Dear Nathan (25 months old)

Dear Nathan,

Well, we made it through your 2nd birthday.  I think you enjoyed your train birthday party.  It was so much fun putting the whole thing together.

What are you up to these days?  Well, you love playing with my tablet.  You have several games on it that you love to play.  I never see you concentrate as much as you do when you play with that thing!  You are obsessed with Thomas the Train and Dinosaur Train on TV.  Luckily, they are both available on Netflix, so you can watch them whenever you want.  We do try to limit your screen time, though.  It's important to play with other things too.  You got a lot of trains for your birthday, so you've been having fun with those.

You went to the fair for the first time ever this month.  You loved the carousel and the bear ride.  You didn't want to leave the petting zoo area.  I can't wait until you are old enough to ride the "big rides" with me and your dad.  It will be a blast!

You are talking more and more.  We love seeing what you will say next.  That's all for now.  I'll leave you with this picture of you playing with my tablet.

All my love,

Mommy

An unexpected change

Motherhood changes a woman in so many ways.  Your body changes, your priorities change, even the way you want to spend your time changes.  I can't count how many ways I've changed in the last two years, mostly for the better, in my opinion.

But something happened recently that was very unexpected.  A change I didn't anticipate.

When I was 13 years old, I dyed my hair for the first time.  It was a magical moment!  I was no longer limited to the sandy brown (or dirty blonde, depending on who you were talking to) hair I was born with - I could be anything I wanted!  I started with a gorgeous golden blonde, moved toward platinum for awhile, then experimented with several other colors, including red and black.  Some were pretty, some were striking, but they were all interesting and fun and new.  And after all, it was just hair.  It would fade or grow out if I didn't like it.

For several years, I had settled into a pattern of going red in the fall, and then moving more toward a medium blonde shade in spring and summer.  Recently, it was time to go red again.  But when I stood in the hair color aisle, my toddler in the shopping cart seat, I looked at all the boxes of fun hair color, then back at my sweet boy's sandy brown hair and decided not to do it.

You see, my natural hair color matches his.  It's something I've always been surprised and happy about.  His dad has very dark brown hair, so we assumed he would follow suit.  Imagine my shock when he ended up looking more like me.  And I want to keep it that way, at least for awhile.  I put back the box of red and tousled his beautiful sandy brown locks.  I may get something to cover the two silver strands that popped up recently right above my forehead, but I don't think I'll be drastically changing the color anytime soon.  Because right now, we match.  :)

Dear Nicholas (Third Trimester)

Dear Nicholas,

Hi there, little guy!  It's your mommy.  I know I haven't done these for you like I did for your brother before he was born and I'm sorry.  Blame him - he is keeping me very busy these days!  But know that I love you both and am very excited to meet you!

You are 28 weeks along right now.  That's the beginning of the last trimester of pregnancy.  You move around a lot now, especially after I've had something to eat or drink.  You're not getting the hiccups all the time like your brother did - thank you for that!  ;)  Pregnancy is a very different experience each time - I've heard this my entire life, but never realized quite what it meant until I got pregnant with you.  Even the process of getting pregnant was different, as we had to get some medical intervention to make it happen.  But we wanted you, and we were willing to do whatever we had to do to make sure we could have you.  When you get here, we will feel like our family is complete.  And that's something very special.

Let's see... what will you want to know later?  People always ask about cravings during pregnancy.  I have had a few very specific cravings with you - nothing strange, just really specific.  Like the day I really wanted ice cream.  It had to be vanilla with hot fudge sauce.  And about once a week, pasta is the word of the day.  Toward the beginning of the pregnancy, about three mornings a week I wanted a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant from Burger King.  The drive-through lady got to know me pretty well!  Now, I pretty much just want to eat everything anyone mentions.  So a coworker said "cheesecake" earlier today and now I really want some cheesecake!  It's a very interesting thing.

You like music, or at least you seem to.  I love to sing along to the radio or my iPod in the car and at work, and you really become active when I do that.  And the other night, when I was singing to big brother before bed and he started singing along, you liked that too.   You react to the dogs barking too - don't worry, they are not scary and you will love them.  Nathan already enjoys playing fetch with them and I know you will too.  I'm guessing each of you will develop a relationship with one of the dogs, so that one will become "yours."  Nathan seems to be really close to Kaylee right now, but we will see what happens after you get here.

We are looking forward to meeting you!  For now, just stay safe in there and keep growing.

All My Love,

Mommy