ms. fix-it, part 2

Sage is a big Winnie-the-Pooh fan, so for her 2nd birthday party a few months back, we chose Pooh party hats. She enjoyed these so much that I saved as many as I could get my hands on post-party, for her to play with when it suits her fancy. We now have precious few left, which explains the look of dismay Sage wore the other day when she tore one of the hats by accident. Wide-eyed and drop-jawed, she stared at it for a few seconds... then she looked up at me and said, with an air of determination, "Mommy, I fix." She then marched over to the drawer where I keep my office supplies, wrestled it open, and rummaged around until she finally managed to produce my stapler. Of course, she's not too adept at using a stapler yet, so I had to do the actual repair work; but the solution was all her own. Dean and I were so proud of her!

Of course, we probably shouldn't have been all that amazed, because she's been a problem solver since she was less than a year old, which is when she toddled up to me while I was reading and dumped a package of her diapers in my lap. Sage always has and still likes to bring me things, knowing she will get a "thank you" and a "good girl" in return. Thinking that was all it was, I thanked and praised her accordingly, set the diapers aside, and went back to my reading. To my surprise, she tottered her way around my chair, retrieved the pack of diapers (which was over half her size, by the way), and plunked it in my lap again. She didn't have much of a vocabulary at the time, so she had to go through her routine a couple of more times before the light finally dawned on me. I checked the diaper she was wearing, and discovered that, in her then-nonverbal way, she had been trying to tell me that she was in desperate need of a change. Sometimes I wonder which of the two of us actually has more to learn...