Letters

Let's just get straight to the crack-me-up Jonah sayings this time, shall we? You and Sophie have taken to opening the utensil drawers and pulling things out to play with. It's always funny to hear you call them the "salad pickers". One day when you had gotten all your clothes off for bath time, I was drumming on your tummy and your back a little. When you got in the tub and I went to turn on the water, you started slapping your side and saying, "I'm banging on my hippies!" Another night you wanted me to read you a fairy tale, and you asked for "Red Ride Hoodie." Mama has a hoodie jacket, and you've heard her call it that a lot. We made granola bars this past month, and when I cut one out of the pan to put in my lunch, you said, "That one's fiver one big!" Grandma Joan always has Fiber One granola bars at her house, and you call them "Fiver One bars." Another time I let you do your Starfall.com games on the computer downstairs, and I came in to hear you saying, "The octopus can jiggle orangees." There was an octopus juggling oranges on the screen. You get so close sometimes, and other times you come out with words we have no idea where you learned. You told an older gentleman at Target that he could come find you in the shoe aisle tomorrow. Where did you learn "aisle"? You told Mama that one of the orange traffic barrels ( you call them cones) was flattened. And I don't remember the context but you've used the word britches before. You have an amazing vocabulary. I think I heard someone say that you learn an average of two words per hour at your age. I can believe it. Another time you told Mama that you know when Daddy drives his car home, because when the garage door opens the house crumbles.

And my favorite this month? You were in the tub scooping up water in a cup and holding it way up and pouring it out. You said it was falling down and dying. I asked you if you thought water was alive, and you said yes. Then I asked what made you think the water was alive, and you said, "Because it has a brain that it can go down."

We've finished another year. And again, you've grown a lot, in spite of your parents. There are a lot of times I want to apologize to you for making you the guinea pig for our parenting. Your Mama and I are doing our best, but most of the time we feel like that's not very good. We learn from you as much as you learn from us. And we're just hoping you don't come out with too many scars from the process, physical or otherwise. Your Mama and I have spent a lot of time getting our home straightened out this year, and we hope things will improve a lot this next year. There is always a lot of work to do, and new things to figure out. But we both feel like we've not been very good parents this year, and we want to do better in the future.

You really are such a good kid. I'm glad for all the vacations we took this year, and all the fun things we've done. We plan on having just as much fun next year.

I hope you know I love you. I also hope you can see that family is very important to me. I want to be a better Daddy for you. I'm too strict. It's what I grew up with, and I have to learn to be different than that. I'm glad you still love me, and want to eat Grape Nuts with me all the time. I'm glad you like going places with me. I especially love putting you in bed and talking to you about what's going to happen tomorrow. After the Christmas concerts this year, I've really enjoyed being home in the evenings with you, and spending a little more time with you. I'm excited to spend time with you this next year.

Love,

Daddy

This has been an interesting month for you. You've learned to open doors, and we've pretty much done away with sippy cups. You're repeating things we say more and more. And you've become Daddy's best friend. You've been really snuggly for everyone the past while, which is very cute. You snuggle with Papa quite a bit, and Grandma Joan. This month I've had Christmas concerts, which meant I hardly saw you at all for a week. Then the next weekend Mama and I went away for a vacation. This past week you've LOVED your Daddy time. You snuggle with me a lot, and always come find me and pull me to whatever it is you want me to do. And I'm falling in love again with your clear blue eyes, and your cute wrinkled-nose grin. I'm especially excited that you're talking more. Not a lot of it makes sense yet, but you've picked up quite a few more words. Just yesterday I got you to count to ten with me, and today you repeated the alphabet with me. I'm still looking forward to hearing your voice, and what's going on inside your head.

A few weeks ago you learned how to say, "All done!" I put you in the tub one night for a bath, and left you to play in the water while I cleaned up a little. Pretty soon you were yelling, "All done! All done!" I went back in to check on you, and you had let all the water out and were ready to get out. I love that you know what you're saying. I just hope it catches on soon that you can say things that mean something to everyone else in the house. Communication is a good thing.

I've said this before, but I love when you play games with me. One of your recent games is repeating "Daddy" with different inflections. Sometimes you'll copy me, and sometimes you want me to copy you. My favorite is when you say "DaddeeEEeeEEeeEEeeEEeeEEee". I'm especially excited that you can change the tone of your voice, because I have this desire for my kids to learn Chinese, and that's an important part of the language. I need to do more about teaching that to you and Jonah.

It has been quite a year for you. You've gone from simple walking straight to climbing on everything, running, jumping, and generally being much more adventurous than when Jonah was your age. You've learned a lot of signs, and lots of words too. I'm excited for you to really start talking this next year.

I think we're going to have a fun year. We have lots of ideas for places to go on vacation, and lots of fun things to do at home and near home. Jonah's still in school, so you get some alone time with Mama, and when he starts Kindergarten you'll get even more.

You've turned into a super cute little girl. I'm excited for all the new things you'll learn, but I'm also sad you're not our little baby anymore. We'd like another little baby, of course, but if that doesn't happen I'm very happy to have my two cute kids. You make me smile all the time.

I hope you know I love you. Your Mama and I are going to do everything we can to make this next year a good one for you and Jonah. Keep learning and growing. And don't forget to keep charming your silly Daddy.

Love,

Daddy