Yeah, Me!

I had a conversation with a friend this week about the importance of self-recognition. Too often we rely on the approval of others to feel good about what we've accomplished. What's wrong with approving of ourselves? For me and my Catholic sensibilities, self-congratulation feels like pride--and pride is a sin. But it shouldn't be sinful to motivate yourself through your own appreciation of a job well done.

It's definitely not sinful when a two-year-old does it. I was helping our daughter this morning with a huge 24-piece fire truck puzzle. As she was assembling first the wheels and then the ladder, I was encouraging her with good-mommy comments like, "That's it!" and "There you go!" I must have started slacking on the job, though, because after she fitted the front of the truck's cab in place, she said, "That's right! Yeah, me!"

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all say, "Yeah, me!" and believe it?

Other points of note from today:

- For those of you following our daughter's rock-collecting habits, she garnered two more from the post office today along with two from in front of big brother's preschool. I'm not sure what this means. Is she a kleptomaniac, or is she simply documenting her travels with these souvenirs?

- Child #1 told us a joke at dinner tonight. It went like this:

"Why did the clown...why did the clown...(long pause; looks at Daddy dumping the last of his Negra Modelo from the bottle into a pilsner glass)...why did the clown pour BEER on his foot?"

His punchline? "Because he wanted to make a flower!" And then he went wild laughing at himself.