tinker.

We like to call Eliza our little tinker. She is so funny. She's obsessed with the most random things, but when you watch closely you realize that she's very busy at work. She loves building and rebuilding, taking apart and putting back together. I will give her a pen to play with, and she will spend a good 15 minutes taking the lid on and off. It's fascinating to see how meticulous she can be- delicately turning paper pages, attempting to take her shoes on, trying to buckle a belt, or figuring out a zipper.

I've been trying to cultivate her tinkering, by getting her little Duplo sets or creating obstacles and puzzles for her to take apart and put back together, mostly just of every day objects. She also loves a good challenge, especially if it's neatly packaged. There's nothing more exciting then a shrink-wrapped something, just begging to be opened. It's so fun to see her figure things out, and to watch that big grin spread across her face when she knows she's done it.

I love when she climbs up on her stool and "helps" me cook dinner. She will copy me by moving things around the counter in a specific pattern, putting chopped vegetables into bowls, or pretending to spoon things onto the plate. Then she will go to town shredding up a piece of lettuce, and putting every tiny bit into a cup.

In the kitchen, we also have some hooks where we hang our keys. Pretty much every day (multiple times of day) she walks up to the hooks and demands that I take every key ring down for her. This usually totals around 5 or 6 sets of keys. After walking around the house getting frustrated that she can't hold all of them at once, she sets herself to "unlocking" anything that looks like it could be a lock- screws, bolts, screens. Or especially our credenza which actually has two old "skeleton key" type locks.

My favorite is when she plops herself in front of her bike and attempts to "unlock" the screw on the seat. She will very carefully try each and every key on all six sets, one by one. It's the best...