Letter of Promises

So, insomnia has gotten the better of me, and I have been laying in bed thinking about all the things I want for this baby, and decided to write a letter of promises. I may have forgotten a few key things, or maybe I don't know yet what I don't know...we shall see!

To my little Baby Beer,

Sweet little baby, how much do I look forward to your arrival! I have been feeling tiny movements for about a week, and decided yesterday that they are getting stronger and that it must be you I am feeling! How exciting to feel your little body swim around, while there’s still ample room for backstrokes! I am up bright and early this morning and have been unable to sleep for a few hours, so I am writing to you all the promises I will try to keep while raising you.

First, I will love you and protect you always. I will be the mom who won’t be your best friend, won’t be the “cool mom” who other kids talk about when “everyone else is doing it,” but I’ll be that responsible parent who you (and your friends) can trust, depend on, and always come home to; that will insist on meeting all your friends, their parents, and ask you a million questions before I send you off on outings and dates. I’m sorry baby, but you won’t be one of those doing “it” whatever the latest “it-thing” to do is. I promise to give you time-old clichés like, “if all your friends are going to jump off a cliff, would you do it too?” and you’ll give me smart-allick remarks like, “if they’re cliff diving, yes.” And beneath my frustration, I’ll smile and think, this kid’s smarter than me at 10 years old.

Because you will be born in West Texas, I promise to take lots of embarrassing pictures of you doing West Texas things - I’m sure that includes prairie dogs, cowboy hats, cows, belt buckles, oil rigs, and tumbleweeds, but along with that will be fun stuff like blue bonnet picnics, sunsets, and football games. I promise you your Daddy and your Uncle Clinton will buy you more Texas Tech gear than you can stand, but I promise I will keep you looking even better in Longhorn gear, and teach you the proper way to salute the only college football team worth watching :) I promise to keep you “real” without getting you all the latest and greatest gadgets and toys - you‘ll probably end up liking the boxes they‘d come in better anyway. You’ll grow up with sweet, hopefully by then trained, dogs, lots of fresh air, dirt and trees, healthy food, playing one sport at a time should you choose to, and limited TV and computer time. If you want a new gadget, I promise we’ll make you wait until Christmas or your birthday, or we’ll assign all the chores you need to earn enough money to buy it yourself.

As much as you might like or dislike it, I promise to know all your teachers and be a familiar face in your school. As a former teacher, I promise to teach you how to read, write, use scissors and not eat glue before the other kids in your classes - yes, you might be labeled the “smart kid” but with your Daddy’s good looks, you’ll also be the “cute kid.” I also promise to keep your doctor Daddy from diagnosing you with all the strange illnesses he’s learning about, but if he says you’re healthy enough to go to school, you probably should. I also promise you will meet and get to know as many relatives as possible so you won't feel awkward at family reunions. Your grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are all incredibley good people who you will learn a lot from, and I promise they will at some point make you laugh, cry, and feed you entirely too much. I also promise to keep as many family traditions as possible, like celebrating Advent, eating homemade pizza as Christmas dinner, and getting to miss a day of school every year for one-on-one mom time. And finally, my last promise to you is to try my hardest to give you a happy, healthy childhood so you will be a happy, healthy, self-sufficient, independent adult, and I promise I will always be there as a safe place you can come back to anytime you need a soft place to land.

Sweet baby, I can’t wait to feel your bigger, stronger movements, punches, and kicks as you grow and grow, and I am so excited to meet you!
Love you always,
Mommy