She is two months shy of three. I haven't tried teaching her anything yet. She's always one step ahead of my expectations, so I end up just always being surprised by what she already knows. I think we all have similar feelings about one or more of our kids. (Yeah- so far the twins are hitting milestones on a nice, relatively slow schedule.)
We call her to dinner. "Just a minute, mommy. Let me get to the point. Okay, now I'm coming!" Hee hee (okay that's the opposite of what I'm trying to illustrate here, but it makes me laugh when she uses phrases without having a clue as to what they mean.)
After showing her a few pointers on buttoning a shirt: (imagine a suck-uppy sappy voice) "Thank you. Thank you for teaching me, mommy." *blink blink* *waiting-for-you to-gush-over-what-a-cute-thing-I-just-said face*
We stopped at each place once, and the next time we drove by: "Look- Dairy Queen!"
"Look- Applebees!"
"It's Bob Evans!"
Every week: "Meijer! We're at the store! We like Meijer."
"Walmart? We don't like Walmart! I want to go to Meijer." She closes her eyes, purses her lips, and nods thoughtfully. "Don't you want to go to Meijer, Mommy?" (that was the day we got the stickers.)
My favorite: You know how you're trying to make dinner, and your kid is pulling on your pant-leg and whining to come do a puzzle with them? I'll try and show her how fun it could be to play "duck, duck, goose" with the babies, we both get frustrated, and she usually ends up in time-out for playing "whack, whack, yell" at the babies. I showed her one morning how to go from the desktop to PBSkids.org. She has done it every day since. Now I'm like- "Why don't you go play on PBSkids?" And once on there, she navigates the site and succesfully plays every game she comes across. (Including Rosita's Spanish recognition game, we discovered the other day, "Look! I found the sol!") And I am completely liberated to stir my macaroni and cheese in guilt-free peace.
Not my favorite: she knows how to plug in her CD player, start the music, and skip forward to her favorite songs. She does know to keep the babies away from the plug if they head for it, but again- not my favorite.
She finished learning her upper ABC's around 20 months, lower-case around 2 and a half. Now she's teaching herself to sign the alphabet- by asking me. She loves to sign her name. She loves to write her name. She loves to read her name. (She loved it when Pizza Hut advertised "Pizza Mia," for that matter ;-)
What's even more amazing is that she's not even that amazing these days.
Is it just me or does each generation trump the next just a little bit? I'm just amazed by the things I hear kids accomplishing so young. Either kids are getting smarter, or our expectations have just gotten lower- but I can't help but be surprised by every new thing she comes up with. I don't know which is stronger- the joy I feel witnessing her desire to improve herself and accomplish things, or the worry I feel that I might ever do (or not do) something to hold her back. I know it's early. But it's like an origin point, you know? Just because she hasn't traveled far down a path doesn't mean she's not on one. Until she turned two, it was more like dealing with the responsibilities of an animal trainer. Feed her, keep her healthy, keep her feeling happy and secure. But now I think I'm feeling the weight of true parenthood for the first time.
What a long row to hoe- off we go!
3 comments:
Meanwhile, my kid can't even keep her attention long enough to learn what "float" and "sink" means. And she still has problems with her colors. Geez...my kid's stupid.
I almost don't know how to respond to this post, since the 'weight of parenthood' seems to be crushing me some days. :-S
She's so beautiful. :-) And sounds like she's extra smart. I love to be amazed by my children, and I love the way they light up when a concept is finally grasped. I'm such a sucker for outside approval, that when they do something I've been trying to teach them, without prodding, it kinda makes me feel like I'm doing something right.
I really enjoyed reading this post. :-)
PBSkids.org has saved me many a day. I love that I feel my kids are getting an education while they click that mouse around. Webkinz, on the other hand....
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