Dear Sunshine,
This past year has taken you from baby to toddler- but there’s something else too. It’s taken you from baby to young lady, and while I’m sure that’s hard for the general public to understand, to know you is to get that. I could never place my finger on just what it is about you that is so different than any other child, but I’m fairly certain it has everything to do with the fact that you’re mine.
You are so many things, carry so many traits, and here are just a few of the things you can do.
You are incredibly smart. You can sing your ABC’s, count to 10, and sing twinkle twinkle all while keeping a steady beat on the xylophone. You try to write letters and repeat words while we read and are constantly asking me questions. You complete tasks always in order and love to build Lego towers and houses and blocks.
You’re maternal. You play house, have two babies, and manage to feed them their play dough dinner every single day…I just don’t know how you do it. You steal my recyclables from the window seal and use them in your pretend kitchen and always ask me if I have more eggs for your house. You pretend to take pictures with anything that is shaped as a rectangular and you close your eyes really tight and scream CHEESE!
You’re a talented artist. You love to paint- watercolors mostly. You hold up your pictures and say “Mommy see. See. I did it!”
You adore your friends, and I’m most proud of that trait in you. You’re best friend is my friend Courtney ( she’s a grown woman and mother herself) but you ask for her every single day and also pretend to be on the phone with her, and ask me “How’s Courtney.” You worry a lot about Courtney and how her son Teddy is doing. I think you think that we visit the Moms and the kids are just an awesome bonus.
You LOVE music and dancing and that can not be over stated enough. You dance constantly, do some kick and spin moves and know literally every word to Adele, Usher, and Rihanna songs. You LOVE music; it moves you.
Of everything you are, what you are the most, is loved. I would say it took you the longest to say “I love you.” You seem to have to really mean it- thinking, waiting, sizing folks up, and then you’ll tilt your head to the side and say “I love you.” It makes it completely worth the wait.
You’re a little New Yorker, when we’re in the car and someone honks you’ll say “Come On!!!!” and it’s awesome. You hate to stay indoors, must get out of the house everyday, and just have to do something…anything.
You adore your family, espicially your uncles. I love that you love them and that they love you. I love that in your world love is love and is mostly defined by people who send you countless gifts and/or shower you with silk dresses and fur vest. Your closet is ridiculous.
I think a lot of what you might choose to be when you grow up. If I had to take a guess right now I would guess a scientist of some sort- but they seem sort of boring to me and you are anything but. So maybe you’ll be a science teacher- they rock! I could also see you as a dentist- you LOVE toothbrushes and tooth paste and you carry your toothbrush everywhere- but I think they have a high suicide rate so lets move away from that. Plus I hate going to the dentist and I’d like for you to have a job where it would organically include me stopping by, working a few hours, and talking to the ladies in your office about their love life’s and children. If you are 18 or over and reading this you are thinking “Is she kidding?” I assure you I am not. Of course in this same fantasy world you’ve married Aidan and Nora and I are giving each other high fives. Whatever you’ll find your own way- that’s just one road/option.
Every year on this day, your birthday, I remember one specific thought, the day I became your Mama my life started. For me it felt like I looked into the eyes of God or gazed directly into the sun. I haven’t looked back kid- I never needed to. Nothing in this world is bigger or more important than you. As for me I promise that even though you are the center of my universe I will make room to let you orbit out on to your own.
It’s all going by so quickly now. I think it’s you baby…you make time fly- you’re so much fun. You who are bigger than the sun, brighter than all the stars.
Happy Birthday Gracen. I love you with my whole heart and then some.
