One of the most incredible things that Mr B and I are discovering about parenthood at the moment is the speed at which everything is happening. Bibsey is forever amazing us with her language skills. Her vocabulary is increasing exponentially, as I guess you would expect at this age, and her sentence construction improves daily.
I am not boasting or crowing. She is where she should be for her age but it makes it no less amazing or amusing for me to see her development. We have actual conversations now. Admittedly many of these are circular and focus on nailing down the whereabouts of certain favourite people that we love or what “that noise” is. And recently she asked me for the first time for the name of something in Spanish. Should I be worried that she was asking about my computer keyboard teclado?
Today she had something that she felt compelled to report from her morning with the childminder. She stood in the corner of the kitchen fidgeting with her skirt and looking kind of sheepish and told me that she had been in the Bold Corner. I had to ask her to repeat it a couple of times before I got it but the penny finally dropped. The Bold Corner is the childminder’s version of the more famous Naughty Step.
Then followed a proper exchange on the whys and wherefores of her stretch in the Bold Corner. We established that she had pinched a little boy who is smaller than her, but she was at pains to point out that she did not bite him. Because that would be beyond the pale right? There is, as we all know only too well, a hierarchy of sins in the playroom. Biting is right up there with the Cardinal Sins, right? And let’s be clear, Bibs has not been above a spot of toddler biting in her time.
We love our childminder. Let’s call her Elena. She is a trilingual Dutch lady (go figure) who speaks mostly Spanish with the kids but can of course speak to them in English as well. She will tell us if Bibs has had a bad morning but generally what happens at Elena’s stay at Elena’s. I think that there is a bit of singing and dancing, some playing with clay, painting, puzzling, free play, snacking and random toddler violence.
So Bibsey surprised me with her confession today. I wasn’t pleased with her, because of course I don’t like to hear that she is being unkind to other children, but I guess that was impressed that she could articulate it and that she felt that she should.
I know, I know, soon I will be driven to distraction and forced to write a post about how annoying all her questions are, but for the moment I am just marveling at the way speech comes and how it shows us more of her personality. She’s wicked in a good way my Bibsey.
I would love to hear about your tales of the Bold Corner/Naughty Step. At what age do you start? How does it work for you? What do you do about toddler violence in general? Must dash, Bibs has awoken from her nap…
Image credit: tj.blackwell
