hpe brda efin

A few days ago, Sarah sat down at the table to make a birthday card for her cousin, Ethan. I went in the other room to work on something for a few minutes. When I came back to check on her and see how her card was coming along, I saw no picture--only the letters hpe brda efin. I asked her how her card was coming along, and she said, "I wrote Happy Birthday, Ethan." I looked a little more closely at the letters she had written. There it was--spelled out in purely phonetic, pre-writer, absolutely adorable fashion. If you close one eye, turn your head a little bit sideways, and use some imagination, you can see it: hpe brda efin. How exciting!

It was almost exactly one year ago to the day that she first wrote her name independently while making Ethan's birthday card as well. The story rings about the same. I sat her down at the table to draw a picture on the card while I made dinner. I told her I would help her with her name when I was done. A few minutes later she announced that she was done. I came over to check and found her name all spelled out in gigantic letters like only a 3-year-old can do!

Happy Birthday to you Ethan--yesterday! We hope it was a good one. Watch for the card to come sometime this week. It would be really great if you could have birthdays more often as your birthday cards are when Sarah makes great progress in her skills.