I know I have really been awful with posting since we decided to move. It has been hard for me to find the time between moving and then finishing school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC and then graduating-YIPPEE and then moving and then starting Rachels Wellness but here we go. So much has happened. I owe a birthday letter for Max and now almost one for sammy but Thanksgiving was great and lots of fun. It was hard to be away from my family-the first time in almost 10 years but luckily my great husband was there to tell me it was ok to be upset. Sometimes for a tough “do it myself” and “I can handle it on my own” type of girl..I need to hear that it is ok to ket go and cry and just go with the flow..so once he let me know that it was ok..I felt good and enjoyed the day and saw all the blessings around me. So here is a picture of my little guy and his momma who adores him.

I have to say it is quite funny to have Thanksgiving in the warm weather and be wearing short sleeves and not be cold while up north it was snowing. Max managed to have a gluten free meal even though we ate out because I called ahead and got him a baked potato and veggies steamed. I then found the desserts that had no gluten and he was in heaven. Sammy ate a yogurt I brought and the icing off some cupcake and she was in heaven as well.

The kids played and enjoyed dinner-well they actually did a lot of running around but it was still nice and we had a great time being with family..not my own family but it was still family. At one point Max was break dancing and this guy actually got up from his table and started to break dance with him as well-it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. The kids are growing up so fast. I cannot believe it.

I am very fortunate for all that has been given to me. I always have talked about our food allergies-gluten and wheat intolerance, egg allergies, digestion issues but at the end of the day, I have the happiest and most special kids I have ever met. Max is the sweetest and toughest little kid I know. He has a huge heart. Sammy is on fire. She is talking up a storm and has an agenda all the time and a plan. She is so strong in her desire to enjoy life and live it to the fullest. I am blessed with love from a great husband and two amazing and truly gifted children. It is all grace. I am one lucky girl!

Thank you for all you have given me, whoever you may be up there looking over me! Thank you!

Dearest Sammy,

So much has happened and I have found this past month to be a whirlwind and I feel awful because you have changed so much but please forgive me as I am putting 2 months of birthday letters into one post. We did just move from Philadelphia to Florida and getting everyone settled has been a bigger job that I thought it would be. So much has changed for you-well not your saucy personality but your life here in Boca is full of all good stuff.

You started swim lessons with Sunshine Swimming and Miss Tracey is your teacher. We go to her house 2 or 3 times a week for lessons. You have learned to swim about 3 feet on your own. It has been amazing to watch. You started by first learning to put your head under and grab for the wall with two hands, then swim and now you are un-stoppable. Miss Tracey has you wear little flippers-which let me also say that you REFUSE to take these off and many days you were them around the house the whole day.

You also have started to talk it up. You can say three word sentences and you repeat everything. You love to call yourself Pretty and we this it is adorable. You still have an obsession with shoes and you can even walk in heels-of course your pretend little pink ones and my heels. You love to change your shoes at least 4 times a days and you get very upset if you do not decide which pair to wear for the day…very upset!!

You have created a game called SIT. This game consists of when we stop the car you want to go to your car seat and Max’s car seat and do the buckles and then play around in the car. Now if we do not have time to play SIT-well let the terrible TWO’s show their ugly side because it is bad. You go into a full screaming tantrum and then the minute you can play sit..well it all goes away. You are so strong willed. You actually clench your fists when you get angry and scream, NO!!!! SIT!!! I try and reason but it clearly does not work-but then sometimes I say..look at the bird and all of the sudden SIT is not so important..but this rarely works.

You do love life and I call you my little SPIT FIRE. You are full of spunk. You have so much spirit and so much will inside of that little body. You still love to eat pizza but now I make it at home called cheesy bread with sauce. And yes sauce or Ketchup on everything. I have a found a great gluten free one with agave nectar at whole foods and you love it. So you are eating apples, bananas and basically anything that anyone else is eating..we call you the food swiper!

All of the sudden you LOVE purses and dolls. We can play dress up with your dolls for hours and play with the doll house. Now of of course this does not mean that you have let go with your obsession with your brothers cars but you have expanded your love to dolls and purses now. You still love music and when ANY type of music comes on you break out in dance. You swing your hips back and forth and raise your hands up high. Adorable and yes, you have good moves!

My sweetest-you are sweet and spicy and even though, at times, it is hard to deal with the tantrums..i know deep down in my heart it is because you are so strong willed and I love it. I love that you have such a determined mind already and that you are fearless, which of course can a cause a problem when you are trying to jump off the couch, or jump into the pool by yourself or walk out of the house into the street, or go down the slide head first…these are just a few of the MANY that I could name that happen on a daily basis. I will leave you with this last picture of the two us because YES-your mom is fearless too! Don’t ever stop reaching for the STARS! I love you!

Love,

Mommy

Samantha

It is a miracle..I am only a few days late with your letter but forgive me as we are knee deep in the middle of packing up out house and I do not do well with moving. yes, we are moving from the only house the you have ever lived in since you were born…kind of making me sad now that I think of it. I worked so hard to create that pretty nursery and last weekend we sold your glider and ottoman to a nice pregnant mommy waiting to have a little girl and that made me happy we could pass it on for a fee. LOL. So anyway, about you. You are a pistol. You are hysterical and full of words..some we understand like poop, mommy, daddy, max, dog, esther, up, more that, yum, wow wow wubzy, help, wet, hot, shoes, nite, nite, hair, teeth, the part of your body, apple, water, cup, top and other and then there is a whole language that you speak that i understand but the words I do not know but I hear you. It is so cute and you have full conversations with yourself, the pretend phones, and anybody listening and of course your babies that you sleep with in your bed.

So one thing I call is the “escape artist” because not matter where we are you seem to escape-it can be playgrounds, people’s houses, whole foods, stores but you seem to escape and never look back. People always tell me that you will look back but you don’t..not because you don’t love me I think it is because you are so secure with how loved you are that there is no need to look back and of course that you want to leave and in your mind it is time to leave. You do crack me up. I literally have to run after you and scoop you up and then try to figure out how to occupy you so you don’t escape again or at least for another 5 minutes.

You have a sassy part and you and I know where you get that but I can also say that you dad has that too but I know you and I are so much a like. I see so much of you in myself already. I see the fire in you and the way that it has to be your way. The way that I pick out your shoes but then you reuse to wear them because you want to pick them out yourself…I did the same thing when I was your age. Luckily you like the clothes I pick for you or we would have issues..you just have a shoe thing and cell phones and remotes. You love your silver shoes and your puma sneakers…luckily target makes a lot of good shoes because I have a feeling we will need to keep you occupied with choices and luckily you have small feet so we won’t have to buy them too often.

You are a great sister. You adore your brother and you love to just squeeze him..so much that sometimes you get him upset. He watches out for you and I know he will always protect you. You had your first blood test this month. It was awful. I am sure I would have pushed it off as I did with your bothers but since we are moving I figured why not do it now and get it over with. You were a champ and i was so proud of you. They took 4 viles of blood. You screamed blood murder and sweated bullets but your survived and I had a cold bottle waiting for you. Yes bottles. You are officially switched over to Lactaid Milk and finally for the first time since I breast fed you-you are pooping normally. It is amazing and I know your little Gi system is getting better because that formula was horrible for you. You still love pizza and now you enjoy eating chicken with pizza sauce on it-you crack me up-anything with pizza sauce.

You are full of life my dear. You are a strong willed little girl and you are my love. I am so lucky to be your mom. You have taught me so much about myself already and I love watching you navigate through the world on a daily basis. You have no fears. You are the kid at the playground doing thing that kids twice your age are scared to do. Never look back and keep looking forward because your momma will always be there to chase after you. I love you Sammy Jane!

Sealed with all my love,

Mommy

Dear Sammy,

I am so overdue on this letter but better late than never. Wow-this has been a tough month for you. Let me see-first an ER trip with a 105.5 temp to the Southern Ocean County Hospital, then a case of Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease, then a yeast infection and then  spider bite that landed us in Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia but you are fine, tired but fine. I have to say that despite being sick-especially the high fever, (which scared your mom and dad so much), you were still your wild free loving self. And let me also say that the drive to the ER from Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island was 45 minutes and it was the longest drive for me EVER. I was so scared but you were fine and you are good now.

I have also come to learn that my mom says we are exactly alike in personality. I did know this when I saw how independent you are…I just had that feeling that the “apple did not fall too far from the tree”.

You are talking so much. You call all dogs ESTHER because our dog is named Esther. You now say MOMMY and I love it. It warms my heart. You also say NO constantly and Bad. OH Geez. You love to say no and move your finger back and forth like I do-I swear little girl-you will cause me to gray early. You have a fire that cannot be squashed and a  personality that is louder than life.

You love your babies, strollers, cell phones, bags and most of all SHOES! You want to sleep in your shoes and wear them all of the time It is so funny. You hate getting your hair brushed, but love putting lotion on yourself and by the way-you even enjoy eating shea butter..you are so funny. You love to brush your teeth and splash in the water. You love to read books and dance on them too. You love to dance and sing.

You still love PIZZA more than any other food. We also call you swiper because you like to eat anything that anyone else is eating. It is hysterical. You prefer to eat with your fist, hands, fingers…you love to dip and you would bathe in marinara sauce if you were allowed..you love sweets too..anything that is candy and you beg for Omega DHA balls daily.

You love Max & Ruby, Curious George and Shrek. You enjoy TV but you really love to play. You love anything that has animals as one of your favorite movies is about a cat and dog, Milo & Otis. You basically love life. Your Dad and I always joke that your brother wants to create the party but you want to be the party. I love you so much. I love your zest for life and the fire inside of you. I love that you refuse to sit in a cart and that I cannot food shop with you because you have to walk. You are teaching me so much about how to tame a wild and beautiful little girl. Don’t change ever but understand that life does have rules. I love you little one!

Dearest Little Girl,

So when people ask my how old you are-I say “18 months going on 30!” You are hysterical ands so full of personality. You are very independent..almost to the pint where you will walk off and not look back. There are so many times where I have to tell your brother to stay while I run after you and you never look back except at the end of your walk and then you laugh. You love to laugh -strong belly laughs too. You have been cutting 4 teeth this month and not feeling your best. It is so sad to watch you in pain-I actually gave you tylenol the past few days which rarely happens. You went to the doctor and you are now over 20 pounds and 30 inches. You are eating and that is so good. I know you are small in size but you look big…I am sure it is that huge personality.

You are now in love with eating pizza. You walk up to the fridge and say UP and the you point at the whole foods fresh pizza and I break you off a piece and you eat. You love eating pizza even at 6:30 in the morning. The doctor says even if you eat is all day..it is fine as long as your are enjoying eating. I have notices that you like eating anything anyone else is eating..like the other day when you ate onions-yes raw onions in my salad. You also will not sit down in a high chair or on a chair-you like to stand and there are some things that I have learned to let go. I would rather you eat then force you to be upset and hysterical-so I let this one go. I went trough this with Max and he sits now..so I am sure you will sit too.

You love horses. We went to the Devon Horse Show the other day and you screamed and screamed NAY NAY! It was adorable. We also go and look at the horses down the street at least 3 times a week. You love them so much..actually you love all animals. You are now saying Nay nay, moo, cat, dog and your monkey noises are great. Basically, you just crack me up. Everybody says you are adorable and you are.

You hair is at the point where we can do pig tails or some type of top pony tail because if we don’t then you can’t see…your curls almost look like shirley temple. It is all very cute. I know I am going to have so much fun with your hair and of course since I have curly hair know how to condition all your beautiful curls. You are such a beautiful girl.

Now on to your shoes obsession. I did not know that you would be so much like a girl but you are. You LOVE shoes-you actually refuse to take them off because you love wearing them so much. I just bought you a new pair of Keens for the beach and when we move to Florida. They are pink-they are adorable and you love them.  Shannon-your babysitter also bought you a cute pair of shoes at Target-white and $6 and You LOVE them. You also love to go into my closet and wear my shoes, Max’s shoes and your Dad’s shoes..it is endless.

Well my little one-you are adorable and you are so much fun to be around. It has been a true honor to be your mom and I dream about how close we will be in our life together as mother and daughter. Don’t stop every looking up or pushing the boundaries because this makes you the tough and sweet girl that you are-I have said that from the moment you were born. I adore you.

Love,

Momma (which is what you call me!)