Love Mom, Letter 14

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Ahoy Travelers!

In honor of the fabled holiday, International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I’m gonna’ write me letter today in Pirate speak. Arrrrr…..

Ok, maybe not, but I have to say that this holiday is hilarious to me. Though if you look it up on Wikipedia, the origins and what’s come of it are completely ridiculous, and a little blasphemous from a religious perspective…

Welcome to Love Mom Monday!

The rule is, take a minute to write a love note today. Write to your spouse, your best friend, your sister, parent, whoever, and comment below telling me who it is, and why you love them or are grateful for them. (If you’re up for it, give your comment in Pirate!) Happy Monday! Let’s start the week off with a little more charity J

Love Mom, Letter 13

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Welcome to the 13th edition of Love, Mom Monday! Consider yourself invited to participate in the tradition. You don't have to be a mom to participate. Just write a letter to someone you love. It could be your spouse, a friend, a neighbor, a sibling, grandparent, etc. But take the challenge. Write a letter, and spread the love. Heaven knows we could do with more.


Rules:


1. Post the letter (on your blog or FB, or wherever).
2. Comment here with a link to your letter.
3. Comment on the person's post who posted before you, to spread the love.

Love Mom, Letter 12

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Welcome to the 12th edition of Love, Mom Monday! Consider yourself invited to participate in the tradition. You don't have to be a mom to participate. Just write a letter to someone you love. It could be your spouse, a friend, a neighbor, a sibling, uncle, grandparent, etc. But take the challenge. Write a letter, and spread the love. Heaven knows we could do with more.


Rules:


1. Post the letter (on your blog or FB, or wherever).
2. Comment here with a link to your letter.
3. Comment on the person's post who posted before you, to spread the love.

Love Mom, Letter 11

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Welcome to the eleventh edition of Love, Mom Monday! Consider yourself invited to participate in the tradition. You don't have to be a mom to participate. Just write a letter to someone you love. It could be your spouse, a friend, a neighbor, a sibling, uncle, grandparent, etc. But take the challenge. Write a letter, and spread the love. Heaven knows we could do with more.

Rules:

1. Post the letter (on your blog or FB, or wherever).

2. Comment here with a link to your letter.

3. Comment on the person's post who posted before you, to spread the love.

Welcome to the tenth edition of Love, Mom Monday! Consider yourself invited to participate in the tradition. You don't have to be a mom to participate. Just write a letter to someone you love. It could be your spouse, a friend, a neighbor, a sibling, uncle, grandparent, etc. But take the challenge. Write a letter, and spread the love. Heaven knows we could do with more.

Rules:

1. Post the letter (on your blog or FB, or wherever).
2. Comment here with a link to your letter.
3. Comment on the person's post who posted before you, to spread the love.

Love Mom, Letter 10

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Welcome to the tenth edition of Love, Mom Monday! Consider yourself invited to participate in the tradition. You don't have to be a mom to participate. Just write a letter to someone you love. It could be your spouse, a friend, a neighbor, a sibling, uncle, grandparent, etc. But take the challenge. Write a letter, and spread the love. Heaven knows we could do with more.


Rules:


1. Post the letter (on your blog or FB, or wherever).
2. Comment here with a link to your letter.
3. Comment on the person's post who posted before you, to spread the love.

Love Mom, Letter 9

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Hello fellow travelers. As of today, I am inviting you to participate in the tradition. You don't have to be a mom to participate. Just write a letter to someone you love. It could be your spouse, a friend, a neighbor, a sibling, grandparent, etc. But take the challenge. Write a letter, and spread the love. Heaven knows we could do with more.

If you post your letter, you're welcome to use my nifty little "Love, Mom Monday" icon, and link back here to let people know where you got the challenge. I feel a great deal of love for my family, so I thought it'd be nice to let others to have what I do in their lives. So think of someone you love, and write to them. Public or not, on your blog or on paper.

Go on, spread the love.

"Love, Mom" Letter 8

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 Dear little Monkey,

What a fun trip we had this week! You actually did very well on the six hour drives to and from California.

You got cranky at the halfway point, and then slept most of the way after that. It was really hard to keep you away from your plug and Red Bear, which we usually do at home.

"Love, Mom" Letter 7

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Dear Monkey,

Poor quality = cell phone's fault.
He put the fedora on himself, he's holding an empty ice
cream carton, and a spoon.
That's my boy.

You are definitely living up to your nickname, kiddo. Climbing the one mattress twice, and the other once, we've had to completely re-organize your room. For a while we considered taking out your "big boy bed" and just letting you sleep on the twin mattress in there, but when we put you in front of both, you went to the Monkey-sized one, and that was that.

I think I've had a much harder time this week than you have, mostly because Daddy and I went to see Harry Potter at midnight. You got to stay at home and sleep the whole time, while your babysitters watched movies in the living room. You were very good, and slept the whole night through.

"Love, Mom" Letter 6

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My apologies for posting late,
I was waiting for this photo op...
I'm sure you'll agree it was worth it :-)

Dear Monkey,

I am SO proud of you this week!

Well, let's face it, I'm always proud of you...

But this week I'm especially proud, because you have made the switch to your Big Boy Bed with no problems whatsoever.

You spent all weekend over the 4th of July crawling out of your play pen at Gma&Gpa's house. Then when we got home and started to put you in your crib again, you climbed out of THAT too. Well, by this point Daddy was concerned with you hurting yourself by doing that, so we made the change that very day. July 5th. We put you to bed that night in your big boy bed. We tried to help you fall asleep before laying you down, but you just got more and more mad at us. Then we decided to just leave you in your room and check on you in 5 minutes.

"Love, Mom" Letter 5

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Dear Monkey,

You are adorable. I love when you pretend magic! Whether with your wand or your hands, it makes me laugh... you've definitely put a spell on us, we love you so much, it's indescribable :-)

"Love, Mom" Letter 4

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Dear Monkey,

I have a few things to tell you today, that you really should take to heart...

Listen carefully.

1. We play piano with our hands,
not our feet.
If you become a concert pianist, then you can learn to play with your feet...
if you want to.

2. I know you don't like having your diaper changed, but it's either that, or learn to use the potty.
Let me know your decision.

"Love, Mom" Letter 3

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Dear J-boy,

Happy 18 months Monkey!

You are officially one-and-a-half years old, and what a year-and-a-half it's been!

In that time you have grown from 7 lbs. to 21 lbs.

And from 21 inches to 28. (I think :-/ )

I loved you from the moment you were born.

And so did your daddy.

From very early on, we could tell you were gonna be just like daddy.

We've loved having your cute little smile, and your infectious laughter in our home.

You make such funny faces!

And are definitely one cool cat!

Climbing in and out of stuff...

Still making funny faces at 8 months!

By the time you were 6 months, you had a favorite toy... even now, you love to go to sleep with "Red Bear".

And now we're on to new adventures.

In the past eighteen months, you have learned how to do all these things (mostly in order):

Roll
Sit up
Grab
Hold
Finger feed yourself
Drink from a sippy cup
Crawl
Squirm out of your bumbo
Climb (yes, he could climb before he could walk)
Escape
Clap
Sign lots of ASL words: eat, all done, dog, cat, fish, please, mom, & dad
Walk
Climb in and out of your high chair
Run / retreat
Use a spoon and a fork
Drink from a real cup (though you haven't quite mastered it yet)

And most recently...






Climb out of your crib.


Boy are the next six months gonna be fun!


Here's the thing, little love, I don't think you're quite ready to sleep anywhere besides your crib yet. You haven't grasped the concept of bedtime = stay put, and I don't think you're going to until you can respond to me verbally. Once you can do that, then we'll move you into a big boy bed. I promise. We even have one waiting for you, as soon as you're ready to take it on!

The past eighteen months have sure been great. Even the nine months before that were exciting, as we anticipated your arrival. Thanks for being such an awesome kid.

You sure make life interesting, and so much fun.

Love,

Mom

"Love, Mom" Letter 2

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Dear J boy,

You are so funny!

Learn this lesson now: life is a roller coaster.
Especially when you're only 18 months old.

I didn't know this, but I sure do now.

I'm so proud of you for being reverent during church yesterday, and for playing nicely with the other kids in the nursery.

I'm so sorry that you didn't sleep well over at the grandparent's house, but I think that was mostly your own fault, because you did choose to climb out of the play pen, and you know that you haven't learned how to get back in yet (HUGE surprise, that one was, he's never climbed out before...)

I have loved watching you this week. You're so smart! You've started jabbering more, and you're getting very good at whisper-jabbering when we tell you it's time to be quiet.

Also, I know you can't really see the use of actually talking (like using words and stuff), but I promise that, as you did with walking, you'll find that it does come in handy. Communication is kind of a big thing as far as relating to people and such. No, really! You won't always be able to smile and laugh and have people take care of you. Well, I guess there are some people who do that, but they are called moochers. You don't want to be like that. You should want to express yourself - your opinions and your thoughts - through your speech. No rush or anything, I'm just explaining the benefits of it. You'll figure it out in your own time.

Your father and I love you, very much. I can't believe that you've been with us for so long already. Sometimes it seems like only a minute, and other times it's hard to imagine life without you. I still remember you being so little, and now you're getting bigger every day! I know you'll grow up to do great things. Thanks for being so cool. It's a lot of fun having you around.

Love,

Mom

"Love, Mom" Letter 1

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So, the "Day Two" blog challenge question is "Why did you get a blog?"


But I totally answered that the other day, so I'm skipping it.


Instead, I'm going to share a letter with you, which I am thinking about making a regular thing. I've been feeling lately that I need to record my feelings more often about raising and teaching my son. And what better place to do it than here, where I can get encouragement and love from my friends. That is, after all, one of the reasons I started a blog :-) I think I'll usually do these on Mondays, but since we're going to be out of town this weekend, I won't have internet on Monday, and won't be able to post. So, this is the first of many "Love, Mom" letters, from me to the J-boy. Enjoy.


[Written 17 May 2011]


Dear J-Boy,

Oh my goodness..

It's days like this that make me wonder if you'll ever learn anything from me...

Days when you are trying so hard to assert your independence and see how far you can push the boundaries, and all I can do is stop you from doing things that will hurt you or something else, hold you while you cry, and tell you how much I love you...

I'm so sorry that it feels like I'm limiting you. I'm sorry you're teeth hurt. I'm sorry I can't just make everything all better. Believe me, if I could it would already have been done. You are my joy! My sweet little boy. I love everything about you! I love how much you love your little Red Bear, I love your cute little smiles when we play, I even love hearing you crunch into popsicles or the vitamin C's that you love to eat!

This time of your life is rough, with both of us trying to figure things out. I'm new at being a full-time-mommy to a toddler, and you're new at being a toddler. You want everything right now, and I want you to take things slowly, to enjoy life while you can.


I don't know what else to say, besides I love you.
I love you.

Those words just can't convey what I truly feel for you.
Words like adore, admire, cherish, treasure, value, prize... even they aren't enough.

The deepest parts of my soul are completely devoted to you and to your father. The two of you are my whole world. If I didn't have anything else, I would still be happy and content.

Just bear with me, okay? I know that we're both doing the best we can, and it's hard right now, but everything will turn out all right in the end, you'll see.

We just have to keep at it. Especially on days like this, when it all seems like it's not worth it and we ( I ) just want to give up. But if we press on, knowing that it will get better, then it will.

I'm so excited that you're starting to communicate! I love hearing your new words and seeing you begin to understand new things. I know you want to do everything and be everywhere all at once! But please trust me when I tell you not to do something, or that when I say "no", it's for a good reason! I've been around, I've made mistakes, I can help you not to make the same ones, if you'll let me.

You are my firstborn, and so far, only child. I am giving you my all to try and help you learn. Please let me.

You are handsome, happy, fun, and so very precious to me. We can get through this if we work together.






What do you say?

Love,
Mom