Abby Loves "Tattoos"

Sometimes my little girl amazes me with knowledge/skills beyond her age. Abby may not be able to identify a G yet, nor tell me what sound it makes, yet she has problem solving skills that astound us at times. Last December, for example, when I was needing to get into the occupied guest bathroom to get some Tylenol for Esther, I mentioned that I needed the bathroom, and Abby, who I didn't even know had been quietly observing me for several minutes, thought I needed to USE the bathroom. She was quiet for a minute, and then said, "Mommy, you can use the OTHER bathroom."

Another example is last night, at Mexican food, I was calling the waitress, who was a little too far out of earshot to hear me. She looked at me and said, "Mama, you can tell her when she comes back." Time and again, she comes up with ways to solve problems, and yes, I know they are not earthshaking disasters, but nevertheless, there is something, I think, pretty amazing in a 3-year-old who pays attention to the needs of others, not just her own.

I also notice a propensity for architectural/engineering adeptness, which she, obviously, gets from Eric, who has a bachelor's in industrial engineering. Of course, I may be a proud mama and all, but I thought this was pretty amazing. She was playing a game online, where you can build a house, inside and out. She put windows up high; she put flowers on the ground out in front; she put a doghouse in the back. When she put the door on the house, it was not quite level with the bottom of the house, floating just a hair off the ground. I thought, "Wow, that's still pretty good. She knows to put every item where it would usually go." Then, noticing the door wasn't quite right, she repositioned the door and put it even with the bottom of the house, exactly even. Now, I thought this was really something. Of course, I AM her mama, no bias whatsoever! :)

That is, perhaps, why I sometimes forget I'm talking to a 3-year-old. Today Abby announced that she LOVES "tattoos." Looking way down the road, all the way to high school, envisioning my tattoo-covered daughter, I quickly denounced tattoos, saying, "We don't like tattoos." Then, trying to focus on positives, I said, "Now, body stickers are fine, but we don't like tattoos." My daughter who thinks of body stickers AS tattoos, looked a little perplexed at this proclamation.