Dear Corinne, Love, Daddy

Dear Corinne,


Happy 2nd Birthday Corinne! I cannot believe that you are two years old. Actually, I take that back. I can believe it because you seem so much older every day so it’s really not surprising that you are two because you often seem older to me because of how much you are changing. Your mother has requested that I write you a letter for your birthday. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t want to write you a letter, but I must admit it was not my idea. I don’t really do things like this, so you should feel very special. Plus, I want an excuse if this letter is lame. I suspect that your Mom wants me to write you a letter so that you can read it when you are older and you can learn about what you were like. You Mom is right (as she usually is) because that could be fun for all of us to look back and read a letter I wrote to you on your second birthday. So let’s get this thing going. To best inform you of what you are like as a newly-turned two year-old I will divide this letter into two parts: things about you that I hope never change and things that I hope do change for you.

Let’s start with the things I hope never change about you. I must start with an unoriginal and sappy one, but it’s a good one – your smile and your laugh. Your smile lights up a room and your laugh can make a bad day completely disappear and start over on a good note. Right now, there doesn’t seem to be anything I wouldn’t do to make you smile and laugh and I’m going to need to not be such a sucker for that in the future, but I’ll enjoy it now. Next, I hope you never lose your passion to dance and not care who’s watching. You seem to love music and bouncing to the beat. Now if you could just manage to get your mother’s dancing ability and your father’s ability to just not care if he looks stupid, you’ll be good to go. Along with dancing, I hope your always keep your silliness. It’s hard to tell since you don’t talk much (with actual words anyway – you babble a lot), but you seem to love to play and just be goofy. You actually sound like you’re telling jokes and you laugh at yourself. That’s a great quality and I hope you keep that. You currently have a nice blend of risk-taking and cautiousness at the same time. It’s quite unusual, but fascinating at the same time. When you walk into a room with people you don’t know, you are a bit shy and it takes you time to warm-up and get comfortable. That’s a good thing. But on the other hand, when you are in a familiar and safe place, you can get pretty precarious around couches, beds, stairs, etc. You seem to have no fear at times. Like I said, it’s a great combo and I hope you can maintain that. Your Mom won’t like this, but I hope you never lose your love of animals. You and I both seem to be very keen of just about all animals and enjoy having them around. I grew up with lots of pets and have often found them to be great stress relievers as they often give you something to laugh about. You seem to be the same way and I hope that continues for you. Since I started with a mushy one, I’ll end with one as well. You love to give hugs and I hope that never changes. You are so happy when you give a hug and I can’t do anything but smile and laugh when you do.

Now for the things that I hope do change for you. Right now, you pretty much eat anything you find on the ground – cat food, lint, pieces of pretzel from who knows how long ago, etc. Although tolerable now, much less socially accepted later in life. Secondly, although it’s still very early in the game, your coordination skills could be improved upon. Throwing a ball at a target (or just in a certain direction), catching (timing is way off), kicking, and general balance when running all seem to be in the category of “progressing” rather than “proficient”. Although your mother seems less than confident that you can develop into a softball and basketball player, I maintain faith. Even if you are short (which you will be – let’s take a gander at your growth chart sometime) having superb ball control and a good shot from outside will go a long way on the basketball court. Like I said, it’s still early in the game to be critiquing your coordination, but since I’m listing things that I hope change for you, I have to include this one. Next, not that you do this all too often, but I hope you turn some of your temper tantrums down a couple notches. This might improve when you can communicate well enough with us to tell us what it is that is bothering you. But even when you can, such as when you want to watch Dora the Explorer, yelling “Doro Doro Doro” at us and the TV with tears in your eyes does nobody any good. Next, although your newly obtained skill of counting is quite impressive at this early stage, I’m still less than impressed by your ability to actually apply counting to situations in your life. Right now you just seem to think counting is a song. Counting is not a song. Counting is the foundation of mathematical thinking and the sooner you discover this, the sooner we can shift our focus to more meaningful mathematics.

On a more serious note, you are an amazing little girl and I had loved every minute of watching you grow from a helpless infant to the adorable two-year old you are now. It is hard to believe that it’s been two years since you were born. However, I also recognize that it’s only been two years and if I feel like this now, I can’t imagine how fast it will all seem when you have your 5th, 10th, 15th, and so on birthdays. Although I joked here and there in this letter about things that I hope never change and things that I hope do change, you should know that it’s watching you change that is one of the most fun parts of being your Dad; no matter what those changes are. I love you and that is something that will never change. Happy 2nd birthday, sweetheart.

Love,

Daddy