For example, if he’s eating cheerios he and my husband can say, “can we have some cheerios please?” and he’ll feed us.

I know that sounds sort of silly, but it’s just crazy that a year ago this person was so small and helpless, and now he understands sharing and being nice to people. He seems to get such joy out of doing things “right”.

Since I was a teacher before I started to work at home I know a lot about positive reinforcement. While we’re no strangers to saying, “no, don’t touch that!” we focus a lot more on what he does right than what he does wrong.

When he shares, says “dada”, walks long distances, etc. we clap for him and cheer him on. Even though he can’t understand a lot of the things we say, he understands that we’re happy with what he’s doing, which leads him to doing these things more. Plus, it gives us a greate feeling to see his huge smile as we’re cheering him on. Positive reinforcement rocks!

One thing we do need to make sure of is that he learns to interact with other children. Since this is our only child (so far!) and I stay home with him I’m really starting to feel like he is missing something by not being around other kids very much. The problem is that I don’t know of any playgroups or Mommy and Me groups around our area. There are some about an hour away so I’ll have to look into those. Hopefully he’ll be as good at sharing with other kids as he is with us