Letters

I've officially missed a month now. I'm writing this on your birthday, although I'm still going to post it with a July date. I still want to write you two letters, because I figure that by the time you read this, you'll notice that I have a letter for every month more than you'll notice what day I actually wrote it.

We took a vacation to New Mexico this month for the Easter Family Reunion (Papa's mother's family), and you loved it. We drove 1500 miles over 7 days, which made me very worried that you and Sophie were going to go crazy in the car. But you both handled it VERY well. I was very impressed, and very relieved. It was such a fun vacation. We did a lot of things that your Mama and I might have done on our own, but they were made that much more meaningful because we knew you'd like them so much. We stopped in Durango on the way down and saw the train station there, which you loved. Mama took a ride on that train when she was really little, and we want to go back and ride it with you too.

We walked you all over Santa Fe for five hours, and I'm surprised you took that so well. That was probably the most boring part of the trip for you. But your Mama and I thought it was amazing to see all those old buildings down there. Then we took you to the Santa Fe Children's Museum, and you had a blast. I found it really funny that your favorite part was the "my-size door" at the entrance. You kept wanting to run away from us, to go back and walk through that door again and again.

We rode the Sandia Peak tram on the way down to Albuquerque, and you loved that too. As we watched the tram come down the mountain, you said, "Oh, it's flying! It's going to land here! That's a good tram." I had to laugh. You loved the ride, and you were glued to the railing watching the trams come and go. We also stopped at the Balloon Museum just outside of Albuquerque, and you played a lot with the balloon models that went up and down on a little rail of sorts. We also had fun in the balloon simulator.

At the Easter Reunion you met Gracie, Mama's cousin's little girl. She was thrilled to have someone her age to play with, and ran around giving you hugs for the first while. You ate together, played together, and generally had a good time. She had her bike in the campground, and you liked riding that around too, although you got mad when Gracie wanted to ride it. Sharing is still a struggle.

We made a couple stops on the way home, but generally drove as fast as we could straight through. On the last day you and Sophie amazed me again, as we drove a straight 5 hours home without anyone going ballistic. It was such a good vacation.

I loved spending so much time with you and building our relationship up so much. You love having your Daddy around, even if I think you're crazy for it. You always ask me at night if I'm going to be there in the morning. And when you wake up you ask Mama where I am. If I'm home, you immediately go get out the Grape Nuts and want to eat breakfast out of my bowl. I love this snuggly stage. I also love watching you learn new words and ideas. Your imagination has taken off and you're always making up stories about your cars and trains. I also love teaching you scripture stories and gospel principles. You learn so quickly. I love you, kiddo. Next up, your birthday letter.

Love,

Daddy

I'm late with this letter, again. But I haven't missed a month yet, and hopefully I can continue that. As an update on your speech progress, you're picking up a few more words here and there. When I put you in a hot car seat, you always look at me and say "hot". And the other day when I was changing your diaper you looked straight at me, and signed and said "ball" at the same time. It was very deliberate, and made me laugh. I've seen you look into a garbage can and say "yuck yuck" once, but I haven't been able to get you to do that again. You like "stop" and "go" quite a bit when we're in the car. And you've finally grasped "Daddy", a development that occurred on our trip to New Mexico this last month.

We went to a family reunion earlier this month in New Mexico, and we made a week of it. We went to Santa Fe first for a couple days, and then down to Albuquerque where the reunion was held. We did a lot of fun things, but unfortunately that meant spending a lot of time in the car. You don't like sitting in your car seat very long, and the first day of the trip was the worst. Then I think you got used to it. For a couple days when we got in the car in the morning you pretty much just fell asleep and had a nice morning nap. And then when we hit the road again after a lunch break, you'd fall asleep again for your afternoon nap. I was nervous knowing you'd be strapped into your seat so much, but you surprised me and did really well. At the family reunion you found a friend in an eight-year-old girl that loved to play with you. At meals you'd sit with us for a bit, and then when we weren't looking you'd sneak off to sit by your friend. You really charmed everyone there, but it was especially cute to see you run around with a friend you made all by yourself.

Two weeks before the reunion, we went camping with Mama's family up Big Cottonwood Canyon. That was a lot of fun, but it got really cold at night. Just as the sun was going down we had a downpour. We all crawled into our tents for the night, and it stopped raining a while later. That was a good thing, because our poor little tents do well in some rain, but were leaking a bit in such a heavy rain. After the rain it was hard to keep warm. I had you with me in one tent while Mama and Jonah were in the other. I tried to keep you in your pea pod with your blanket on, but you didn't want to stay put, and your pajamas weren't quite warm enough without a blanket or two. I ended up pulling you into my sleeping bag with me (a tight fit in a mummy bag), and we slept through the night that way. It was hard to sleep with a squirmy little girl, but I was glad I could keep you warm, and I like snuggling with you anyway.

You are still such a super cute little girl. Yeah, you have your feisty moments, and your pouty moments, and there's some screaming in there too, but every time I lay down on the floor you still come over and sit on me, play with me, and snuggle me. I love how you light up when I come home from work, or when Grandma Joan comes over, or when we're looking for Mama and finally find her. I love your little point-and-squeal routine. I'd love for you to really start talking, but you put so much expression into that squeal, it's hilarious.

I love you, little girl. I hope you can always feel that.

Love,

Daddy