Thirty Three Months!

My Bowen Naomi,

Every time we hit the eleventh of the month, I continue to be surprised. "I can't believe another month has gone by already!" I tell myself. Thirty three months since I became a mama; your mama. It seems like no time has passed, yet it also seems to be a lifetime ago. A few days ago you looked really big and tall, and just "kid-like" to me, rather suddenly. I measured you on our usual wall, and sure enough, you've shot up a couple of inches in just as many months! It's incredible how fast you're growing, both physically and mentally.

This month we've continued to enjoy our summer vacation. Your daddy was off work for a while, so we've spent quite a bit of time together as a family. One of your favourite pastimes is visiting the park, and lately you've been quite keen on making friends. You told me that you like to walk up to people and say, "I'm Bono, can I play with you?" which I think is an absolutely wonderful thing to say. When you make friends, you love bringing them over for me to meet, as you proudly hold their hand and exclaim, "My friend!" You tend to look up to older people, especially girls who are five or six. I love how you've become more confident and self assured, and watching you explore that part of yourself is amazing. I love your confidence these days.

Along with an increase in confidence, your increase in vocabulary makes things fantastic. It shocks me sometimes, when I find ourselves having full-fledged conversations together. You talk from the moment you wake until the moment you fall asleep. While you're not quite there on your "s" sounds (making words like sleep and snake sound extraordinarily cute) you've really caught up on your pronunciation, and you're quite easy to understand these days. Every time I say thank you you happily exclaim, "You're welcome!" in the cheeriest voice I've ever heard. You also love asking about people's tastes: "Mama, do you like baths? Do you like noodles? Do you like puppies?" Today when you noticed my eyes tearing from cutting onions you said, "It's okay, little mama." I love when I hear myself in the things you say to your animals, like, "Don't worry, little Beary. Mama'll be back soon."

Along with an increase of vocabulary, has come an increase in fears. I know this is right on par for you developmentally, but it's so sad to watch you being so afraid suddenly. Your most prominent fears are owls, lions, and "angry men." I really have no idea where these particular fears came from, but we assure you many times a day that neither an owl, a lion, or an angry man will come get you. And that if they do, of course we'll protect you. I tell you often that it's my job to protect you from scary things, and I hope I can keep my promise as long as possible.

We've had a lot more downtime in the summer than we generally do during the year. We've spent lots of time together, just being a family and enjoying getting used to your little brother. We're lucky that he's a lovely and easy baby, so that's hasn't really been too difficult to do! We spend lots of time in our yard, planting and admiring our veggies, as well as enjoying the little turtle pool and the sprinkler. You love playing with your trains, lining them all up and loading them into a truck. You speak quietly to them, and have quite a laugh with Thomas and Rosie daily. You love the idea of birthdays and birthday parties; you often tell me it's my birthday and talk about the balloons, decorations, cake, and presents that we'll have. Today you came inside to happily exclaim that "It's gnomy's birthday today!" We've been going to the library often and your favourite book this month is "Llama, Llama, Red Pyjama." You've been obsessed with watching Curious George, and couldn't be more excited any time we cave and let you watch an episode. we've been talking about a lot of upcoming changes lately. It's been lovely to spend so much downtime together at home, but I'm also looking forward to the lovely cooler fall months when you start "school" and our regular activities resume.

My love, as we move into big changes this fall, I impossibly seem to love you more and more every day. As you quickly turn from a baby to a toddler to a little girl, I can't believe my capacity for loving you; every stage of you is more incredible, funny, and interesting than the next.

Happy 33 months, my Bowen Naomi!

I love you forever,

-Your Mama