On the lower racks are double-chocolate chip cookies and they just turned out divine.  On the upper rack there’s a few of my own variation on “Crunchy Munchy Honey Cakes”, made with honey and granola and coconut.  Mmmm…

There is very little that we have actually ‘taught’ her.  She knows lots of things, of course, including some “academics,” but for the most part it is things she has simply absorbed.  Things that we have more directly “taught” are always under her direction — repeated as she insists, dropped when she wants to move on.  And so she is learning the alphabet and numbers from wooden puzzles (and still identifies the digit ’3′ as “cat!” since the puzzle shows 3 cats under the puzzle piece), and can count ‘by rote’ to 10, and count groups of objects accurately up to about 4.

But most of her “learning” is in practical areas, and this is most definitely from following her lead.  She demands to learn how to do things.

Following Montessori’s admonitions of letting children do things and not interfering, she is allowed to do many things not normally thought of as toddler activities.  I have learned to allow for the extra time for her to accomplish something, rather than feel a need to hurry her along by helping out.  I have also learned to stand back and let her make mistakes, and watch amazed as she figures it out without my diving in to ‘save’ her… or, if she cannot yet puzzle it out, she will calmly come to me and ask for my help.  And so I meet her only where she needs help, and not just where I assume she needs help.

And so before she was 26 months old, she was able to almost completely dress herself.  She sometimes gets her pants on backwards, and has a little trouble with shirts sometimes.  But she can pick out a complete outfit, underwear, socks, and all, and get herself ready independently.  And if you dare try to help her before she’s truly in need — watch out!

Some of her non-typical toddler activities include household things like vaccuuming, folding laundry, emptying the dishwasher, and drying dishes.  She is allowed to cut paper with scissors and slice cheese.  And she even helps me at the stove, stirring macaroni, turning hot dogs, mixing scrambled eggs.  Before we even get to the stove, she insists on helping to measure and pour ingredients, mixing and stirring it together… and cracking eggs!

So I’m sharing this video I took of her cracking eggs into a bowl the other day when we were making a white chocolate layer cake.  She actually cracked 3 eggs this time, I only caught the 3rd on video.  The first few times she helped with the eggs, a few weeks ago, she got a few little bits of shell.  Now she’s perfect every time.  She even puts away the empty shells and returns the carton to the fridge when we’re done. 

My oven has a big splat of apple pie runover on the bottom which I keep forgetting to clean up.  I must remember to run a cleaning cycle before cooking Christmas dinner.

Along with the cookies, I need to make a big batch of my mom’s famous chocolate macaroons.  And I just realized, I totally forgot to get gumdrops for my (other) grandmother’s famous gumdrop cake!

Then I need to wrap my son’s gifts while he’s at his dad’s for the weekend.  And dig out my box of preserves which I set aside for Christmas back in the fall, and organize who gets which salsa, jams, or pickles.

Oh, and we mustn’t forget the tidying that must be done before Christmas dinner.  We’re having a few guests so things should be at least, well, non-gross.

To top all this off, we’re in the middle of buying a car.  Some idiot ran head-on into my husband (crossed 4 lanes into oncoming traffic, bam right into hubby), and totalled our car.  We just got our insurance settlement, and drove 2 hours away yesterday to where the cheap cars live.  We found the one we want, now it’s just paperwork.  Over Christmas!  At least we’re not using the entire settlement on the new car, so we’ll actually be able to bank a bit towards the debt!

Then we returned the rental car which insurance no longer pays for since they’ve reached a settlement — even though we don’t actually have the money yet, or another car.  Would you believe there was damage on it?  Three weeks we’ve had this car and have been ultra-super-duper-mega-careful with it.  We’ve even been regularly checking it for damages.  Nada, nothing, zip.  Until yesterday.  Somehow, between 3 days ago and yesterday, a big dent grew in the front hood.  It could not have been from any type of collision — it looks like someone kicked it, or fell on it.

So now we have to pay for that.  So much for banking the extra from the settlement.

Still, we’re coming out ahead.  We’re getting a car that’s two years younger than the one that got smashed, and with 100,000 fewer kilometers, plus putting a little bit into the bank.  It’s sort of a nice Christmas present, I guess.  It’s just such a hassle.  We should be grateful.  He wasn’t at all injured, for instance.  We should be thankful.  It’s a blessing in disguise.  It’s a big ol’ silver lining.

Meh.  It’s all true.  But it’s still a pain!