My little problem-solver

In the last couple weeks Ella seems to have passed some developmental milestone related to problem solving and self-efficacy. She has started doing things like carrying a stool into her room to turn on the light switch or get shoes out of the top dresser drawer. Not only does she no longer ask me to do these things, she hasn't asked me how to do them, she's just figured it out. It's pretty exciting and fun to see how her little mind tries to fix problems. Today she was trying to get little peices of play-doh out of a toy with tiny holes in it. She walked straight over to a kitchen drawer and pulled out a toothpick and went back to the table and used it to poke the play-doh out! I didn't even know she knew where toothpicks were let alone could come up with that idea! Here are some of her adventures from the last week :-)

We let Ella set the table by herself the other day and here is the result. Everything on the table was put there by Ella (accept the vase of flowers). Not bad!

Ella was standing on a chair playing with cups and spoons in the sink. She kept getting different parts of her clothing wet (which really bothers her) so we took off one peice at a time. I left the room for a minute and she was standing on the chair, wearing a shirt. When I came back I found this! She climbed into the sink by herself...thank God she didn't hurt herself. She was SO proud (probably because I was so freaked out!)

Ella was playing in the backyard and I was sitting a few feet away from her. All of a sudden I heard water running and looked up to find that she'd figured out how to turn on the hose. She proceeded to "water" the entire patio, her bike, and her entire body. I'm not used to her being able to do things like that without help! She's keeping me on my toes for sure.