Dear AOI,
Today {11-01} I feel like writing you a letter.
As I write this letter you’re playing with your farm animals, happily eating a biscuit with dark chocolate on top. I look at you and daydream about the moment you will meet your little brother in more or less than a week from now. You will not be the only child to share my and daddy’s attention. You will have someone to play with when you need to have a second child in the house.
Still I worry a little, I don’t know how you’ll take it but I’m also reassured by your independence and determination to help yourself that you are going to be just fine. You’ve never shown the need to take your mother away from any child I may show some sympathy to.
I hope you will understand that daddy and I are always here for you. We might have two children to dedicate our attention to but we’ll make sure we reserve time for each child for a special bonding time.
Lately your creativity is blooming. You talk and invent stories non-stop. I can sit for hours in the basement observing you move your farm animals from the wooden board island daddy built for you and the blue plastic castle while narrating the events your farm animals are going through. Most of these stories are an amalgamation of many books we read together. Other stories are you own creation. For instance the other day you told the story of an hungry dragon who wanted to eat so you advised your farm animals to go hide on the island.
I feel you are going to be such a protective big sister.
I really hope your love for reading, letters and words will just keep blossoming. Every time we read a book you pretend you are reading it too. For pretend I mean, you recite what I or daddy just read by heart and if you don’t remember word for word you paraphrase the stories. You like it when I sing out some of the stories to you. You look up at me and your big brown eyes drink the words I sing. That makes me one proud mummy.
However, I have to be careful about what I read because you want to know the titles of each book I hold in my hand.
According to your imagination I’m octopus, you’re crocodile and daddy is a bear/frog/dolphin. Sometimes daddy tries to correct your way of imagining us saying it not right, but that upsets me because he’s using his adult interpretation of the word and the world around us for your beautiful childhood imagination.
Today {14-01} we took you to the swimming pool and then had a pizza at our favourite bakery shop – you love their pizzas, and so do we. This could be our last date as family of three.
Baby could be here any day now and I can’t wait to capture the first days with you and your little brother.
