The rush begins soon after—kids need help with school uniforms, packing lunch boxes, and leaving for their day in the world outside. And while I learned how to prepare baby purees and baby led weaning recipes, I really learned that you were going to do things in your own time.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. I was sad that we couldn’t see your grandparents go to our baby groups, see our friends or actually do any fun activities at all. individual letters are provided, allowing you to give to family and friends for them to share their own memories, family stories and words of wisdom. Now we’re coming out of lockdown, you’re seeing your grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends and you’re still just as socialable as you ever were!And I will always be here for you, cheering you on and loving you exactly the way God made you to be. You should also know that your dad and I are LITERALLY BESIDE OURSELVES wondering how this day is already here. Commit your most joy filled memories to the page so you never forget; and if they never remember they can feel like the memory is theirs too! As a final thought, always remember that you and your sister are the greatest joy and miracles in our world. You understand how things work, and it’s startling every time you figure something out that we didn’t know you knew how to do.

As we reach your first birthday, I have that same feeling I get when I step off a wild ride: knees shaking, heart thumping, mind racing, feeling exhilarated and blown away and full of joy and pride all at once. Right now you’re crawling everywhere, and it makes me happy to see you crawl and turn back to see if I’m following you. He is gonna want to be with you every second of the day and then he’s going to live his own life and have few words to share about it, and it’s going to be all talk or complete silence and everything in between, and it’s gonna wreck you. I made a note one day, saying as the oldest, I wanted her to share these “general family dynamic” letters with her siblings. Of course, you won’t understand now, but someday we’ll explain how strange the world that you were born into was.High school graduation is the first big right of passage so it’s a great time but you can also save them until college graduation, marriage, whenever you decide. You should chase after the best of everything and expect that it can be yours because you are worth everything good. Nothing is sweeter than your little cheeks squished on Mommy and your long eyelashes on your closed eyes.

Now you say as many words as you can, trying to say everything that we challenge you with… even “Caterpillar” and “Sandwich. I learned, not to hold my breath in fear of your fall, but to support you in all the wonderful things you could do. They drop you off upstream and you float for a couple of hours until you arrive back at the rental spot—in this case, a beach that was very clearly marked with signs indicating that this is the stopping point. Next to an empty line awaiting my check mark reads: My child has my permission to attend the field trip. I had wondered if when I saw you for the first time, I’d feel like I had always known you or if you would feel brand-new to me — and it was the latter.

In that moment when we first held you we knew that we wanted to protect you from the evils of the world and teach you how to be a strong independent woman. LinkedIn and 3rd parties use essential and non-essential cookies to provide, secure, analyze and improve our Services, and to show you relevant ads (including professional and job ads) on and off LinkedIn. This space is all about encouraging women to live simply and intentionally, savor motherhood, choose gratitude, and find sacredness in the everyday moments. You love dancing (especially to Lizzo’s Juice, that’s your favorite right now), music (you always bop your head, even to elevator music), jumping, and running.

You like to help Mommy as much as possible at mealtimes, which makes me happy, because I can share my love for cooking. This book of 12 fold-and-mail letters invites mothers to capture the fleeting memories of their babies' first years. What’s most important is that you get up and pick a lesson or two from your experience and move ahead. Once daddy went back to work, our days felt a little lonely but we soon made lots of friends who I hope you will grow up with and know forever!

As you grow, you will start to see that many people in this world are not kind and that many more are selfish. You have had many a moment but luckily we got past the terrible two’s and now just have a fair amount of whinging. It seems like just yesterday that you said your first word, tasted your first bite of food, took your first step, and had many other firsts. Kids, of course, do mature at different ages and some may appreciate it at different times than others. When I think about how I’ve watched your little personality come to life, how I’ve watched you grow and develop, I can’t help but shake my head and laugh.