A little parenting peace

My parents send me a child rearing book, published by Focus on the Family and in that book I came across the idea that I needed to cope with this stage of parenting. Two things: 1. Ella is behaving exactly the way she is suppose to at this age. 2. In response to this behavior, my job is to establish clear authority. No big secrets, but it gave me confidence, security and clarity in this time. Ah, relief. I can manage that. I really don't need exact instructions, just ideas and insights to point me in the right direction. I am handling the frustating things she does so much better now, just having those thoughts in the back of my mind. When I am trying to decide what to do with her, I think of those two things and go from there. I had so much fun watching her today. she found my wallet and unzipped it to find the money. She took me to the kitchen to get her piggy bank down so she could put the money in it. Later, she was playing with some foam stickers. She gathered several rounds ones up and again asked for her piggy bank, to put those into it. She found the cat food container, opened it and put hand fulls of food into their bowls. She is just doing SO much-that we have NOT purposefully taught her. Amazing to see. I am so glad I get to see it all. Chad comes home tonight- within the next few hours. Hurray! I miss him when he is gone. It makes me so thankful to have companionship-and someone to share Ella with.