I really should give my kid more credit.

Who hasn't shoved something horribly inappropriate in some bodily oriface as a toddler? With me, it was a Vitamin C tablet up the nose. Why? I liked how it smelled (like oranges, der)! But I also have a memory of my sister babysitting the 3 year old next door and my mom had to rush her to the hospital because she (the girl) shoved a Barbie earring up HER nose. As an aside, can you imagine just how tiny an earring for a Barbie is?

So, when I saw Charlotte take something small and put it very close to her ear, I assumed that she stuck something in there and nearly had a heart attack. Nope. She had found a tiny little bell (the kind used in cat toys and probably some jewelry of some kind that she found), but she wasn't putting it in her ear, she was shaking it very close to her ear. So I felt like a real "mom" when I discovered this since I had scolded her for putting things in her ear. Not the good kind of mom, the "all grownups are just alike" kind of mom feeling. Blech.

And back to the topic of this thread. I should really give Charlotte more credit, but so should other people. Really.

Last Friday (I've been a bad little blogger), I had to pick Char up from her preschool since her babysitter's car is broken and she had to catch a ride and obviously can't pick Char up. Charlotte was in a MOOD! She ran around in circles and wouldn't let me pick her up, or stop to put her shoes on, or anything. She finally tripped on a table leg and I was able to scoop her up and put her shoes on. I decided she needed a distraction while I collected her things, so I told her that when I put her down, I needed her to find me a turtle. There was a picture of a turtle on the rug, as well as other animals, so she ran over to the picture. Then she went to the next animal over and said, "What's this?" I said, "What IS it?" She said, "A dog. Ruff ruff." Then she went to the next animal over (there are animals all around the edge of the rug) and repeated. "What's this?" "What IS it?" "Cat. Meow."

Now, please let me say at this point that I don't think that's particularly "impressive" for a 2 year old. I'm not telling this story to leave the impression that I think her ability to recognize pictures of common animals and what they "say" makes her a genius or something. Oh, she is, but not for that ;). IMO it's fairly common stuff for a kid as verbal as she.

So I was pretty shocked when the teacher said, "She acts smart when you're here." "What?" "She doesn't do smart things when you're not here." Oh my gosh! If that isn't the dumbest thing a preschool teacher can say, surely it's pretty close, no?