Problem Solver

I will preface by saying, I am long overdue to post a blog entry. It is Facebook. It consumes my computer time. But I did want a nice record of what Madeline has been up to. So here goes nothing.

Madeline's latest accomplishments have all been related to her problem-solving skills. Here are two examples:

1. Madeline's favorite toy is her Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Tea Set. It comes with a tea pot, 2 purple cups, and a small tray with 3 cakes that fit into it. At first, she just liked to pour the tea. Then she wanted to serve me cake, but just brought me one at a time. After that, she wanted me to choose my own cake and would carefully carry the tray of cakes and present it to me. So this week, I was sitting on the couch and she was in the playroom. I saw that she wanted to bring me tea, but that she really wanted to bring it on a tray. You know what is is like when you see their little wheels turning? Ok, so she looks around the table for a solution. She sees a plate that goes with her kitchen set and turns it upside down. She puts the purple cup on it and carefully carries it to me. I was impressed that she used a object for a different purpose.
2. Madeline glums on to random objects and carries them around (see Elmo posting). Lately, it has been an Elmo shirt. But two days ago, it was a container she found. She wanted to bring it upstairs with her at bath time, but it was too big to crawl with. She was determined....so she put it one step higher and moved it up with each step, always keeping it one above her.

She has also been busy learning new words and skills. She has been enjoying counting to 10 (some numbers are better than others). I didn't teach her how, she saw it on her favorite Elmo video (10 is the number of the day). Madeline still loves to sing and considering her parent's terrible voices, she has decent pitch. She has gotten a bit braver--riding on some ride-on toys and even a see-saw. She is obsessed with screens (TV, computer, even camera picture viewer!) and knows all of the Sesame Street characters. Well, at this point she is screaming at me that she wants to see the babies, which in Madeline means she wants to watch home movies on our flickr site! See what I mean?!?