Happy 4th Birthday!

Dear Margaux,

It’s so hard to believe that you are four today. I wanted to write you this letter so that you’ll know a little bit about what you were like when you were four. Your favorite colors are pink and purple. Your favorite book is called, “Where’s my Mom?” Your favorite TV show is Curious George, and your favorite movie is a tie between Finding Nemo and the Jungle Book. Your best friend is Claire. Your favorite teacher is Miss Jessica. You love to travel and are always up for a road trip or a trip to the airport. You love going to new places, but you also have some favorite spots. You talk about Nantucket like other kids talk about Disney World. Whenever we get back to Stillwater after a visit to see your family in Texas or Louisiana, you cry and say, “I miss my people.” Your favorite food is blueberries. We can barely ever get you to eat meat, but you love almost all fruits and vegetables. You eat a lot stuff Mommy doesn’t eat like blue cheese, cucumbers, and radishes.

You rarely sleep through the night. Your Mommy and Daddy are praying for this to change because we are very tired. You say you need a bigger bed. We are working on that. You make us very nervous at church because the minister often hands you the microphone during children’s church and you never know what is going to come out of your mouth. You once said, “Jonah got spit out of a fish and took a rocket ship to Ninevah and did what God told him to do.” You love shapes. You were recently talking about the angles of a trapezoid and when Mommy asked if they had four right angles, you laughed and said, “mostly they have two acute and two obtuse angles.” Though you seriously thought I was teasing you about the right angles, I had to look up acute and obtuse to remind myself of what they were.

On your 4^th birthday, you caught your first fish in a pond on the 16^th fairway of Stillwater Country Club. You dug up the worm that you used to catch it. You started the day by playing with your new dollhouse. From dollhouse to fishing all in one day, that’s what I call well rounded. You are one with nature. So much so that we cannot go anywhere after school without first changing your clothes because you are covered in dirt from head to toe. Even the other children are taken aback by your love of dirt. You make these weird piles of things around the house. They can contain pillows, toys, things that belong to Mommy and Daddy, books, bits of string, or anything else you can get your hands on. You call them your “work.” We don’t know why you do this, but you’ve been doing this since you first learned to walk, so it’s something that is part of you. You love to build things. Construction toys (blocks, geomags, legos, etc.) are your all time favorite toys, and you say you are going to be an engineer when you grow up. It will be interesting to see what you really turn out to be, but I won’t be surprised if it is something with math and science.

You are still a cuddle bug. You love hugs and kisses. You still say, “I want to be holded,” even though you know the correct word to use. You love to help Mommy cook in the kitchen. Cookies and apple pie are your favorite things to make. You know what you want. That’s a nice way of saying you can be a bit bossy. Your teacher says you are not that way at school, though, so you apparently know your audience. You start every day telling Mommy and Daddy that you love us. We’re soaking that up for years to come when those words won’t flow so freely. We’ve loved every day of the first four years with you. You are pure joy. I’ll need to reread that last sentence when you want company at 3 a.m., but in the light of day and after coffee that is truly how I feel.