"Mommy, you happy?"

Some of the biggest things as a mom that I try to give Londyn is confidence, acceptance, to show her how to love, and just how big her God is.

Recently Londyn moved into the 2 year old classroom at Preschool. I thought it would be an easy transition for her since her teachers tried so hard to prepare her for the changes and new room. I remember the first week of school day 4 her teacher saying to me "we never give timeouts the first week of school". At that point I knew that Londyn was being a trying 2 year old and that the next few weeks would not go as hoped. Week 2 came and I am pretty sure she had a time out every other day, week 3 and every day was a time out. I was trying to figure out where I had gone wrong with training her and helping her get ready for these big changes. I tried to tell myself that she is just one of the younger students in the group and that is why she is struggling. I tried to tell myself that she is just 2 and these things happened. At the end of week 2 I realized that I was doing no favor by chalking it up to be a young year old behavior. Week 3 we took many things away as a consequence to her behaviors. I believe Dora lived on the shelf for a good 3 days and the little pink phone was up there for a day. Then I began to bribe her with things that really really mattered to her.....painting her toenails, candy, Sprite, and going to the park. It was like one day she woke up and I had my old Londyn back!
I'm not saying that she doesn't have bad days (there are pros and cons to working at the same school as your child), there are a few days that are trying.
Right now we are really trying to teach Londyn that you don't follow everyone else and that you have to make good choices. That is hard for a two year old to understand. Just today I was observing her in the gym and they were teaching the children how to play Two year old "kickball". I watched as one student began rolling on the floor and putting her feet up in the air. As soon as Londyn caught sight of that she began to do the exact same. I quickly responded with "Londyn that is not what you are suppose to be doing right now, you should not follow what your friends are doing". She was quickly back to sitting crisscross applesauce and doing what she was suppose to.
Back to the timeouts. If she has a good day we know because there will be a sticker on her daily sheet. As soon as I grab her papers out of her cubby that is the first thing that I look for and she knows it. Most of the time as soon as she sees me at the end of day she will say "NO TIMEOUTS MOMMY, I GOT A STICKER". There is pure joy in her voice with these words. We make stickers a big deal! Lately I have been saying "Londyn you got a sticker today!" She in return says "You happy mommy?" "Yes girl I am SO happy".
YES!!!! It is in her! She tries so hard to make us happy. For her to know that getting a sticker makes us happy is a beautiful thing it really is. It is even more beautiful to have that joy when my little 2 year old says to me "mommy you happy!" I've got the Joy Joy Joy Joy down in my heart, where? Down in my heart..... I could just break out in song (if you have ever heard me sing you know she should run!)

I want to make sure that my little girl never forgets how proud I am no matter what she is going through. At the end of the day no matter what happens I love her and nothing in this world would change those warm fuzzy feelings I have for her.