What I Learned from my Granddaughter; Now that she is Two

I baby sit my granddaughter Jaya two days a week, but we live in the same household all the time.  Therefore, I have had some time to watch her and am quite impressed with her human skills.

Her favorite question right now is: why?  That’s very normal for a two year old.  She is very curious about many things.  As you notice her question is not: how but why.  That’s what impresses me because she has her own ways and means to get what she wants.  She has a very demanding way of saying: come, grandma, come. Or she puts up that mischievous smile which nobody can resist.

“A child is an exquisite attention-getting device, designed to sound an alarm at the first indication that he will be forgotten or relegated to a position where he does not count.  She needs the care and attention of strong, competent people to make it through, and nature obliges by endowing him with enough fear and aggression to stimulate to hold on fiercely to sources of viability.  His education in the ways of relationship sets him the primary task of understanding hierarchy, assessing where the power is, and learning what he must do to be accepted.  A child’s ability to control his position and the attention of others is critical, much more important than control is for the average adult on an average day.”

~ The Art of Possibility - Benjamin and Rosamund Zanders, Rule Number 6

Smirk or not, she likes to make friends with other kids when we go to the playground or to other public places.

Her favorite game right now is: hide and go seek.  She still has the notion that when she covers her eyes that I will not see her.  Because of that our hiding places are endless: in the garden, in the house, or in public places.

Her language skills are increasing daily.  She is like a parrot or a tape recorder, repeating many of the sentences we say.  Obviously, she does not get all the pronunciations right but it is cute to hear big people words in her high pitch voice.

She has an unlimited imagination and plays by herself with her doll, her puzzles, her little kitchen stove and other small objects like rocks and sticks by lining them up in a row or sort them by colors.

When she gets hurt or has something wrong with her foot or her things, she comes right away to express her dismay.  When we were trying to go out one day, and I discovered that we didn’t have her car seat, she was grunting and raving for the longest time: the car seat is lost, oh, no.

Jaya is a really hard worker.  She always wants to help. The other day I was moving some dirt in the garden with a spate.  Before I knew it, she brought her little play shovel from the sandbox and was carrying dirt with me.

Above all she is a great sheer leader and brings a lot of joy and laughter to our household.

I hope you have a two-year old around your house or close by for you to experience all the fun you can have with little kids.