ROAR!

Dear Sonia,

What does a bear say?

According to you, a bear makes the cutest little growling noise ever!

Can't wait to see it instead of only hear it!

Love you,

Auntie K

Missing You

Hey there girly,

You just got back from your first trip to the mountains. The real mountains - in Colorado. Vail, no less. La-ti-dah.

And Nana and Papa went with you. So cool!

It's been only 4 and a half weeks since I saw you last and I already miss you a lot. And I won't see you again until the middle of April! Two more months! After seeing you so much at the end of 2008, this is quite a surprise to my system. I wasn't anticipating missing you so much. But I do. I want to see you learn something new. I want to know every day what you did new. And I don't get to.

But, I know that even if you lived in Boston or in New Jersey, I still wouldn't see you every day or even every week, so is it really that different? Maybe not.

In the meantime, we have Skype. Thank god it's not 1982, right?

Love you,

Auntie K

What You Know

Your mom sent along an excerpt from the journal she keeps about you. I was so amazed, I had to post some of it here.

"These are the phrases that you totally understand:
Turn the page
Turn out the lights
Where is bear?
Where is sheepy?
Where is kitty (rudy) either one you know
Where is puppy (simba) "
Where is daddy/mommy
Go get a book
Want to dance?
Where is your giraffe? And you will pick it out among other animals. (also will do the horse sometimes too!)
Where is the car, house, tree, puppy. You will pick out the right one most of the time. Your foam book pieces.
Let me kiss your toes/fingers.
Where are mommy's eyes (you look at my eyes)
Want some milk?
Want to eat?
Bathtime!
Rub noses!
Give mommy/daddy/whoever a kiss.
Go give (blank) a kiss
Head butt
Where are the kids? ( you will go find the magnets on the fridge with pictures of kids on them)
NO!
Dirty
Where is the music?
Come here please.
Let's go!
Want to read?
Want to walk?
Let's go for a walk.
Outside.
Where is the light? (you will look up at it)
go get your sock."

Wow, little girl. That's a lot of info for someone who isn't even 10 months old yet. Nice job. And in other news, when you Skyped with me two nights ago, I saw your hair has taken a turn for the better. It's starting to even out and look like it belongs to a little kid instead of a baby! Congrats on that!

Love,

Auntie K

Obama-mania

Look what I made of us! There is this iconic poster created by Shephard Fairey for the Obama campaign of a stylized Obama (like this) with HOPE underneath.

I made this one of us for you!

Love,

Auntie K

Teeny Tiny Genius

Dear Sonia,

You went for your 9-month check up this week. You are barely breaking the 50 percentile in height and weight. You little pipsqueak.

But, cognitively, you're performing well above age level.

So, the kids might call you shrimp, but you can come up with 10 more clever words than that to call them back!

Love you,

Auntie Karen

Hi Girly!

Hello my niece,

I'm just writing to say hello and tell you I'm thinking about you. You "called" this morning on Skype and we had a little chat. It was nice to see you. And I'll see you for real on Friday. Yay!

I want you to know that the world is a good place and the people in it are good too. I really believe that, and I live my life with that in the forefront. Occasionally, someone might do something or say something that makes you think otherwise, but the point is that if you are a truth-teller and honest and good, those other people don't matter as much.

Your Nana used to tell me that no matter what I did, that if I could get up in the morning, look in the mirror and like what I saw, everything was okay. I have often repeated that to myself over the years. And I can. Every morning when I look in the mirror, I like what I see. So if you just grow up with that in mind, you can't go wrong.

You are so blessed to have wonderful, kind-hearted parents who love you but who also love each other. That will make it easier for you to be a pure girl. That's one of the reasons that it was easy (and is easy) for me to be.

I love you!

Auntie K

Confusing for a little baby

Dear Sonia,

For Christmas, I got a camera for my computer, so you can see me when we Skype.

We used it for the first time last night.

You were very confused. You looked at your mom, and back at the screen. You refused to laugh or smile at anything I said or did. (Granted, you had a mouthful of avocado and yogurt at the time.)

You looked back at your mom, reached out to grab her, ostensibly to make sure she, at least, was real.

You finally giggled when I made my oinking/snort noise at you.

We'll get the hang of it!

Love,

Auntie K