Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Mattie has met her computer!

As if we don’t have enough chip-heads in our little family here, I introduced Mattie to the concept of working the mouse herself. She’s been keenly watching Wolf at the PC and clearly wanting to get involved but she hadn’t made the mouse-makes-it-work connection. I set her up on the Fisher Price site for Tap and Color, where pressing any key fills in part of a picture with a color. She only had to click the mouse to move to the next picture. That was just a couple weeks ago and she’s already moved on to click-and-drag on Grama’s regular mouse as well as our trackballs!
That does add a whole new dynamic to our household though. Mattie came screaming into the kitchen, “I want BOOBIES!! I want boobies Mama!” “What?!” I probed for a little clarification (I thought I had years to prepare…) “I want boobies on the computer Mama!” she specified. “Oh, BooBAHS Mattie.” Thank goodness I exhaled and talked Wolf into giving her a turn. Mattie has a definite will of her own and when she gets an idea that she wants a particular thing or activity, she’s not very likely to let it go. I’ve given my own PC over several times already to avoid hearing her and Wolfie shriek, ‘I want it!’ I think I remember Wolfie ‘taking off’ at the PC too, just waiting to be set free of our laps. Mattie’s kind of like that only at a slower pace, like she wants to really master a particular activity before moving on to something new.
Her entertaining cuteness continues to abound. The other night at dinner she leaned over and kissed my cheek saying, “There Mama, I gave you a kiss.” And no sooner had she sat upright then realized, “Hey! Where’s MY kiss?” And now there’s computer twospeak: Mattie whines, “I want to go on the computer!” because I just told Wolf he could. I tell Mattie I will let her use my computer. “Oh! That would be good!” she smiles with escalating excitement, “I could go on your computer and you help me. That would be GOOD!” Giggle, giggle, giggle – from BOTH of us!