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Blink. Three years!

2009-01-28 - 10:01 p.m.

Dear Grommet,

With much fanfare and the oft-requested "chocolate cake with pink icing", you turned three years old this past Saturday. I think that this means that, while you�re still technically a toddler, soon you�ll officially be a pre-schooler (for what that�s worth). More importantly, you�re turning more and more into a little person. You know almost all the letters, and are working on writing them, and you can count to nine. You can�t read exactly, but you can recognize a few words on sight, even if you can�t sound them out based on the sequence of their letters. You can spell �moon� and �Bob� out loud.

I confess that I get easily frustrated when I try to teach you to read because you talk so well and seem to know so much, yet you don�t yet grasp the concept of stringing the sounds that letters make together in order to read words that you aren�t already familiar with. The other night I just about tore my hair out over the fact that you could tell me that U-P says �up� and C makes a �c� sound, but you couldn�t say �c� then �up� together to read the word �cup�. I know that this concept will just click one day and you�ll blow my socks off, but in the meantime I think it might be easier on my blood pressure to let your father concentrate on teaching you to read.

Another confession: I lose my cool with you more than I really want to. Again, I think it�s partly because you have the verbal skills I associate with being more able to reason and to control one�s own actions. I know, intellectually, that you just turned three, but you talk like a real person, so why would you do things you know you�re not supposed to? Why would you do them right after you�ve been told not to? Your answer is that you �want to� and I know that to a three-year-old this is probably enough justification, but honey, it�s not. And it�s a drag to have to teach you this, especially when I�m trying to teach you that you can do and be anything you want to if you put your mind to it. I hope you�ll grow up to be a self-confident person who strives for worthy goals, but I also have to teach you the limits you have to operate within in terms of behaviour that�s acceptable and expected in society. I�m sorry I have to say �no� so much. And I�m sorry I sometimes do it in a louder and more disapproving manner than perhaps I should. I�m doing my best here.

And I do think that I�m not totally off-track. For all that I despair over simple lessons (like listening to your parents and doing what you�re told the first time) not getting through, the vast majority of the time you really do me proud when we�re out and about. Over and over I�ve gotten comments and compliments on how well-behaved you are, and how polite. I am so proud of the little person you�re turning into. You�re not perfect because, well, nobody is, but you�re darn good and in my eyes you�re the most wonderful little girl in the whole world � you�re bright, and beautiful, and loving, and devoted to me, your daddy, and your brother. I would never trade you for anything and my love for you is fierce and unwavering.

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