Rachel's so stinkin smart...
Sometimes it's scary. I mean we know she's smart and all, and we're really proud of her, and of the job we've done thusfar as parents, but when it comes back and she shows you, it is a very strange (but good) feeling.
We took Rachel to the Big Brother/Big Sister preparedness class at the hospital the other night. The fact that they even took her into the class should speak for itself, since the class is for ages 3 and up, and Rachel's not even 2 1/2 yet. But, I think anyone who meets her and talks to her for any amount of time can tell that she's a pretty precocious little girl.
So, fast forward to the class on Monday night. We were the first to arrive in the classroom, and Rachel immediately starts talking the instructor's ear off about how she's going to be a big sister, and all of her "new baby" material that she had in her tiny arsenal. Then the other 3 children (all girls - aged 3, 3, and 5) arrived and the class began. The instructor started by going around the room and asking all of the girls to introduce themselves, and then she proceeded to ask each girl what they liked to play with and some other things. Well, it just so happens that the first two girls said they liked dolls, then she asked how many dolls they had. It was nearly identical conversations with both girls, and Rachel didn't appear to be even paying attention. Then she started the same line of questions with Rachel, and when she asked Rachel what she liked to play with (and mind you, it could be ANYTHING, because there's not one thing that she particularly gravitates towards, except books), and Rachel IMMEDIATELY says, almost cutting off the instructor, "I like to play with THREE dolls". Archie and I both looked at each other in amazement :lol: She had apparently gleaned from the previous girls' answers that that was the appropriate toy and thought about how many she had, before she was even asked... without even appearing to pay attention. Oy.
Here's a picture of all the big sisters getting a chance at holding, feeding, and burping:
So then she showed us for the second time in a couple of days. We've been having some issues with our new HD tv lately. We thought they were fixed, but when Archie tried to change some of the cables around the other night, not only did it not work, the old configuration of cables didn't work either, and totally aggrevated Archie. Rachel disappears for a few minutes, and comes back from the front room where we have all of our books, with a pretty big book in her hands. She brought it to Archie, pointing to the picture on the front, saying "You need this Daddy". It was a book that we have on "Small Household Repairs", and the picture she was pointing to, was of a plug being rewired. To my knowledge, we have never shown her that book before, but apparently she knew about it from exploring on her own, and knew it was what Archie needed to fix the TV. Double oy. We certainly can expect to have our hands full with this one for many years to come.
In other news, the bribery system has not been working as well for us as we had hoped. She just doesn't want to go to the bathroom in the toilet, or she just doesn't care when she goes in her pull-up. She CAN totally do it, she just doesn't care. I think the next step will be just putting her in underwear and seeing if she still feels the same way about going in her pants. Its just a matter of figuring out when we want to do this, BB, or AB (Before Baby or After Baby).
We took Rachel to the Big Brother/Big Sister preparedness class at the hospital the other night. The fact that they even took her into the class should speak for itself, since the class is for ages 3 and up, and Rachel's not even 2 1/2 yet. But, I think anyone who meets her and talks to her for any amount of time can tell that she's a pretty precocious little girl.
So, fast forward to the class on Monday night. We were the first to arrive in the classroom, and Rachel immediately starts talking the instructor's ear off about how she's going to be a big sister, and all of her "new baby" material that she had in her tiny arsenal. Then the other 3 children (all girls - aged 3, 3, and 5) arrived and the class began. The instructor started by going around the room and asking all of the girls to introduce themselves, and then she proceeded to ask each girl what they liked to play with and some other things. Well, it just so happens that the first two girls said they liked dolls, then she asked how many dolls they had. It was nearly identical conversations with both girls, and Rachel didn't appear to be even paying attention. Then she started the same line of questions with Rachel, and when she asked Rachel what she liked to play with (and mind you, it could be ANYTHING, because there's not one thing that she particularly gravitates towards, except books), and Rachel IMMEDIATELY says, almost cutting off the instructor, "I like to play with THREE dolls". Archie and I both looked at each other in amazement :lol: She had apparently gleaned from the previous girls' answers that that was the appropriate toy and thought about how many she had, before she was even asked... without even appearing to pay attention. Oy.
Here's a picture of all the big sisters getting a chance at holding, feeding, and burping:
So then she showed us for the second time in a couple of days. We've been having some issues with our new HD tv lately. We thought they were fixed, but when Archie tried to change some of the cables around the other night, not only did it not work, the old configuration of cables didn't work either, and totally aggrevated Archie. Rachel disappears for a few minutes, and comes back from the front room where we have all of our books, with a pretty big book in her hands. She brought it to Archie, pointing to the picture on the front, saying "You need this Daddy". It was a book that we have on "Small Household Repairs", and the picture she was pointing to, was of a plug being rewired. To my knowledge, we have never shown her that book before, but apparently she knew about it from exploring on her own, and knew it was what Archie needed to fix the TV. Double oy. We certainly can expect to have our hands full with this one for many years to come.
In other news, the bribery system has not been working as well for us as we had hoped. She just doesn't want to go to the bathroom in the toilet, or she just doesn't care when she goes in her pull-up. She CAN totally do it, she just doesn't care. I think the next step will be just putting her in underwear and seeing if she still feels the same way about going in her pants. Its just a matter of figuring out when we want to do this, BB, or AB (Before Baby or After Baby).
Well of course she is smart, Martha. Look who her parents are. ;) :D