A Healthy Dose of Self-Esteem

Reed is one of those children who doesn't seem as if he's going to have a problem with self-esteem. (Well, Maren, too, but that's another story...) I was reading stories to him at bedtime the other night and he chose a story out of a Dora the Explorer collection we have. The story's about how Dora and Boots are on their way home (from playing outside alone, far away from home, all day and now it's dark outside --where are the parents??) and they're saying good night to all the forest animals that they pass on their way home. And there's a LOT of animals because did I mention that they're a long way from home? So, as Dora is bilingual, of course they're saying good night to all the animals in Spanish. Buenas noches, this and buenas noches, that. Reed's loving the story.

I tuck him in, say good night and Reed says, "No, what do you need to say?" So I said, "Buenas noches, Reed." He says, "No, you say 'Buenas noches, handsome.'"

Like I said, no self-esteem problem there.

Meetings

Tim normally takes Reed to preschool in the mornings, but today, he had an early-morning faculty meeting, so I took him instead. After Tim left, the conversation went like this:

Reed: Daddy has a meeting.

Me: Yes, he does.

Reed: I have a meeting, too.

Me: You do? Who is your meeting with?

Reed: Miss Anna. (his teacher)

Me: Oh. What is your meeting about?

Reed: Birds. We're talking about birds.

Me: And when is your meeting over?

Reed: When Miss Anna says it's snack time.


Wouldn't it be a lot easier to sit through meetings if you knew there were going to be snacks afterward?