Dear Sammy,
When you’re able to read this, you may have forgotten that from the time you could choose a toy, your favorite was a ball. You would sit in your bouncy chair and squeal with laughter when anyone threw a ball over the beams in the family room of your old house, and when, at 20 months, you moved, your new favorite game was to gather the balls in your bedroom and throw them over the second floor gate in the morning and then you’d spend the day throwing them up in the air whether or not you were outdoors. You may also have forgotten that Sydney was already living in the neighborhood when you moved into it, but I won’t.
You’ve been in your new home only a month, but you must be spending a lot of time with your neighbors because Mommy said that when she told you that your family was going to visit Sydney’s on Sunday, you turned, ran, and returned with a ball in your hand. “Idny-ball-sky,” you exclaimed, and in that three word phrase, declared that you wanted to share the wonder in your heart with someone else.
You will learn that a person’s three word thoughts say much about the adult they’re becoming. Before I talked to your mom, I’d been thinking about her first declarative statement, “Thatcher-puppy- silly.” and how it anticipated her ability to talk through her upsets to find the good in them. (This was at bedtime and the puppy had knocked her off a swing that morning.)
“Me go Boston. Me get lobster,” Aunt Jen declared as we planned her second birthday – and she’s still the person everyone goes to when they want to get things done well.
There’s a lot of talk about language in the grown-up world these days, Sammy. We’re talking about “Civility” in public discourse, how “bullies” can scare people with their mean, loud language, when and if what one person says can be the cause of someone else’s bad choices. It’s your parents’ job to help you understand that when you toss words out, they both stay in the sky AND are caught. Just as you are learning to aim when you throw a ball, you’ll be taught to choose your words so they will go in the direction you intend. Because your first three word sentence (verbs implied) was “Idny-ball-sky”, a declaration of friendship and wonder, my guess is your intentions will be for good.
Love,
Marmee