Monday, April 23, 2007

Love

Dear daughter,

Words are completely inadequate to capture you. Joy doesn't fully describe how you bound into a room and make everyone fall in love with you. Passion doesn't convey the range of your emotions - one minute you are hugging and kissing with all the strength you can muster while another you are shoving an older brother with such force you send him across a room.

Beauty is a weak set of six letters next to you. You are beyond beautiful on the inside and stunningly so on the outside. People touch your hair in wondrous awe. People smile as you say "Nice to meet cha, ma'am." They marvel at your deep, blue eyes and clear pale skin. You are a Botticelli cherub personified.

You love food. Since you were a baby you have eaten more than your older twin brothers, combined. You used to sing to your food. Now you just take charge of your hunger. There are times when I find you, sitting on the kitchen floor eating chicken nuggets from the freezer because I am not moving fast enough. Yet even at almost three years old you have the patience to bake, to wait for each ingredient and to find something to do while the cookies are in the oven.

Generally that something involves music. You cannot help yourself. You dance. You sing. You make up songs. I've watched you going down the stairs as if you are Gabriella from High School Musical singing that ridiculously emotive song when she thinks she's jilted. Much to the delight of more than a few people at church you get up on the Great Hall stage and throw your arms out wide as you offer another song. And you will actually get up from a plate of food to dance. The look on your face when you first heard The Blind Boys of Alabama's version of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground was one of awe. You were incredulous that anything could sound this amazing. So you danced.

Sometimes I get to be your dance partner. Other times you order me to clap as your audience. Whatever my role, it is an honor to be your mom.

Now you are three years old.

Happy Birthday, Love.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

awwww Many Birthday Wishes to your daughter!!! What a beautiful letter!

jodifur said...

Happy B-day! lovely letter.

Anonymous said...

Chills. Total chills running up and down my arms and tickling my scalp after reading this.
Wow. Really wow.
Favorite line: "beauty is a weak set of six letters next to you"
Best image: " And you will actually get up from a plate of food to dance."
She is MY KIND OF KID!
What an incredible letter to your daughter. Happy birthday cherub!

Gunfighter said...

Happy birthday, kid! That's some mom you've got!

Uncle GF

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful post. Happy Birthday to your little girl. Also, I'm your Blog Exchange partner for May! Hia! :)

Ambassador said...

Brilliant...

Happy Birthday to the young lady! I wonder from whom she learned to love life so much! (I'll guess that she gets the dancing from you and food thing from Dad?)

cce said...

Happy Birthday to your little girl.
I've tagged you today, feel free to oblige or ignore. Most importantly enjoy your Botticelli today.

Brillig said...

Ooooh, that's incredibly sweet! I absolutely love this whole letter.

Ron Davison said...

What a post. Your daughter will get such a kick out of it in a decade or two. My daughter is now 20 and my one regret about the time when she was about 3 (and her brother 1), is that I didn't have the ability or sense to more frequently set aside the stress, the fatigue, and the worry and just revel in this. Your letter is proof that you did exactly that - if only for an hour or so. If I were wearing a hat I'd tip it to you.

soccer mom in denial said...

Thanks for all the comments. I've already admitted to a couple of you that even though I thought about it for a few weeks, and worked on it for a week, this love letter still feels inadequate.

I didn't talk about how she talks and her adorable switching of words, how every one is a "she"
(already a feminist!) and how I have yet to lose my patience with her like I do daily with the boys. More about her personality, their ridiculous energy level and my patience (or lack there of) than anything.

Plus, this was the very first birthday of any of my kids that I couldn't take off of work and be with them. It is only day 9 of my new job and we have a big State House event on Wednesday. I wept as I dropped her off this morning.

So that letter was also born of pathetic guilt.

Alex Elliot said...

What a great post! Very moving. Happy birthday to your daughter and happy anniversary to you of being her mom!