Toddler moments

How about some more Kathleen observations?

Kathleen has taken it upon herself to guide me, physically guide me. If she’s standing in the hallway outside her bedroom, she’ll look at me and hold out her hand. I take it, and she leads me to where she wants me to go. She did it to me this morning at work, too. I’ve already mentioned (twice, I think) how she likes to turn me around in the kitchen to face her when I’m not paying enough attention because she wants me to pick her up. She’s quickly grasping the concept of communicating her wants and manipulating people to get them fulfilled. It’s a mind-boggling thing when you remember how helpless she was just one year ago.

Baby girl knows – or thinks she knows – how to use a camera. I was taking a video of her pointing to her belly last night. She toddled up to me when she saw the camera. I have a wonderful shot of her grabbing it and pulling it over and over again toward her face. I finally understood what she was doing several minutes later after letting her walk around with it through the house (keeping a very close eye on her so she didn’t break it, of course). She would hold it up to her face for a few seconds while looking at something, comment, turn away, and do it again with something else. Our little shutterbug! We’ll have to buy one of those working digital cameras for kids when she’s a little older. Maybe one for Christmas will be in order.

On the food scene, Kathleen is very definite when she’s nearing the end of the meal. Let me rephrase that: she’s very definite when she’s nearing the end of her meal. We’re usually still eating, having a developed a preference for taking more than two or three bites before signaling we’re done.

When she’s losing interest in her food, she dumps the plate. She may dump it on her tray, or she may decide to make Sadie a happy puppy and dump it on the floor. I understand that this is a part of toddlerhood – this is part of learning how to eat – but it does get old when you’re picking mashed peas off the floor before they dry and adhere to the linoleum with the strength of superglue. I suppose it was with remarkable foresight that we selected a mat, green pattern great for camouflaging the unwanted remnants of a toddler’s meal.

The process for unloading unwanted crunchy munchies such as Cheerios or puffs is slightly different. She will dump said munchies on to the floor as usual. Once we finally set her free from the confines of the chair, she’ll toddle around the kitchen. She will hear a crunch under foot as she inevitably steps on a crunchy munchy. This will please her sensibilities so much that she’ll start stomping on them. As she’s into wearing her sneakers 24 x 7 nowadays, you can imagine what a terrible mess this makes.

Am I complaining? No, let me make that plain. But I wouldn’t be a parent if I didn’t gleefully relate the handful our crunchy munchy crusher has become. I can’t wait until I can tell her these stories when she’s older. After all, mom is all too happy to relate the story of the time my brother and I got up in the middle of the night and dumped syrup all over ourselves and the kitchen. It’s my turn to pass on the tradition.