Letter to Caitlin

My dear Caitlin,

OH MY--how you are just growing and learning and being hilarious and smart and loving. You have survived and thrived despite all that we, as a family, have gone through over the past 2 years. You have rolled with all these punches and I am amazed at the big girl that you are and the big sister that you are. Sometimes I look at you and think about how mature you are--and have to remind myself that you are only four (almost five, but not yet! I'm not quiiiiite ready for you to be five). You take showers by yourself, pick your clothes out and dress yourself every morning, will not accept help with zippers or shoe ties--tonight we went out to dinner and you asked to go to the bathroom by yourself (reader: do not worry, I still walked her in, no one was in there, no one else was in the restaurant either).

You have such a sweet heart. You are so quick to make me feel better if you sense I am sad--hugs, words of encouragement, snuggles, asking me if you can pray for me. You look out for the cats now. You look out for your brother and sister--sometimes too much--you are not quite big enough to pick them up, but that doesn't stop you.

You are such a girly girl. Where did you get that from???? You love sparkles and pink and glitter. You wonder how I can wear gray and black so often since they are "so boring." But at the same time, you do love to play hard! You especially love to rough house with your dad and your brother. Nearly every night after dinner you ask for either a pony ride from your dad...or you ask to wrestle.

You are smart! and fiesty! and hilarious! Tonight you tried to convince me that the music we were listening to (Florence + the Machine) was making you fart. Earlier today, you told Daddy where Russia was on a world map. You probably learned it at school? I love to pick you up from school on your school days--you run up to me and shout "mommy!!" and you are finally starting to tell me more about your day. Speaking of school....kindergarten is approaching. I have no doubt you will absolutely love it. I do dread the day that you are gone while I am home. I have had a profound realization recently that we have a finite number of days together--I am working harder on enjoying these moments with you. That mostly translates into your favorite activity: Art Projects together! You LOVE art of any type. You love to do art together or alone--you love to close yourself into your art room for hours--you make a new project for your dance teacher everyweek (I mostly forget to bring them to your dance class--sorry!). Your current favorite thing is cutting out characters from coloring book pages and then gluing them onto little wooden sticks and using them as puppets.

You are soaking up everything bible-related or Jesus-related--you tell us bible stories. You sing what you call "praise and worship" songs all the time--in the car, on the toilet, at bedtime. You are so excited about our Advent activities. You could not wait to get Christmas decorations and the tree up this year and have been so helpful with getting gifts wrapped and sent out.

We sing a song a church that goes "A thankful heart prepares the way for you, My God." This has really made me think. I've tried to really focus on a spirit of thanksgiving. Everynight when I tuck you into bed, I say 3 things that I'm thankful to God for (the mundane and the grand--the simple and the profound) and then I ask you to do the same. You usually express gratitude for your friends, your teachers, your family. But tonight I challenged you to thank God for 3 things that you've never thanked Him for before. Your response was "hmmmm....I have to think wisely....I'm thankful for my picture frames. I'm thankful for my stuffed animals. I'm thankful for the whole wide world."

Thank you for keeping me grateful and for bringing such a vibrancy to our lives.

Love you,

mom