A Letter To My Two Year Old

If I could write you a letter now, for you to read when you are grown, I would write this:

Dear Tucker,

You are my very favorite person on earth. There are times I pull my hair when you refuse to lie down in your bed at night, wail for more goldfish crackers after eating half the bag before dinner, or insist on the 9th bedtime story after I have worked all day and just want to relax. But right after I tug on my strands, I smile thinking of your face, or the way you say 'hi mama', and daddy and I begin to gush over the one hundred cute things you said and did in the short hour between me arriving home from work and getting you into bed.

In the 29 months since you were born, I cannot count the number of times I feel like I don't know what I'm doing, wonder what the right response to your demands is, and worry if I'm raising you to be good and kind. I care more at this moment that you grow to be generous, kind, and happy above all other things in the world. Feel free to remind me of this if ever it seems in doubt. Lucky for you, you will probably be our one and only child, so you will get to suffer through our navigation of parenthood and roll your eyes often. The eye roll you will no doubt inherit from me, as my dad used to tell me mine was epic.

The only true regret I have so far are that you wont remember your grandpa, because he was amazing, loved us, and told me how proud of me he was every single day. He would have done the same for you as you grow, and you would have understood very soon that he was the most generous person on the planet. So take his lessons through us, and try to forgive us when we cry or mess up along the way.

Love you,
Mama