Letter to Cal on his 3rd birthday

Dear Cal,

Today you are 3 years old! Every day I am amazed at your growth and today I am sitting down to tell you some of the things you’ve accomplished in the last year. I hope that one day you will read this letter and share our delight.

I’ve always told you, and I will continue to do so, that you are the most handsome little boy ever. Your face radiates health, joy, and a huge personality. You still have a little bit of a belly, but are otherwise a very slender and muscular guy. You weigh approximately 31 pounds, which is just a little lighter than your peers. We aren’t sure how tall you are, since you haven’t needed a doctor’s appointment for quite a while, but you were just shy of 36 inches when we measured you for the zoo rides last weekend. You are developmentally on track, if not ahead, in all areas.

Your speech and language skills astound me. You use complex sentences of 5-12 words and use appropriate question formation most of the time. Yesterday you told me, “Last night P had a very special candy. Why didn’t I get one?” You love to ask “why”, even though you often don’t need an answer. For example you say, “Why am I running fast?” or “Why did I use the green crayon?” You are currently working on irregular past tense verbs and irregular plurals. You have perfect articulation of individual sounds, expect the /s/ sound which sounds almost correct, but your tongue is between your teeth. Mommy is working on you with that one. ☺

Your cognitive and academic readiness skills are far above your age level. You know right vs. left, most prepositions, shapes, all your colors, numbers, and letters (lower and upper case). You can rote count to 30 and sometimes 40 and have 1:1 counting correspondence up to 10. You know your first and last name and can spell your name. You know your phone number and address thanks to ridiculous little songs that mommy has made up. You are even learning how to read. You can read 10 sight words: Cal, Lissi, mom, dad, car, truck, train, bus, cat, dog. You have already met benchmark for mid-Kindergarten levels!

Your fine motor skills are improving too. You even try to write your name by drawing one straight line of each letter of your name. You can color within the lines (or thereabouts) and are learning how to do dot-to-dot type activities. You insist on grasping the crayons with a full fist and drive mommy crazy insisting that is the correct way to hold a writing utensil! You can cut one cut with scissors and then tend to tear the paper the rest of the way.

Your gross motor repertoire includes going up and down stairs with one foot per stair about 50% of the time. You kick a ball with one foot. You have a very good throw and aim well. You can catch big balls 50% of the time. You can jump in place or move forward when you jump. You can walk a balance beam with no help. With a little help, or an incline, you can do a somersault. The skill you are most proud of right now is your ability to pedal a tricycle. And you show this off every day when you insist on riding around the block several times!

Potty training went very well and you quickly day-trained. You have accidents very rarely in the day, although you are wet at night about half of the time. You are over-all very good at sharing with peers and like to play trains and chasing games with other children. You remember activities you have done with your friends and talk about them for months (your memory is astounding). You have settled nicely into your role as a big brother and try to include Lissi in many activities (although you are often too rough with her). You are even learning to share with your little sister.

Your favorite activities include playing with toy vehicles: trains, cars, trucks. You love to ride your bike and pull wagons and push strollers. You enjoy listening to books and watching videos (Thomas, Signing Times, Dora, Veggie Tales). Every day you wave good-bye to mommy as she drives away to work. You look forward to “movie popcorn” night on Fridays with mommy as well.

We are blessed beyond measure to be your parents and are so proud of our big boy. Happy 3rd Birthday!

Love, Mommy and Daddy