letter to claire bear...

Dear Claire bear...

my eyes are adjusting to your long legs and arms. your body is growing and i steal glances at you and i sometimes don’t recognize you.

my little girl,  you play with your fairies for long spans of times, completely engrossed and i hear your little imagination creating...

that is the thing you bring to this house the most these days. creating worlds. and scenes. and stories. and story lines. i have to address you as “sleeping beauty” and  “meg the dog” and  “ lainey” and “ baby claire bear” and “gigi” and “fancy nancy” all in one day. it is hard not to giggle when i am disciplining you and your little bright eyes look into mine and you correct whatever name you want to be called in that moment. 

and that is how you are living ...in moments. you come alive when i give suggestions. when i make a dog house for you, or sit down and come up with a new creative twist to your make believe. 

and you have been so sweet. you look after your sister with such compassion, you care that she is not left out. you always want to make her feel better. 

i love your thoughts, suggestions and expressions. i love telling you something we are going to do or go...how you exclaim. we walked into planet discovery and  you said to me as you walked up 4 flights of staires..”mom, this is awesome”. 

i love how you use “looks like”. oh this song looks like that song. i look like peter rabbit when he doesn’t listen to his mommy. oh that food looks like the food we had that other time...

 you are a delight. a pure delight. and the only time that you feel “little” to me is when we are 5 inches from each other’s faces and i look at your adorable face. your cheeks and big eyes. for some reason you feel like a toddler when you are that close. i sometimes can’t stop kissing you, and you know that. i loved this morning where you kept kissing me and saying “bahibik”. arabic for i love you. it was so perfect coming for your little mouth. 

our conversations move from Jonah, to barney, to your friends, to family to make believe and it all feels so perfect coming from your little chubby three year old body. i want to savor every moment.