Leif Celebrates his Third Birthday at Happy Time Montessori School - January 26, 1978

When I did a whole series on Leif's birthdays back in January, since his birthday is January 28th, I hadn't found these photos, and I didn't have them when I wrote about him attending the Happy Time Montessori School in Fuerth, Germany, either. It amazes me to see them now, how small he looks, how little and vulnerable. At the time, although all three-year-olds are small, he looked so large compared to the other kids in his class that it was hard to realize that he really WAS small, just a little boy. The thing that really touches me about the second photo is how carefully he is serving the drink to one of his classmates. We were celebrating his birthday in his classroom, and the kids were all sitting in a circle on the floor. Rather than having the adults pass out cupcakes and serve the drinks, his teacher had Leif do it. It would have been challenge enough for most three-year-olds to set cups down on a table, but getting them safely all the way to the floor was a bigger feat. Leif accomplished it without spilling a drop, and you can see in the photo how carefully he is setting the cup down.

In the first photo, he sits neatly cross-legged, eating his cupcake, and he appears to have some frosting on his mouth. I think he helped make the cupcakes and frost them, too, standing on a chair in our quarters in Fuerth.

He only went to the Happy Time Montessori School for one year, the school year during which he turned three. The following summer, we moved to the village of Sachsen bei Ansbach.