When Chris and I are out walking on the sidewalk with Madeline, we tell her that she has to hold one of our hands to cross the street, or else she gets scooped up and carried. Recently Madeline has taken to giving us a grin and then firmly clasping her hands together behind her back. Sure, she's holding her own hand ... but it's not really the result that we were aiming for. So I repeat that she has to hold my hand, or her dad's hand, but inside my head I am cheering that my little girl has a little bit of a bad-ass inside her - that's she's trying to push the envelope and see where her boundaries are.
That behaviour reminded me of something that she was doing a couple of months ago. Her Auntie Julie was visiting us in St. John's, and Madeline prefered to hold her hand when were were all out for walk. This allowed Chris and I to hold hands, but a couple of times when Madeline saw that her mom and dad were holding each other's hand, she promptly ran over to us, and squished her little hand in between ours so that the three of us were holding hands ... I hope that just as many passers-by thought that the three of us looked cute as the amount that thought we looked really odd ...
They are really cute as they figure out the nuances of language.
Posted by: nonlineargirl | October 04, 2006 at 02:03 PM
I love the idea of her holding her own hands. Classic, classic, classic! And such a smart girl!
Posted by: Alexandra | October 13, 2006 at 08:34 AM