K and A, that is. I just love watching them as they experience something new for the first time or as they learn to do something. Lately, A has been practicing standing up without holding on to anything. He will crawl up to me, Jason, or a piece of furniture (yes, I just compared myself and my husband to furniture!), stand there for a moment, and then let go. When he does, he gets a huge grin on his face and plops down on his butt. He is so proud of himself for doing that on his own. It’s so amazing to watch him. K has been experimenting with language and words lately. He has started singing along with us when we sing a few of his favorite songs. He is also using new words on a daily basis. Recently, he has started using “both” and “either.”

I have a friend, who I respect a lot, that said something once that really got me thinking. She said that she had read somewhere that every time you do something for a child, you take away his opportunity to learn it for himself. Now, there are something I obviously want to be a part of my child learning, but other things I want to stand back and let him discover the world on his own. The other thing that she had said that got me thinking was so often we as adults tell kids how to play with particular toys. Sometimes, we tend to get too caught up in the right way to play with something that we forget about letting the child decide what is the right way to play. For example, we have this little duck key chain that Jason’s friend, Harry, gave us. K played with it for a while, and then he got bored with it. That was until he found a new use for it. The duck isn’t just a duck. It has a little button on the side, and when you push it, a light turns on and it quacks. Well, of course, in the mind of a 2 year old, the duck became a camera! As someone who likes rules and likes to do things the “right” way, I never would have thought to tell him it could be used as a camera. He figured that out on his own, and he loves taking our pictures with his duck camera. Maybe he takes after his aunts who are photographers.