Is it possible, little one, that there will come a time when you don’t know how special you are?  Your open mouth, your tightly curled fingers, your little body snuggled up against me.  Here, while you sleep in my arms, is a perfect moment.  I wouldn’t change a thing.  I love to feel your soft breath and see your eyelids flutter while you sleep.  My sweet baby.  I am awed and grateful to have been given the responsibility of being your mother.  When you are awake, you embrace life so thoroughly — running, laughing, cuddling, smiling, demanding what you need.  And as you sleep, you are so content.  You are such a happy child, and so comfortable and confident in who you are.

Life is hard sometimes, though.  There will be days where you make mistakes, do or say the wrong thing.  You might feel embarrassed, or silly, or foolish, because you don’t know the right answer or you can’t do something you wish you could do.  It might be something you’ve never done before, or something you’ve been working at for a very long time.  You might be the only one who can’t do it or who doesn’t know.  You know what?  It’s completely ok not to know.  There is absolutely nothing we are born knowing.  Everyone is always learning, always growing, all the time, every single day.  (And even if you feel like the slowest or the last to accomplish something, someone else is probably being impressed by you right at that moment.)

Yet even at those low moments, where you feel alone, or you feel like you don’t measure up, you will always be you.  And you are wonderful.  (I know it, because I see you.)  You aren’t meant to always “get it right”.  You are supposed to make mistakes, and struggle, because that’s how you grow and learn and change.  It won’t always make sense, but it is no reflection on the amazing miracle that you are.

You are perfect, just as you are.  Struggles, failures, self-doubt and all.  My perfect child.  Always.