwady can be a cowboy!" every. single. night. Daddy always gets a laugh out of that as he turns out the light and leaves us to chat. We often talk about Grady, at your request, as I rarely have the chance to bring him up before you are asking about him or telling me something you cant wait to teach him. You know (and tell people) that Grady isnt coming until May 1st (ish), so I am always impressed by the fact that knowing that date seems to stop you from asking "When will he be here?" You like telling me my belly is getting bigger and bigger because "Gwady is gwowing and gwowing in dere!", and you often ask if you can talk to him or kiss him. You always talk sweetly and are very gentle, something Im not sure where you learned, as we dont have much interaction with infants around here. You just KNOW.
I know that ALL babies are miracles, but surely you and your baby brother are among the most amazing miracles God has ever given. You came to us after years of
You, like everyone on this planet, have your faults. I will not ever be that mom who thinks her kid walks on water and can do no wrong. When you are wrong, I tell you...and I always will. I will defend you when appropriate and remind you how to behave properly when you forget. I will withstand your eye-rolling and drawn-out sighs of pure exasperation (among other, less endearing forms of frustration) through your tween and teen years. And I will be your biggest cheerleader when you are working towards a goal. You are not perfect and you wont always be the smartest or the best dressed or the best or the fastest and I wont make excuses for you when you are doing something wrong. But that doesnt mean we dont love you and love everything about you, the good and the bad.
Whitney, your Daddy and I (and sooo many other family members and friends!) are so proud and excited and blessed to have you in our lives. Grady isnt even here yet and he is the luckiest little brother ever! I love that you are smart and loud and funny and genuinely beautiful on the inside AND the outside. I love that God chose me and your Daddy to be your parents, and I love that we are the lucky ones who get to see you every day and hear all the fun things you say and learn. And, oh, how I looove that I get to hear you laugh every single day!
Keep being you, Whitney. You are a great little person who has filled so many lives with more meaning and more love than we ever couldve asked for.
We love you to the moon and back,
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
No comments:
Post a Comment