Convos with JoJo

Jones loves this book; it's called "Even Firefighters Go to the Potty,"
and I bought it to help get Jones excited about, well, going to the potty!
Every time he opens the "door" flaps on the pages, he takes in a
catch breath and says, "He ha- to go take a pahhhh-tty!"

One of the best lessons my dad ever taught me was the importance of admitting when you've made a mistake.

He'd say, "Sometimes, you just have to square your shoulders and say, 'Hey. I messed up.'" Verbatim.

Every time, he'd say that and kinda shrug his shoulders as he did. I can't tell you how well that has served me in life.

Anyway, in trying to pass that ethic on to my boys, I find myself frequently saying, "Mama made a mistake, but it's okay. I'll fix it." I actually explained to Jones a couple of weeks ago that the important things about mistakes are 1) admitting it, and 2) fixing it, so tonite, as we cleaned up the playroom, Jones couldn't get one of the puzzles to sit flush in its little cubby.

He said, "Mama, I made a mistake!"

So I helped him to put the puzzle in right.

As we finished reading at bedtime, I told him to put his book back where it belongs, and he accidentally dropped it on the floor. He then picked it up and put it on the rack.

"I made a mistake," he said, "but I fixed it."

My work here is done.