Here's to hoping...

Up entirely too early on a Sunday morning. Practice? I guess.

Tony is at a work meeting, I was his alarm clock.

I got looped in to a Huffington Post loop, read a lot of parent articles. Got me thinking about the hopes I have for lil Peanut. Right now my main hope is that I don't have to get up in the middle of this to throw up....here's hoping.

My precious child, this is for you.

1. I hope you're healthy. Above all, this is most important- above gender, weight, hair color, attitude, temperament, whatever- please just be healthy.

2, I hope you're happy. I want you to have the most amazing life. I know we didn't plan this out, we don't have any savings, and we don't have much to our names. We do have love and we do have happiness. I hope you love your life just as much as we love ours!

3. I hope you don't cry a lot. Is that wrong to say? I mean, it's the truth. If you do cry a lot, I mean, I can handle it. I'm just hoping out loud. Nothing wrong with that, right?

4. I'm hoping your daddy brings home breakfast. This really has nothing to do with you, I just really want a chicken biscuit with cheese from mcdonald's. Don't worry, he's already been text-ed.

5. I hope you appreciate time to yourself. As a child, I could entertain myself for HOURS. All I needed was something to occupy my hands. I didn't need a computer, iPad, or even tv (although I did love me some Sesame Street). Your daddy was the same way. Make sure you ask him about the things he did with aluminum foil one of these days.

6, I hope you're not a brat. I had a tendency to get a little bratty. I know if you're a girl, I'll expect some brattyness- comes with the territory. I just want you to be nice and polite, especially to others. You will get so much more out of life by being kind than by anything else. I will raise you with that value.

Well, I just puked. That was fun...at least there was no rice in it this time.

7. I hope you like me. Well, it's the truth. I've always said I was going to be a "cool mom," but as I enter motherhood, I have to really evaluate what that entails.  I want to be your best friend, but I want you to respect me as your authority. I don't want you to fear me, but I want you to respect me. I want you to know you can come to me with ANYTHING without fear of judgment. I want you to know if you do wrong, there are consequences. I want you to know if you do right, there are rewards. Those rewards won't always be monetary, but they will be rich.

8. I want you to have fun! I want to do all the fun things I did as a child, and SO much more! I want to take you to the beach, water parks, museums, plays, playgrounds, hiking, sailing, flying, anything and everything! I know daddy and I will have to work very hard, but we will take out the time to give you a stellar childhood.

9. I want you to be curious. Ask questions! Learn! Grow! Anything you want to know, I'm here. If I don't know, I'm sure google does. You'll never know if you don't ask, so please do! I want you to be so full of knowledge, you're talking in your sleep (which your mama, grandmama and great-grandmama do, so I'll be ready!). 

10. Above all, I want you to love me. I already love you SO MUCH, and you're already loved by so many others! You've got the most amazing support system you could imagine waiting for you on the other side. Take your time in there, grow big (but not too big, you gotta get out of there somehow) and strong. We'll all be ready and waiting for you out here. Just go ahead and start loving me now, okay?