Sometimes, however, the best thing you can do for your kid is to just follow her lead and let her explore. Today, Isabella followed me out into the back yard when I took our dog out to pee. She went over to a kids water table that had been sitting in the corner of the yard all winter. It was filled with water, dirt, leaves, etc. She then found a broken frisbee, a cup, and a small bucket. She proceeded to use the cup or frisbee to slowly fill the bucket, at which time she would bring the bucket over to another part of the yard and try to convince Ellie (our dog) to drink from it ("Ellie, here's some water for you. You can drink it! Cmon Ellie, drink the water!"), and then Ellie would proceed to paw at the bucket until it would tip over and dump out. At that point, Isabella would laugh, would bring the bucket over to the water table, and would fill it up again. Repeat for 45min or so. I stood there and watched, pretty bored, aware that my role was simply to be there and make sure my kid didn't abuse the dog or get kidnapped. Really, there was nothing else for me to do to make her happy. I kept feeling the urge to get her inside so that we could do something else, but would realize that she was very very happy, and that the best thing I could do was to just be in the moment. One of my big lessons of the last few years has been to let joy happen, not to make it happen. I'm reminded of this lesson, standing in the back yard, as my daughter fills up the bucket and dumps it out, over and over. I'm reminded of how simple life can be when she finds a branch from a tree, turns it into a fishing pole, catches a make believe fish, and hands it to me - "Here you go mommie, here's a fish. You can eat it. Eat it mommie, eat it!". I'm reminded today, yet again, that being a good parent is easiest if you can relax and just be present. Of course, this is a yoga lesson too. Sometimes I'm not sure if parenthood teaches me more about yoga, or if yoga teacheds me more about parenthood. Hmm...
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