MId Summer '08

Hi Sidra,

If I were talking to you right now you would be pretty good at answering back with a sweet ‘Hi.’ Your vocabulary is increasing daily. It is a really fun time to be with you because we can teach you about a new word almost daily. Or at least you are getting so you can say a new word almost every day.

I also want to tell you how much you lift my heart. There have been a couple of mornings recently where I’ve been up much earlier than you and your mom (that’s not uncommon) and while sitting here in front of this silly machine you’ve come in and said ‘hi.’ My heart just jumps. I am just blown away by the fact that your mother and I were able to bring such a wonderful little girl into the world. And then you smile and I just melt.

Now, having just said that you are wonderful, I have to help you maintain your modesty by letting you know that you aren’t perfect. We have been having some issues with your eating habits. You are a little bit picky. Right now I would have to say that your favorite food is hot dogs. So, we get into these battles about eating something else, like vegetables. You are pretty stubborn, and this can be pretty stressful for all of us. We get perplexed because sometimes you won’t eat things we know that you will eat other times, while we are holding the hotdog ‘hostage.’

Aside from the eating issue, you can display willfulness in other ways, too. Occasionally, you protest by acting as if you don’t hear us. I have to say, “I know that you can hear me and I know that you understand me.” Usually that solves the problem. But, once in a while you still resist complying with a request. For instance, the other day I asked you to help me restack some books that you had pulled down and we were finished reading. You were not helping and I took you up and put you in the crib where you howled for several minutes. After a while, I asked if you were ready to help me now and you said ‘yeah.’ Then we went back downstairs and you still balked a little at helping. I thought, ‘man, if she’s this tough now, what will she be like when she’s 13?’ You did help out with no further incident, but it made me uneasy.

Right now I can hear your mom reading the book ‘No, David’ to you. David is a boy that is always testing his limits and getting into trouble. Perhaps you relate to David’s dilemma and that’s why you like that book.

I am only including one picture with this post. It was actually taken about two months ago, but I really like it and I want to explain why. Your mom took it when you were at the beach seeing the ocean for the first time. Then she chose a really good frame for it and gave it to me for Father’s Day. In it, we are exploring the breakers together. You notice that we are in step with one another. I lean down to hold your hand at your level. We look out to the vast ocean that could represent our future. There's a lot out there for us to see together. While it appears that you hold my hand compliantly, I know that my grip is tight to protect you from running headlong into unknown danger. Your exuberance at the new experience brings back to me things I hadn’t noticed in a long time.

Love, aba