Getting to know Samantha

So Samantha is a pretty quirky little girl. People have called her OCD and say it’s from me. However, I was never as extreme as she sometimes seems to be.

Straight Lines:

Story #1: About a month ago I was at Marshalls looking for a baby gift for a friend and let Samantha play with the toys since they were right next to the infant clothes. When it was time to leave I realized that she had pulled all the “steering wheel” toys off the shelves and had them in a straight line on the floor. She would then press the same button on each before moving on to a different button.

Story #2: At my mother’s house last week Samantha got into the drawer that housed all of the measuring cups. Apparently after 27 years of marriage you accrue quite a few measuring cups. Samantha had them in two lines: The ceramic were on one side, the plastic on the other. My sister, Maraina, clicked a picture but didn’t give me her pictures before leaving for Utah (email me Raina!)

Story #3: This story isn’t totally about straight lines, more about a pattern like Story #1. Anyway, my mother has 3 pianos in her piano studio right now (a Steinway 7’ grand she just got, a Kawaii upright we’ve had forever, and a Roland electronic). Samantha’s favorite thing to do was to hit the top note on each piano. She’d run back and forth to each piano hitting that note.

COLORS:

I haven’t done much in teaching Samantha colors. Occasionally I’d say “pink” balloon or “orange” crayon. But other than reading books I didn’t try too hard. It is now obvious that she can see the difference between all the colors.

Story #1: We were at the Mall of America yesterday and I picked her up some more duplo legos. She has a little bucket of 30 but she gets done building a tower in a minute or so, so I thought she could use some more to be able to do more and maybe go beyond the tower. Well, on the drive home I gave her a bunch to play with in the car. When I got home I realized she had put all of the same colors together. She had 3 rows of blue, 3 rows of yellow and a few rows of green.

Story #2: This actually just happened which made me think to write all these stories down. Samantha has a little toolbox with nuts and bolts, and other little things that you can attach things to. And like all children’s toys it is in primary colors. Well, I went in to have her clean up before dinner and there were little piles of each color.

I did start to tell her colors more frequently yesterday while playing with the legos. She never really responded though. I’d ask “what color is this?” and she’s say “color”. I’d ask her “Which one is yellow?” and she’d hold up whichever one she was holding. However, we were coloring later and she brought me a crayon and said “yellow” and sure enough it was yellow. (She also brought me an orange color and called it the correct name). So she’s definitely a quick learner.