Seeking Validation — AaronEmery.net

I'll start with a little bit about myself. I'm 32 years old, married my high school sweetheart almost 11 years ago, and we have 2 daughters, 3 and a half, and 8 weeks.

One thing that my 3-year-old has taught me is to not expect validation from her. Just when I think I have nailed it with something for her, she'll respond with, "Ok, can I go watch Barbie?"

Doesn't she know that I spent hours, days, or weeks working on it???

One of the best examples of this was when we found out that our youngest was going to be a baby sister. For weeks, our oldest (Devin) was adamant that she wanted a baby sister. I have told my wife (Abbie) for years that I am going to end up in a house full of girls, but we still had to set the expectation that she might end up with a baby brother. On the day we found out she was in fact a girl, I pulled out my phone to record Devin's reaction when we told her she was going to have a baby sister. When I asked, "Devin, do you want a baby sister or baby brother?"

"Ummmm...brother."

That's what I get for expecting a particular reaction from a 3-year old.

But then sometimes she gives the reaction that we hope for.

In the 8 weeks that we've been home with our youngest (Danica), and a little while before, we've been preparing an extra bedroom in the house for Devin to be her own, brand-new "big girl room."

We scraped the popcorn off of the ceiling and finished it smooth. Side note here - if you have previously covered ceiling popcorn with something like Kilz primer, it becomes immensely more difficult to remove. It was still worth it, but far more work than I had initially expected.

We replaced the cheap "boob light" we had installed when we bought the house with a flush-mount light with some dangling crystals. We painted the walls pink and purple, and put up base trim and crown moulding.

It wasn't a complete surprise, as she had snuck into the room previously and already knew about the light, but needless to say, she loved it. I know this because she started running circles around the room shouting, "I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!!!!"

In addition to all of the work we did on the actual room itself, I am also in the process of building her a farmhouse-style bed, a chest for blankets, and a bookcase (perhaps more to come on those projects in the future). I also made a stuffed-animal zoo, which I think contributed to the "I LOVE IT" reaction.

So, generally speaking, seeking the validation of a 3-year-old will often leave you disappointed; but, those times that they truly appreciate something you've done are hard to beat.

Seemingly countless days/hours fixing the ceiling and installing crown moulding...couldn't care less