I know time is a pretty complicated concept for a toddler, heck, it still confuses the daylights out of me sometimes. But I kind of like Maeve's approach to describing it.
For Maeve, yesterday designates times that are not now, that happened anytime in the past that she remembers. So she'll say Yesterday at K's birthday (which was 4 months ago) or Yesterday when we saw Grandma and Grandpa (which was yesterday). But generally, yesterday to Maeve is a thing that has already happened, that is over with.
We go the the museum every week, and the Butterfly Pavilion, and the park, and the consignment store, so she always talks about those places in the present of today. I went to the museum today! She squeaks just about once a day. And anything she's excited about gets lumped into the category of Today because she's hopeful that everything good will happen Today.
Tomorrow is not really a thing for Maeve yet, for a lot of reasons. It's kind of hard to distinguish it from Today, since Today turns into Tomorrow while she's sleeping. Also, we don't talk that much about Tomorrow because it can lead to tantrums and unhappiness. She's not quite old enough to simply happily anticipate an event that will occur in the future. If something is happening awhile from now, say, Christmas, we just talk about how we have to wait awhile. But with the uncertainty of toddler life, we don't discuss future playdates or events that may very well be cancelled at the last minute when someone misses a nap.
So Maeve lives in Yesterday and Today, which when you think about it, are the only two nice ghosts of Christmas from A Christmas Carol. That Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is all scary and pointy-fingered and unpleasant. So we live in the moment, and a little bit in the past, around here.
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| After all, this was yesterday to me. |
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