Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Monday Mom – Neetika:
If you were to follow me around the house lately, those are the words you would hear most frequently. Haley is mobile, curious and ridiculously grabby. Here is some of my running dialogue (feel free to imagine indignant baby shrieks throughout):

“No. Haley, We can read a book but we don’t have to throw all of them all over the floor.”

“What’s back there on the shelf? Oh, nothing. Stop. Stop it. Yes, you’ve found your vitamin drops. Great, we’ll take these a little later, ok? Ok, we’re putting it back now.”

“Yes, honey that’s where your clothes are, but we’re not opening the drawer right now. No. Stop. Here, look at this singing doll? Isn’t it so cool? Haley, leave the drawer. Stop.”

“Yeah! There’s your buddy Saint! We can pet him—no, Haley. Not the tail. Nice, nice. No!”

“Haley, no. That’s a plant. We don’t pull off the leaves. No, that’s not good. Okay, come over here. Stop it.”

“We don’t need to go into that cabinet. And we certainly don’t need to pull off the rubber band that’s securing it shut. Stop. Stop.”

All of this begs the question of why hasn’t there been more baby-proofing, and it’s a valid one. The answer is two-fold. My approach to baby proofing was that we would take it as it comes. I did not expect Haley’s motor skills, or her natural inclination toward defiance, to develop so quickly. I also feel that some parents baby proof to the extreme, so they can actually under-parent. It’s easier to take another look at your iPad or read a few more pages on your Kindle if your child is in what amounts to a padded cell. I did not want to be that way. It was important to me to be fully engaged.

And boy did I get what I asked for! Now that Haley is a more confident walker, I’m feeling like a boxing referee, and my job is to keep Haley from pummeling everything we own. Except I can’t blow a whistle to put an end to the melee.

Maybe since Haley reached the stage at which she’s getting into everything before age one, she’ll develop emotional maturity faster, too! Perhaps very soon, she’ll be done with the constant exploring and understand limits and obedience? Right, guys? That’s totally going to happen any day now. Right? Stop laughing.