A year of doodles

So, it hit me when my daughter turned 12 months. She's not a baby anymore :( tear. I want to cherish these few years of toddler-hood because I am utterly amazed at watching the smallest accomplishments she makes. One fun way to do this is through art. So, on the 17th (give or take a day) of every month I decided to set out crayons and paper and sit back to watch. Here is her art at 12 months

She was more interested in how the crayons tasted than in what they could do. The dark horizontal line was my attempt to show her. She held a few crayons and made a few accidental scribbles and then crawled away. Here is her work at 13 months

Now she is much more deliberate. However, she was very interested in pulling the crayons out of the box and watching them roll on the floor. She did understand what scribbling was and imitated me doing it on my paper. Here is her work at 14 months!

Now we have some very deliberate scribbles. She actually watched what she was doing and seemed interested in different colors. As an OT, I noticed her grasp is becoming more and more mature and for the most part she can manage the crayons with her fingers instead of her fist. (which is jaw dropping for me to see). We busted out some good old Crayola Twistables the other day. I love these because you can twist them down when not being used so curious toddlers will not leave any surprises on the walls when you're not looking.

Now, before you think my child has some crazy long attention span, I'll have you know these activities last all but a few minutes (less than 3 usually). But, I find that in these little chunks of time when we sit back and watch...we can see how each month they are learning, growing, developing skills. Its absolutely stunning to me. These small opportunities we give our toddlers to explore and play with art is such a gift of learning for them. I cherish each months "scribble" page because to me, its much more than scribble...Its a small piece of her development that I will never get back.

What newest development have you observed in your infant or toddler lately?