Birthday Letter to Karis from Mommy

As described in Friday's blog post, here is the letter I wrote for Karis' birthday:

Dear Karis,

You are 2 years old today! It has been such a joy to watch God grow you physically, emotionally, and spiritually from babyhood into toddlerhood.

Whenever anyone meets you, they say, “She’s busy!” And so you are. You are very task-oriented. Every day when you wake up, you immediately tackle your to-do list for the day, playing with all your toys and books upstairs and downstairs. Woe to the one who interrupts you from the task at hand!

You are so independent, and have no fear to go off on your own. You are usually perfectly content to be left in a church nursery or with a babysitter. And you do things on your own schedule. You crawled early at 6 months, even before you could sit up! Then you walked late, at 15 months. You were a champion, seasoned crawler. At 13 months a friend suggested we put you in dresses so that you wouldn’t be able to crawl and so would have to walk. But even a long dress didn’t slow down your crawling at bit. And now you’re not talking much, but you definitely know how to get what you want. You know important words like “more”, “up”, and “down.” You’ll grab any adult’s hand to get the help you want. We’ll work on “please” next. :)

It has been so fun watching you learn things in your own way. When your Grammy got you a puzzle, she couldn’t figure out why you wouldn’t try it and kept guiding her hand to do it. But once you did finally try for yourself, you had already mastered it. I went over the alphabet (which you were totally fascinated by) over and over again with you. I never had any idea if you were “getting” it or not. Then one day I drew a circle and you said, “O”. I drew other letters and you named them. I asked you which one is an “R” and you knew it!

You became a big sister this year. You laughed at my growing belly all summer, and sat perched on top of it when I carried you. Then when Jonathan was born, you were curious, saying “baby,” but never wanting to hold or kiss him. Sometimes when you first woke up in the morning or when we picked you up from nursery you’d ask for him. You were so helpful, coming to get me when he cried, putting his binky in, and holding his bottle. And when he was born you had weeks of dedicated attention from your grandmothers and lots of new toys to play with.

You decided your daddy was pretty cool one day in October when we went to the beach. He was out playing in the deeper water, and we were running through the shallower waves. You saw him out there and yelled “Daddy, Daddy!” for the first time. Now you ask for him throughout the day and love to play with him. When he walks by, your face lights up and you go off looking for him. And while you play a lot by yourself, you love to be held by your mommy and snuggle when you’re read to.

Every night we read you a Bible story. Most of the year you had to be read to in your crib because you were so squirmy! But recently it’s been sweet for your daddy to hold you on his lap. You don’t always look like you’re paying attention, but whatever book we’re reading you carry around all the next day. Before every meal we say grace. You wait expectantly for it, and quietly hold hands. Then when we’re done, you exuberantly say your version of “amen:”MEE-MAH.

Over the course of the year you learned a lot about obeying. “No” was your first word. I appreciated how you’d warn me when you were about to do something you shouldn’t by saying “no no no no no.” After Jonathan was born and I could no longer chase after you, you quickly learned to “come” when called, sometimes even while crying because you didn’t want to, but knew you needed to obey. You have a strong will, but God is softening you to obey and consider others.

You are a beautiful and sweet girl. We delight in your focused curiosity, confident independence, and easy laugh. I miss you so much whenever we’re apart, even if just for your nap. You are a precious gift from God to us. Words cannot express how much I enjoy you and treasure you. I am so happy I get to be your mommy.