You Can Do It!

Ben's new hobby is jumping on the bed. At first, he wasn't able to get up; we'd have to plop him down in the middle. I started encouraging him to climb up on his own. "You can do it," I told him. Even though it would have been quicker to help him, I watched him struggle. Vertical motion has never been his strong point, which was fine with me for a while--I've never found him standing in the windowsill, for example. But it's time for him to push himself instead of always turning to us for help. Now, most of the time he can climb up on our bed on his own.

Today we went to a new park, one with a rock-climbing wall about as tall as I am. Ben wanted to try it. He needed a hand at one point. I heard him say to himself, "You can do it." At the top, he grinned and went down the slide. By the end of the morning, he climbed the wall by himself.

It heartened me to hear Ben repeating my words. I felt a flicker of hope that maybe the words we say to him do make a difference. In my sentimental mother heart, I hope that it's not just parroting, and he'll carry our encouragement with him as he moves out into the world.

Photo by gisarah on flickr.com.