I have no idea where the last month went. It feels like I sat down yesterday to write you a letter saying that you were 21 months old.
On that note, it feels like a couple days ago I came home, tucked you in your little crib, and called every friend and relative I could think of to announce your birth.
This month has been incredible in so many ways. You make jokes! You now know most of your colors! And most of your shapes! You fell in love with morcilla sausage! And white sausage! You can string words together to communicate a point! You tell stories! You make-believe!
But underneath all of that incredible is a touch of bitter. When I was ordering photos to try to make you an album, I realized that I no longer look at pictures of your infancy and see YOU. I just see another baby. A cute baby, sure, but not as cute as you are right now. And when I look at you right now, when I clasp your cheeks and bring your nose to mine and nuzzle it back and forth and then WHOOPS! swallow little irresistible you right up? I no longer see my infant. I see a vibrant little girl, a clever little imp, a happy little child.
Parenting seems to me to be the most difficult ‘job’ in the world not because it’s hard to keep you alive or to ensure that you are prepared to enter the world, but because if I do it right, one day I have to let you go.
You and I have spent most of this month doing perfectly ordinary things – painting in your bedroom walls, cleaning the house together, swimming in your new pool, digging in the garden – but for some reason the last few weeks have been some of the happiest we’ve ever spent together.
I know I’ve said this before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but watching you grow and learn is the greatest gift. Every day, you make new connections that astound me and every evening after you’re asleep your father and I regale each other with funny goings-on from our time with you. And when I’m curled up beside your father at the end of the day, telling him about how you amaze me with all the ideas that come to your head and all the words that you have managed to use so well, we are both struck by just how grateful we are to have you in our lives. And we are both struck by how happy you make us. I never knew that something as simple as playing "school" with your furry pets while you pretend to be their teacher could make all the difference in the world, but it does, and I love you for that.
Grow, little princess, grow.
We love you more than elephants love peanuts (and everyone knows that’s an awful lot),
Momma and Daddy
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