Little Miss April

Ok, so my cousin April is totally going to hate me for this, but it's too funny not to share. For those of you not familiar with my family, I grew up with my cousins living across the street from my family, and since April--the oldest--is only six months younger than I am, we inevitably were each other's playmates.

For those of you that don't know her or haven't heard stories about her growing up, she was always a bit mischievous and VERY curious, always dabbling in the unexpected. Like the time I discovered her toothpaste-and-toilet paper sculptures drying on her bathroom windowsill. (A very interesting medium worth trying for any artists out there.) She was always enamored with candle wax and the different shapes and forms you could melt a candle into or what wax would do when poured into different mediums. Like the time she poured the candle wax into the toilet at my house. Why? Who knows! Fast forward 15 years, and we now know she was fine tuning her scientific discovery skills for her life-saving job as an ER nurse practitioner.

I say all this to explain, I think it's strange and unique that I see so much of my cousin's personality in my daughter. I mean, my child is as curious as it comes. Like April, she has no real interest in toys...only the real thing will suffice. (Check out my last blog for some prime examples.) She doesn't name her baby dolls because well, they're not real are they? So the name Baby Doll will do just fine. When she's awake, she NEVER STOPS, and her attention span for something she really could care less about is less than 10 seconds. She must always be the center of attention, and must always be in constant interaction with others in the room. There is no such thing as playing quietly or playing by herself, but especially not both at the same time. Her fascination with all things technology related promises to be VERY expensive in the future, and you never quite know what is going to happen when you leave her alone and things get quiet.

Tell me if this is normal!!! .... The other day I left her downstairs watching her Barney video, like usual, while I put Weston down for his morning nap. I come downstairs expecting her to be laying on the floor like she always is when she is no where to be found. I call her name, to no response, when my eye catches hers from across the room. She is now frozen in position, about to climb down from her booster seat. The look on her face is VERY apprehensive. It's obvious she's waiting to see if she's about to get in trouble. My eye then rests on the filleted Gogurt package laying in front of her, and my jaw drops in amazement. Let me see if I can paint this picture.

While I was putting Weston down for a nap....1) Savannah decided she was hungry and needed a snack. 2)She goes to the freezer (which is on the bottom of our refrigerator) and fishes out a frozen Gogurt. (Which by the way, is an excellent snack--much healthier than a frozen push-pop and not messy at all compared to serving it in its unfrozen state.) 3.) Now faced with the dilemma of opening the Gogurt, she goes to her coloring basket and retrieves her scissors. (These are safe scissors that the two of us have used together on many occasions, and I have full confidence in her scissor-using abilities, or they would not have been stored in a place she could reach.) 4.) She snips off the end of the Gogurt, but is unable to actually push up the frozen yogurt that is inside. (I even have to run it under water for a few seconds before I am able to push it up.) 5.) She pulls a stool over to our silverware drawer and fishes out a fork. (What made her decide to do this? I have no idea.) 6.) She then uses the fork to fillet open the Gogurt down the seem of the plastic packaging on the side, so she in turn is able to dig out the yogurt with her hands and eat it. All while managing not to really make a mess, AND she ate it in the kitchen at her seat at the table.

Seriously?!?!?!?!?! I taught sixth graders that didn't have these kind of problem solving skills!!! So, I'm thinking that if April turned out to be a nurse practitioner, I may have a future surgeon on my hands=) Any suggestions for how to challenge the mind of a child with such fine, tactile motor skills will be greatly appreciated! Because I'm at a loss.