Dear Gabey,

To my beautiful boy,

You are 2 and a half years old. You have my whole heart. Did you know that? You hold it in your sticky, little hand. I know that your heart is full of buzz, elmo, and barney, but I’m pretty sure there’s also a big place for me and daddy. Nothing in this world makes me happier than seeing your face when you see me. The other day we were at Hannah and jake’s and you stayed behind while I went to the store. When we got back, you didn’t see me right away. You just saw Hannah and you smiled politely at her, but seemed a little sad. Then I said, “hi gabey”, and your little face lit up with joy and you said, “mommy” and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. The next day, daddy and you and I were singing “the wheels on the bus” and you were singing so loud and emphasizing certain words and getting really into it like you do, and then you just squeeled, “mommy” and threw yourself at me for a big hug. My heart could have burst. I closed my eyes and buried my face in your neck. Your little face and body are so kissable. I cannot get enough of your soft skin. I kiss your tummy and your face so much that I just know you are thinking, “aaaww, mom, come on, stop.” But I won’t stop. I will never stopJ you loooove to sing. Music always calms you down. But you absolutely hate when daddy plays the guitar. We think that it’s because you don’t like to share his attention. It’s pretty funny. I love to watch you and daddy play. You are so lucky to have him. He will sit with you in your “fort” under the table for hours. He will chase you down the hall endlessly. He will keep you company in the middle of the night if you can’t sleep. How I ended up with the 2 sweetest boys on earth, I will never know. I can only thank God. These are your favorite things to say, “are you ok?” “are you ok, gabey?” “whasa matter?” “come on”, “swinging?” (swimming). “is ok”. You are now sleeping in a big boy bed and you seem to love the independence it gives you. You get out of bed and play with your toy and we’ll just hear you chattering away to yourself in there.  the other day you had been napping for so long and I hand’t heard from you, so I went in to make sure everything was okay and you were just laying in your bed completely naked with your arms behind your head looking like hugh hefner stretched out by the pool. you make me laugh so much. Thank you for that. You like to read books and say ‘the end” at the last page. You love ice cream and scrambled eggs and café rio and you looove cheeseburgers. You love the slide and swimming and playing with blocks and marbles. You have decorated every inch of our patio with your chalk art. You are so smart and sweet and kind. you can count to 20 and sing the alphabet. You always like to share with us and give us bites of things and  offer us little bear’s tail, which is your favorite thing in the world. You are so good. And, baby, life is good and hard and every other thing. I want to help you be strong, ethical, a free and critical thinker, kind, hard-working, caring, and happy. I want all of the best things for you. But, right now, while you are small, what I really want is to fill you so full of love and kindness and attention that it colors your view of the world. I want our love to provide a safe place for you to venture out from and always fall back on.  I want you to have a reserve of love inside so that you can share it with the world, and know that you always, always have a safe place to land if the world sometimes does not act the way you wanted . You are my beautiful, beautiful boy forever. add more about his singing, having us kiss stuff. etc.

All my love,

Mommy