Sometimes I feel like everything I tell my daughter goes in one ear and out the other. No matter how many times I say don’t blow bubbles in your drink or wash your hands after going potty, Aubrey always seems to need an extra reminder. But my big girl finally showed me that she is growing up, that she really does listen to me once in a while and that she is learning how to make good choices.

Aubrey goes to school until noon, which means I pick her up right around the time she and her classmates are suppose to be watching a movie before nap time. But when I walked into the classroom last week, Aubrey was sitting by herself in the corner of the classroom. At first I was taken back, worried she was in trouble and not allowed to watch the movie. But boy was I wrong.

My daughter had chosen to sit in the reading center with a book rather than watch the movie. She told her teachers she didn’t need to watch a movie and would rather look at a book. All I could think to myself was, really!? I was so proud of my little girl.

Lately, She and I have been talking about how while watching TV is fun, we shouldn’t watch too much. Over the summer she was watching way too many cartoons, to the point where that was all she wanted to do. So I have been really trying to show her how much more fun it is to play rather than sit on the couch. And she listened to me! Even when I didn’t think she heard what I was saying, she was listening.

The whole event really showed me how important it is to always talk to my daughter and let her know how I feel and what I expect from her, even when I think she may not be listening. Of course I told her how proud I was to see her reading a book, so now she always chooses to read a book rather than watch the movie, at school anyway. She does still ask for one cartoon when she gets home. I guess things come with time.