Dear Emeline,

You are my sunshine! You are such a good kid. Really. It is so wonderful to watch you study the world, to see how you’re learning how everything works, or doesn’t work.

As many already know you said “Mama” at 7 months and 11 days. It just melts my heart when you speak. You know, real words! Two days later you said “Papa”. And let me tell you this; Your dad is almost impossible to get any sense of when he’s tired. He’s completely in a daze and speaks nonsense, and he’s also grumpy if I wake him up before the alarm clock goes off, but the other day you said “Papa” really early in the morning, and he just rolled over and said: “YES?!” Haha, should have had that on tape.

Yesterday I’m pretty sure you said “Pippi”, too, but no one was around to confirm it, and you didn’t want to repeat it. I’m trying to teach you to say “Aurora” or “Rora”, but I guess that’s a bit difficult. I also think you say “Hi!” sometimes when we greet you, but then again, I used to joke that you said “hello” at 5 months cause it sounded like that. You do try to wave though

You’ve now got three teeth and you’re able to really take a bite at us! I sometimes forget that you have teeth, and let you gnaw on my finger, ouch! When I tell you that it hurts you examine my face and I can see you’re really wondering what I’m saying. So cute.

When you were just a few months old I started asking you how tall you were, and replied with: “Thiiiiis taaall!” stretching your arms over your head. You always laughed, but for some reason I hadn’t done it for a month or two, so when I suddenly started again, you thought it was hilarious. And while I was at my parents house a week ago I noticed that you kept stretching your arms up to your forehead with your palms facing away from you. I thought it was a bit strange and asked my mom what she thought it was. You did it a couple more times until I understood, and said: “Oh, you’re soooo tall!” And you smiled your biggest smile and laughed. How adorable isn’t that?

It’s hard to grasp that you one day will be grown up. Hell, it’s even hard to believe that you’ll start kindergarten in a few months. I just want to stay in this moment for a little bit longer. Sometimes while you’re playing with your toys, I just hug you for such a long time that you start complaining. And I let go and just smell your skin, kiss your cheek and watch you play again.

Yes, you are my sunshine. My precious little girl.

Love,
Mama.

Dear Emeline,

I love you, I love you, I love you!

I just can’t get enough of you. You are such a wonderful little baby. You are the coolest kid around. You are nothing short of amazing!

This month you finally learned how to turn from your back to your tummy, and to crawl backwards, and this could’ve been the month that you learned to crawl forwards too, but well, I guess you’ll need a couple more days You are so strong-willed, and your dad and I has said this from the day you were born. We were afraid, well, and still are, that you’ll be a lot to handle when you grow up, but the upside is that you don’t give up when you’ve set your mind to it. Somehow you manage to drag yourself towards whatever you have decided that you want to check out. And therefor it’s now hopeless to take an action shot of you, unless said action is you trying to grab the camera.

One thing you love is when people clap their hands. You are trying to do the same, only you keep one of your hands in a fist, so it won’t make the proper sound and you keep looking at your hands wondering what you’re doing wrong. Adorable! It seems like you find your hands curious. Whenever you have time, you look at your hands and move your fingers. I can’t do anything but smile. I love that I’m able to see how you’re thinking and wondering about things that we take for granted.

At 6 months and 23 days old you got your first tooth. I was hoping that they’d stay hidden for a couple more months, but what can you do? We are now brushing your teeth in the evenings after you’ve had your meal. I thought you were going to give us a fight about that, but you don’t seem to mind at all.

And while visiting your grandparents, aunt and uncle in Germany you were just wonderful. Everybody was hovering around you just to look at you, and they were praising you ALL the time! Your mom thought it was a little too much, but you didn’t seem to mind

So, 7 months has passed since that cold, cold December morning when you came into this strange world, and you are giving every day a greater meaning just being you

Love always,
Mom.