1 Mother 2 Another

Madeleine’s been practicing sitting on just about everything she can get her hands – er, hiney – on, including Mommy’s head (see previous blog). It’s amazing to me all the skills we adults take for granted, that kids have to actually learn to do. Standing and sitting are something I really don’t put much thought into, let alone find to be fun and exciting activities.

Not so my daughter.

We’ve got a couple things around the house that are kiddie height for her to sit on, and a few more she simply adapts to her needs. There’s the child-sized rocking chair that was my mother’s, dusted off from storage and handed over to Maddie. She loves sitting in it almost as much as she likes rocking her Elmo doll, saying, “Rock, rock, rock, rock,” while she rhythmically pushes the plush toy. 

Being the sensory girl that she is, she’s always looking for cool textures to enhance her sitting pleasure. To that end, we also have a shag pouf pillow – the kind college kids buy to funk up their dorm rooms - that she loves to lounge on: a sort of miniature beanbag, if you will. She’ll drag the pillow over to her “quiet” corner in the living room – a corner by the front door, where she can sit with her back against one wall and use another wall to help her stand up – with a book in her hand, plop herself down, and “read” for several minutes, sternly warning away anyone who tries to come over and share her space.

And of course, she’s still got her sheepskin rug, which is always good for a lie about. She’ll use the coffee table to help lower herself to the floor, roll around a bit, and come back up. It’s a regular obstacle course of sitting challenges in our living room.

I think my favorite, though, is the seat she’s improvised for herself in the kitchen. One of her kitchen “toys” is a plastic bucket with a handle – the kind you fill with treats to give away at Christmas. She’s in the habit of turning it over in a corner and parking herself on it: ingenious, really, since it’s the perfect height for her. The one downside is that she doesn’t always check to see if the bucket’s bottom side up before sitting, and she ends up folding herself in the bucket. She’ll realize her mistake halfway down, and pause in mid-lowering, debating with herself whether it’s worth it to continue on down and struggle to stand up, or best to cut her losses and deal with having to stand instead of sit. Incredibly, she usually chooses to lower on in, confident (correctly so) that Mommy will come along and fish her out when required.

The cutest fish in a bucket I’ve ever seen.