What exactly is the fascination of kids with sticking foreign material up their nose or in their ears?? What is that? Self Dicovery?..No doubt. :) There's nothing wrong with that..,right? You just hope that these pioneering adventures don't land you and your beloved child in the ER. As a parent one comes across horror stories of that nature. Hell,some of our contemporaries are themselves owners of these stories. Like the kid who stuck a marble in his ear and kept pushing to see how far he could get it to go in an attempt to get the attention of Guinness forgetting,in the heat of the moment,that he was going to need to retrieve it. The only ones he got the attention of however,were his parents,the ER staff,and the family psychologist aside from a few of his friends that were very amazed at his prowess.
Back to Life with a 2yr. old....
EXPERIMENTATION is what happens when a given task is accomplished,eg. dinner,bath,etc. and the tools of said task are still at the ready. Beware of idle time,inventiveness,and 'radio silence' in the house. These are not bad things in and of themselves yet coupled together in the environment and head of an Awake and Active 2 yr. old child can signify a Surprise in the Making,for You AND your Child as well. Also,something I've discovered is that Once is not enough. No. Children seem to have somekind of unspoken quota when it comes to these things.: "Well...it did kind of surprise me when I stuck mommy's hairpin in that hole in the wall. I don't remember what happened after that. ...Did it hurt? I don't remember,let's try again and see. That way we'll know for sure." I mean really! What's going on in there?!
So...what got me started on this? Well,many things,but the most recent was last night when my beloved one was finished 'eating' her meal. Eating it is only step one of the ritualistic process. Step two is playing with it,but these steps are of course interchangeable and can change without notice as any parent can attest. Anyway,amid step 2 I look over to see her pointing distressedly at her nose and saying in her cute childspeak,"nuse,nuse...nuse". So I realize that she's trying to blow her nose,but needs to be reminded how that works. I go over and instruct,"Close your mouth.... Now pinch your left nostril shut with your finger. Now blow." She does and out pops two kernels of yellow corn! I explain that corn is Only for eating and she looks at me as if I sound like one of the adult voices on Charlie Brown. Oh well, I can only act as if,right? I continue with pre-bedtime ministrations and no sooner do I come back to her just moments later to find that she has done it again.
At this very moment something Strikes me--I don't have to Understand this....just be here to Remedy the situation.
..You know,I have a feeling that this may well become one of my favs in my library of mantras over the years ahead. Love...it uses fewer muscles and has a better Return.
Back to Life with a 2yr. old....
EXPERIMENTATION is what happens when a given task is accomplished,eg. dinner,bath,etc. and the tools of said task are still at the ready. Beware of idle time,inventiveness,and 'radio silence' in the house. These are not bad things in and of themselves yet coupled together in the environment and head of an Awake and Active 2 yr. old child can signify a Surprise in the Making,for You AND your Child as well. Also,something I've discovered is that Once is not enough. No. Children seem to have somekind of unspoken quota when it comes to these things.: "Well...it did kind of surprise me when I stuck mommy's hairpin in that hole in the wall. I don't remember what happened after that. ...Did it hurt? I don't remember,let's try again and see. That way we'll know for sure." I mean really! What's going on in there?!
So...what got me started on this? Well,many things,but the most recent was last night when my beloved one was finished 'eating' her meal. Eating it is only step one of the ritualistic process. Step two is playing with it,but these steps are of course interchangeable and can change without notice as any parent can attest. Anyway,amid step 2 I look over to see her pointing distressedly at her nose and saying in her cute childspeak,"nuse,nuse...nuse". So I realize that she's trying to blow her nose,but needs to be reminded how that works. I go over and instruct,"Close your mouth.... Now pinch your left nostril shut with your finger. Now blow." She does and out pops two kernels of yellow corn! I explain that corn is Only for eating and she looks at me as if I sound like one of the adult voices on Charlie Brown. Oh well, I can only act as if,right? I continue with pre-bedtime ministrations and no sooner do I come back to her just moments later to find that she has done it again.
At this very moment something Strikes me--I don't have to Understand this....just be here to Remedy the situation.
..You know,I have a feeling that this may well become one of my favs in my library of mantras over the years ahead. Love...it uses fewer muscles and has a better Return.