Courage

Ella has a book by Bernard Waber entitled Courage. On each of it's 30 or so pages there is one illustration and one sentence that begins... Courage is. Many of them are very sensible, great examples of courage. There are a couple of kooky ones mixed in there too, but we read the book together last night before Ella went to bed. For the last couple of months Ella has been afraid of going to bed at night without her bedside lamp on. One of the better examples that Waber gives in his book is, "Courage is going to bed without a night light." While we were reading the book, because she is a complete girly-girl, Ella fixated on one sentence. "Courage is deciding to have your hair cut." I left her in the bed with the book turned to that page after we said our prayers. Several minutes later as I was cleaning up the kitchen, she yelled down the hall to say, "Mom, I've turned off my night light.... that's courage!" And she had... so now I'm keeping my eyes on all the scissors in the house for fear she'll take this courageousness into her own hands in other ways as well!