Wednesday, January 30, 2013

My Daughter, the Magician

Abby's gotten into the habit of running around behind her crib when she first enters the bedroom. It's a narrow space- just enough room between wall and rail to keep her from pulling down the window treatments while she lies bored in her bed. I guess she likes it for that reason. It's like a little hiding place back there.

This evening, Tom had to chase her out to get her diaper changed before bedtime. As he lay her down on the changing table, she grabbed at her ear, and began repeating, "Abby's ear is dirty. Need to clean it."

"What's wrong, Abby?" Tom asked. "Your ear is dirty?" He was a little confused, thinking at first that she was in some way uncomfortable, and trying to express that to him.

As he leaned over to look more closely, Abby pulled her hand from behind her ear, revealing a shiny nickel.

"Wait. What? Abby- how did you get that? Where did you find it?"

"Behind the crib."

Of course, the fascinating thing is not so much that she found the nickel. I imagine it must have fallen out of Tom's pocket one day and rolled back there (perfect child-proofers, we clearly are not, sadly). No, the amazing thing is that she essentially performed a magic trick with it, and we have no idea where she picked up the idea from.

Coincidence? Perhaps.

Most likely, she saw it on an episode of something-or-other that Tom or I allowed her to watch with us. Dr. Who? Good Eats? Top Gear? Some show from the CW that I won't name because it's embarrassing to admit that I watch it via Netflix streaming on my Kindle Fire out of sheer boredom? ;)

Though, even given that scenario, it's impressive to me that she could view it once and then repeat it, some days (or perhaps weeks) later.

Maybe my Abby is just a genius, that way.