Saturday, January 27, 2007

the baldwin family singers

Dear Della,

Last night, I went downstairs to play on the computer. It didn't last long before Dada helped you find me. Normally, you want to sit on my lap while I'm at the computer so that you may watch slide shows of pictures of yourself.

Tonight, though, Dada entertained you. He began playing his ukulele and you started playing yours (Dada's old, inexpensive one). You also tried your hand at the harmonica. You have picked up the mouth harp (I'm cool 'cause I know music lingo!) pretty quickly and it sounds good.

Dada was singing his songs with all the lyrics as "Yaaa, yoooo". This enabled you to sing along with him. I enjoyed the music and the singing.

Thank you Della and Dada!

Love,

Mama

Friday, January 26, 2007

the birthday girl

Dear Della,

Last week you turned 2 years old! You would think I would take this time to poetically mark this memorable milestone. I am not a writer and my company probably doesn't want to pay me to do it and you don't like it when I work on the computer so you are not getting much.

But, when I think back of the past 2 years, a couple of noteworthy things come to mind. The first is the amount of processing I have done revolving around you and me. I mean at first it was all about sleep (for the both of us), when to feed you, how to stop you crying. Basically, how do I take care of you? Then, it moved into how to take care of you while still taking care of me. Who am I now that I have this amazing little thing that relies so much on me? How do I fit ME into your life? Your first birthday marked a milestone of being able to actually keep you happy and healthy! I have always equated it to getting my sea legs. Now, that time seems so long ago as I feel more grounded with this emerging life. Now, I process about how fun you are, how cute you look when you dance with your bottom shaking, worry about your words, hope you don't wake too early, embrace every morning when we snuggle. I could go on and on.

Which leads me to the second thing that comes to mind on your second birthday. I am completely unable to put into words the visceral emotions I have for you. And even if I did, I know you will not understand it unless you have your own little one (utterly cliche, I know). I have never cried so easily as I do when I think of you. I think you are the most beautiful and most lovely and most entertaining person ever! Your dad thinks so too!

I look forward to watching you grow, my sweet girl.


I love you,


Mama
PS-Compliment to Aunt Phae for the lovely picture!

Monday, January 15, 2007

bilingual

Dear Della,

I have always wanted to be fluent in a foreign language but to date, I have not fulfilled that dream. I am only able to limp along in both French and Italian.

I have always thought it would be good for my child to be bilingual and have thought about putting you in schools that specialize in immersion programs like French or Spanish or the language of the country that will be taking over the world when you are an adult, Chinese. But, I probably won't do that either.

But, I think you have killed 2 birds with one stone for me. You are creating your own language, and I am learning it! Now, we will both be bilingual. Here is an example of your words that I have managed to figure out:

O - milk
Gow, gow - cat
Wooh, wooh - dog
Gaw, gaw - bird
Baba - sheep, lamb
Guh - light
Peep - please
Beebee - baby
Nigh, night - blanket
Ooh, ooh, aah, aah - monkey
Die - drawing, pen, crayon and the like
Nine - "one more", stairs, any number
Top - stop
Wawa - water
Nummy, nummy - food, eat
Da dough - ball
Dot dee - this/that
Dubby - ????
Uuh, uuh - everything else you don't know the word for

Some are easy and others don't make too much sense. But, thank you for fulfilling a dream for me, my sweet girl. Maybe we could call it Dellian, or Dellanese.

Love,

Mama

M to I to the L to the K

Dear Della,

So you know will understand why you are the spelling bee champion, here is a conversation between you, me and Dada last week in the evening:

Mama, "Della has drunk like 4 glasses of milk today. So, I have been mixing H2O with her M-I-L-K".

Della whips her head around, "O????"

Dada, "Do you want some M-I-L-K?"

Della, "Ya!!"

It is all about the motivation.

Love,

Mama