To Stella, 23 months old
Dear Stella,
I am writing this on your actual birthday even though I won't be able to put it on the blog for a couple of days. I am in Poughkeepsie working at New York Stage and Film and I just put you and Ranny on a train so you could spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. I'll be home Sunday but I miss you already. I cried as I walked away from the train and I just don't know how I am going to manage one day to leave you at sleepaway camp or college. Will there actually come a time when I won't see you everyday? A time when Daddy will have to phone you to say, "Call your mother." Having a child really helps you to understand your own mother and I know that mine feels like the fact that she and I speak (on average) three times a day is not quite enough. I would like to take this opportunity to tell Grandma that I am sorry I didn't call home more often when I was at college or away traveling. I was having a really really good time, though. But that's no excuse for you, Missy. Call your mother! I know it is silly to be worrying about these things already but I am so acutely aware all the time how precious and fleeting these days are. I like them a lot.
I think that if this month had a title it would be THE MONTH OF ICE CREAM. That is to say, this is the month in which you, Stella Q., had your very first ice cream cone and discovered the splendor that is frozen cream and milk solids and sugar perched atop a crunchy cookie holder.
We spent the first two weeks in Vermont, home of Ben and Jerry's and knew going in that the months of ice cream deprivation that began with your birth would surely come to an end.
The two weeks with Clara, Sonya, Steven, Grandma and Grandpa were great fun and I think Daddy would agree with me that you changed more in those two weeks that in any other two week span thus far. Your vocabularly exploded, you became much more physically adept -- I don't even really worry about you on stairs anymore and, I don't know, you just changed and grew up a lot. While I'm certain much of this can be attributed to Ben and Jerry's vanilla (proven to raise one's IQ by 2-5 points), I think it also had a lot to do with living with Clara for two weeks.
For one thing, you got awfully tired of having to share. A favorite refrain we heard a lot in Vermont was, "I don't wanna share with Clara" and when we got home, you ran into your room and exclaimed, "So many toys! All mine!"
Due to your love of clowns which we discovered last month at Dartmouth, I was determined to find a circus to take you do and, happily, Cirkus Smirkus was performing right nearby Smuggler's Notch where we were staying. We went with Clara, Grandma and Grandpa and you had an amazing time.
Ah, Smuggler's Notch. Proving how much I have changed since having a child, I thought it was unbelievably fun though the kind of place I would have run from as fast as possible before having you. But no matter how much of a snob I might be, who could argue with multiple water slides, great pools for toddlers, a playground, a weekly county fair, an onsite Ben and Jerry's, a daily tennis clinic, puppet shows, magicians and more? There was a great seesaw there and you really enjoyed sitting on it, going up and down while singing "Happy Birthday Dear Stella, Happy Birthday Dear Ava and Barry, Happy Birthday Dear Seesaw, Happy Birthday Dear Sandbox," etc. etc. You also really took to swimming and had a great time playing in the water. One time you and Grandma were playing in the pool climbing up the ladder in the deep end when the lifeguard came and told you that you couldn't be there if you couldn't swim. That was a very exciting moment and you love to tell the story of when the lifeguard said, "No climbing up the ladder!"
Since we've been home, you and I have been taking advantage of many of the fun summer activities in the city. We saw The Paper Bag Players perform their show "Dandelion" which Grandma took me to see when I was a little girl. We have gone to concerts on the Pier, to see a production of "Seussical" and to Victorian Gardens where you had a great time on the rides with Clara. You always seem to be singing. The alphabet and Happy Birthday are your favorite songs.
Another big breakthrough this month is that ou are now jumping like its your job. For awhile there I marveled at how your friends were such good jumpers while, try as you might, you just couldn't get any air. Well, no more. In addition to jumping up and down, you also love to climb tall towers and then leap off. This is fun for you and scary for your mom.
Everyone says that being a parent just keeps getting better and better, that each age is more fun than the last but it is so hard to believe that as you are going through it. I am so in love with 23 months, I sometimes wish I could just freeze you exactly as you are. But then I think about how excited I am to see the person you are going to become, not just the woman in a bunch of years but the 2 year old next month. One thing I know is that you will probably have learned 10,000 new words by then. I look forward to many conversations to come. You are already one of my favorite people to talk to. Come to think of it, I am looking forward to seeing just who you are going to be tomorrow.
I love you.
Love,
Mommy
I am writing this on your actual birthday even though I won't be able to put it on the blog for a couple of days. I am in Poughkeepsie working at New York Stage and Film and I just put you and Ranny on a train so you could spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. I'll be home Sunday but I miss you already. I cried as I walked away from the train and I just don't know how I am going to manage one day to leave you at sleepaway camp or college. Will there actually come a time when I won't see you everyday? A time when Daddy will have to phone you to say, "Call your mother." Having a child really helps you to understand your own mother and I know that mine feels like the fact that she and I speak (on average) three times a day is not quite enough. I would like to take this opportunity to tell Grandma that I am sorry I didn't call home more often when I was at college or away traveling. I was having a really really good time, though. But that's no excuse for you, Missy. Call your mother! I know it is silly to be worrying about these things already but I am so acutely aware all the time how precious and fleeting these days are. I like them a lot.
I think that if this month had a title it would be THE MONTH OF ICE CREAM. That is to say, this is the month in which you, Stella Q., had your very first ice cream cone and discovered the splendor that is frozen cream and milk solids and sugar perched atop a crunchy cookie holder.
We spent the first two weeks in Vermont, home of Ben and Jerry's and knew going in that the months of ice cream deprivation that began with your birth would surely come to an end.
The two weeks with Clara, Sonya, Steven, Grandma and Grandpa were great fun and I think Daddy would agree with me that you changed more in those two weeks that in any other two week span thus far. Your vocabularly exploded, you became much more physically adept -- I don't even really worry about you on stairs anymore and, I don't know, you just changed and grew up a lot. While I'm certain much of this can be attributed to Ben and Jerry's vanilla (proven to raise one's IQ by 2-5 points), I think it also had a lot to do with living with Clara for two weeks.
For one thing, you got awfully tired of having to share. A favorite refrain we heard a lot in Vermont was, "I don't wanna share with Clara" and when we got home, you ran into your room and exclaimed, "So many toys! All mine!"
Due to your love of clowns which we discovered last month at Dartmouth, I was determined to find a circus to take you do and, happily, Cirkus Smirkus was performing right nearby Smuggler's Notch where we were staying. We went with Clara, Grandma and Grandpa and you had an amazing time.
Ah, Smuggler's Notch. Proving how much I have changed since having a child, I thought it was unbelievably fun though the kind of place I would have run from as fast as possible before having you. But no matter how much of a snob I might be, who could argue with multiple water slides, great pools for toddlers, a playground, a weekly county fair, an onsite Ben and Jerry's, a daily tennis clinic, puppet shows, magicians and more? There was a great seesaw there and you really enjoyed sitting on it, going up and down while singing "Happy Birthday Dear Stella, Happy Birthday Dear Ava and Barry, Happy Birthday Dear Seesaw, Happy Birthday Dear Sandbox," etc. etc. You also really took to swimming and had a great time playing in the water. One time you and Grandma were playing in the pool climbing up the ladder in the deep end when the lifeguard came and told you that you couldn't be there if you couldn't swim. That was a very exciting moment and you love to tell the story of when the lifeguard said, "No climbing up the ladder!"
Since we've been home, you and I have been taking advantage of many of the fun summer activities in the city. We saw The Paper Bag Players perform their show "Dandelion" which Grandma took me to see when I was a little girl. We have gone to concerts on the Pier, to see a production of "Seussical" and to Victorian Gardens where you had a great time on the rides with Clara. You always seem to be singing. The alphabet and Happy Birthday are your favorite songs.
Another big breakthrough this month is that ou are now jumping like its your job. For awhile there I marveled at how your friends were such good jumpers while, try as you might, you just couldn't get any air. Well, no more. In addition to jumping up and down, you also love to climb tall towers and then leap off. This is fun for you and scary for your mom.
Everyone says that being a parent just keeps getting better and better, that each age is more fun than the last but it is so hard to believe that as you are going through it. I am so in love with 23 months, I sometimes wish I could just freeze you exactly as you are. But then I think about how excited I am to see the person you are going to become, not just the woman in a bunch of years but the 2 year old next month. One thing I know is that you will probably have learned 10,000 new words by then. I look forward to many conversations to come. You are already one of my favorite people to talk to. Come to think of it, I am looking forward to seeing just who you are going to be tomorrow.
I love you.
Love,
Mommy
posted by Carolyn, David & Stella at 7/30/2007 04:36:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home