Toddlers are like Nintendo Games.
You learn to play their games, what words they know, how to communicate with them, and try to make it through the levels without losing a life (or getting poop on you, like I did last week).
Like for instance – you know if you say “do you want to eat?”, that no matter how much she was ignoring you, she will stop, drop whatever she has, run to you, and say, “EEEEEEEAT!! HUNGRY!!!”. It’s as powerful as having the fireballs in Mario (which I much prefer to the feather – I know – we play too many video games to be parents. But the Wii is just so much fun!)
But sometimes, accidentally, you happen upon a secret level that you had no idea existed, and its an “AHHH!!” moment.
I had one of these the other day, which is where my off the wall Nintendo analogy came from.
I had just finished running up the stairs for the 67th time for the day, and I picked up Ali, and a bit dramatically, I started panting to showcase my exhaustion. She looked at me, smiled really big, and said, “Puppies!!!” and started panting right along with me.
Then it hit me that she must have learned that puppies say “heh heh heh” (with their tongues hanging out, of course) the last time that she was at Gramamma’s (where there are still 6 adorable puppies left, by the way).
These moments don’t happen to me much since I am pretty much with her for her every waking moment, but it never fails to catch me off guard and thrill me when it does. But when other people are interacting with her, they get to discover “hidden levels” left and right, hopefully without losing a life, or getting pooped on.
Hopefully this analogy wasn’t quite as hard to understand as Chris’ infamous “Onion of Purity” analogy.
Maybe it’s still my slight fever talking.
I love those moments where something finally clicks in there little brain and you realize that things you say over and over is helping them to learn and process things. It makes it all worth it:)
Onion of Purity analogy? I haven’t heard that one. :)
Those are neat moments. We had one the other day – when the babysitter was here. I have been trying to help Harris and David not be so afraid during storms by explaining that God is in control of the storms and I pray with them that He will keep us safe. So when the babysitter was there, a storm came up. David suddenly stopped what he was doing and said, “A storm! We need to pray. And proceeded to say his own prayer asking God to keep them safe during the storm and to not be afraid.” Catie told me about it when we got home from our date. It was too sweet.
I haven’t heard about the onion of purity either, but I think I can figure it out. There are levels/layers of purity. The outer ones seem superficial. But the more layers you pull off, the more you are compromising what makes up the onion, until you have nothing left. Am I even close, or is that sleep-deprived mumbo-jumbo?
That’s great about the storms! Ali and I always clap and say “YAY GOD!” whenever there’s loud thunder. Works so far. :)
Not QUITE right on the Onion of Purity, but close. That’ll have to be another blog for another day. I’ve already reached my limit of three for today. I really try to keep it down to two a day, or even ONE so as not to overwhelm my readers with my voluminousness.