My youngest brother gave us an ice cream maker for Christmas – it’s meant to be taken on camping trips, because it doesn’t require electricity. We rolled it around the living room floor for 20 minutes several nights ago, and enjoyed the fruits of our labor after with tasty homemade vanilla ice cream.
Apparently, it left quite an impression on Carrie.
Yesterday, she totally skipped her nap, and after letting her chill in her crib – she was playing quite happily for about 2 hours – I brought her back downstairs. She started playing with a spoon and bowl from her tea set, so I asked her if she would like a snack. She carefully put the spoon and bowl in one hand, and started to sign with the other. I was expecting her to sign “eat”, but instead she signed “ice cream”. We had a little talk about how ice cream was a “sometimes food”, and I gave her a couple of more appropriate snack options to choose from, and she was fine with it.
But I was totally floored. I guess because Carrie isn’t verbal yet I haven’t been giving her enough credit about how much she understands and has opinions about. I’m good about giving her choices, like whether she wants a pear or a banana with breakfast, but I hadn’t really expected her to start voicing opinions without being given choices yet. It’s both wonderful and terrifying to realize what a smart little cookie she is. (And cookies, baby girl, are also “sometimes foods”! Even if Mommy was this close -><- to baking a batch this afternoon.)