Sorting Shoes

This afternoon Chris and John were running an errand and Mary was playing peacefully by herself in the babyproofed kitchen, so I actually sat down in the den to read a book. Joy! I heard Mary playing very busily. I heard pitter pitter pitter, thump! Patter, patter, patter, thump! Back and forth, she was walking and thumping something down. After a while I walked in to check on her. She was playing in the shoe area (where we leave our shoes, by the stairs to the bonus room and the laundry room door), where she loves to spend time organizing. Yet the blue bin that should have been full of the children's shoes was empty.


I turned around to notice that all the children's shoes were in the garbage can:

And Mary was very proud of her handwork. I asked her, "Mary, where do shoes go?" She put another in the garbage can.

I've noticed just in the last few weeks that Mary's receptive language is exploding. She understands me so well! She likes to climb onto the open dishwasher door when I'm washing dishes and I always say, "No climbing, Mary," then set her down (over and over and over again). Well, lately she has begun actually climbing down when I say, "No climbing." When I see signs that Mary is about to have a bowel movement, I say, "Mary, do you need to go potty?" She will turn and walk straight to the bathroom, with me behind her, and sit on the children's potty! (Yes, my friends, that is the product of my doing part-time EC with her since three months old.) Whenever I am leaving the bathroom, I herd the children out and say, "Mary, we're leaving the bathroom now." But lately instead of having to carry her, I notice that she promptly turns her heel and marches out of the bathroom ahead of me. Today I did some tests with statements, such as, "Mary, let's play in the den now," and she'd promptly respond. It's so much fun! That means it is time for me to step up the sign language considerably so that she can communicate to me better.