cait + create: The Best Buddy Jar

As a baby gift, right before I had Saxon, a good friend of mine gave me a book called,

It's a good book with some great suggestions.

I'll confess though...I didn't read it right away.

As a brand new, first-time mom, I had all the answers already, right?

I already knew how I wanted to do things and was sure that, not withstanding a few bumps in the road, it would all go according to plan.

After a few months, I read the book.

It turns out, I didn't know as much as I thought I did, and a little advice is always useful.

One part of the book that stood out to me is how the author classifies babies:

1. The Angel Baby

2. The Textbook Baby

3. The Touchy Baby

4. The Spirited Baby

5. The Grumpy Baby

It turns out...I have a spirited baby.

Having a "Spirited Baby" has some fun and unique challenges.

How do you rein them in without crushing their spirit?

Here's what happened to us last week:

Saxon's preschool teacher (who we love...she's perfect for Saxon and she loves him) asked to talk to me for a minute because she had some concerns.

Saxon has a strong personality. He is a ringleader. He usually ends up getting what he wants in class because he is assertive. This isn't usually a problem, but Saxon has decided that one boy in class is his "best buddy." One day Saxon came home crying because he didn't get to sit by his "best buddy." He made such a big deal about it, that now, everyday in class, the kids are all fighting to sit by this one boy. Everyone wants to be his best buddy. His teacher said that snack-time is becoming hard because everyone fights to sit by this boy, and most end up crying after. She thinks that Saxon's example has made it "cool" to want to sit by this boy and now everyone is doing exactly what Saxon is doing.

She said that she loves Saxon and his fun little personality, but asked me to talk to him about branching out.

So, I thought about it for a while, and this is what we came up with:

The Best Buddy Jar.

Each day before school, Saxon is going to draw a name from the jar.

That day, he is going to do his best to make that person feel special, be kind to them, and be there best buddy.

He is so excited about this project.

He couldn't sleep last night because he wanted to start right away.

I'm not sure this idea would work with a child who is really introverted because it would seem scary. But for Saxon, my spirited child, I think it will be fun.

Hopefully this will help him branch out and practice using his talents and his personality to be kind and make other kids happy :)

That's the plan anyway...

I'll let you know how it goes :)