Dear Mackenzie: Let’s go fly a kite

Dear Mackenzie,

I can hardly believe that you’re almost 3 years old. The first 35 months have just flown by! You have just become the most amazing little person, learning so many new things every day and continuing to make us laugh all the time.

You’re pretty bossy already but in a really funny way. Sometimes when I’m talking to you, trying to clarify something (such as asking if you want milk or water with your carrots), you’ll just look at me and say, “Bye!” — which is my cue to leave so you can watch a TV show or finish painting or whatever it is I’m interrupting.

You also have your own ideas about who can sit where, and at what time, and what toys your daddy and I are allowed to share when we’re playing with you. Yesterday we were playing with finger puppets, but I couldn’t use just any puppet. It had to be just the one you picked out. It’s not that you don’t want to share with others; you’re actually quite good at it. But you just want to make sure the games are played by your rules. No substitutions, no additions — just the way you like it.

I’ve recently been told that between 5 and 8 years old is when kids get really silly –but if you get any more silly than you are now, I’m not sure I will ever be able to stop laughing. The conversations you have with your stuffed animals and dolls, the ideas you come up with when we’re playing…your imagination is just always running at full speed and it’s simply amazing.

A couple of weeks ago, you decided to climb into a massive basket that is filled with a bunch of stuffed animals. It became an impromptu bed…and I have to admit that it looked pretty comfortable. You pulled out your Curious George book and started “reading” to us — which involved a lot of pointing to things and telling us about the story. You don’t yet recite your favorite books, but you do recite text from a few May & Ruby episodes. Clearly we’ll be buying those DVDs when we’re in the US so we can get a bit of bunny variety around here!

Since your last playdate with Allie (who is your BFF that is nearly 5 years old), your language skills have just exploded. You’re talking in 5-6 word sentences and just chattering away to us all the time. You’ve also started to understand how to have a real conversation on the phone, which is way more fun than when you used to just look around the room and name things you saw. Most of the time, the person on the other end of the line was quite confused about what you were saying.

Thanks to your Shuffle, you’ve nearly mastered the alphabet song (and are still identifying lots of letters you know), plus you can rather solidly count to 14. We’re working on the numbers a bit in German also, and were hoping that you’d be starting kindergarten on November 1st. But the forest kindergarten isn’t quite far enough along yet (something I will know more about next week) and we don’t want to switch you to something new just as soon as you get accustomed to the regular kindergarten. So it will hopefully now be January when you get started. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to get rid of you. But I am noticing that you’d appreciate more mental stimulation than I can often give you. So being able to interact with other kids, learning from them and your teachers, experiencing new things out in the woods and all that should certainly be enough to get you going.

That also gives us a couple more months to work on the potty training. We’ve now tried telling you about the big kids you know who do it, informing you that you can’t go to kindergarten if you don’t do it, using stickers as motivation — all which kinda worked but just haven’t been enough for you to decide that you don’t want to wear diapers anymore. Every time I bring up going without diapers, you get antsy and I know this isn’t something you can be forced into. So we’ll just keep playing it by ear. You definitely know what the toilet is for and how to use it — plus how to hold it if you’re in the bath or just woken up. But you just aren’t interested in doing it during the day. Perhaps you just feel far too busy for that extra work.

When you dance, it’s like watching hippies at Woodstock. You stand there, waving your arms around like a tree in the breeze, all caught up in the moment. It’s fabulous and really cute to watch. But don’t mistake our muffled laughter to mean that we’re laughing at you. We just think you’re too adorable.

You are an avid animal lover and make no qualms about running around with a pack of dogs (which are thankfully extremely well behaved — especially with Ayla there to watch your back). Naturally, I’m a bit concerned about where this could lead so we’ll be working on some dog safety stuff. I was also a big fan of creatures of all kind when I was growing up. You will even tolerate a grasshopper on your arm for a short while, which is generally more than I’m willing to do.

Taking us to other end of the girlie spectrum, you are not a very big fan of dresses, but you love my makeup. I think it’s mostly the brushes that make it so attractive for you, which I have to admit is a lot of fun. I let you put on translucent powder most of the time (or put it on when you’re not around) but I can tell that there are going to be some things about you which are really girlie-girl…and other things that are not at all!

This past weekend, your Oma and Opa were here and they brought a kite with them from your cousins. It’s a super cute frog kite and there was just enough wind for us to try it out. All you wanted to do was run around with the frog behind you, flying a few feet off the ground. When we tried to explain that it might be more fun if you let daddy get it up into the sky so you could just stand and watch it flying, you just kept asking for your kite back. But with all the running around you did and the fresh air, you sure were tired afterwards!

Each day with you is a new adventure, where you never know what sort of day it will be, what kind of games will be developed or what you will end up doing that just amazes me. I am so thankful I started writing these letters to you so that we can both look back on your life and remember how much fun we’ve had…and how much you’ve grown. The time goes far too quickly!

My love,

Mommy

One Response to “Dear Mackenzie: Let’s go fly a kite”

1. katie @ Imperfect People says:

   November 2, 2011 at 6:42 pm

   So sweet! I love the pictures!

   Reply