Hailee Steinfeld and Josh Allen welcomed their daughter in April. Hailee announced her daughter’s arrival on her Substack, Beau Society, but did not share her name or birthday. Over the past few months, Hailee’s been giving updates on motherhood. In a recent livestream, she shared that she finally understood what parents meant when they talk about how fast time flies after you have kids and wanted to make sure she was fully present as a parent this summer.
Hailee recent posted a love letter addressed to her daughter. It reflected on how what her baby girl has taught her in just a few short months. The letter also finally revealed her daughter’s name: Harper Haize Allen. From People:
On Friday, June 19, the actress penned a heartfelt letter to her infant daughter on her Substack, Beau Society. She began the letter directly addressing her baby girl, Harper Haize Allen.
In Steinfeld’s June 19 letter, she wrote about her amazement at being Harper’s mother. “You’ve been here for only a short while now, and somehow it feels as though you’ve always been ours,” she wrote. “There are moments (like right now, as you sleep so soundly on my chest), I still look at you and wonder how you’re real. These last few months have been beautiful and exhausting. Sacred and so special. The longest days and the shortest season all at once.”
As she continued, she remarked on the common advice that “becoming a mother changes everything,” adding, “but no one tells you how, why, or when exactly.”
“It isn’t always in the big moments,” she wrote. “Sometimes it’s realizing that I no longer measure time in months or years, but in ounces, naps missed and naps miraculously taken, in diaper changes, and the quiet triumph of a successful transfer from my arms to your crib.”
“Your daddy and I look at you often and ask each other the same question: How did we get so lucky to have you?”
“Everyone tells me not to blink. Now I understand why. Because already, I miss versions of you that still feel like yesterday: The way you’d make sure we’d have multiple visits throughout the night, the impossibly small diapers we swore looked enormous before you arrived,” she wrote.
The singer explained, “I want your baby hair to stay this soft forever, but I long for the day you might ask me to braid it down your back while we’re sitting in the grass. I could tear up at the thought of your tiny toes getting bigger, but I know that someday your big-girl feet will carry you through this big world.”
“I’ve learned that motherhood isn’t made up of grand moments as much as the tiny, precious ones,” Steinfeld wrote. “The quiet realization, over and over again, that my heart is now somehow living outside of my body and it always will.”
Days before Steinfeld published the letter, she appeared on a Substack livestream on Wednesday, June 17, and shared that her summer focus is Harper. “So this is the only summer that she will be a baby baby. And this will be the only summer that I have her in my arms. By next summer, she’ll be running around,” Steinfeld said of her daughter, according to E! News.
“The goal is to just be incredibly present and truly soak up every moment,” she continued. “Because life happens and life moves fast anyway. And I now fully understand what every parent ever has said, like you blink and it all just goes by so fast. It is so very true and so this summer my goal is to be completely present.”
Harper Haize is a lovely name. She could totally use it as a stage name if she wanted to one day. I’d love to know if there is any meaning or story behind it. Harper Rose was actually the “girl” name picked out for my older son. Haize is of Basque origin and means “wind.” Like Harper, it’s a gender-neutral name.
Hailee’s entire letter is quite beautiful. I’m sure Harper will be moved by it some day. I loved that she pointed out that motherhood isn’t just about the big moments, but that there’s so much meaning in the small ones. It reminds me of how Elsie Hewitt described motherhood as a series of “mini clicks” that form a piece in a larger puzzle. My kids are eight and 12. Parenting is different from when they were infants, but there are still plenty of those quiet, precious moments. They’re bonding moments, which is why it’s so important to be present. They’ll call me and Mr. Rosie out if they think we’re not listening to them because we’re on our laptops or phones. They won’t always want so much of our attention, so it’s important to be there when we can.
Love her. And Josh. Enjoy your little angel.
Huge Bills fan here. I am not exaggerating when I state Bills players, especially the quarterbacks, are treated like royalty. Hailee was crowned Queen of Buffalo (complete with billboards stating that!) upon her engagement to Josh. She’s likable, interacts with the fan base, attends games. We’ve been waiting for the name of our princess….and again, I’m not even exaggerating! I think it’s a beautiful name.
(Buffalo is nickname the Queen City so there were billboards stating The Queen City has a new queen)
I love the name. My first guess was that Haize might have been a childhood nickname for Hailee which would also be really sweet
My baby is starting Kindergarten in the Fall and it’s also my goal to be very present for her this summer. I took off a good chunk of time from work at the end of August so that we can have one on one time together before school starts.
Oh, and Go Bills! Josh and Hailee actually live around the corner from me when they are in Buffalo. My daughter calls him Joshy.
Not a huge Bills fan not gonna lie (I’m a Bengals fan that lives in Pittsburgh) lol
But I love the two of them together and think their little family is positively lovely