Letters to Braden

Here is a letter I wrote to Braden on February 18, 2006, when he was only 19 days old, inside of me.The baby book I purchased for him while I was pregnant has a space in it for the Mommy, and one for the Daddy, to write a letter to the baby. When I saw that, I decided to fill it in when Braden was one year old. Thinking about that made me decide to write him a letter like that every year on his birthday, save them, and give them all to him one day. (Maybe when he turns 18… or when he has his own baby. Not sure yet.)

Sitting down to this project just recently, in its first incarnation, I’ve realized what a task I’ve taken upon myself. Wow. A whole year. In ONE letter. Heh.

So. Okay. I’m not going to give up on the yearly letter idea. But I am going to take a lesson from The Great One. My freakin’ awesome friend, Sarah, has already decided to adopt Dooce’s habit of writing a letter to the offspring once a month, and I think I’ll follow suite.

The idea is that it’ll make my yearly letters easier. (Not only is the yearly letter a LONG task, but the Mommy Brain has started to forget some things, even as dear and close to my heart as they are. Don’t want that to happen. Monthly Mommy Brain work-outs are a good thing.)So, there you go. I think I’ll finish writing that One Year letter to Braden. After that, I’ll start monthly ones.

EDIT, July 4, 2008:  I’m wondering now if this is considered theft of Dooce‘s original idea?  I never intended that.   If anything, I hope they pay her homage.  I respect and admire her, and I have bowed to her both here, and on my blogroll (she’s on my “Inspired By” section).  But after recent internet events, I’m wondering, “Is that enough?”

I certainly do not want to step on her toes.  I even e-mailed her back in the day, telling her I was thinking of doing this.  Her sheer volume of e-mails may mean that e-mail was lost in the mix, or maybe she was annoyed, but not enough to respond.  Or maybe, she’s okay with it?  Hell, that “Anonymous” commenter down there might even be her.  I did send her a link, afterall. 

(Shut up and let me pretend that Dooce visited my blog!)

Anyway, I’m just second-guessing whether I should continue to publish his updates publicly.