Pieces from The Mighty

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Dear Birthday Princesses

Today we celebrated two very special birthdays! Delphine turning 5 and Alice Ruth turning 1! We are so very blessed with these two little miracles, and our hearts are so full!




Dear Delphine,

I can’t believe that you are already 5 years old.The years are truly flying by.  It seems like just yesterday you were born extremely early at 1 pound, 12 ounces. There were so many unknowns on the day you were born, but if I had known then what I know now, I would have not have cried as many tears or lost nearly as much sleep as I did worrying about you and your future. You are bright, beautiful, spunky, bossy, full of energy, smart, inquisitive,funny, perfect, and you have so much love in your heart.You are a Mimi’s and Papa’s girl for sure. You love to be in the kitchen with Mimi and run errands with her. Papa makes time to play with you every single night after dinner without fail- which I am certain is your favorite time of the day! You had a wonderful start to the year 2017 as Aunt Jessica joined our family! Your Uncle Bobo and Aunt Jessica got married and they chose you to be their flower girl! You did an amazing job!  The highlight of your year was most certainly our trip to Disney World! You enjoyed every single minute of our week there. Your favorites: the princesses, the rides, and the food! You love to be outside running, swinging, sliding, and playing in the sand and your Molly-doodle is always at your side! You have such a love for books, and it makes my heart so happy! You will just sit and listen to as many books as we will read to you!  You love to shop, especially at Target! Your favorite toys are Barbies, Shopkins, puzzles, My Little Ponies, and kitchen stuff. Your favorite doll is Baby Molly (Bitty Baby) and you love to carry her everywhere we go! You amaze us everyday with your imagination!  You don’t have imaginary friends, you have 4 imaginary “children” that go with us everywhere- even to Disney World! At our layover in Minneapolis, we had to stop in the middle of the airport and wait for your “children” as you were becoming hysterical that they were unable to keep up with us and falling too far behind! You are in homeschool preschool this year and we do school together 3 mornings a week. You love school and are doing really well at it! Last year right around your birthday you announced that you wanted to be called your “real” name- Delphine! Although it was a difficult switch for us all to make, I love that you want to be called Delphine because as I look at you I can see and feel the strength and connection between you and your namesake. This past year has been quite the adjustment, as you still have so many obstacles that we are trying to overcome due to your extremely premature birth. I know that you don’t understand why you have to make your eyes work together and why you have a “cutie mark” on your chest or why it is so important that you don’t get sick. I know you can’t possibly comprehend at this point in your life what chronic lung disease is or means- although you try! I know you get frustrated when we have to work on the correct way to pronounce letters and words and I know it is truly hard for you.  However, even with all of these obstacles that this year has brought, you have continued to flourish. You have accomplished so much this year! You now say your “f” sound correctly, something we had to work on day after day, week after week, month after month for over a year. You also mastered the left- right-left-right pattern- which was an obstacle for you from the ROP you had as a baby. Once you could cross over and do the left, right, left, you were finally able to ride a bike!  You might not always like having to do “eye games” and it might take bribery, but we are trucking through, and  I am so very proud of you. I look at you and know how incredibly lucky we are that you are here with us, and that the obstacles you are facing could be so much worse. My beautiful and perfect Delphine, we are truly blessed beyond measure with how healthy you are! You are our beautiful little miracle! You have had so many prayer warriors praying for you since the day you were born, and you are so very loved!

I love you so much! Happy Birthday Princess!





Dear Alice Ruth,

I can’t believe it has been a whole year since you were born. I always thought that after Delphine, that you were going to be my “laid  back child”, but you have proved me wrong! We should have known you would be high maintenance when you crashed your sister’s birthday! When you were born, we called you our “big baby” because you weighed a whole 5 pounds! Compared to your older brother and sister, who were each born at just over a pound, you really were a big baby to us! We now call you our little teapot because you are short and stout!  You are a mama’s girl through and through, and although at times (like when I desperately just want a long, hot shower) it can be frustrating, I will admit that I love that you are such a mama’s girl. You and your sister have such a special bond, and it just seems to be getting stronger as you get older. Your little face lights up as soon as your sister walks into the room. You seem to love everything about her….right down to her big girl, choking hazard toys! You bring so much joy to our lives, even when you are crabby (which honestly, is  a lot of the time).  You are so full of love and slobbery kisses!You are a sweet little nursing baby and I will forever treasure the time we spend together while you nurse. You are a lover of food and your favorite foods are: chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and donuts! You are our child who truly hates sleep! If you nap it is a power nap and you are always up at the crack of dawn! Although 4 am is pretty early for me, I enjoy our alone time each morning. We sit in “baby jail” together and play toys. You love Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and because our household is all about Moana, you love Moana, the movie and the music! It is the cutest thing to see you dance when the music starts to play!  You love to sing Pat a Cake, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and I’m a Little Teapot! Your favorite toys are the Fisher Price Princess castle, and babies (dolls). You absolutely love babies, and as we go down the toy aisles at Target and you see a baby you make sure to yell ba ba! You don’t ride in a stroller like your sister, you are what we call our Tula Baby! You love it and start to dance and bounce around when I pull out the Tula and we have a nice long walk at Target!  No matter how tired I have been, I have loved every minute of our year together! You are adorable, perfect, strong willed and full of orneriness!

Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl!