Toddler Logic

One of the most fun parts of having a small child is watching him learn and start to make sense of the things around him. One day Jacob took a tortilla chip and held it up on the wall. He would let go, watch it drop, pick it up, and hold it up to the wall again. Over and over again. He was fascinated by it and I was fascinated by him. Of course, this exploration sometimes leads to messes - such as when he got the pepper out of the cabinet, poured it on the floor and drew pictures in it with his fingers - but such is life.

Now that he is a pro at getting up and down the stairs he has decided that he is ready to walk up and down the stairs like a grown up. So he's been practicing. We went to the Y where they have a mat that is maybe two inches thick. He stepped up on the mat, took a step, turned around, stepped down off of the mat...repeatedly for 5 minutes. While he can lift his foot up to the next step, he doesn't have the balance or strength to actually step up but if I hold both of his hands he has no problems. Going down is still a little scary but more than once he has gotten to the last step and decided to step off of it by himself and landed on his face. Luckily, he hasn't had the nerve to try it from the top step but it's only a matter of time.

He's also getting very good at communicating, despite his lack of actual words. I was impressed the other night when we were cuddling in the rocking chair in his room (it was actually 3am but who's keeping track). He had his Gloworm and wanted it to play a song. He knows, in theory, where you are supposed to press to start the music but he wasn't quite getting it. So he grabbed my hand, put it on the Gloworm, and pressed my hand.

The best though was when we went to a Super Bowl party yesterday. There was a lot of food at the party and, of course, Jacob loves food. In fact, he even enjoyed the gumbo and the jambalaya. Much of the food was on the coffee table which put it at perfect Jacob level. Throughout the afternoon he would walk over to the table and stand with his hand hovering over the bowl of chips. He would look at me and nod. If I nodded, he took a chip. If I shook my head no, his hand would move over the king cake and he would look at me and nod. I always shook my head no to the cake though he did share some of mine. But he would move around the table that way until he got a snack. He had so much fun with everyone that we didn't even need the toys we brought. He really didn't like it when people would put beads on him, but as you can see he felt much better about them when it was on his own terms.