Everything I Need To Know I'm Learning From My Two Year Old

We adults like to think we are the font of wisdom. We know best. We sternly chastise our children when they don't eat their vegetables, or act playful instead of sleepy at bedtime. But after the kids are tucked in bed, we sneak into the kitchen and grab a soda and a handful of cookies, then another handful. Then we stay up too late reading or watching tv, and forget to do the dishes. Zoe eats much better than I do. She goes to bed at a reasonable hour. She gets plenty of exercise every day, while I spend most of my waking hours parked in front of a computer or a television.

Zoe, like many toddlers, frequently tries my patience with her antics and delay tactics, and I try to model good behavior by staying calm and helping her see why what I want her to do is really in her best interest.

She is teaching me too, though. I marvel at her artistic freedom when she paints. She has no need to determine form in advance; she just paints. Lines, circles, dots. Hoops that represent jump ropes, then cradles. Smudges that are babies and mommies and daddies, eating other smudges that are cookies and cake and cupcakes and chocolate tea "mixed with some million dollars."

When something doesn't work out--a block tower topples--Zoe laughs and starts again. If she succeeds, she announces that she did a good job.

And she surprises me every day with her wit and observations. At the playground yesterday, after swinging for a long while, Zoe declared, "That was a refreshing swing!"

Lately Zoe has been working on bravery. Things that scare her, like mommy or daddy leaving her room at bedtime or dropping her off at daycare, prompt her to prepare herself by saying "I'm going to be brave and not cry."

Creative freedom, bravery, laughing at failure and trying again -- what better role model could I have than my 2 year old daughter?