love letters

Dear Bug,

I love your chubby cheeks and belly and bummy.  I love your love for snakes and sharks and dinosaurs and bugs and more snakes.  I love your independence yet complete dependence:  getting your own sunny delight off the top shelf in the fridge (however you managed it) and lugging it all the way down the steep stairs to tell me you need a cup.  I love that you know the difference between the noises a girl cow makes and a boy cow.  I love that you have a fascination with toucans, kangaroos, and boa constrictor snakes.  I love that you let Jane Jane scare you when she says "ROOOOAAAR!"  I love that you have a sound for every animal there is: rhinos and parrots included.  I love your horse sound most of all, right down to the whiny.  It's my favorite when you put your little chubster hands softly on my cheeks and say "I missed you mom."  .... Even when I haven't been gone at all.  I love that you can work an Iphone as good as the rest of 'em. And when a call or a text comes in you say "op, mom you gotta do sompthin' a minute", hand me the phone, and then try to patiently wait until it's your turn with the phone again.  I love your appetite and that you out-eat the whole Burnside family put together.  Your dimples melt me.  Your super hearty laugh makes my insides sing.  I love that you would play "come and kiss me" all day if I could keep up.  I love how you tell me to be nice to you, you're just a little boy when I put you in time out.  I love when you sing the ABCs and count to twenty, often skipping certain letters and numbers, while repeating others several times.  I love your eyelashes.  I love that you love stories, and that any traditional story is better to you when the main character is substituted with a snake of some kind.  I love your opinions.  Most of them.  I love that you think monster trucks and motorcycles are cool.  I do too, because of you.  I love that you are one of my favorite people to hang out with.  I love that you can entertain yourself as well as any 2 year old I know.  I love that you can entertain the rest of us that well, too.  I love when you sneak into the roomy full size bed with dad and I ...and then start to take over by switching the direction we sleep, refusing to let anyone have blankets because you don't ever like them and then asking at 3 a.m. if we can watch a movie.  Okay, maybe I don't love that part.  But I do love you.  I love loving you.  And I love that you love me.

Be mine FOREVER Buggy Bear. -- Mom.

Louska Lou,

You are so beautiful to me.  I know I'm your mom and I'm supposed to think that but you are beautiful from the inside out.  You were blessed with a loving heart and I can't think of anything more beautiful than that.  You have one. I love that you love books and would like to read them all day long.  I love when you back your little body up and then plop into my lap.  I love your smile.  I love it.  I love when I'm driving and I can look over my right shoulder and can be guaranteed the happiest 8-toothed grin I ever knew.  I love that you have your Grandpa wrapped around your delicate little fingers.  I love how you love gum. I love that your ribbet and your quack are more authentic than if a frog or a duck gave them to me.  I love your pint-sized everything.  I love that you would take a tub all day long.  I think you get that from me.  I love your fearless mind at the bouncy slides and on the rocking horse and anything and everything you climb on.  Speaking of climbing,  I love that you climb into your high chair and just sit there as if to say "feed me" every time you get hungry.  I love your squeezies.  I love love love your squeezies.  I love your open mouthed kisses.  I love your dancing body.  I love that 75% of the time you can be found in some closet hanging out.  I love your love for all things soft, and especially your blankets.  I love that you can out-eat the whole Burnside family and George put together.  I love your love for George.  I love watching you watch your favorite animal show.  I love the way you point to everything.  I love the way you dive into the arms of the people you love.  I love when we hold fingers-- all five of yours and two of mine.  I love when our faces are close and you mimic whatever I do: blowing and blinking and kiss kiss kissing.  I love when you sleep.  You look so angelic.  I can't believe you are mine.  But please, be mine always.  And sleep tight perfect angel. 

Love,  Mom.

SB,

I love you a googleplex's googleplex.  Please refer to your handwritten letter as to why.

Love, LJ.