Letter to Lucia: 47 Months

Dear Lulu,

Almost-four is a funny time. Every day you seem to get more grown up, chattering away and getting wrapped up in whatever game you’ve imagined. You’re picking up funny phrases now, from me and Daddy and from TV shows. “Mama, here’s the deal,” you’re fond of saying, or, “But the point is…” Today you enjoyed yelling “What the heck?!” at the top of your lungs for no discernible reason. You also frequently sigh in exasperation when we’re trying to get you to do something and say condescendingly, “DADdy, I’m just doing my job.”

You are a total girly-girl. You love dresses, and dressing up, and wands and tiaras. You pick out your clothes on your own each day. Your all-time favorite activity right now is painting your nails, and Greta’s nails, with Disney Princess nail polishes. It washes off with soap and water, so often you’ll paint your nails five times a day.

You started your second year of preschool this month, and so far you’re thriving. The class is large, but by all accounts you are doing fine, and the teacher told me you have two little friends you hang around with. There hasn’t been even one tear at drop-off time, and when I arrive to pick you up, you are always excited to show me the art project you did that day. This class is called the three-year-old class, though you’ll spend most of the year as a four-year-old; you’re older than your classmates by four or more months. This is how it will always be, you with the mid-October birthday, and I think it will be okay.

The final vestige of babyhood with you is the pull-up you still wear at night. This irks you, and you seem determined to reach the goal of dry pull-ups and, subsequently, underwear at night. You’ve surprised us by beginning to get up to go to the bathroom during the night—never once have you called us, and we did nothing to encourage or promote it. Sometimes you even change your pull-up if it’s wet. All very quietly by yourself, in the darkened upstairs.

Favorite toys/activities: You are fun right now because there are so many things you love doing and playing with. Stickers, coloring books, markers, Ariel, princess anything, wands, tiaras, dress-up clothes, jewelry, talking about your haircut, your doll, tea parties, Memory, exploring the “forest” (the tree-filled area beside our driveway), balloons, stringing beads

Favorite books: Ladybug Girl, Beautiful Yetta, Play It Again Rosie, Room on the Broom, The Little Mermaid (Disney Little Golden Book), Chloe