One afternoon this past week I was sitting on the couch reading a book while Eli watched Sesame Street. He walked over to me and patted my leg and said, “I’m proud of you, Mom.”

I don’t know if he knows what proud means. I wasn’t shocked that he knew the word. We’ve certainly said, “I’m proud of you, Eli” to him often enough. What I was shocked by was how incredibly glad I was that he had this kind of positive thought floating around in his head to draw on.