A Dangerous Mind

Sometimes, just for S&Gs, I like to offer a task to Playette for the simple delight of seeing how she'll respond.

I know my kid is bright. I don't care what anyone's random assessment or evaluation says about this percentile or that developmental age, because I know what I know. This kid's cylinders are firing and I love to see them in action.

So, this afternoon, after Playette had completely jacked her shirt up with the remnants of 1-2 bananas (we're still not sure) that she stole off of the kitchen counter and shoved in her mouth faster than we could even notice, I cleaned her up and asked her to go upstairs, pick out another shirt, and put it on.

Sounds simple enough, right?

But this is big. If you have a kid like my kid, I didn't even have to tell you that.

Just so you know, she's not able to say the words I said to her all in a row like that. But I knew that she knew that I said. No question about it. Her receptive language skills are awesome.

And then I waited.

She went upstairs.

Closed her door.

And then a few minutes later, she came down like this.


New pants. Backwards. No shirt. Over the shorts she had on.

I had to laugh.

Honestly, there are times that I get frustrated, sometimes to the point of tears, when she doesn't get something. Or if she's not telling me something that I know she knows. I do let it get to me...sometimes...and usually I kick myself for it afterwards because that has sooo much to do with me and my issues and not her as a person at all.

It's a delicate balance, attempting to keep expectations high, yet realistic. I don't always pull that off perfectly.

But today? It was just funny. And I appreciated what she did know.

She knew to leave me and go upstairs.

When I went up to see if she had destroyed her room in the process, I learned that she knew to go to her closet and open it up.


She knew to grab a new piece of clean clothing from a hanger.


She knew to put the clothing on her body.

She knew to come back to me with a look of beaming pride on her face to show me what she had done.


I really had no idea how she'd come back or even if she would, when I sent her upstairs to get that new shirt. But what I've learned time and time again is that I have to give her the opportunity to impress me. She rises to meet challenges and I think that's the most important thing I need to keep at the forefront of my mind. She won't always get it right away, but what are the chances that she'll ever get it if no one ever expects her to, y'know?

And, by the way, if you're totally amazed at my mad digital art skillz as displayed in that last photo? You're in luck. I'm unemployed and looking for things to do that don't involve cleaning my house or going to doctor's appointments. Hurry though. I expect an onslaught of jobs coming up from this post.