Dutch As Usuable

Ah, Anika. You are so very very three.  And while it is so easy for me to list the parts of "three" that I am really ready to move on from (and I am exhibiting GREAT will-power in refraining from listing them here), there are so many things about you at three that I hope will linger long after you become four...your insistance on being called anything but Anika: Persephone, Guinevere, Lily Louise, Laura Thistle Mary Ingalls, Giselle, China Rose Bud and Mae. The way you say "dutch" instead of "just", in spite of being one of the most articulate people I know (and this does not just include the preschool crowd. This girl is precise and eloquent!), and how the word "usual" just eludes you, though you continue to try to use it "as usuable".  From the moment you could talk you have narrated your every move, and this has grown to elaborate proportions, as your "every move" leads you frequently into lengthy fairy tales.  A guest at our Thanksgiving table, who does not spend a lot of time with children, remarked that you are such a little person! And while part of me thought that was an odd thing to say, it is true that you are remarkably you, and you seem to have no desire to be anything but dutch you.  You are not the pleaser, the performer, the joiner. You are stubborn and unyielding, certain and rarely remorseful, challenging and charming...and while I find these qualities frustrating many times a day, I know they will serve you well as you grow into being ever more you.