dear chace

my dear sweet chace,

today, marks your 20th month of life. while i write you letters on the 14th of every month, i hope you will some day understand that not a day goes by that i am so thankful for you, your life and the honor of being your parent.  there are some days that i am tired, that i am short on patience or i am not fully present, i apologize for that, this does not mean that i  love you any less. i really try to enjoy and savor each moment with you. it is one of your brothers lessons, that life is really short and that we can not take it for granted. we must live each moment to the fullest. by doing this, i am the best mama that i can be and i honor both you and your older brother.

you have settled into school and our new routine. you are thriving in the montessori environment and are soaking up every bit of your time there. next week we will attend the "children teach parent" night and i can not wait to see what you teach us.

your vocabulary expands daily. it is so much fun to see what words you discover each day. this week you started saying "pappous". this makes your grandfather very happy and you take such delight in saying that word. sometimes you break out in song,"pappous, pappous, pappous."

you have started eating at the dining room table. this please you and makes you feel very grown up. however, getting you to actually eat remains a daily challenge. your dad and i continue to spend many hours reading to you. if you are not outside, you prefer to be reading. your favorite books are the richard scary books which i attribute to your burgeoning vocabulary. you are particularly fond of the fox and raccoon in these books.

as you rapidly approach two, your will seems to strengthen. you can be very hard headed. in your defense, you come by it naturally. i do not know anyone who is more hard headed than your father and i. this has proved to create the ultimate battle of wills. at this stage of the game i can usually distract you and you forget what you were so focused on. i imagine that this will not work for ever and it is a little unfair. i am sure you catch on soon to my parental trick.

thankfully, my trickery does not have to be employed often. most of the time you are such a joy to be around. you warm my heart, make me laugh, make me proud, keep me in a constant state of amazement and we have a grand time spending time together.

i love you so much.

xoxo
mama