Our Little Bee can be quite the ham. She loves to make people smile and laugh. Once she figures out something has made you laugh she will repeat this over and over. Sunglasses make the Little Bee laugh. She has many pairs and she loves to try them on and make funny faces at Mommy and Daddy. I think this tendency towards making people smile is good for so many reasons but one reason stands out a great deal to me - self esteem.
Our little ones get self esteem in the toddler years from their parents. We give them messages all day long about their self-worth in the way that we look at them, what we say, and how we care for them. This is different from babies who don't really have a sense of self yet and thus don't really have self-esteem. We do build the potential for self esteem in babies by loving them and caring for their needs. They learn that they are lovable and worthy of good care. With toddlers it is a bit more complex. They are starting to learn that they are separate people in the world and trying to discover who they are and how they fit into the world. This is why the words "no" and "mine" fly out of the Little Bee's mouth at an alarming frequency. She is telling herself and those around her that she is a separate person who can make decisions and effect the world around her. Oh, how she loves to practice this over and over! 
While I was bathing the Little Bee last night she did something goofy and I smiled at her. She radiated the most beautiful smile back at me and everything I ever learned about self-esteem came flooding back at me. (Probably due to having our whole Sunday School pray for the misadventures of our little one this weekend.) It was a great reminder that I am shaping how she will feel about herself for years to come. It is my job to teach her that she is lovable, precious, worthy of great care, powerful, and a very valuable human. Right now this seems like a doable task, however, it gets more complicated with the "no's" and "mine's". This is why we have two parents. When one parent is exhausted from the Terrific Toddler Tantrums, the other can take over so that our Little Bee grows up learning just how special she is. Love, The Little Bee and her Momma
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