Dear Reese,
It’s MorMor’s birthday today. I pick you up early from daycare so we can go to the celebration at Hatch for her with Cappi, Beth, and Jim. Cappi brings over pizza from Pizza Bros for dinner. I pull off the noodles on our mac & cheese pizza for you to eat.
For MorMor’s birthday, I wrote a children’s story for her to read to you and Kai called MorMor’s Fjord. In it I made you a knight with a sword and Kai a ranger with a bow. You go on an adventure of peril and heroism seeking MorMor’s ultimate reward. It was a hoot to write, and I drew poor illustrations to go with it — a project for when you’ve been sleeping this past week. Maybe you can illustrate stories for me some day, darling. I’d write a whole library of adventures for you.
Jim reminds me before we leave that daylight savings is this weekend and recommends trying to put you to bed a little earlier so it isn’t so jarring when we spring ahead an hour on Sunday. Your bedtime of 7:30 will suddenly be 8:30 in a few days. We aim for 7:15 tonight and get pretty close. Tomorrow I’ll try for 7. The real trick will be seeing if I can put myself to bed any earlier.
During your bedtime routine, I always brush your hair and then brush your teeth. It’s imitation rather than hygiene at this point. There’s no toothpaste involved. Tonight I give the toothbrush and you try it out yourself. I try to get you to brush your hair by yourself first, but you also want to put that brush in your mouth, so we move on.
I pick from our pile of library books for a bedtime story and cry, unexpectedly, when I read you Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper. Real tears break my voice and you look at me, confused. I cuddle you tight. I’ve never read that story before. It should come with a warning for cat parents. I pick out another book, Girls on the Rise by Amanda Gorman, so we don’t end on my tears.
We end on Goonight Moon, as always, and I sing Barges to you as I turn off the light.
Love,
Mama