Grandma? Grandpa?

Marcie often impresses me. She has a pretty good memory. She puts words into sentences, like: "I see bus," and "I don't want to," and "Where is Lucas?" For a kid who's not even 2 yet, I think these things are pretty darn amazing.

Yesterday at music class Marcie played the accordion. I commented to my friend (whose son is in the class) that my dad plays the accordion. And Marcie saw my dad do this last Christmas-- almost a year ago. I snapped a couple photos of Marcie playing this accordion so I could share it with my parents. I mean, I've never met anyone other than my dad who plays the accordion-- and I didn't even know they made them in miniature size. When Marcie saw the picture below, she cried out: "JUST LIKE GRANDPA!" What a smarty pants.

She's doing other impressive things, too. Remember all those lamenting posts about how she wouldn't go to sleep unless I laid down with her? And the ones with me complaining about never getting more than 3 hours of sleep in a row? Looking back, I now realize that I wasn't ready to sleep train her. It wasn't that she wasn't ready. Because it's been more than a month now and even the disruption of the fires hasn't impacted Marcie's sleep habits. She climbs up into bed all by herself (she moved out of a crib at around 18 months, just like Casey did). She kisses me good night, rolls over, and puts herself to sleep. And sleeps all night long. It's wonderful.

And let's talk about toilet training. No, we're not potty training Marcie at the moment. Not on purpose, anyway. We didn't even start toilet training Casey until he was a little over 2 1/2 years old. Now, I know that girls toilet train earlier. But today Marcie asked to go potty twice. And did. Both times. Wow.

But the thing she does that most amuses me right now is draw connections between people. Yesterday we were waiting in a long line at a department store. Jason and I were irritated because we never should have been sent to this line in the first place, but there we were. The gentleman at the cashier station was slow as molasses, further fueling our frustration. And when he finally waved us up to his counter and peered at me over his glasses, frowning, Marcie called out lovingly, "Hi Grandpa!" Then she looked at me and said "Like Grandpa?" Now, the guy looks nothing like any of Marcie's grandfathers. All of whom are actually very young looking, and pretty young, actually. This guy was really tall, and really thin. And wore thick-framed-glasses. Sure, he looked older. And he had gray hair. And that was where the similarities ended. And for all I knew, he was prematurely gray-- I mean, you don't really want your child calling out someone as "old" (though I do recognize that grandparents are not old per se), especially if they aren't. Fortunately, he found her comment charming and he smiled and was really good with her.

Then, today in the bathroom at the Orange Empire Railway, where we were visiting Thomas the Tank Engine, Marcie nearly bumped into Asian woman. The woman's hair was relatively short, and done up, curled under. She wore bright red lipstick and had glasses on. And Marcie called out to her, when she looked up, "Hi Grandma!" Then turned to me and said "Like Grandma, Mommy." This woman was not old looking at all-- maybe in her 50s, though. And to Marcie, that is Grandma-aged, I guess. I nervously said, "She does look a little like Grandma, honey, but she's not your grandma. Tell her good-bye." And Marcie dutifully did. The woman smiled, but I couldn't tell if she was offended.

I could be worried about Marcie mis-speaking-- but anyone who knows me (and knows I'm the queen of putting my foot in my mouth) knows I'm not really all that concerned about these things. Instead, I'm just impressed that Marcie is seeing the similarities in people-- drawing connections. Feeling more comfortable in the great big world out there. I can hardly believe she'll be turning 2 this week. My baby girl is growing up.