Maison's Favorite Snack

It has become a habit that every time we go somewhere Maison wants to take a snack to eat on the way. I don't really mind this for a few reasons: 1)in the morning it's how I make sure she eats a decent amount of food for breakfast, 2)when I pick her up from daycare (armed with a snack) it tides her over until dinner is ready, and possibly the best reason 3)it's a good habit to eat a lot of little meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism going. This particular rainy morning (see Maison's raingear in the pic on the left) the snack was the remaining egg cheese she didn't quite finish at breakfast and her current favorite--Batman "fruit" snacks. Of course, she does not get these all the time, but when given the choice, that is what she wants. She looks at each shape and tells me what it is: "This is Batman's car Mommy!" "You're right, it's the Batmobile," I say. The Joker shape starts a conversation about how she doesn't like the joker, but she does like Dora and Hello Kitty. I can see the wheels in her head turning as she looks at each shape.

Maison is always thinking. We decorated the house and put up our Christmas tree yesterday. Maison asked me a few times why we were putting the tree up already. I explained that Christmas is coming soon and this way we can enjoy the decorations for a while. That answer seemed to satisfy her, but when it was time for bed last night I could tell she had something on her mind, that intent thinking look on her face again, so I asked her what she was thinking about. She again asked why we already put up the Christmas tree. If you have a toddler, you know it's very difficult for him/her to understand the concept of time. Everything that has already happened was "yesterday," and anything past tomorrow is tough to explain. Maison knows it is not Christmas yet, so it was hard for her to understand why we decorated before the actual day. It's so neat to see her learning something new. Understanding time and learning how it relates to her day is a biggie. How do you explain time and upcoming events to your little one?