Power outlets, books, and CDs are the only things we really say “No!” to with the girl. Oh, and plants and hot things and climbing on the stairs and so on. And the cat, when we had a cat. (He ran away some weeks ago. Some say he’s supposed to come back any day now.)
Still, it’s the forbidden that’s attractive.
(I’m sure it didn’t help to send mixed messages by saying “No!” and taking the picture. But I just happened to have the camera and couldn’t resist.)
Fortunately, there are plenty of things in the house to hold her attention.
I noticed in the second photo that we have the same Fisher Price rocking chair thingie (or at least very, very similar). We ordered ours recently and A loves it.
Btw, lovely floors in the house! And a very nice house overall.
L uses hers once a day: morning bottle time. “I’ll take my formula and cereal papka-looking nastiness in the rocker…”
The floors are deceptive. The hardwood is indeed very nice — one of the things that helped convince us about the house. The kitchen linoleum is awful. It shows dirt very quickly and seems to have some sort of magnetic attraction to stains. Having an almost-12-month-old doesn’t help much in that area, though…
Unless she tears out or chews on pages, give her a chance with the books. Our oldest had this as her very favorite activity: to sit in front of a book case and take out the books, one by one. She did this first with her solid toddler ones and then, once she was more trustworthy, with ours. I would say from this was born her utter love of books, but she also liked to take things out of the bottom kitchen drawer and she’s now, as an adult, totally not into cooking.
Well, that’s just the problem — she opens a book, looks at a page, then RIP! I’ve got a couple of pages from my textbooks missing. She has her own books, and we have a few in each of our bookcases through the house. Generally, she knows which ones she’s allowed to touch. It’s a shame about the ripping, though, because she loves books. I do occasionally sit with her with one of the Forbidden Books and let her turn the pages, just making sure she doesn’t turn them too violently.
She’s also into all the cupboards in the kitchen. We’ve child-proofed it, though, so she basically has free rein there. She loves getting out plastic storage containers and their lids — her favorite toy.