Letters to Daddy

When my daughter, Kira, was born, I felt that I needed to do something special to help me mark her journey of growing up. At that time I wasn't much into photo albums or scrapbooks. I just couldn't see me trying to take pictures every day and then being able to recall what each picture was.

Kira was my husband's first child, so I decided to mark her first year in a way that would be special to both of them. Kira began writing letters to her Daddy. (Yes, I was the one writing, but the letters were from Kira and her perspective - or what I perceived her perspective to be.)

Now, Kira did not write letters every single day. On the days when something special happenned, she would write a letter to Daddy to tell him about her day. I did not tell Randall at first that I would be doing this. I just bought the special notebook and started writing. The first letter was written on the day that Daddy went back to work. When he came home that night, I handed him the notebook and told him to read. He was a bit perplexed but within minutes he was sitting on the sofa with teary eyes because Kira told him just how much she missed him while he was away.

This new notebook became special for everybody in the family. Randall's mother enjoyed reading Kira's letters. Randall looked forward to reading the letters. I would never tell him when new letters were written. He just made it part of his day to pick up the notebook and see if there was a new entry. Sometimes we talked about the letters and sometimes we didn't. I enjoyed writing them because it had become such a special treat for Randall.

Soon I will start reading Kira's letters to her. I know she will enjoy hearing about the adventures of her first year of life.

I didn't continue after the first year - and admittedly failed to complete the first year for Marisa - but when the girls are old enough to start writing (or dictating) letters then we'll begin writing letters to Daddy again. That is actually going to be part of our homeschooling lessons.

Letters don't have to be written to Daddy. They can be written to Mommy or Grandma or whomever plays an integral role in your child's life.