Baby Love Letters: Part II

Q: What is my favorite memory of a summer day?To try and whittle favorite summer memories down to one is nearly impossible. I've had fun lazy summers with Aunties and Uncles, travel filled ones- in which I visited 9 countries in 6 weeks, or been on road trips, summers with births, summers with bikes, I've even had wasted summers (which don't particularly make it in the running), but I think my favorite summer memory is a fairly recent one, four years ago to be exact. The summer I was pregnant with you.

Since your father was deploying soon he received his pre-deployment leave in June of '04, with nearly everybody else in the Battalion traveling home for their leave we spent many glorious days without seeing anybody but each other. We went snorkeling, miniature golfing, to movies, on walks...but most days we spent at home playing cards, I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life, or been that euphorically happy. I'm glad that in a small way you were able to know me then, to hear that laugh...the laugh your father gave me.

Though this memory is not specific, where I can write in on paper to share. My heart can still at times catch that feeling I had during those days, as if my heart had wings and could never come down. Unable to stop smiling. How different my smiles feel now.

I love spending summers with you, eating melon, going on picnic's, hearing you squealing with delight when some water makes its way to you on a hot afternoon. I hope each summer will become more memorable for you, not so much what is done, but the happiness shared. And I hope that you will one day experience a summer as rapturously blissful as the last one I shared with your dad.