Letter to Rosie

Dear Rosie,
It has been a long time since I wrote you a letter. Sorry about that! You just turned two and a half and it seems like a good time to write about what you are up to.

You are an independent, energetic kid now, but you still like to know exactly where your people are. This past summer, you loved having Mommy, Mateo, and Natalia around all the time. Since school has started again, you have been doing a lot of wondering out loud about where they are during the day. "Where Mommy?", you will ask, out of the blue. "Where Te Te? Where Tali?" You are happiest when our whole family is together and accounted for.

One of your highest recent priorities has been doing things "BY SELF." You want to go potty by self, try to dress yourself, climb into your car seat, run out in front or dawdle behind the rest of us, and so on. You have always had strong opinions on things!

Speaking of that, you have a lot to say and are getting better and better at telling us what's on your mind. You like to chat with us at all hours of the day and night. When you wake up at night, you call out "Mama, where are you?" When you are hungry, you can tell us that you want food and specify what you want. In addition to basic requests, you are an incredible mimic. You repeat what your parents and siblings say and then make those phrases your own. For example, you learned to repeat "ahhh, coffee!" after me when we get something at the drive-through coffee place. Then, you started saying "ahhh, chocolate! Rosie drink hot chocolate! Ahhh, chocolate!"

Many things you say, especially with your adorable little voice, are just too cute to describe!

You have developed a love of dresses since this past summer. Mommy and I misunderstood you the first time you asked for a fancy dress and thought you were saying "dancey dress," which is what we now call your dresses. You wear a dancey dress nearly every day. If we forget and put you in something else, you remind us that you need a dancey dress ASAP. You are the very image of cuteness as you run around the world in your dancey dresses.

That said, you continue to be our most rough and tumble kid. You go full bore at most things and love to climb, slide, run, jump, and explore. Your expression of the summer was "Mama, I need to RUN!" You went through a phase of sprinting around the side of the house and into our court without warning, which you have now mercifully learned not to do anymore!

You love going to the park and swinging and are equally happy in a baby swing or a big kid swing. We have tried the balance bike with you and you're not quite ready, but we know you will be soon. You are going to be a force of nature once you learn to ride a bike!

In the past few months, you have started to adore books and you love to be read to. You especially love it when your siblings read to you. You just absolutely idolize them and they return your affections (except when you have just destroyed one of their prized creations!).

We all had a really fun summer together and you had a particularly fun time at the family camp we always go to. You were adopted by a pair of pre-teen girls and we hardly saw you that week. You LOVED your friends and kept asking where they were when they would leave you with us for meals and such.

One thing we love about you is how perceptive and compassionate you are. If one of your siblings gets hurt, you will come up and ask "Why Te Te or Tali crying?" and then you will give them a pat or a hug and even ask if they need ice. You are a snuggly little bug with them and with your moms. We love your caring heart and your cuddly little body.

Sadly, you haven't quite absorbed the idea that pets need caring concern, too! You love our new kitty, Iris, with a burning passion that causes you to SHRIEK in delight when you see her, which then causes her to flee, with you in hot pursuit. You have been found pulling the cat's tail and dragging her around by her hind leg. Thank goodness she has a lot of patience with you. We think she may need to get better at hiding, though!

Quick update on eating and sleeping:
You sleep on a big kid twin mattress in your own room now. However, you really don't like sleeping alone and much prefer to have a mom sleep with you after the first time you wake up. For now, we are happy to oblige. You are just so sweet and snuggly (and insistent!) that we can't resist you. And, we are very aware that you are our last baby and we need to soak up this phase of your life before it speeds past us.

You love to eat and will try some new things, but you have established preferences by now. Fruit, milk, yogurt, cheese, pancakes, bagels, pizza, salmon, chicken, and many other things will make you happy. You love to help make things in the kitchen and will remind me that it is "ROSIE TURN" to put in various ingredients. In fact, as our third child, you know about taking turns incredibly well and seem tounderstand about sharing most of the time, even if you don't always want to do it!

You still usually nap, especially now that school has started and the house is quiet during the day. You and I have been enjoying our mornings together, doing both errands and fun stuff for you, and then coming home for quiet time before school pick-ups start.

For now, Mama prefers to call you by your nickname, Rosie, and Mommy and your siblings like to call you Rosa. Luckily, you answer toeither, although you mostly call yourself Rosie. You have several other nicknames, all of which stem from "Roo," which we started calling you as a baby.

Rosie, you are an incredibly beloved part of our family. You make us laugh with your cute antics and you bestow cherished snuggles on all of us. You keep us on our toes with your energy and astound us with your smarts and gorgeous deep brown eyes. We love you with our whole hearts and even more than that!

Till next time,
Mama and Mommy