Vocabulary

Dear Isabella,

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend and you had so much fun! You picked corn, picked a pumpkin, picked a sunflower, rode on two kiddie rides, and rode a pony! It was a big day. Halloween is coming and after that, Christmas!

Your vocab and speech get more and more advanced each day! Today you said "Ba-pa" for "Grandpa" for the first time in months but I think it was on purpose. You graduated to "gwampa" a while back. But here are a few that are still so cute:

Maca-moni (macaroni)

Gwom-up (grown-up)

Ohm!meal (oatmeal)

I yuv you (I love you)

Nonny (naughty)

Baff (bath) - although not all the time

Two-mo-mo (tomorrow)

And your sentences are becoming longer and more complex (and more often correct in grammar and syntax), and you repeat words back more now. Just today you pointed at a picture of Abuela and said, "Dat's Abuela. I yuv her." And earlier when Orange didn't want to drink water you said, "Maybe two-mo-mo you tell him drink water, after Daddy take me to gwama gwampa's house with my socks, k?"

Sometimes the stuff you come up with leaves me amazed. Driving home the other day we were next to a black convertible. 

You: Dis my car?

Me: Well, one day, if it lasts that long maybe. 

You: (pointing at the black convertible) I don't want the red one, I want the black one. 

Me: The black convertible over there?

You: Yeah!

Me: (laughing) Well you're going to have to buy that yourself.

You: When I'm a gwom up?

Me: Yup.

You: After I go work, k?

Me: That's right, where are you going to work?

You: Right there (pointing) on da mountain.

Me: Oh yeah? What are you going to do on the mountain?

You: Um, paint with my hands. 

Me: Paint with your hands?

You: Yeah! I'm going to working to paint with my hands on da mountain right there, k, and then I can get the black one, k?

Crazy kid. Also, you're super cute when you're trying not to cry. 

Love,

Mommy

New House!

Dear Isabella,

Where did the summer go?! You started school, I got promoted at work, we moved to a new house - all in three months! Whew!

You said goodbye to Aunty Gladys and that was a little sad. You knew her since you were three months old! 

You are having so much fun at school with Miss Bree, Miss Kalai, Miss Marvie, Nana, Miss Kelly, Miss Angela and Miss Grace. You can run and jump and count and sing your ABCs and they tell me you're quite the cleanup helper. You bring home beautiful paintings and you talk about your friends - but only if I don't ask!

Right now I'm lying next to you on the floor of your new bedroom! We painted it yellow with a sky blue ceiling, because we wanted it to be happy and cheerful for you. We have so much room to play and all kinds of outdoor spaces to explore. You love going on a walk after school and work. You always pick a flower for mommy. You're still adjusting - we've only been here a week. At first you were really really scared. But you're getting used to it, day by day. 

We said goodbye to our old apartment and our old neighbors. Mommy and Daddy miss them and everyone told us they would miss seeing you in the lobby and elevators. That was our first apartment all together as a family, and your first home. It was a little sad to say goodbye but we're excited to make our new house our home for a very long time!

For a while we were having dinner with Grandma at Zippy's every Wednesday and you loved that. We'll probably start again soon once you get used to our new house. 

You're so lucky, GranGran came to visit also, and you spent a lot of time with her especially this weekend! On Thursday,

Grandma and GranGran picked you up from school and you had a sleep over at Grandma's house. And on Friday you all went to the zoo and saw tigers and played on the playground. On Saturday all four of us went to the Ho'olaulea and ate yummy food and saw neat things. You got a pinwheel and a hat! Today you played in the yard with Grandma and GranGran at Grandma's house. You painted the house with water and watered the trees and played in the sprinkler. And then everyone came home to our house for pizza and to hang out. It was a great weekend for you!

Tomorrow you have school so it's time for bed!

Love,

Mommy

Ba-na-na and Memmet

Dear Isabella,

Next week Monday will be your very first day of preschool! Daddy and I are excited and sad at the same time. I can remember when you were so little and still wrapped up like my little Bean burrito and now you're going to school! 

Your speech is getting more and more mature every day - the way you pronounce words is clearer, and the complexity of your sentences is more impressive all the time. Just now you said banana clearly and correctly - it seems like just yesterday you called it a "bannin." You've been telling me, "I memmet dat!" And it took me a few times to figure out that you're saying, "I remember that!" 

You're still having trouble sleeping by yourself but we've gotten into an okay rhythm so until you adjust to school we'll just leave it the way it is. 

I love you more every day - how is that possible?! You make me smile even when you're making me crazy and you make me laugh all the time. You're growing into such a beautiful, smart, clever, cute, sassy!, fun little person - I'm so proud of you!

Love,

Mommy

"Pockets" and Geckos

Dear Isabella,

You're scared of geckos - kind of. You've never seen one in real life but you've heard them - and you really don't like them. You cried and cried and cried last night at bed time. It took a while for Daddy and I to figure it out because every time we went in to you the gecko stopped clicking. But Daddy heard it finally and we spent quite a while trying to find the gecko to show you it wasn't scary. We never did find it.

Also you have a "pet" peacock that hangs around Grandma's neighborhood all the time. You call a peacock "pocket" which I think is pretty funny. We saw "pockets" at the zoo this weekend too, and you were talking to them - "stay way! Stay way!" you said, shaking your finger at them. They were about as big as you.

Love,
Mommy

I for Isabella

Dear Isabella,

You're starting to learn how to spell your name! Well, sort of.

You call yourself "Bah-dee" - a form of Bella maybe? And you often point to the letter D and say, "D, Daddy," or point to the letter M and say, "M, Mommy." Today I was reading to you and you pointed to a capital letter I and said, "I, Bah-dee!"

And then you pointed at every capital I for the rest of the book and said it again.

You're such a smarty-pants, I'm so proud of you!

Love,
Mommy

TWO Years!

Dear Isabella,

What a year it has been! From your tentative steps as you became steady on your feet to running and jumping (sort of) - and walking in heels?! From babbling to talking in two- and three-word sentences. Your first jewelry from a boy (Camdyn's butterfly necklace) and your first kiss (again, Camdyn!). From eating (whatever we fed you) wearing a bib sitting in your high chair, to eating (if we're lucky and you feel like eating what we feed you) without a bib on a grown-up chair all on your own. You have learned and grown so much this year and looking back is just too amazing. Look at that picture at the doctor's office for your one-year checkup last year, and the picture at the doctor's office for your 2-year checkup today! Happy birthday my little Monster! What will next year bring us? (Successful potty training I hope.)

Love,
Mommy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkcWhvaZglk

Nothing Like It

Dear Isabella,

I wrote you a letter before you were born and I'm not sure when I will give it to you. I'm almost certain that part of it expressed how much I look forward to watching you forge your own path, and I still do want you to become your own person with your own destiny.

But I also hope deeply that one day you will have a daughter of your own. I watch you and think of you now as you near your second birthday and I am nearly overcome. (Really, I had to consciously turn my mind to another thought while I was grocery shopping today because I would have looked silly had I come to tears in the produce section!)

There is so much you can never understand unless you walk the path of being a mommy to a little girl. There is so much about my own relationship with my mom that I now understand on a deeper level.

There is nothing - NOTHING! - like the feelings I have when it comes to you: joy and hope, optimism at its purest, wonder at the smallest things like your happily serious facial expression when you are explaining something to me in language I can barely keep up with. The swell of pride when you do the simplest things - like demonstrating what a lever is! The excitement of wanting to watch you reach your milestones while in the same instant wanting to stop or even reverse time, and that tug of nostalgia for a time not even that far gone. The contradictory yet obvious coexistence of a deep fear that I will somehow fail you as a mommy, and utter confidence that while I will no doubt fail in some way (all parents do) you will be my greatest accomplishment simply because of your you-ness and God's grace. The terror of knowing one day very soon I will have to begin to let you go into the world and watch you get bruised and tumbled by our world of ever-growing complexity, and knowing that I will have to strike a balance between protecting my baby - a part of my very own soul - and letting you learn to protect yourself.

The feeling of having your heart walking around outside in this world of mayhem is at once exhilarating and horrifying - there is no vulnerability that can compare to having a child you love more than life itself. But the daily joys and overall depth of love is well worth the moments of stark fear. This is the reason I hope you one day can relate to me in this way.

You're almost two years old. I just cannot believe it. I love you more and more as you grow, and will be your mommy forever.

Love,
Mommy