Matchy-Matchy
You are what you... play? If that were true, lately, Bubba would be an iPad.Even when I hide the blasted thing it’s found way too soon. Hide & Seek champion, I am not.So we’ve remedied the situation by starting puzzle & matching time during the morning...and the afternoon....and before bed. Why is it that every time we introduce a new activity it becomes the only thing he wants to do? Unless it's eating veggies, he has not yet boarded the veggie-train. That’s okay- neither has Mommy. I hide our veggies in smoothies. Yes, I’m an adult. Don’t judge me. Spinach is yucky unless it in a dip and that defeats the purpose. Well, Bubba received a Disney characters matching game a bit ago. From the time he received it, around his first birthday until now its sole use has been to see how many of the tiles we can throw around the house. I found one under the dog last week. But I am happy to report he now understands that they have a greater purpose than large confetti squares. He can match them. Bubba’s rules for the game are a little different. I, mistakenly, tried to set the game up in small batches the other day.4 sets of matches, 6 sets of matches, nope, not having it.“Mommy- dere’s more! Go get dem!” Can’t fool this kid.Therefore, the new way to play the game is to dump out all the pieces and have mommy turn them face up. We tried face down, not ready for that yet.“Wook Mommy, dey all matches!” Technically not wrong. So, instead, we place them all face-up and then it’s a very one-sided game. Mommy lays on the floor (yes, I have to lay, no sitting in Bubba’s Matching Game) and calls out a character, Bubba finds said character and its match. Then we get to put them in a “track.” This is what he calls lining them up. Oh, and Mommy is not allowed to touch them after flipping until a match is found. No, sir. Unless of course, the track becomes messy and then it is Mommy’s sole responsibility to repair it. And repair it, she does. After matching is finished Bubba usually moves on to puzzles. We have several Melissa & Doug puzzles. They.are.awesome. I love the larger pieces and some of the puzzles even make noise. We have an animal one- which, by the way, I had no idea a penguin made the sound it apparently does. You learn something new every day. He’s very particular, wonder where that came from, about the order in which he does the puzzles. First animals, then vehicles: kelohopter and bus of course and finally letters. Now, remember, he’s two. For the longest time when you’d ask him which letter was on anything he’d give you the same answer.
“B! S!... B-S!” Awesome. Try explaining that one.I was surprised to find out, he actually does know a few letters.We know the following letters without prompting or hints; A, B, K, F, O, Unicorn, Violin, Wagon, Five (S), X, and Y. Now, the K I understand, as it's on our wall in the kitchen. A & B, sure. Especially when we sing or say the ABCs. But Y? Why? I don’t know. That’s the one that shocked me the most, but I’ll take it. Only 22 more to go. 21 if you count “circle” for O. He impresses me with his knowledge every day, especially how quickly he picks things up. Right now, he’s a sponge- and we have to remember that when we say things as he’s also prone to repeat certain turns of phrase that sound quite odd from the mouth of a toddler. If we’re not careful he’s going to be spelling cookie or gummies before we can. Then what will we do? We’ll cross that bridge when we get there I suppose. I have an odd feeling we are going to move on from our current puzzle routine here soon and start looking for more. I’ll have to be prepared. Have any suggestions? Let me know. Otherwise, I’ll be scouring Amazon.Be Great,M