Dear Madison,
Today marks four fabulous years of you. The time has gone quickly, but to me you’ve
seemed like a four year old for a while now.
This past year with you was, as usual, an entertaining experience. Let me tell you a little bit about you.
I can’t remember when exactly it happened, but the
princess bug bit you and your sister and you care for little else. The two of you pretend to be princesses. You are always Belle and Reagan is always
Aurora. You love Belle’s yellow dress
and her princess hair. You watch Beauty
and the Beast often and have every single song and speck of dialogue
memorized. Incidentally, so do I. We often end up singing one of the random
songs together or reenacting one of the scenes from the movie. You wear either dresses or skirts all the
time, though you claim to also love blue jeans.
By the way, you and your singing!! Maddie, you sing through all your waking
hours. When Reagan is at school, you are
left at home to play by yourself and I frequently hear amusing ballads floating
up to me from the playroom. One of my
favorite was: “I love God the most, but I also love cookies.” You sing about eating lunch. You sing about coloring a picture. You sing about pajamas. You sing about Hunter. It’s mostly original compositions with a few snippets
of Belle thrown in for fun. I love your
songs. It makes me think your heart must
be happy, because your songs are so lighthearted and joyful.
We started your third year with a little baby in Mom’s
tummy. You were mildly interested, but
it was a pretty out-of-sight happening so it really didn’t overwhelm you. And then about a week before Christmas, you
came to the hospital to meet your new brother.
I will never ever ever as long as I live forget the looks on your faces
as you and Reagan came in the door, each clinging to one of Daddy’s hands, and
stepped close to my hospital bed to see the new little guy in our family. The smile that overtook your face was
absolutely radiant. Over the next few
weeks, you slowly warmed up to little Hunter.
And Maddie, can I just tell you that you are the most wonderful big
sister to him. You are so kind, and
thoughtful, and caring, and patient. You
love to sing to him (of course you do) and you absolutely INSIST that he sit by
you in his bouncy seat at lunch and supper.
You call him “buddy” or “boy” all the time. So much so that I’m not entirely sure you
remember his name. And he adores
you. The smiles he gives you are so soft
and sweet and endearing. You know when
he smiles at you like that that he loves you.
Yes, with a big sister and a little brother, you have
lots of sibling happenings. You and
Reagan love to play together and you are such good friends. It’s not perfect, of course. There are squabbles and fights and
disagreements and hurt feelings and tears.
But you really do love one another and are very thoughtful of each other.
Even though you are sweet and fun, you are absolutely no
pushover. You have a stubborn will above
and beyond what I expected from you. We
were having a really hard time finishing up all the potty training. Finally we decided to just back off and see
what would happen. And you pretty much
did the rest yourself. You love your
independence.
We did “tot school” together this year. You know all your letters and can write your
name. You LOVE tot school and are almost
always a little put out when we are done.
You also go to Coffee Break (Little Lambs) and Sunday School (Kids of
the Kingdom) once a week and seem to like that too. You are a little reluctant to go at first
because you don’t want me to leave you, but you always have a big smile when I
pick you up. You are also an impressive
artist. What you can do with watercolors
is pretty cool. You also color in the
lines (have for quite some time) to the point where I sometimes have trouble
figuring out if you or Reagan colored a picture (and she’s a good colorer
too). We are nearly drowning in your
masterpieces by now.
You and I, we spend every single day together. There has not been one single day of your
life where we haven’t been together.
When I was at the hospital with Hunter, you came to see me each day. But the last day you didn’t visit because I
was coming home that night. Grandma said
that sometimes you would just stop and cry a little bit because you missed
Mommy. And I missed you. We butt heads sometimes, but really we enjoy
each other’s company so much. I pray it
will always be at least a little like this.
Before you were born, I worried that I wouldn’t love you
enough. I worried that Reagan had maybe
taken up such a big place in my heart that there wouldn’t be enough room for
you. But in four years, you and I have
bonded very strongly. And I absolutely
adore you. Over and over again you have
been such a joyful and peaceful presence in my life. You are so often calm when I am not. Often at lunch you pray for me and thank God
that I take care of you. You give
wonderful tight hugs at night and tell me you love me. And though I think you are very smart for
your age, you are also wonderfully vibrant and warm and kind.
I have loved my four years with you. I pray for so many more. And I just know, Maddie girl, that you are
going to bless others. I know that you
are going to calmly walk into a room and slowly warm it with your smile and
your silliness and your joy. It’s so
easy to be around you because you are so joyful. I love that about you. I hope and pray that light spirit always
stays with you – because I know Who gave it to you. He gave you to me and I am immeasurably
blessed.
Happy Birthday sweet Maddie Grace. I love you so.
Love,
Mommy
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