Friday, August 24, 2007

Boasting and Bragging

L. has been working on some new skills over the last few weeks. Lately she has been fostering an obsession with a particular coloring and activity book, and devotes a good hour or two a day to it.
She gets me to read the instructions and to some she'll say, "That's too hard" (it usually is, for her), but with others she'll work diligently to complete the whole page. She is good at finding pairs and circling them, at matching activities, finding opposites, counting items and then circling the appropriate number, and she even understands the concept of rhyming. Good girl.
She also loves to read and identify letters, and has recently started to express interest in writing. Today we went to the beach with our neighbor and they were practicing writing letters, and their names, in the sand at one point. I interrupted so I could chat with our friend and then looked over my shoulder to see that L. had written out "MOM" clear as can be!
And then, this afternoon, as we walked back towards our apartment after visiting with another neighbor, I handed the keys to L. so that she could help me open the door. She has been practicing and has almost got it (if I lift her up to reach, of course). I turned to say hi to someone and turned back to find L. empty-handed. She had very thoughtfully sent the keys through our mailslot.
Sigh. I guess there are some 3-yr. old limits to this child's braininess after all. The lesson: teach her how to spell 'key', but don't let her anywhere near them!

4 comments:

leia said...

Wait. What's the rest of the story?! Did you have to wander the streets until J got home? Call your landlord? Whip out your handy-dandy collapsable fishing pole and magnet lure?

clairesd said...

option c., of course.

Anonymous said...

That's AWESOME! I know mom-types tend to carry around emergency items in their bags (band-aids, wet-wipes, etc), but a collapsable fishing pole and magnet lure?! You're the most prepared mom EVER! By the time I have kids I will have learned so much from you.

Anonymous said...

Nice. C and I just locked ourselves out of our sublet this past weekend -- we were going down to do laundry, and I had what I thought were our current keys, but instead were the keys to the old place. Luckily the super was just getting home and we caught him within 10 minutes of our silliness; otherwise it might be a little weird to have introduced ourselves to our new temporary neighbors by saying "Hey, I'm Billy -- I know you've never met me or even seen me before, but do you mind if I come in to your apartment and crawl down into the apartment below it via the fire escape?"