Monday, March 9, 2009

Cheese and paperclips


Jason is getting some stuff ready for eBay. There's a cast iron wok that I thought we had no use for, but apparently it makes a great toddler seat. I told Jackson I was going to take his picture. He put on his best Cheshire grin and said, "Cheee-eese".


I have a jar of paperclips. It's a mixed jar collected over the years--different sizes and colors. Jackson has been playing with it this week. He's been carrying around clips on a little saucer and moving them around. Yesterday, I noticed that all the clips on the saucer are metallic, and all of the clips in the bottom of the storage container are colored and plastic coated.

This is big news!!! First, its a milestone to sort things. Sorting blocks by shape is expected--toymakers go to some effort and expense to market shape sorters. However, this is a bigger milestone. First, there's no marketing involved. It's more a matter of covert sneaking off with the paperclips when no one was looking. Second, there was no prompt. No, "See this is a blue triangle with 3 sides--let's put it in the blue triangle hole with 3 sides. Oh no, it doesn't fit in the orange circle hole, try again." Jackson found the clips himself, made them into a toy, segregated them by type, and plays with them one pile at a time.

For me, its an even bigger milestone. One that signals that my boy is just like me--that's every parent's dream, right. See, sorting is my particular brand of O.C.D. I'm not a neat freak in anyone's imagination (sorry, Mom), but I do like the items on the shelf to be orderly. I like my closet arranged by season and color. I like my books and spices alphabetical (I let a few of these go in the name of having a career and family).

If I'm really really lucky, this is a signal that my child will be analytical. A sign that he'll think twice before making a decision. Maybe he'll even be a technical person with a slant toward the scientific. A mother can dream, right?

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