I Continue to be Amazed

The mind of a child continues to amaze and often baffle me.  How do infants work out the world when they have no language on which to base things?  How do they problem solve to realize that they need to do step one in order to get to step two when they don't understand what it means to make and carry out a plan?

The Munch has made some incredible strides in her abilities these past few days, and it just has me in awe.  In my mind, I know and realize that this is how children develop.  My goodness, I took HOW many classes on this, after all?!  It shouldn't surprise me;  I understand that they spend a lot of time thinking about and processing what they are learning or being shown, but won't show you any of it until it's all percolated through their filters.  But then I see MY child do this, and it's somehow astounding to me.  I've been there day in and day out, watching her, trying to teach or help her, getting rebuffed for my efforts more times than I care to admit--and now suddenly, here she is pulling up on anything and everything she can get her hands on with little to no help from me, cruising around the furniture, exploring what cabinet doors and desk drawers will do, climbing up me or other items to get to places, finally getting on her knees and actually crawling ON them (I was convinced it wasn't gonna happen at this point), and getting up from that to stand on all fours.  Walking is only a heartbeat away.  And I am simply amazed.  At her doctor's appointment only 3 weeks ago, she wasn't doing any of this, and wasn't showing any signs of desire TO do this stuff.

And on top of that, at least one more tooth has sprung, giving us a grand total of at least 9, which is definitely above average for a 13-month kid.  She may have more--the latest one is a front molar, and those are, naturally, much harder to see...

But what really baffles me is the fact that she's done all this with virtually no language with which to think it through.  She knows 'mama,' 'dada,' 'kee-ca' or 'ca' (cat), 'muh' (milk).  Those are the only words she speaks.  I know she understands at least a few others ('no-no,' 'come here,' her name, 'Tigger'--her favorite toy).  How much of course I don't know, but at this stage, she can't understand enough to be able to think, 'hm, I want to get that toy on top of the toy chest.  If I climb this toy next to it, I can then walk over by holding onto the chest to grab that toy.'  She just knows that she can do that.  And I'm loving watching her.

 

Last week, this was all she could pull herself onto, but I think it started something in her mind...

Because look at her now!  All without my help.