True tales of the wonder toddler.

[rivka]

Alex "finished" her dinner long before Michael and I did tonight, so I got one of her favorite books to keep her occupied at the table while we ate. It's a typical sort of alphabet book, where each page has multiple photos of objects beginning with the target letter.

Alex opened it up to A. She looked over the array of photos and brought her finger down on the avocado.

"You can eat this," she remarked conversationally.

"Is there anything else you can eat?" I asked her.

She pointed swiftly at the apples. "You can eat the red apple, but not the green one." Then she moved her finger to the abacus. "I can play with this."

Michael and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows.

"Is there anything here you can ride on?" I asked.

"How about the airplane? ...And the ambulance."

That's how it went for page after page. She slotted objects into categories and matched them with their functions. She even spontaneously linked the shovel and the sand castle from opposite sides of the S page, pointing out that "you can dig the sand castle with the shovel."

This doesn't sound like as much of a big deal now that I'm trying to explain it. But Michael and I had no idea that she could be so... analytical.

---

She's been doing a lot of problem-solving for book characters, lately. It's very sweet. We love Sandra Boynton's somewhat cruel story of social exclusion, But Not the Hippopotamus. ("A cat and two rats are trying on hats - but not the hippopotamus. A moose and a goose together have juice - but not the hippopotamus. A bear and a hare have been to the fair - but not the hippopotamus.") On every page, Alex has a way for the hippopotamus to join in. "Hippopotamus have the green hat." "Hippopotamus just have a tiny sip of juice." "Bear feeds the hippopotamus ice cream." At the triumphant conclusion ("But YES the hippopotamus! ...But not the armadillo."), Alex recommends sympathetically, "Armadillo go home and see his mama."

Similarly, we can't get through a telling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (a story that I recite at least ten times a week) without Alex's additions: Mama Bear makes some more porridge for Baby Bear, and Papa Bear fixes Baby Bear's chair. Apparently, it bothers her to hear about Baby Bear's suffering, when the fix is just so obvious.

---

Manners have made a huge resurgence lately, after pretty much vanishing for months and months. It's "Bless you, Mama," when I sneeze, and "We watch a little Sesame Street, please?" (At least, the first time she asks - if we refuse, the second time carries the threat of nuclear meltdown behind it.)

It is juuuust slightly less maddening that she refuses to eat more than two bites of dinner when, instead of yelling "no" and pushing her plate away, she drawls, "Ohhh, no thank you. I've had enough."

But only slightly.

Comments

[aloha-moira.livejournal.com]

Why can't you eat the green apple? Granny Smiths are delicious! :)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who has worked with countless children Alex's age, that level of analysis, especially as it was initially unprompted, and the way in which she verbalized it, is amazing.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

That was kind of our impression, too. But you know that parents tend to be roundly mocked for having delusions of child genius.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

There's a book called "And the Gnu Blew" in which various animals do various things while the gnu blew, and the gnu ends up inflating a hot air balloon and sailing off in it. In that, the armadillo used it for a pillow.

If you can find it from this pathetic description (we had it out of the library), I think Alex might be just the right age for it.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's The Grumpalump (http://www.amazon.com/Grumpalump-Sarah-Hayes/dp/0618040331)?

Sadly, our library hasn't got it. We'll have to look around for it.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

She is an amazing little girl.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

For a while, Sarah had to hear the Three Bears every night. I was okay with that, more or less, because I could deliver it. The last line, every night, was "And they had to make Baby Bear a new chair." I couldn't leave the loose end.

Sometimes Sarah eats a whole meal, and we're amazed. She mostly just draws energy through the air, draining it directly from us.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Alex also demands, and gets, Goldilocks fanfic in which she occurs as a major character. Sometimes the stories about Goldilocks and Alex (Alex convinces Goldilocks to wait outside the three bears' house until they come home, and then ask for some porridge), but more often, Alex and Baby Bear go on long adventures together. Her appetite for these stories are endless.

She mostly just draws energy through the air, draining it directly from us.

That would actually explain a lot.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

For a while, we had this Three Pigs thing going, where she'd say she wanted a Three Pigs story and I'd make up a new Three Pigs story. I had them going on a picnic, celebrating a birthday, taking a drive, whatever. After a while, she would ask for a particular theme.

But lately, it's been the Little Golden Books versions of Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" and "Aladdin." She surprised me last night by only listening to SB and not going on to the other. Must have been tired.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

I have to make up Dora and Diego stories starring Liam every single night. Fortunately, he doesn't mind reruns. I've never thought of it as fanfic, though. Funny.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

In the grocery store last week, a little girl pointed up to a Dora balloon and said something excitedly in Spanish I couldn't understand. Her mother looked up, but didn't seem to recognize Dora and pulled the girl along.

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

How interesting. I always thought of But Not the Hippopatamus as a story about shyness, not exclusion. That the hippopatamus had been invited, but declined. Because when the hippopatamus does join in, everyone looks happy.

er. One must do something with the brain while reading these things.

For my next trick: body acceptance and nudity taboos in The Bellybutton Book.

And go, Alex.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

One of my old housemates insisted that it was a metacommentary on the way in which animals who are easily rhymed get preferential inclusion in children's books.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Animals who are easily rhymed get preferential inclusion in children's books in general, but hippopotami get preferential inclusion in Boynton's books (see also Hippos Go Berserk). I assume it's because she really, really, really likes to say the word, hippopotamus, and she knows how to draw a hippopotamus in her sleep.

[robyn-r.livejournal.com]

Sandra Boynton's books seem to have a natural cadence for toddlers to put in their own sub-comments inbetween turning pages.

Stacia's copy of "Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs!" has a commentary stream that goes:

Dinosaurs Happy - "Happy Birthday!"
Dinosaurs Sad - "They broke the balloon!"
Dinosaurs Good - "Painting!"
Dinosaurs Bad - "Messy!"
Dinosaurs Weak - "Can't reach it!"
Dinosaurs Strong - "Pick up whole tree"
"Dinosaurs Singing a Dinosaur Song!" (in quite good tune!)
Dinosaurs Cute - "Daddy and Stacia!"
Dinosaurs Not - "Mommy!"
Etc..

These books are boundlessly read at bedtime, and "Pajama Time!" has been a god-send for making bedtime happen! "Birthday Monsters" is just plain wierd!

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you have ever encountered the books by Fred Gwynne (A Chocolate Moose for Dinner, The King Rained, etc), but you should search them out if you haven't. Alex may not be quite old enough for them yet, but they are great fun.

Awe

[tendyl.livejournal.com]

She sounds so cute and wonderful and wicked Smart!