I Make You Happy!

Elliot and I have been talking about happy and sad lately. I've tried to explain that when he takes toys away from the dog, it makes him sad, but when he throws a ball for the dog, it makes him happy. When he's grumpy and tells me "no!" it makes me sad, but when he hugs me and says, "please" it makes me happy. Typical parent stuff, yeah.

So the other day I had left him to color in his new coloring book while I did some stuff around the house. He was at his train table, home to many toys and blocks, among them his favorite set of alphabet blocks, which are embossed colored letters on a light wood background.

Or at least they were.

After leaving him alone for about 20 minutes, I returned to the table to find him very hard at work:

The blocks no longer have light backgrounds. They now all have orange backgrounds, some messier than others. As I looked down at his very precise and thorough job of altering his toys, I couldn't help but laugh a little, despite having clearly communicated the rule: we only draw on paper, nothing else. This was not paper. . . But before I could put on my stern mommy face, he looked up can caught me smiling.

His face lit up, and grinning, he said, "I make you happy!"

He threw his arms open for a hug, and what could I do? "Yes," I said, "you make me very happy."

After making him help clean up the marker that had strayed on the tabletop and his non-alphabet blocks, I reminded him again of the rule: we only draw on paper and letter blocks. Nothing else.