Lesson Learned for both of us

I taught my daughter something today, that for some reason, I originally thought was going to be quite the task to do. But Emma is so smart. She catches on so quickly. So far Emma has been able to claim just about anything in the house. I don't really mind if she plays with whatever she wants. We have a few things we don't let her have like the remotes or other electronics, but other than that she has full reign of the house. Blankets and stuffed animals have especially always been something that she has been allowed to have. So, when Jason sent me a build-a-bear for my birthday (it came in the mail today) Emma immediately thought it was hers. I let her hold it for a while, but I was cautious because I really want this bear to be special for me. I plan to cuddle it at night or anytime I'm missing Jason and I really don't want baby drool and other messes all over it. So, I finally decided that I wasn't going to let Emma play with it and I braced myself to spend the rest of the evening teaching her this very thing.
But, it wasn't hard at all. When she reached for it, I told her this was my bear that daddy gave me and here is your owl that daddy gave you. Course the owl never seemed as great because it's not new, but Emma learned quickly and with in a few minutes she new that the bear was mine. I'm sure I'll catch it in her hands from time to time, but the whole situation made me think that Emma would probably learn very quickly in anything I try and teach her. Sometimes I put off training her in something because I think it's going to take me a week and half to instill the new concept to her.
Raising a child of your own sure does tell you a lot about yourself. I never realized how controlling I was until Emma started showing her own signs of being controlling, like not letting Jason open the refrigerator door. I realized she must have learned that from me. I started noticing that even I will keep Jason from going in to the kitchen if I think he'll make too big a mess, ect. I will rather just do it myself. I can not reiterate to myself enough how important it is that I put myself in check each morning and through out the day so that Emma is learning good habits from me.