Moose loves to mow the lawn. Not for real, of course, but I think he thinks it is for real. He informs me, very seriously, most mornings that he needs to mow the lawn and, despite the mid-40s mornings we've been having, dons his rain boots and jacket and gets down to business.
Each "mowing" session lasts 15 minutes at most. He returns, pink cheeked and excited to show me his work: when the dew is still on the grass, the lines he's made with his toy lawn mower are visible.
"Mom, look what I did!"
I dutifully ooh and aah from several angles (from the window where the above photo was taken; from the patio door).
"Mommy, high five!" It's not really a question. I happily oblige.
If I had to guess, Moose's love language is words of affirmation. There are lots of high fives in our house: after cleaning up toys, after successfully using the potty, after helping burp his sister. He asks for (demands) them and, when he doesn't, I offer them.
And I am learning that by prefacing a request not just with please, but by telling what a good job he did at that request previously, Moose and I butt heads (or antlers) much less frequently. He's still a toddler (or does it make him a preschooler since he's about to turn three?), and a boy, so I still get plenty of "no"s. But when it works, the little extra time it takes to ask him in his "language" is small compared to the effort involved in otherwise doing battle.
The bonus is that I've been getting a lot of "good job, Mom"s from him. Which makes my heart smile, because my love language is words of affirmation, too.
Looking to be uplifted on a Monday? Hop over to Lyida's for more Mindful Mothering Monday stories:
Thanks for this--you've got me thinking about my three year old--words of affirmation do seem to be something he thrives on too. I love it when I get a "good job, Mom"!
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