The Number Field

While playing outside on the patio yesterday, Elena took an interest in a big old C-clamp that I left out there a long time ago. Even though it's pretty heavy, she picked it up and brought it inside, scooting along in the way she does when she's carrying something. I think that was the final sign that we needed to switch out some of Elena's toys. Jenny told me that sometimes Elena would go for days without playing with them.

This is a situation that we were prepared for. There's only room for two shelves of toys in our little apartment, so at any given time most of Elena's are in storage. When we run into a situation like the present, we put most of her current toys away, and bring out a mix of some that she's played with before and some that are entirely new to her. This morning she's enjoying a new push-button phone that talks and makes noises. Last night she started to play with a right-shape-in-the-right-hole set.

Amazingly, Elena never loses interest in her books. They're all on a bookshelf in her bedroom, and she loves to go in there and look at them. She takes good care of books and magazines--it's been months since she ripped any pages out of them. Her favorites do change, but not nearly as often as with toys. Even at church, she loves to go through the pages of the hymnal, and when we let her pick things to play with from her church bag, she always pulls out the books first.

I think that her love of books comes from seeing her mommy read a lot. If that's the case, then from me she only learns a love of computers and loose papers.