Our Boy Turns Three

Three.  The age at which children begin preschool and are potty trained for good (please, please, please).  It's a big year, and we watched proudly this week as Harrison became a three year old, officially.  We had the requisite chocolate cake, Harry opened a brand new Bruder farm tractor with dumping trailer, and we sang him out-of-tune birthday wishes.  He blew out his candles in one well-directed breath, and promptly attempted to stick his fingers into the cake.  That's our boy!
There are no immediate changes that come along with such an age, but there are many big developments on the horizon: this year he will go to school, and for the first time since his arrival 2 1/2 years ago, he will have a life and friends outside of our home and outside of our sphere of influence.  He will learn the millions of little things that go along with school, like getting dressed and putting on your own coat and tying your shoes and cleaning up your messes and eating snacks only at snacktime and crying when you miss your mom and finding out that mom and dad won't always be there to kiss your boo boos and freedom from your plaguing little sister and sharing and quiet time and letters and numbers and new songs...and...and...and...
So many things he will have to learn, so many nuances of society and emotion, relationships and independence.  Yes, three is a big year.
And on a more solemn note, this may very well be the very first time that Harry encounters racism and discrimination without the aid of Mom and Dad by his side.  Before school in the fall it is our job as his parents and family to begin to give this small boy, only three, the armor he will need for the rest of his life in this country and this world.  We need to open up the discussion, to make sure he has defenses and knows what to say or do the first time someone pulls at the corners of their eyes and calls him a name.  We need to make sure he has confidence in who he is, where he came from, and why he was adopted.  We need to make sure that the assumptions of others about his race and identity do not define him, that he alone defines himself.  It is a big job, this parenting thing.  Three is a very big year, indeed.