Letter to Lucia: 39 Months

Dear Little One,

Three is fun. We’ve reached an even-keeled period, and suddenly you’re the easy one—your little sister, with her inability to go grocery shopping without screaming, has become the weak link in day-to-day placidity (or what passes for placidity with two kids, anyway). You sleep to a decent 7:30, you play, you sit for long stretches to read books, you play with Greta. We have moments when you dig in your heels—slipping out of your winter coat just when it’s time to leave the house is among the more maddening sticking points—but for the most part we have fun.

You have come to love, and look forward to, your Quiet Time. Your favorite thing to do is strew about your room hundreds of tiny beads I bought at a garage sale and gave to you on a whim; you sort them, set aside your favorites, gather them in different vessels. They are all over the place, all the time, and every night I curse quietly as I crawl around picking them up (you help, but there are a ton of beads), but you love them so much.

You still like school, and you like to play school at home—you call me your teacher’s name and insist I address you and Greta as “Class.” “Class, it’s time for cleanup. Class, let’s get on our shoes and go play outside.” You tell me plaintively that you’re always “a little bit scared” when I leave you at school, but whenever I peek in the window at pickup time, you’re always smiling and perky, doing whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.

This week you’ll start a new activity: ballet. Or, rather, “ballet,” since any ballet class full of three-year-olds is surely just one notch up from total chaos. It’s a drop-off class, and I really hope you like it. You’re incredibly excited about it. We went to the dance school yesterday to buy you a leotard (a word you simply cannot say, though you keep trying) and ballet shoes, and you kept saying loudly, “I want to dance RIGHT NOW.” You have so much energy, and our afternoons are often just dead zones when it’s too cold to play outside, so a 4pm dance class seems like the perfect thing for a few weeks this winter.

You love wearing leg warmers. You never wear socks in the house. You still love your Dolly. You don’t much like to eat your meals, though you love toast, oatmeal, bagels with cream cheese, raisins, dried mangos, Goldfish, bananas, and Reese’s peanut butter cups (you get one tiny one after dinner each night). You claim to love lollipops, but you always abandon them after a few licks.

Favorite toys/activities: playing with your tiny eraser-foods, play food, Dolly, your doll stroller, filling your shopping cart, fingerpainting, kicking/throwing balls, Sit n Spin, large building bricks, the ball popper

Favorite books: Kevin Henkes mouse books (Penny and Her Marble especially), Little Bea and the Snowy Day, Ladybug Girl and Bingo, Miss Rumphius