b.rox

Dear Persephone, You are three and a half years old today. Last year, on your half-birthday, I cajoled you into giving away two of your toys to Goodwill. I thought we should revisit that concept, so I showed you some photos from back then which I hoped would serve to get you in the spirit. [...]

Dear Persephone, You are forty-one months old today. You are developing into an amazing person. Here are some indications. Your favorite phrase over the last month is, “I changed my mind.” For example, after much deliberation, you changed your mind about your favorite colors. For at least a year, you’ve maintained that your favorite colors [...]

Dear Persephone, I meant to take notes on all the crazy things you’ve said over the last few weeks. But time got away from me. I remember you said “Trust me!” when we were playing Alphabet Farm. I wrote it down, because it seemed remarkable, but now I can’t remember anything more about it, except [...]

Dear Persephone, We’ve been counting down your last days of “school.” I’ve been taking you to daycare starting when you were five months old. The morning time has been our special time together. Since you don’t have to be there at any specific time, and my workday is usually flexible, we’ve had the luxury of [...]

Dear Persephone, You’re thirty-eight months old today. I knew this month was off to a good start when you told me your own version of an old knock knock joke. It was the old “orange you glad” joke which I’d told you a month or two before. An old friend from college had reminded me [...]

Dear Persephone, Thanks for sharing a wonderful Equinox with us yesterday. We decorated eggs and had an egg hunt and watered your tree (which we planted on the last vernal equinox) and went on a nature walk and you even put on some bunny ears (sent in the mail by your grandmother) and hopped around [...]

Dear Persephone, You are three years old today. I just realized that your birthday is exactly five weeks after mine. That means when my birthday falls on Martin Luther King Day, yours falls on Presidents’ Day. I guess that will occur about every seven years or so. One year ago, I was impressed by your [...]

Dear Persephone, Oops. You made thirty-five months yesterday, but I didn’t realize it until I was lying down in bed last night. So this letter is one day late. As I’m trying to type this, you are sitting on the couch behind me. You’ve got a book you want me to read to you. I’ve [...]

Dear Persephone, You’re thirty-four months old today, but there’s a lot of other things going on as well. For one, there was a full lunar eclipse last night. I explained how the moon would fall into the shadow of the earth, and you’d seemed to understand. I even got you out of bed for it [...]

Dear Persephone, You sure are getting big. I know this because you tell me about it. Constantly. “I’m big. I’m big. I’m so big. I’m too big.” There was a statue of at the New Orleans Museum of Art, a headless Winged Figure, which used to scare you, but now you’re not frightened anymore, because [...]

Dear Persephone, On the first of this month, as we were riding the bicycle on our way home from a meeting, I heard you exclaim, “Look at that black man!” I was a bit startled. What? Since when does my little girl identify people on the basis of race? Then I saw that you were [...]

Dear Persephone, Somewhere in the last month your temper has taken a turn for the worse. Don’t get me wrong, you are still sweet and cute — much of the time — but you are also more prone than ever to tantrums and meltdowns and fits of pique. Perhaps it’s because you’ve been fighting off [...]

Dear Persephone, A friend recently asked me if we would be having a party for your half-birthday. That conjured images of yet more presents. Trust me when I say you’ve got more than enough stuff at this point in your life. Our friends and family have been very generous to you. So I thought we’d [...]

Dear Persephone, It’s finally happened. Your imagination has caught fire, and I’ve been drawn into your fantasy world on several occasions. Granted, you’ve had an active imagination for a while. I still remember the first time you took a block and said it was a train. But now you’ve taken it to the next level. [...]

Dear Persephone, When I ask how old you are, you’ve learned to say “two and a quarter.” But I guess now you’ll have to learn to say “two and a third.” We’ve taken you out of the daycare for the summer so you are spending a lot of time with your mother. She took you [...]

Dear Persephone, For some reason, I didn’t realize you were old enough to appreciate stories. I mean, even though I read you storybooks every night, I had never actually just told you a story. I guess I thought the pictures in your books were an essential element. Then, a couple weeks ago, I told you [...]

Dear Persephone, You are fully into the “all by self” phase which I guess is pretty famous for kids your age. You want to do everything “all by self” even when you aren’t, strictly speaking, capable. Fortunately you’re not so pig-headed as to persist when it’s clear your reach has exceeded your grasp. Then “all [...]

Dear Persephone, I’ve set it in my mind that I’d write you a letter every month for the first hundred months of your life. It amazes me to realize we’re a quarter of the way there already. You are now more or less capable of carrying on a conversation. This was brought home to me [...]

Dear Persephone, So much has gone on in the past month. Let’s see — the Saints won the Super Bowl. You’re too young to appreciate the significance of that, but you sure enjoyed beating the hell out of that Peyton Manning voodoo doll. Also, you had your first real Mardi Gras. I can’t imagine what [...]

Dear Persephone, You are twenty-three months old today. Recently your have begun formulating simple sentences, and in the last month I’ve noticed you have begun to issue commands. When you’re seated at the breakfast table, waiting for me to join you, you’ll point to my seat and say “Sit, Dada!” You’ll hand me a book [...]