Noah's Dad

I can’t even begin to tell you how fun it is to watch Noah grow and develop. He is currently in a stage where he’s picking up on cause and effect, and I love it!

I think the first time I noticed him starting to understand that he had the ability to cause something to happen himself was one day while watching him play with his toy gum ball machine. (One of our favorite developmental toys!) He would put the balls in the top of the gum ball machine, press the lever on the side of the toy, and watch the ball come twirling down. (And his face would light up every. single. time….just like it was the first time he ever saw it. It was fantastic!)

He’s got this cause and effect thing down!

For Christmas we got him a Busy Ball Drop (what you see him playing with in today’s video.) In less than two months he had already learned how to put the ball in the top, watch it spin down the ramp, and repeat. It is a lot of fun to watch his face light up with joy as the ball shoots down the ramp. I also love the sense of accompaniment on his face afterwards. He could totally tell that he was doing something awesome, and making us very proud in the process! (Did you notice in the video that every time he would successfully get the ball from the top of the ramp, to the bottom, he would glance up and look to his mommy for approval; cute, huh?)

Days like today are what I call a “big win.” But as I’ve mentioned before, most of life isn’t made up of “big win” kind of days. (Wouldn’t that be awesome!) The truth is most days we need to look for small wins to celebrate with our kids. I 100% believe that celebrating those small wins, is what motivates our kids to make the big wins. And if you really think about it, the same is true for you and I. People long to be validated. To be told “You’re doing a great job,” “I believe in you,” or “You can do it!”

“Mommy, did you see that!?” 

I meet a lot of parents who are great at telling their children what they are doing wrong, but seldom celebrate what they are dong right. Then they wonder why their children don’t seem to be motivated to ever do anything great (I’ve worked with a lot of teenagers and their parents.) There were a lot of days where Noah tried to put the ball in the ramp, and was unsuccessful. And Guess what? If you would have walked by our house on any one of those days you would have thought we were watching the Superbowl the way we were cheering him on. We weren’t cheering because he didn’t do it right; we were cheering him on because he made a step towards doing it right….and want to be the kind of family that celebrates each step.

So today, no matter how hectic it is, I want to encourage you to catch your children doing something good…and tell them about it. Deal?

What’s the last thing you’ve celebrated with your child? Have they mastered a new toy lately? Tell me about it in the comments, I want to celebrate with you!