…and the winner is…

As a parent, it is incredible to me to see how strongly certain things are imprinted on my kids from the earliest of ages. My oldest would not even utter “A-B-C” until one day in the car he belted out the whole song perfectly. Since he was one, he has waited to try things until he knows he will get them right.

Things I noticed about my kids as babies and toddlers are still the things I see in them now…only more pronounced and refined. My oldest daughter is a giver. She speaks and receives love through the giving of gifts. It doesn’t matter what the gift is – just simply that there is a gift to give or receive.

After Be Crafty, I had her write a little entry in her journal. I would have written about the paint, the glue or the making of crafts. The one thing that stood out to her was that she got to give all the girls gifts (swag bags & giveaways).

“We had gifts for the garls (girls).”

At the end of each workshop, she helped pick and pass out giveaways. Each attendee had a ticket that matched one being pulled from a bowl to pick the winner. She’s been doing pretend giveaways ever since. In fact, Sunday morning (the day after Be Crafty) she woke Chris and I up early by bringing us prizes we won (boxes full of her random stuff). Amanda left her some tickets behind – the giveaway train will being going strong around here for a while.

One of the exciting and challenging parts of parenting for me is learning to recognize the different ways each of my kids ‘speak’ love and learning to speak in those ways to them. Giving gifts is not my natural bent. However, I’m learning how to speak that language in the most simple and more extravagant ways. I’m learning to remember that it isn’t so much what the gift is that matters to her as much as the act of having something special just for her and/or my excitement when she presents me with a special token of her love.

I think I need to host a giveaway and pull out her winning ticket next.