Counting, Talking, Learning Machine

I can barely keep up with my little girl, nowadays.

I was recently looking back at some of my very first posts on this blog. In this one, Pre-Pre-School Physics, I was marveling at the little mind of my then barely-fifteen-month-old daughter. Those little neurons of hers must have been exploding in activity constantly for the past two years, watching, noting, experimenting, adjusting, confirming… let’s face it, having kids is a closet psychology nerd’s dream.

Even now I get excited most by the inconspicuous milestones. For example, I read once that counting is learned first by rote (memorizing the names of the numbers just like learning the alphabet). Learning what it actually means to count, by understanding how the number names correspond to a specific quantity, comes later.

A few months ago, I think I witnessed Cambrie’s moment of truly learning how to count rather than spouting off memorized numbers. It was amazing. She had learned that holding up her pointer, middle, and ring finger corresponded with “three.” She had also been playing around with fake counting for a while—“counting” without actually matching the words (“one,” “two,” “three,” etc.) with objects. This method was fun for her, but obviously not very accurate.

One day, she told me she was going to count the number of princesses on her princess panties. She fake counted to three while holding up her fingers, then she paused. I watched as she adjusted her three fingers so each was on one of the princesses. Three fingers. Three princesses. !!! She hurried to start counting again, purposefully instead of sloppily and inaccurately, with increased excitement in her voice. “One princess, two princess, three princess. Mommy!! Three princesses!”

I was ecstatic. And, lest I wonder whether that was a fluke, from that day on, every time she’s counted has been with one number per object, purposefully and accurately. She can count.

Here are a few more anecdotes I should record before I find myself blogging that she’s riding a two-wheeler or on the middle school honor roll or feeding an entire third world country. I think this will be best done punctuated with Cambrie’s very own photography. (I delete most of the pictures she takes, but I wanted to save a few. For posterity.)

Daddy on the phone with Grandmommy

Cambrie first used the word “otherwise,” correctly, when she was around two and a half. We were in the car, and she said something to the effect of, “We need to blahblahblah. Otherwise, blahblahblah.” Luckily, we were parked, because I literally stopped what I was doing to stare at her in disbelief.

Other more recent phrases: "I haven't seen _____ in a while." and "At that point, blahblahblah."

Only a select few will recognize this t-shirt from my freshman year in high school. Cambrie likes the big numbers on the back.

My daughter likes broccoli alright. She also likes guacamole sometimes. The benefit to her being exposed to these two foods around the same time? She now calls guacamole “broccamole.” We find this hilarious.

This one is pretty cool! Perhaps she was having a pensive moment.

Though she still whines a bit, Cambrie is much better about going potty. Unfortunately, when she feels #2 a-comin’, she likes to run to the toilet and go without telling anyone, using whatever amount of toilet paper is left on the roll to get herself clean. She then flushes. We find this less hilarious than the whole “broccamole” thing.

Little piggies on the hammock with Grandma.

Cambrie consistently substitutes the word “with” for the word “if.” For example, “Daddy said we could play outside with it stops raining.” She also does all those logically-correct-but-not-really-because-English-is-crazy substitutions that include words like “runned” instead of “ran,” and “buyed” instead of “bought.” This is all fun fun fun for the English nerd in me. (Umm, I'm realizing now that sounded sarcastic--it wasn't.)

Does this remind anyone else of some of the I Spy pictures?  I think it's the lighting.

Within a few fast months Cambrie has gone from circles and lines to full-fledged drawings. I’ve really been startled by how quickly this happens. Here’s a good example of her current work:

Yes, I was a little creeped out when I first saw this.

Okay, any guesses of what this lovely picture might be? I'll give you a hint--it is NOT a mutant panda.

I often ask her to narrate her drawings as she does them, so I know this is the correct interpretation. Now, I am really excited to see how her drawing skills develop. However, I am equally happy that she does not, in fact, look like this.

I don't know that I'll ever get tired of watching her little brain running at a hundred miles an hour. I can already tell it will be just as exciting to witness it all again with James. It won't be long now before I'll be scrambling to keep up with him, too.  ....So, I think I'm off to get my squirmy hugs in while I can.