Dear Nathalie,

I realized YESTERDAY that it was the day your letter was due… and I was busy, this is good practice in delayed gratification.  One WHOLE day late.

Anyway, to be direct, I was also perplexed as to what I would write. I have not SEEN many changes or advances in the past month and I was beginning to have a concern… but Mummy and Grandfather saved your sorry ass  little reputation when in a text communication between the two, Mummy shared that you have finally showed a connection between a sound and an action.  Your first official meaningful sound is….drumroll please…..

“TA DA!!!”

Your Mummy and Daddy were playing with Legos (I am hoping you were involved in this play but Mummy always liked building things as a child) and apparantly upon completion of a project they must have made this exclamation of “Ta Da!” –  hence you are now replicating the action and the exclamation.  Grandfather was witness to this when he dropped you off at home today.  Grandfather is very proud.

Grandfather is also convinced that you are quite the smarty pants.  He is easily swayed.  I asked him if he could provide some evidence of this “smarty pants” behavior and at first he came up with things that you mimicked him doing. Mmmmhmmm baby stuff.  Obviously I have higher standards in what I consider to be smarty pants-esque.  Again  your little reputation was spared (a bit) when he shared that you have learned that certain surfaces are not conducive to sliding while you were pushing the tiny garbage can, that I keep next to our bed, across the floor – it would not slide when the flooring was not tile.  So, you quickly evaluated the situation and would pick it up and move it to the next tiled surface.  Perhaps this is a show of intelligence, however; I will reserve judgement until you begin speaking in full sentences.  (Also, Grandfather did not use the words conducive or evaluated in the retelling of this story but I am confident that by the time you read these letters that you will fully comprehend what those words mean)

Oh, okay… I give… You are a smarty pants. I am feeling all superior today because I completed some tasks at work today…budget proposal, finalized a presentation for Saturday.  (Neither of which I did on my own…pardon me while I step down off of my high horse)

Moving on… photos this month are not what they should be, I made the mistaking of trusting that my phone was still backing them up to the cloud the ONE TIME that I did not check before deleting them from my phone and now ALL OF MY PHOTOS FROM THIS MONTH ARE GONE!!!

I had to make due with photos that Mummy sent to me via text and knew I would like because in one of them, you are wearing the new pajamas I bought for you.  In another you are wearing the outfit Mrs. Shelley bought for you (and BUNNY SLIPPERS!) and in the other one you are BRUSHING YOUR TEETH…GranDawn is all about the dental hygiene.  Also, in that same photo with the toothbrush, you SOOOOOO have your Mummy’s feet.

I love you beyond measure NattyBug,

Don’t pay any attention to my snarky earlier self… you are awesome.

Love, GranDawn