Today D1 got out the Fisher-Price stacking ring toy and placed it in the middle of the room. She stacked the rings on quite at random, so that the top two or three weren't held by the pole at all. That's the only thing I had seen her do with it thus far.

"Away!" she said (one of her favorite words). She picked the stack up and trotted toward her bedroom. The rings naturally scattered all over the floor.

In response to her protests, I came and sat down next to her.

"You have to put the biggest one on first," I said. I made no indication, that I could tell, as to which one that was.

Without hesitation, she grabbed the biggest ring and put it on. "Now the next biggest," I said, and she grabbed the next one. The same continued all the way through the smallest, and she picked up the finished stack and carried it to the toy basket.

Now what perplexes me is how she was able to do it the second time. I would not have thought she knows what "biggest" means. Did she suddenly recall the order of the colors? Did she just need me sitting by to see the idea and then figured it out for herself? Did the mere act of talking about it make it easier for her to do it?

Is a puzzlement.