I promise...

Dear Baby,

I promise to be the best mama that I can possibly be.  I know that I will make mistakes and fumble along the way, but I promise to always try my best.

I promise to let you fall and to not always catch you.  I promise to let you learn how to do things yourself, but to always be there to help pull you back up.

I promise to spoil you with love, time and attention, but never with gifts or money.  I want you to learn the value of love over the manipulation of money.

I promise to make you do house chores and not pay you to do them.  I want you learn that being apart of a family and taking care of our home is something that you have to do because you are apart of the family, not something you do to earn an allowance.

I promise to teach you everything I know.

I promise to let you do things for yourself and won't fly in and try to do them for you.  I want you to be independent and confident in your actions and decisions.

I promise to listen more than I talk.

I promise to always follow my heart while raising you instead of what others tell me I should be doing.  I may not always be the most conventional mama, but know that my heart is always the guiding force behind my actions and my reasoning.

I promise to encourage your love of nature in any and every way that I possibly can.  I want nothing more than you to love being outside as much as your daddy and I do.

I promise to keep my relationship with your Daddy strong.  We will undoubtedly love you more than anything else in the world, but your Daddy and I will never let our love for you stop our love for each other.

I promise to make sure that school and education is a priority for you.  I want you to learn to the best of your ability and I won't accept anything less.

I promise to take an interest in the things that you love, learning about them and supporting you as you do them.

I promise to be honest with you.

Above all else I promise to love you, through your faults, your quirks, your emotions and your life.  I promise to tell you how much I love you everyday.  I promise to make my actions reflect how much I love you.

I promise to always be your Mama.