She communicates too well!

Rachel is such a great communicator--today when we were having our ice cream treat in the backyard after dinner, shelooked around and said, "You both have green bowls." (Hers was purple.) Did I mention that she forms sophisticated sentences? Geez! Such a great communicator that she's perhaps shooting herself in the foot in some ways. (Or maybe she's shooting me in the foot. I'm not quite sure how to carry that metaphor through.) Anyway, she's such a great communicator that it's easy to forget that she's only one and not eleven. She's not quite developmentally able to (1) pay attention to what I'm saying (in the midst of doing something really exciting like sorting through pebbles looking for a red one), (2) tear herself away from what she's doing (pebbles are awesome, after all!), (3) decide to follow my instruction, and then (4) do so. I mean, I'm sure in a couple of months when she's two, all of this will come naturally, but right now she's still only one. Still, because she talks so well and understands us so well (when there are no distracting pebbles at hand), it's hard to remember that talking and understanding are different skills than attending and following directions. Are you guessing that we've had some frustrating days? Yesterday at the beach (which was super-duper fun--thanks to all the friends and pals who joined us!) she wanted to stop and sort pebbles on the path when I wanted to walk toward the beach, and once I'd sat down in the sand (so much less cool than pebbles, apparently) she decided she needed to walk away from me at a rapid pace. And this mother is getting rather large and rather tired. Okay, yes, and rather cranky. But I'm sure that once she's two...