Dear Jude,
The other day, Papa mentioned that you’re now officially closer to being 5 years old than you are to being a newborn. I’d like to tell you that I responded in a calm, rational fashion, but the truth is, I (mentally) kicked him in the shins and (actually) got all choked up.
The past thirty or so days have been kind of crazy for us. It’s still cold, windy, and (a bit) snowy here in Chicago, so we’ve been doing our best to keep ourselves occupied while being holed up indoors. We’ve started visiting the Evanston Public Library two or three times a week. Their entire first floor is a dedicated children’s space: there are steps to climb, mats to roll and jump on, toys to play with, crayons and coloring sheets to complete, puppets to animate, blocks with which to build, a tree house to hid in, and, of course, a poop-load of books. Your favorite toy in the entire library is a fairly realistic-looking plastic lion. As soon as we shed our outdoor clothing and shoes, you make your way towards the library’s set of animals, pick up the lion, and tote him around with your for the duration of our stay. The few times we couldn’t find the lion, you told me he was probably sleeping, with a blanket, and that maybe he would be awake next time.
I recently stumbled upon a website called No Time for Flash Cards. You and I have been having a great time replicating some of the activities Allison, the blog’s author, has written about: we’ve made an alligator out of the letter A; assembled a rain stick out of a cardboard tube, some rice, a pipe cleaner, tin foil, and tape; turned our living room into a cafe; and transformed a shoebox into a mailbox. You and I have also been spending a lot of time building towers out of your Duplos
We’re both ready for the weather to warm up. You’ve been running around in circles (literally) a lot lately, and I’ve been trying my best to come up with some energy-expending indoor activities. Sometimes you’ll do my PT exercises or some yoga with me; other times we set up my yoga mat as a jumping station and practice leaping over various objects.
I can’t believe that in less than three months you’ll be three YEARS OLD. How exactly did that happen? Last thing I remember, you were 21.5 inches long and asleep on my chest. Before you were born, I marveled at how quickly the years were flying by… Monkey–I hadn’t seen anything yet. Since you’ve been born, days and weeks and months and years have been going by in a blink. One minute you’re snuggled up in my arms, the next you’re scaling the big kids’ slide. How did this all happen?
I love you, Jude.
Love,
Mama
