Eugenious

Dear Elena,

I glimpsed my future today, and my knees trembled a bit. Daddy and I had a conference with your preschool teacher. I went in without any concerns; unlike some parents, I don’t expect you to learn all your letters or start long division in preschool. I do expect you to become better at sharing, expressing your feelings, and cooperating. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it’s progressing at the moment. You had to be removed from the lunch table today because you were trying to put an orange peel on your friend’s plate. When you were asked to stop, you refused.

We’ve noticed that stubborn streak at home, too. After I removed you from the couch for jumping on it the other day, you smiled sweetly at me and jumped on the couch again. Before you entered preschool, I joked that you were socially ready for Kindergarten: you shared well and played with others. Now, though, you’ve started hitting your friends if they’re in your space.

Now, I’m not worried that you’ll keep hitting your friends. But I can see the social butterfly with a silly, stubborn streak causing a ruckus in Kindergarten—and an even bigger ruckus in 7th grade. Ruckus-maker, I’m not ready! I have to prepare.

It’s just that I think of you as easy: a pleasure to be with, easy to please, happy in the morning, with the ability to make everyone laugh. But you are three. Time to test out those parents and teachers, you say, and find out what they’re made of.

• You recognize a couple of letters now: E and S, for Elena and Sylvan. You enjoy playing with the magnetic letters, but you become frustrated if Sylvan tries to spell your name with lowercase letters. They’re not as easy for you to recognize.
• You are counting higher, often to ten with no mistakes.
• You like to say grace before every dinner. That means holding hands and thanking whomever cooked the meal.
• Like your brother, you like to run around naked, and you seem incapable of feeling the chill of a 62-degree house. The other day, I said, “Elena, you’re naked.” You responded, “Yes, but I have hair!”
• Although I don’t remember the context, you said, “It would be funny if you had blinky eyes.”
• You like to sing the ABCs and Hey, Diddle, Diddle before you go to sleep. I sing and you sing along.

I love you, Miss.

Love,
Mommy

This entry was posted in the categories Birthday letters, Elena, Elena Says by julie on Monday, 14 November 2011, 23:46. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.