Moonshine threw up in bed last night. All over the place. So I cleaned her up, cleaned her bed up and set things right for her. She was as chipper as can be for someone who just yakked on herself. At 4 am no less. So I just put her back to bed and threw a towel on the floor next to the bed with instructions to yak on the towel if she needed to yak.
As a child, everytime my mom gave me a towel or a bag or a pan--that was a guarantee that I wouldn't yak. It was anti-yak voodoo. BUT... this morning Moonshine came in my room as chipper as ever to wake me up. I asked if her tummy felt like throwing up and she said it was a little bumpy, but no. She was done throwing up. She already threw up lots of times on that towel.
Huh?
Sure enough I go in there and the towel is a yakking mess! But the bed? Clean as a whistle. Moonshine? Fine and dandy. How on earth? She's 4 and she didn't even get it in her hair! AND she didn't even think to wake us up. How weird is that?! Mind-boggling. Just yesterday she was throwing tantrum after tantrum, which should have been my first clue, and now she has suddenly crossed over into a new plane of maturity where she can yak unassisted and uncomforted. (There goes my job.)
This new maturity continued on into the morning when she sat down on the couch next to me while I was knitting and asked if she could knit. She has asked to knit a dozen times but has never really grasped the concept. Not even finger knitting. But I figured if she could yak unassisted on a towel, sure, she could knit. Why not? Really, the directed yakking trumps a knit stitch every time. So I showed her, again. We said the rhyme:
Of course she doesn't have the stamina to do more than ten stitches in one stretch. She's not going to knit herself a wardrobe or anything. But if she wants to, she can. I'm not going to push her to knit, but I won't say no.
She's so proud of herself today. Proud and capable and not yakking. She's definitely thinking ahead to all the things she might possibly want to knit. In her words:
From there our day has only gotten more interesting.... we discovered raccoons... in our house!
As a child, everytime my mom gave me a towel or a bag or a pan--that was a guarantee that I wouldn't yak. It was anti-yak voodoo. BUT... this morning Moonshine came in my room as chipper as ever to wake me up. I asked if her tummy felt like throwing up and she said it was a little bumpy, but no. She was done throwing up. She already threw up lots of times on that towel.
Huh?
Sure enough I go in there and the towel is a yakking mess! But the bed? Clean as a whistle. Moonshine? Fine and dandy. How on earth? She's 4 and she didn't even get it in her hair! AND she didn't even think to wake us up. How weird is that?! Mind-boggling. Just yesterday she was throwing tantrum after tantrum, which should have been my first clue, and now she has suddenly crossed over into a new plane of maturity where she can yak unassisted and uncomforted. (There goes my job.)
This new maturity continued on into the morning when she sat down on the couch next to me while I was knitting and asked if she could knit. She has asked to knit a dozen times but has never really grasped the concept. Not even finger knitting. But I figured if she could yak unassisted on a towel, sure, she could knit. Why not? Really, the directed yakking trumps a knit stitch every time. So I showed her, again. We said the rhyme:
In through the front door,And she did it! She actually got it! She took my blueberry hat and made stitch after stitch. It was amazing! It was... I was... speechless. She's four. FOUR! And she can knit. This isn't news to anyone a few generations back, surely four year olds could do many things then. But to me this is astounding! This is a huge breakthrough for Moonshine. This is power.
Run around the back.
Out through the window,
And off jumps Jack!
Of course she doesn't have the stamina to do more than ten stitches in one stretch. She's not going to knit herself a wardrobe or anything. But if she wants to, she can. I'm not going to push her to knit, but I won't say no.
She's so proud of herself today. Proud and capable and not yakking. She's definitely thinking ahead to all the things she might possibly want to knit. In her words:
- a doll
- a kilt
- a garbage can
- curtains
- a pretend window
From there our day has only gotten more interesting.... we discovered raccoons... in our house!
Wuie impressive indeed!!! y 3.5 year olduld have not only thrown up all over the bed, but all over me and Dad to boot!!!
ReplyDeleteI cant even knit and Im 35!!!
We often notice how illness can accompany breakthroughs in development. Especially the ones where only the one person gets it.
How fascinating...There are lots of folks out there who say we really need a kind of well supported confusion to learn (like Piaget for instance, Holt, probably Steiner too). How hard that is for us, since most of us hate it when we don't understand...we are so impatient with ourselves. Yet we all know it's true. If we want to learn something, we have to put ourselves in a position where we don't already know the answer.
ReplyDeleteBut then yakkity yak is like the body getting confused in order to grow, and it's like Steiner speaking to us from the grave. The child's mind and body are so intertwined, we need only look at one to see what the other is doing.