Dear Sweet Daughter Of Mine,

I felt an overwhelming need to put my love for you into writing tonight. So here I am at 11:30pm, incredibly tired, typing away on my iPad. You've been asleep for the past few hours and 

I miss you. So much so that I look at pictures of you and feel a longing even though you're in the next room. Do you know how much you're loved? 

Today was no different than the majority of our days. We both stayed in our pjs till about 2pm. You "helped" me fold laundry. You laughed as you dropped half your lunch on the floor for the dogs. I laughed as you smeared the other half across your face. We spent some time outside enjoying the sunshine. You got mad at me for wiping your nose for the hundredth time and payed me back by finishing the job on the shoulder of my shirt. You followed Ruby (our chihuahua/corgi) from room to room and got covered in dog hair crawling into her bed with her. Daddy gave you a bubble bath and we all spent time cuddling stuffed animals on the living room floor.

Now you're sleeping and tomorrow we'll do it again. But every day you change. You grow. It seems like every time you wake up you're bigger. I can almost see your mind developing. You watch me so closely. Today I showed you how I roll my tongue and you were amazed. I watched you put your hand to your mouth thoughtfully then place your fingers gently on my lips inspecting the way my mouth moved. Daddy started singing at dinner (which is not unusual) and you started dancing! You bounced up and down in your high chair and laughed. Then we laughed. And then we all danced. We read "Hello Duck" and you turned the pages, pointing at the duck, and the flowers, and the bees. I said "all done" and you picked it up to turn the pages again. 

You had your first cold last week. It made me long for the day when you can tell me what hurts, but savor this day where holding you in my arms comforts you. We all slept the least we have since you've been home. You woke up a lot in the night and mommy started to get just a tad cranky. Being your mom makes it all worth it. However, just for future reference, I would like to thank you for being a good sleeper the majority of the time.

 I don't want to forget anything, even the hard stuff. Grammy and Grampy reminisced about raising your Uncle Jacob (9 years younger than me) but couldn't remember much of the sleepless days. This is why I'm thankful for technology. We can go back, read, and remember. I want to remember. When you ask me to tell you about when you were a baby, I want to tell you as much as I can. I want to tell you that we waved to dad every morning as he went to work and you squealed, smiled, and reached for him every time he came home. I want to tell you that you loved being pushed in your swing on our back porch. That you loved green beans and avocado. That you would hold your stuffed animals by their tails, one in each hand, and swing them around like nunchucks. I'll tell you that you would pull my hair really hard, but I would wear it down anyway because playing with it helped you fall asleep. I want to tell you everything.

But most of all sweet daughter of mine, I want to tell you how much you're loved.

Poor baby not feeling good.