Toddler Tuesday

I am loving 18 months. All of a sudden Lucy just seems to get so many activities. We've had puzzles around that she could do with quite a bit of help, but now she's a pro. And she now loves matching which opens up tons of activities. She also understands tray work now and will get one tray out then put it up before getting another.

But of course, there always seems to be a directly correlation between the amount of time I spend prepping an activity and the amount of time Lucy spends on it. Example - this one took all of 30 second to arrange, but kept Lucy busy for quite a while.

What is it? Well, if it looks like Lucy is standing on a piece of painters tape stuck to our floor, you would be correct. Although to Lucy, it's a line for her to walk on. It tests her skill and requires deep concentration.

 She did it once then ran off. I thought that was it but she came right back. She just needed some skid-proof socks for better traction, or maybe she was cold :-)

Then of course, baby needed a turn too. 

 Her first line was just a few feet long but at her request, I made it longer and included a corner.

This is a great example of how important timing is and how kids develop at their own pace. This was originally an activity from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready but it was listed as an activity for 1 year 6 weeks (or what normally people would call 13 months). She could walk by then but did not understand the concept of walking on a line at all so I put it aside. Then recently I noticed she was more interested in physical things like walking backwards, spinning, dancing, etc. She could do them before when prompted, but now she spends 30 minutes just figuring out how to make her body move and really seems to enjoy challenging herself to go faster, longer and harder. So we tried it again and voila, fun fun fun! She started "walking on the line" with one foot staying on the line and the other off to the side but after just a few days she started getting both feet to stay on the line.

Another activity that illustrates this is this animal matching game. It's on several other sites so I won't claim it's new but I think my kid is cute, so I'm putting up more pictures of it. It is supposedly a activity for a 2-3 year old but if Lucy is 6 months behind on her line walking, she is 6 months ahead on her animal matching! So I'm learning to ignore the numbers and remember that I know my kid best. Anyway, her is Little Miss matching away:

I took 6 of these cards and put them on a tray with the matching animals that we already had. She could probably handle more but none of the other animals we have match the cards they have. Her animals are her most used toy though so we'll be getting more.

Lucy gets out the tray...

 lays out the cards

 and starts matching

 sometimes she will put the wrong animal on the card, look at us, shake her head no, pick it up and put it down correctly

then she stands back and admires her accomplishment.

*These pictures may or may not have been taken on the same day. The undies + pink socks combo is fairly common round here.