Red light, green light

Vivian has discovered traffic lights. And she's very excited about it.

Let me explain. I like to use our time in the car together as an opportunity for learning (when possible. Opportunities for napping are good, too. Well, not for me . . . for the girls. Unless, of course, Curt is driving and then I'm free to nap too. Although Curt claims that I do that WAY more than I actually do. But whatev.) Audrey and I will sing songs together, or play games like "I spy" or "hangman" on her Doodlepro. She also makes up some bizarre games that make absolutely no sense and have no rules.

It's a little bit tougher with Vivian but she's getting there. One of her favorite games is to look for the "Big M" . . . which is our pet name for the Big House scoreboard that we see nearly daily as we head for home. "Bye, bye Big M," she says as we drive away.

Recently I decided it was time to talk about things like stopping, going and the colors found in the traffic lights. It took me awhile to get her to even notice the traffic lights. She knows her colors so I started there. "Hey, Vivian, do you see the red circle? Up there?" [Trying to get a two-year old to follow where you're pointing your finger is really challenging.]

But once she caught on, the allure of the traffic light was more exciting than I could ever imagine. Now she points them out and screams TRAFFIC LIGHT! at the top of her lungs when she spots one. Sometimes it really startles me.

She also calls out the colors when they change. Which is a nice feature if I'm busy applying lipstick, reading a book, texting or some other important task in the car. (I jest.)

So, now we're working on the difference between stop (red light) and go (green light). Unfortunately, it may be tougher to master the reason behind the yellow light. Audrey keeps telling Vivian that we're supposed to slow down when we see a yellow light.