Right on schedule

The toddler has learned to count! She's known how to recite the numbers from 1-20 for a long, long time, and she can recognize the written representations of at least 1 - 12. But when asked to count objects, say, a pair of shoes, she'd just point to them over and over and recite numbers until she felt like stopping. (How many shoes? Pointing back and forth from one to the other, "Wan, two, flea, four, five! Five shoes!")

I noticed on Sunday, though, that she's made the transition into real counting -- associating objects with their actual corresponding amounts. She counted the flowers on the baby's shiny black church shoes, pointing to each one only once, stopping at four because there were only four flowers there. She's done it with other things, since. I don't know if a light bulb switched on in her head, or if she's been secretly and gradually getting better at it for a while -- but the fact is, she can count. :-D

Unfortunately, she seems to have stumbled onto another developmental milestone, as well. I've read that children first begin experimenting with lies at around 3 -- their experience with pretend play makes them wonder if they can pretend their way out of trouble. Well, the toddler will be 3 in about a month; she's right on schedule.

She and the baby had a slight altercation yesterday that resulted in a bloody scratch on the baby's face. Although I had a pretty good idea of what transpired, I did what moms do and I asked anyway. "What happened here?" I said, pointing to the baby's scratch.

The toddler avoided my gaze, looking slightly down and to the side, and said, "A shark!"

Yeeeeeaaaaahhh. Sure.

So she's not a very good liar, lol, but I'm guessing she'll get some practice in these next few years....

Hooray for milestones.


~RCH~