Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Cuteness and Development


A sampling of vignettes from the daily adventures of Mihret, who turns 2 on Jan. 28, 2009:

The scene: Walgreens, during what should be the kiddo’s dinner time, only we need to pick up some medications.

The problem: The folks at Walgreens have tried to substitute a generic for Kara’s meds, which is a big no-no. We have been running around doing nothing for fifteen minutes, and the wee one is bored.

Finally, we get paged.

I walk over to the medication dispensing section of the store, and wait in line. Again.

We get to the front of the line, and I start paying for the medication.

Another woman behind the counter sees that Mihret is a bit fussy, and hands her a coloring book.

Mihret: Color book!

She takes the book and starts to flip through the pages, as though she were reading People magazine.

Woman Behind the Counter: Um… how old is she?

Me: 17 months.

Woman Behind the Counter: Uh…

Me: Yes, I know. She’s very smart.

##

The scene: Culver’s restaurant. Mihret has gotten tired of sitting her seat because she is done eating, so we put her on the booth’s bench with us. Mihret proceeds to look over the back of the bench, where other people are eating.

A woman turns around and sees Mihret:

Woman: Hello.

Mihret: Hello.

Woman: Who are you?

Mihret: Mihret!

My mom, who is sitting across the booth from me and Kara, physically demonstrates that she is shocked by Mihret’s ability to self-identify.

My Mom: I didn’t know she could do that.

Me: I didn’t either.

##

Mihret has slowly been learning how to string sentences together. These can be hilariously random.

The one that cracks me up every time is when Mihret walks up to me, points at my feet, and announces: Daddy, shoes on!

Mostly because I wonder why it’s so important that she has to point it out. Who is she telling? I know my shoes are on. Perhaps she’s letting me know that she knows?

##

Recently, Mihret has started pulling her shoes off in the car. At first, I thought it was because of the kind of shoe she was wearing – some white patent leather things that can easily be slipped off.

But then she started doing it with her sneakers, which are pretty firmly Velcroed.

Once, while we were sitting and waiting at a stop light, I discovered that both of her shoes and socks were off – a habit I hope she gets out of before winter fully hits around here.

I reached an arm back and twitched my fingers over her feet until she giggled. “Tickle toes!” I said.

For about a week, our little one kept pulling off her shoes and socks. At which point, she would, without fail, cry out, “Tickle toes!” until I got to a light and could perform the magical act of toe tickling.

##

Back when walking was still a kind of new trick in Mihret’s arsenal, a friend of mine called her not-yet-two daughter over.

“Watch this,” she said. She took her little one by the hands and said, “Jump! Jump!” and her daughter dutifully leapt into the air.

“Did you see that?” said my friend. “She actually jumps with both feet off the floor. That’s a really big deal.”

“Oh,” I said. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.”

Last weekend, my daughter started jumping in the air, taking both feet off the ground. She wasn’t being supported by me, or Kara, or any furniture. She was just jumping in the middle of the room.

##

I am starting to suspect that Kara and I might spend a little too much time on the computer.

If the computer is off, Mihret isn’t all that interested in it.

But if the computer is on, she will:

Ask to sit in the computer chair.

Tap on the keyboard, as if she were typing.

Move the mouse around, and click the buttons.

Pick up the nearby phone and say, “Hello!” into it.

I’m considering finding her some work in an office with a reasonably low Words Per Minute typing requirement. I doubt a lot will get done in that office, but it’ll be the friendliest place to work, ever.

##

Mihret is not the world’s greatest shopper, but she does enjoy putting groceries away.

The shopping part is rough because she can’t really do all that much in the shopping cart, and as a bonus, mommy and daddy are constantly putting new and exciting things into the basket behind her and then refusing to let her play with them.

So we try to shop fast, because at the end of the trip, we’ve pretty much devolved into the “let’s scream and see how much it echoes in the big store.”

Home is another matter, though, because we set all the bags on the floor and let Mihret take things out and hand them to us.

If she knows what something is, she’ll identify it. Which is hilarious, because we’ll be standing by a cupboard, putting something away, and suddenly hear, “Yogurt!” and have to turn around and take the yogurt from her and put it in the fridge.

The only flaw in this plan came to light when Mihret couldn’t identify a few things. Kara kept saying, “Thanks, honey,” every time Mihret would give her something. So unidentified objects became, “Honey!”

-Josh

1 comment:

Melissa said...

We LOVED seeing you guys last night. I can not believe how quickly Mihert is growing up. I will have to have her teach Micah a thing or 2 when he gets home... I love that everytime she sees me she says Puppy! I am hoping it is because she remembers Pepe, otherwise I will have to work on not looking like a puppy :-) ~Melissa