You're tactile, are ya?

I'm not one of these Moms that are all about the parenting books.  Not to say I haven't read nearly every single one under the sun....but, I haven't found any one of them even slightly helpful in raising my little punky, sassy gal.  Until now!  I just recently read (and couldn't put down) "Child Sense: From Birth to Age 5, how to use the 5 senses".

This book asks you to take a little quiz to classify the way your child learns the world around them.  It then asks you to take a quiz about yourself and how you learn your world.  It then goes into depth about how the two of you (yourself and your child) can basically co-exist without you getting frustrated that your child would rather, say, for example,  eat their food with their fingers as opposed to a spoon.

Long story short, I have discovered that my little Punky is a tactile learner.  OH!  Now it all makes sense.  This is why she literally has to scratch at everything she sees!  Literally - EVERYTHING!  And, this is why she likes to touch your face while she drinks her bottle.  Also, why she would much rather feed herself chunks of canteloupe  than be spoon fed applesauce.

I have also learned that our little energizer bunny will be like this forever.  Supposedly "tactile learners" have boundless amounts of energy and can not stop jumping around, climbing on everything, and are over the top with emotions.  Really?  You don't say?  Hmmm.  Didn't see that one coming.

Here are the criteria that helped decide she is, in fact, tactile:
* needs to be held almost constantly and cries when put down (rewind to the first 5 months of her life)
* is particular about whose arms she goes into (no way!  she lets everyone hold her, right?)
* wants to somehow touch everything in her path - including putting those things in her mouth
* she can't just LOOK at things, she must FEEL them
* is VERY active while awake (you must have this all wrong)

Those are just a few things!  Please note my sarcasm in parenthesis.  It's funny how much I've actually learned by reading this book.  So, thank you Priscilla J. Dunstan!!!!!