A Letter for My Baby

In this digital age of parenting, there is nothing more precious than putting pen to paper. Or in the case of uber-talented illustrator Samantha Hahn, paintbrush to paper. Her latest project, focused on motherhood, is combination of both: her paintbrush in A Mother is a Story, a collection of heartfelt, hand-lettered quotes and illustrations about about the mom experience, and your pen in Stories for My Child: A Mother’s Memory Journal, a beautiful pregnancy and baby journal.

Inspired by her own pregnancy with her second baby Vivian (she also has a 6-year-old son Henry), Samantha’s carefully curated quotes resonate with a mother new or old. And the companion journal is the kind of keepsake you’ll be thankful you invested in so many years from now. It even has an envelope to enclose a letter for your little one to take with them when they fly the coop — a million years from now, new mama, we promise.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, we asked this Brooklyn mama of two (Henry, 6, and Vivian, 18 months) to put fill out a page in her own journal. Here’s her sweet message to her own quickly growing babe.

To Vivian at 18 months.

Dear Vivi,

You amaze and delight me every day. You now call yourself “Wibi” and do the funniest dancing I’ve ever seen. You are feisty, strong-willed and affectionate. You go down the slide with aplomb and call the swings “wheeee.” Your very first full sentence was “where’s the doggie?” I love picking you up from daycare and walking home together. You insist on walking. We look at the birds and dogs and now at the blossoming trees and even the “moon” if it’s visible in the blue sky. You have such a sense of wonder.

It’s a privilege to be your mother. Truthfully, I’m struggling with how quickly you are growing up. You’re my little baby girl and I remember swaddling you and nursing you in the depths of night. Now you wake at 5AM and I take you out of your crib for an hour long cuddle that fills my heart with the greatest joy. When I smell you and feel the softness of your skin and the warmth of your body I bottle it against the days I both dread and feverishly work toward, when you need me in your heart but are strong enough to stand apart.

Buy A Mother is a Story and Stories for My Child: A Mother’s Memory Journal here.

Photo of Samantha and family (on homepage) by Nick Steever.

Styled journal photo by Randi Brookman.