KDUNK

Dear Lili,

We had such a FUN day in the snow yesterday. It was one of those magical Brooklyn moments where the sun was shining and snow was falling in large flakes and all our friends joined us in the park and I took you for a ride on a sled. Dad plans to get in some serious sledding time with you today too and I know you guys are going to have just as much fun if not more!

The most ‘Lili’part of the day was that you insisted on carrying your little silver shopping bag around with you at all times and held it on your arm like the proper little lady. The contents of your bag included some loose change, a set of house keys, some costume jewelry, a Metrocard, two Chapsticks and one packet of mustard. That’s my girl!

I hope you don’t kill me for buying you this snowsuit. It was $4 at a second hand store but SO CUTE! I like the bright color. It’s very happy like your personality. If not…also a little 1973 at the same time. Anyway, it keeps you warm and that is all that matters. Here you are with your buddy Charlie.

Baby Will joined too. What a trooper! He joined right in the snow bunny fun.

Having a kid has allowed me to get out of the house and enjoy the old fashioned winter fun I experienced as a kid. Now if only we can find a pond to go ice boating like where I grew up then we are in business.

xo

Today we were trapped in the house because you had a small fever all day. But we still had fun. After the long day you took one long look at my messy hairstyle and said:

Mama, you need haircut day

Dear Lils,

You are truly my little winter baby. Born in December you relish in cold weather and getting outside. Nothing brings a smile on your face like a hearty freezing whipping wind, playing in and eating snow and overall temps near zero.

Your mother is a summer baby. I was born in August. I come most alive in the warm baking sun with a minty beverage on ice in my hand. When I leave the house I am constantly overdressed. A friend once made fun of me when I showed up to meet her for dinner wearing what she swore was my down comforter with a belt tied around it. Ok – so my winter jacket is a little extreme. Sue me.  But I really truly believe the month one is born in is the weather one really ‘comes alive’. Ok – it’s a little hippie dippy I know.

So here we are today – freezing cold outside and you are loving life. What are you doing in this picture? That’s right, you are on your back on the park picnic table watching the clouds go past in the sky as if we are on a picnic blanket in the grass somewhere in the middle of August.

Lili: Look Mommy! Clouds go fast!

Me: Oh wow! So fast! (inside voice: Are you kidding me right now?! I am FREEZING)

Once thing that is consistent about parenthood with you Lilian is that no matter what weather condition we are in – you continue to bring a smile to my face with your love for living life.

I love you.

xo

Dear Lils:

This weekend your Dad suggested we get out of dodge for a night or two to escape our normal routine. The thing about having a kid and traveling – or should I say a ‘spirited’kid while traveling – is basically you just go somewhere else to deal with the same crap you deal with at home but someone makes your bed and gives your fresh towels and sheets. Your Dad collapsed on the bed after the three hour drive and was like, “Why do I feel like I just took the red eye to Europe?” HA! So true.

No – in all seriousness though we had a great time. The first day was a little brutal because you decided not to nap and were in full Rain Man mode wherever we went yelling “CHAPSTICK CHAPSTICK WHERE IS MY CHAPSTICK WANT MY CHAPSTICK MAMA CHAPSTICK WHERE IS MY CHAPSTICK LILI CHAPSTICK NEED CHAPSTICK WANT IT NEED IT CHAPSTICK” for about three hours straight no breaks. You’d think by two years and a few months I’d be able to tune you out by now but I can sometimes feel like I’m dying a slow death with whatever item you are obsessed with at this particular point in time – stabbing me in the temples. In this case – cherry ChapStick.

While on our trip we had fun taking turns with you in the hotel pool – your first hotel pool swim ever!

You liked playing with the hotel phone. You LOVED the hotel shampoo bottles and couldn’t get enough. In fact over the the two days forget totally about your cherry ChapStick and moved on to your shampoo bottles instead – carrying several of them wherever we went in a mini Hello Kitty purse. You were great about sleeping in a new crib. And loved playing in the hotel room running here and there arranging things and making pretend areas for your stuffed animal Snowy dog and baby doll animal to play in.

Before we left for the trip I picked up a few free DVDS from the library as well as the book, Raising Your Spirited Child:  A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, Energetic – and can I say it was the biggest breath of fresh air to read I was not alone in the wonderful world of adorable children like mine that love and live life to the fullest! Your father and I don’t believe in labels – aka – that you are ‘this’or a ‘that’kid – but just to know you fit in the category of the kid that is MORE in so many areas of life is such a relief to read. The book is refreshing to read and real and honest. It made me recharge my batteries as your mother and want to continue to do everything I can to be a better Mom to you even if it means stocking up on about 300 cherry chapsticks for some rest and relaxation for the next oh…I don’t know…two weeks until we are on to some other obsession.

Some other highlights included all of us snug in bed in pjs watching the winter Olympics. Last night you watched figure skating for the first time and after the performance ended you sat right up in bed and cheered and clapped with such enthusiasm and genuine glee yelling, “GOOD JOB!” to the TV that it brought tears to my eyes.

You are a funny wild ride Lilian. But you are worth every mile. We love you.

xo

Today in the car your Dad had a great idea for a car game. Each one of us had to say one thing we liked and one things we didn’t like.

Mama: I like…flowers

Mama: I don’t like…dirty snow

Dada: I like…tacos

Dada: I don’t like…squash

Lili: (after long silence thinking) Lili no like…big spiders

Lili: Lili like…um…butterflies…and COSTUMES!…I like. I know.

Dear Lils:

One of my favorite activities to do with you is grab a slice of good Brooklyn pizza. You used to have to sit on my lap but now while ordering pizza at the counter I glance over and there you are. My little buddy. Little tiny head wearing a hat peering over the top of the table top. As a mother who carried you around in my belly and then gave birth to you – I can’t help but have these moments where I look over and go – woah! There is a little kid over there. Where did the little baby go?

You LOVE pizza and you love going to one particular place where you are a ‘regular’. The minute we walk in you say, “HI PIZZA MAN” at volume ten even though all ten dudes working behind the counter say hello to you. You love an audience.

This last trip I loved how glam you looked wearing your ‘jewels’and eating your slice like a lady. My grandmother would be proud.

‘Gettin’a slice’would not be on the top ten things I would think of as something I would bond over with my daughter but here we are. It’s always after we’ve been rushing about here and there in the cold that we find ourselves bursting into the pizza joint, taking off our jackets and enjoying a warm piece of fresh Brooklyn pie.

Last time we went for pizza we shared a table with about seven cops on break. You were the queen of the table getting all of the attention. Many of the cops had daughters of their own and remembered this age hanging out together. You found it fascinating in particular that several of the cops liked to sprinkle garlic on their pizza so now when we go for our regular slice you too ask for garlic.

I hope we can always be buddies Lils. With my growing wasteline maybe come the summer we can move our Mom and Me time up to the smoothie joint down the block instead of our regular pizza but for now who cares! I’m eating it all up. Every second of it.

xo