Happy 47 Months, Helen

Dear Helen,

You started drop-off school this year and you could not possibly have been happier. You've been wanting to go to school without me for a year, and you were not disappointed when it finally came to pass. I was happy to drop you off at school and feel great about how you spend your mornings.

You are a laugh a minute, and I can hardly keep up with you. Your energy is explosive, and you both fall in love fast, and draw others to fall in love fast with you. It's super endearing.

You have one habit that is so annoying, I want to scream. Many times. Each day. You cannot be wrong, and you always get your way. Neither of these are, of course, true. But you will argue with anyone that they are. This, for example, is not an unusual conversation.

You: "I want that toy purse."
Me: "No, Helen, I'm shopping for a birthday present for your friend today. I'm not buying anything for you."
You: "I meant, I will buy that purse for my kids. I didn't mean I wanted it for me."

- or -

Me: "I'm taking you to a new park today."
You: "I've been there before."
Me: "No, you haven't."
You: "Yes I have. I flew there last night."

at some point, this annoyed me so much I added to the previous conversation:

Me: "What did you see there?"
You: "I'm not telling you."

Do you know why my forehead is flat? It's because of the number of hours I spend banging my head against the wall because of you.

You also do the cutest thing ever, something that a neighbor commented was "straight out of Norman Rockwell". Each morning, you race your dad or me to the corner. Your dad or I hops on our bike or gets in the car, and then you should "READY, SET, GO" and you start running and waving and shouting "bye mommy" or "bye daddy" as appropriate until you get to the stop sign. You always win. But you started feeling bad about winning all the time, so you declared that we were a team, so even though you touched the stop sign first, we were both winners. When it's your dad's turn, he brings you back on his bike, which you love.

Your teacher sent me the following note a few days ago:

"Hi Elaine,
I am sure you are aware Helen's birthday is approaching (she reminds me often)! The first day of school she saw some leaves fall and said "oh no, it is fall. Maybe I am already four now. We might have missed my birthday. I will have to ask my mom. I will tell you tomorrow if I am four."

Did I mention how much I love your teacher?

Another day, you made me and another jogger laugh quite hard. I decided to take the jogging stroller out because you preferred to go running with me rather than stay home with your babysitter. At first, you were terribly annoyed with me because you were trying to draw a picture, and the ride was too bumpy. You decided to put your notebook and marker away. Then, we hit a big hill. I was working as hard as I could to get up the hill and you just kept shouting "you sure you're still running back there". Another buy on the trail laughed so hard he stopped running. I prayed that I could maintain forward momentum long enough to get to the top of the hill, because it would've been a long ride down for you.

May you always lighten my days, Helen.

Love,
Mommy