the conscience

I'm not sure when the conscience is supposed to develop, I remember Dr. Templeton telling us, but I don't remember exactly. But apparently, it's around 9 months old.

Abby totally knows when she's doing something wrong.

Most of the time, Abby is busy playing with her toys or exploring the furniture. If she's playing with her toys and I say her name, she'll look up at me as if to say "yes, mom?" If she's cruising along the couch and I say her name, she'll stop and look at me and smile. If she's watching TV and I say her name, she'll look at me long enough to make sure I don't really need anything and then she'll keep watching TV.

But.

But, if she's doing something she shouldn't, its very different. If she's, for instance, tearing up paper into a million pieces and stuffing them into her mouth and I say her name - she jumps. She turns and stares at me with wide eyes and doesn't move.

If she's about to grab something she shouldn't and I say her name she jumps and looks at me and then quickly changes course. Sometimes, she'll check to see if I'm watching. Yesterday I saw her going for an envelope on the floor. I pretended I wasn't watching. She started to go for it and when she was just about close enough to grab it, she stopped and looked at me for a few seconds. I didn't look at her and when she grabbed the envelope and tried to stuff it in her mouth, I said "Abby!" and she nearly jumped out of her onsie.

it's kinda funny, actually

Well, later she saw something else she wanted - a piece of cardboard I think. I, again, pretended not to watch and she made her way over to it. But this time, when she grabbed it and then stopped to check if I was watching, I looked at her. And guess what she does? She pretends to be all innocent. She has the cardboard in her hand, and she holds it up in the air towards me as if she's trying to give it to me. Yep, she did.

And that's what she does every time. If I "catch" her, she's all like "what mom? This? Oh, I was just picking it up for you, see? Here, you can have it"

Another problem we have is carpet threads - I STILL need to vacuum rooms that I haven't yet, and Abby is a pro at finding little carpet threads. If I see her chewing on something, I go and pull it out of her mouth and 95% of the time, its a thread. Now, if she's got one and she's chewing on it and I catch her and say her name - she stops chewing and just holds completely still. Yesterday, she almost fooled me. I really thought that I had made a mistake and that she wasn't chewing on anything after all - but then I made her open her mouth anyway and she had like 4 of them stuffed behind her gums like a chipmunk or something. Of course I take them out and she cries and looks betrayed.

I gave birth to a goat.

Anyway, I just wanted to document that she knows. It might be a bit premature to say she knows right from wrong all the time, but she knows some of it. She knows when she's about to do something that she's not supposed to...not that it stops her, she just has to make sure I'm not looking. But she'll soon discover, I'm always looking. :) That whole eyes in the back of the head thing is true, y'know.

Have a great Friday people!