Birthday Letter to Daniel - Age 3: February 9, 2011

Sweet Daniel,Yesterday, you turned three!  You have grown – virtually overnight, like, in the last month! – from a toddler into a little boy.  Sometimes I look over, and I can already see you as a man.

You are deeply compassionate, very affectionate, calm, and never aggressive (as people so often say that boys will be).  You accept limits with remarkably little difficulty, and have tantrums ONLY if your parents fell down on the job and deprived you of adequate sleep.  You have very good boundaries.  You say things like “Don’t hit me!” to other kids; you never hit back.  You are very brave but very cautious.  By this, I mean that you stare for a really long time at a tall thing before you climb it, or at a new person before you approach them.  But excluding only a few challenges (selected with parental assistance and your own wisdom), you almost always make the climb or the approach.  Throughout your life, you’ve rarely initiated touch with others (either affectionate or aggressive), but you’re more and more often coming to me or your Papa and just wrapping your sweet arms around us.  It is bliss.  Of course, you’ve always been up for sweet snuggles :-).

Your favorite word lately is “No!” – always emphatic, exclamation point required.  And you adore music - singing and drumming, some piano, and you’re desperate to be big enough to hold that guitar like the grown-ups do.  (That will be sooner than you think thanks to the birthday present Grandma and Grandpa are giving you)!  Drawing’s not your favorite thing, but you like it well enough.  You enjoy building things with lego-type toys.  You still especially love crosses and of course, “Bear.”  In recent developments, you LOVE playing soccer!  It’s by far your favorite thing.  You can entertain yourself for a really long time just kicking around the soccer ball out back.  I bet the neighbors wish you’d do this wearing pants.

My prayers for you are that you will continue to explore the wonderful world with eyes, heart, and mind wide open; that you keep exploring the whole range of yourself: athleticism and musicality, solemnity and exuberance, sense of humor and soulfulness; and that you live into your gentleness, trust your intuition, and embrace the adventures that await you every day.
 
Love, Mama