One of the most enjoyable parts of child rearing a younger child is when they achieve things they’ve been working on or striving to master. In Kaia’s 2.5 years, it’s been everything from watching her move a ball from one hand to another (as a very young baby) to crawling, to walking, to now riding a scooter and identifying the right objects in a book when we do “search and find” activities. In the last several weeks, when she identifies the right object I ask her to, or she does something that she’s been working on and finally does it successfully, she loves to laugh, squeal, and then yell out, “I DID IT!” or, “Kaia did it!” It’s been so fun to watch and always makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Sometimes, she gets a little too excited and distracted by identifying something correctly the first time around, and she will just keep yelling, “I DID IT!” anywhere from five to ten times, which then distracts her from identifying the next object. Initially, I would get a little annoyed because we were’t moving on with the activity, but then I realized… this is all for her learning and enjoyment, anyway. So if she wants to bask in the glow of achieving something for another minute or two, there’s no harm in that. I should let her enjoy, laugh, and squeal, and just sit in the moment… Because it is always good to let your kids feel good about themselves.