Dear Molly

Dear Molly,

I am so thankful for you and what a wonderful and sweet girl you are.  You are truly a blessing and I treasure each day I get to spend being your mom.  I thank God every day that he has trusted me to raise you and your sister.  I hope I am doing a good enough job so that one day you will grow up and love Jesus and make wise decisions and be a happy, normal individual who loves her life.

I wanted to write you a letter to tell you all about your life so far and make sure you knew how blessed we have been to have you around. 

Most days you are the happiest, most easy going, playful baby around.  You like to spend time on the floor attempting to crawl, but you are also happy to be held.  You get lots of good hugs and kisses from Isabelle during the day and sometimes (like today) she even tries to just lay on top of you to see you closer.  You are still nursing every 3 1/2 to four hours during the day, but go 10 hours at night without eating.  During the day you also take at least three naps ranging from 1/2 an hour to three hours.  You tried rice cereal for the first time recently and hated it, so we haven't really started on solid food yet.  I am going to try bananas and avocado next.  Overall, you just go with the flow.  I know I am lucky and I try not to brag, but you have been this easy since the day we brought you home from the hospital.  As soon as the doctor told me you were big enough, I stopped waking you up to feed you and let you sleep!  You slept through the night before you were even two months old!  You hardly ever cry, don't have near the amount of blow out diapers your sister had, and laugh all the time.  Your laugh is the cutest thing EVER, and sometimes I keep tickling you over and over just to keep hearing you laugh.

Our days home together are pretty ordinary.  We spend time with sister, watch a little Yo Gabba Gabba, play outside, go for walks, take our naps, dance and sing lots of songs.  I try and keep the house clean, while you and your sister try to mess it up and we are all happy when Dad gets home and we can all spend some time together.  Already you love it when Dad gets home and you flash him a BIG smile when he comes in the door.  We run errands sometimes and you almost always fall asleep in your car seat while Isabelle screams in hers.  I hope you don't pick up that bad habit.

I sometimes think back to that first week in the hospital and how scared I was at first when you were having so much trouble.  I think about how that was probably the first time in my life that I had to really trust God.  Like really trust Him.  I have always trusted God to take care of our family, but in a pretty general sense.  When you were in the hospital there was nothing I could do to make you better and that was a pretty rare and horrible feeling.  Not having any control is not the easiest thing for me and in that situation I definitely had no control.  I  know how blessed we were to have only spent a week in the NICU and to bring you home healthy and without any lingering side effects.  I know there were babies much more sick than you and I know some babies stayed for months and I still pray for their mommies and daddies because I can't imagine how hard it must be.

You are a pretty great five month old baby!  I love you more than words could ever say.  I love the way you smell, the way you smile, the way you are just you.  I am excited to watch you grow up and see how your personality develops.  I am pretty confident you will be more relaxed than your sister, but who knows.  I hope the two of you are best friends forever like I am with Aunt Buh-Buh.  More than anything I want you to love Jesus, love your family and love your life.

 I love you, Molly.

Mom