Dear Addison,
I’m a little late in writing your 3.5 year letter, but one is certainly needed as you have taken three and a half by storm. You are like a little whirlwind of energy, cuteness, determination, and spunk. You are caught in the battle between a fierce desire for independence and a need to be babied, and the winner of that battle is always on your terms. One minute you are taking off the shoes I just put on your feet because you wanted to put them on yourself. In the next breath, you are asking to be carried down the stairs. I’ll ask you to put away your towel, and you’ll politely say “Yes, M’am” while scampering away to hang it up. A minute later, you’ll yell, “No! Mommy do it!” when I ask you to put away a puzzle. You are definitely a stubborn soul like your sister Nina.
Although you seem to be growing taller every day, you still have a cute, sweet baby nature to you. I hope you change classrooms at preschool before you start pronouncing your teacher Julianne’s name correctly. I just smile ear to ear when I hear you say, “Miss Joo-wee-ann” each day. It will break my heart the first time you pronounce that ‘l’.
The older you get, the more you play and interact with your sisters.
You and Nina especially have a lot of fun together. I’m never sure what I’m going to wake up to in the mornings. Sometimes you race in my room showing off your green fingernails or blue toenails courtesy of Nina. Other days, I’ll hear your distinctive, “I not your best friend!!” yelled down the hallway after your two stubborn personalities clash.
Elise mothers you a lot, reading you stories, helping you brush your teeth, or getting you dressed in the mornings.
You love to ride your balance bike, go on family bike rides, do puzzles, and look at books. Your favorite book right now is “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake.” There is a part where the cat dons a swimsuit, and you howl with laughter every time we get to that page. You’ll race away with the book to show whoever is around “some-fing funny.”
You are a little sponge, soaking up the world around you which means you ask questions non-stop. Reading a book to you takes at least three times longer than it should because every turn of a page results in, “Mommy, I have a "kestion". What that girl’s name? Why that boy wearing a red shirt? Why that girl riding a bicycle? What that man's name? Why that boy not with his mommy?” It definitely takes a high degree of patience to get all the way through a book with you. I spend more time answering “kestions” than reading words on the page.
I'm pretty sure we could set our clocks by your biorhythms. You wake up promptly at 7:00 every morning, yelling, "Mommy! Can I get out of bed?" You are the alarm clock in the house. At 6:30 every evening, one of two things happens. Either (a) you come to us, rubbing your eyes, saying, "I wanna go to bed." or (b) you get completely wired and out of control because we didn't get you in bed promptly at 6:30. It is like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight, but you are Addison at 6:30. We have to have you home and in bed or the chaos begins.
As hard-headed and difficult as you can be with your tantrums and demands, at the end of the day, you are still my sweet little baby. Your "running hugs" and your snuggles with a sleepy head on my shoulder are my favorite parts of the day. I know I won't have those much longer, so it makes each one all the more precious.
Happy "free and a half" Addie! I love you!
Love,
Mama
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