Dear Emmylou,

Today you turn 29 months old and I certainly wasn't going to miss writing to you since this is your last letter from me before your brother gets here! While I'm so excited for him to come and I can't wait to watch your reaction when you meet him for the very first time, I can't say that I'm not also a little sad that our relationship is bound to change in some way. Will you be angry at me or jealous of him? Happy and helpful? Probably a little (or a lot) of each. All I can tell you is that I couldn't love you more than I do right now and I'll never love you any less, so we'll just have to see how it goes and take it one day at a time. A new adventure for all of us!

I think in the last letter I wrote to you I talked about how my major role in life was to act as your translator. Well, that's much less necessary these days. Yes, you have a few speech issues (you still don't say any 'k"'s or "g"'s) but the sentences you put together are so well-worded and complex that most people can understand you in context. I am constantly amazed at the difference in your language over the past few months! You are into telling stories and making up songs and your imagination is starting to run wild. This morning you were pretending that a dinosaur was coming to get you so we snuggled and hid under the blanket until it went away.

Your favorite book this past month has been "Goodnight Lulu." You've almost memorized the entire thing! Lulu is a chicken and you think it's hilarious that you guys have the same name. You point to her and say "That's me!" As far as TV shows go, you're still onto Max and Ruby and The Wonder Pets. Awesome, because I can never get enough of those.

This past month you've been really into taking bubble baths, which always seem to lead to a rousing game of "Naked Baby." After your bath (and also usually before), you love to run around the house naked, you and Daddy singing "Naked Baby!" over and over. You both think it's hilarious while I'm a little worried that we might have a future nudist on our hands.

You still love to play hide and seek and your friends are really important to you right now. You always talk about Tripp, Ellie and Sofia and you tell me that you miss them when you haven't seen them in a day or two. We just finished our music classes with Ellie and Tripp yesterday and next week is your last Spanish class with all three of them. Then it'll be time to start at your new school and fortunately, they're all going to be in your class, too!

I am so happy that this month you've finally gotten over your aversion to having your picture taken. I swear, for awhile now you've acted like I am committing child abuse whenever I try to snap a photo of you. Well, it's quite the opposite now. Somehow you've gotten over it and you ask to have your picture taken all the time. You'll even say something like, "I look so cute! Take my picture, please!" Last night Em was over here and saw this change in you for herself. She asked you if you wanted to be on TV or in movies and a huge smile came across your face and you said "Yes, please!" Yikes... No child stars in this family, please.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I've tried really hard this summer to do lots of things with you since it was the last of our time together by ourselves. Yes, you're a little wild and crazy sometimes and it's been hard keeping up, but I've enjoyed every minute and will never forget what fun and love you brought me these past two years.

Please don't hate me when this baby comes.

I love you, Lulu!

Mommy

The *superstar*



In the bubbles and bath...







Naked baby likes to climb into bed and pretend she's asleep (complete with snoring sound effects)...

[honk]



[shhhhh]