Sharing Is Caring

Dear Lila,

You had your class birthday party today and we celebrated with your classmates by sharing pizza, cupcakes and homemade candy cane sugar cookies with them and reading your special book about you, "The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name." The best part of the party for me, though, was seeing you take such good care of DiDi. You shared your chair with him and dutifully fed him pizza, cupcakes and juice without Daddy or I even asking you to do so. Thank you for always being such a good big sister!

Love,
Mom

Playing With Sprinkles

Dear Lila,

I love watching you play. It's so fascinating to see what imaginary scenarios you create in your mind with your toys . . . or any other objects you turn into playthings. Yesterday, you were helping me decorate your cake for your birthday party (this year's requested theme: Trolls!) and you were standing next to me at the kitchen counter. While I was arranging the Trolls figurines on top of the cake, you took two shorter bottles of sprinkles and made them "walk" up to a taller bottle of sprinkles. You said in a high-pitched voice, "Can you take us to the park?" Then you picked up the taller "mom" sprinkles and said, "Yes. Hold my hand." You walked all three bottles over to several tubes of frosting that were also on the counter and you said those were the cousins and proceeded to act out an afternoon at the park with the sprinkles kids and their frosting cousins. Watching you play that was more entertaining (and cuter!) than anything I've seen on TV!

And here are some party pics. You had so much fun playing in the make-believe town with your buddies!

Love,
Mom

Boyish Charm

Dear Lila,

On our way home from school today, we were talking about what you would like for Christmas. You said you want a princess Barbie and a Ken doll. Well, what you actually said was, "I really, really, really want a boy Barbie." When I asked you why you want a boy Barbie so much, you smiled this cheesy smile and told me, "I want to put the girl Barbie with the boy Barbie and make it look like they're kissing. And then they get married."

Oh dear. And so it starts!

Love,
Mom

A Cut Above

Dear Lila,

You have been able to safely use scissors on your own for a couple years now, so I had no concerns when I left you in your room while you were cutting pictures for your homework to go cook dinner. When I went back to check on you, though, I discovered that you had accidentally cut off a lot of your hair--your bangs had fallen in front of your face and you hadn't noticed that you were cutting them along with the paper. Luckily, you have a lot of hair and the way you cut it isn't even noticeable (I only realized what you had done when I saw all of the strands of hair on your desk).

Then before bedtime, you were cutting more pictures when you decided to lay the paper in your lap and cut it. And that's when you cut two giant slits in your brand-new pajama pants. Ack! Again luckily, you didn't cut your leg but maybe you do need some supervision with the scissors! :-P

Love,
Mom

Basic Black

Dear Lila,

We were walking around the neighborhood this afternoon when you suddenly pulled my arm and said to me, "That was a lot of black people." But no, you weren't being racially insensitive! We had just walked past a funeral home and a large group of people, who were actually Caucasian and all dressed in black for a funeral, were standing outside!

Love,
Mom

Warm Welcome

Dear Lila,

PoiPoi picked you up from school today and I was waiting for you guys in front of our house. When you were halfway down the block, PoiPoi saw me standing on the sidewalk and pointed me out to you. When you saw me, your face lit up, you shouted "Mamaaaaaaa!" and started running toward me. When you reached me, you jumped into my outstretched arms and gave me a big hug.

Best. Feeling. EVER!

Love,
Mom

A Thousand Mommies

Dear Lila,

At dinner tonight, you told me that you want me to have 1,000 baby girls. And I told you, "Hahaha! NO."

Then you said, "How about we have 1,000 mommies?" I made a sad face and asked you, "You want other mommies? You don't want just me?" You replied, "If we had 1,000 mommies, they could take care of the other babies and then you could take care of only me." I asked you, "So you just want me all to yourself?" You smiled the biggest smile, tipped your head to the side and said, "Yes."

Day made :-)

Love,
Mom