Dear Benjamin

I have seen a number of posts recently where blog "authors" format the post as a letter to their children.  It's a very sweet idea, and since much of the reason behind this blog is to document this stage of our lives for our children to read later, I'm going to follow suit.  Many of my posts lately have been about Projects and getting things done --- but all the while, we are enjoying a very sweet and active little boy --- who just turned THREE.  So, Benjamin, this post is for you!

Dear Benjamin,

A few weeks ago, you turned three years old!  What a big boy you are now!  Sorry that it has taken me a few weeks to put together your three-year old letter, but with a new baby sister in the house, you are getting many opportunities to practice being patient.  Before your sister arrived, you had become accustomed to your parents jumping at every request and noticing every little thing that you did.  I expected Katie's arrival to shake your world a bit, and I'm sure it has, but you are adjusting magnificently well.  And you are proving to actually have a good deal of patience for a three year old - something we didn't give you much opportunity to practice before.

So how do I sum up the past three years of your life?  That's a hard one.  You have enriched your father and me in so many ways, and you bring such a new layer of joy to our lives that seems to get deeper with each day that you grow and learn and develop into your own person.  Has the time flown by?  Sort of.  Those first days at home with you as a newborn were tough.  I cried a lot, worried a lot, and mourned the passing of our "carefree" days before baby.  While we fell in love with you, both your father and I had to go through a lot of growing pains to make room in our lives for a new member of our family.  You have nicely paved the road for a more carefree beginning for your sister, though, as now we know how much fun children can be --- and we can endure her evening screaming a little easier knowing what the fun we have ahead. :)

In some ways, it's hard to believe you are just three years old --- it seems that you have been part of our family forever!  To me, it actually does not seem like you were just my little baby yesterday --- I'm quite accustomed to my talkative, curious and sometimes-demanding son.  But as you continue to grow in your independence, I do sometimes wish to slow down time just a little bit --- as it makes me a little sad to think about reaching the day where you won't call out for "Mommy snuggle,"  where me or Daddy are no longer your favorite playmates, and where boo-boo's don't require a kiss.

Benjamin, your development amazes us every day --- you have a wonderful, joyful personality --- and you are so full of energy and enthusiasm for life.  Parenting you is certainly a wonderful experience.

So what are some of your favorite things now that you are three?  Well, you love all things physical --- jumping, bouncing, running - you name it.  You spend a lot of time in our backyard - sliding down our slip n' slide that Grandma Susan and Grandpa Howard gave you for your birthday, digging with your excavator in your sandbox, poking at our overgrown herbs with a dowel rod, throwing rocks and dirt at the fence.  We recently enrolled you in swim classes at the YMCA, and while you tolerate the class, you LOVE the pool time with Mommy or Daddy afterwards.  You especially like to dictate what we'll do next: "Now Mommy and Benjamin dunk, now just Benjamin dunk, now Benjamin sit on the side of the pool while Mommy dunk, now Benjamin jump to Mommy, now Benjamin swim by himself (which involves me letting go of you for a moment to allow you to sink just a little bit before pulling you back out of the water)."  It is so much fun to watch the simple joy of a three-year old boy enjoying moving his body and learning something new.  Soon we start an introductory gymnastics class, and I am eager to see how you will like this as well.

While you certainly have a great NEED to move, your attention and perseverance to inside work also amazes us.  You LOVE puzzles right now, and we spend most of our free time together doing one.  While you can easily do all your puzzles yourself, you prefer that Mommy or Daddy do them with you.  Daddy laughs at this trait in you, which you so obviously got from me.  While you look a lot like Daddy, your preference for company is very familiar to me.  At first, we were only allowed to watch you do your puzzles, but now as you are learning how to play with peers, you let us put a few pieces in as well.  You are learning your numbers (I believe the highest you count right now is to eleventeen), and are quite interested in learning how to spell words.  Every night you choose several of your magazines for us to read to you --- either Baby Bug or Animal Baby.  You have a couple of years worth of each of these magazines, and we read them so often, you have almost all of them memorized word-for-word!  You can now spell the years (2008, 2009, 2010) for the publications, as well as the titles.  It's adorable to watch you use these letters to spell other things as well.  Just yesterday, we had a box sitting in the kitchen, and you looked at the letters on the box (Diapers.com) and spelled "B-A-B-Y  B-U-G.  That spells Box!"

Now, while you are a delightful little boy, don't let me get you thinking that we aren't having some challenges in our efforts to parent you right now.  You are certainly three - full of opinions and desires - which don't always line up with ours.  Particularly when we're trying to get out the door!  You sometimes leave us at a loss as to how to re-act, so Daddy and I both recently re-read Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood, and you seem to be responding very well!  In fact, you like to use it on us "Mommy, do you want mint ice cream or chocolate ice cream for dessert?...Okay!" or "Mommy, you can eat one more bite of dinner, and then it's time to do puzzles."

Okay, sweet boy, your sister is up from her nap, so I'm going to end this letter now.  We just love you so much, and are so proud of the person you are becoming.  I'll try to write again soon!

Love,
Mommy