Letter to Ellie

A woman on a blog that I read wrote a post about being the mother of a daughter, and expressed her hopes and dreams for their life together. I thought it was an awesome idea and decided to write a letter of my own. Here are a few of my hopes and dreams for my life as half of a mother-daughter duo. Some of these are thoughts borrowed from that mom, and some are my own. All are deeply and truly felt with all my heart.

Dear Ells,


I want you to know that I am constantly trying so hard to be a good mom to you. I am so happy to have the opportunity to teach you new things (now and in the future) like how to use the potty, swim, tie your shoes, ride a two-wheeled bike, read, write your name, and write stories. I love that you ask me to kiss all your booboos and demand I give you an ice pack and/or band-aid for ALL of them. Though I never want for you to be sick, I want you to know that when you are I will sit with you and stroke your forehead and serve you ginger ale and soup and crackers. I will help you sell whatever crazy things you have to sell for your school fundraisers, even though I hate those kinds of things. I know that it is important for you to contribute to the greater good of whatever the organization is, and I respect that and want to teach you the importance of being a team player as well. I will help you create (or choose from the internet - let's be honest, here) awesome Halloween costumes. I will hug you tight and wipe your tears when you get your heart broken for the first time. I will come to all your games (or your band performances or your plays or your recitals or whatever else you like to do) and I will cheer you so loud that it embarrasses you, at least until you tell me to stop. I will help you with your homework. I will help you shop for school clothes. I will take you to look at colleges and try to help you make the best decision about where to go. Or if you decide that college isn’t exactly the right thing for you, I will try to help you figure out what is the right thing. I will call you at 9:08 PM every September 7 to wish you happy birthday and remind you how much you changed my life in so many wonderful ways. I will never let you pay for a meal. I will always give you gas money when you leave our house to go back to wherever you live. I will stock your refrigerator with groceries every time I visit. If you get married one day, I will help you plan whatever wedding you want. And if you have children one day, I will be there when they are born and will smother them with grandma goodness. I will stay and help you as long as you want me to, or if you don’t want me to, I will bite my tongue and go home.

But even more important than all of those tangible things I will do, I want you know that I will always be there for you, sweet girl. I will encourage you always to be yourself, to love yourself, to love your body, to love your life. I will encourage you to try things even though they are hard. I will encourage you to fail spectacularly at things, and I will be there to help you back up, but only if you want me to. I will encourage  you to dream and create and laugh and love, and to do all of those things with wild abandon.

I will be there for you, my angelface, as long as I am able, for your whole lifetime.

Love you so much,
Momma.