Widget went down for his nap early today, so I’m writing a quick post before I take a nap myself. Today was another fun day with Grampa. Mommy’s back was worse 
but that follows four pretty good days where I was able to sit up and participate in things, so I suppose that’s just par for the course. Widget’s nose is running again, so he didn’t want to go outside and play with Grampa, even under the guise of “fixing” the fence. So he played inside in our new playroom and cuddled with Mommy on the couch, reading books.
Today’s book of choice was The Many Mice of Mr. Brice, a pop-up book by (who else?) Theo LeSeig, and it was a fun trip down Memory Lane for Mommy as well. The book, which has been reissued and is widely available now as The Pop-Up Mice of Mr. Brice by Dr. Seuss, first came into my hands as a hand-me-down from two older girls who lived next door to us in Texas, Susan and Kirsten C. I adored them and adored their hand-me-downs. I always felt so grown-up reading their books, and I still have several in my collection today. Even though this book is quite literally falling apart, it makes me feel good to read it to my son, and to let him pull and spin and tug on the pop-up activity flaps as much as he wants. I have a copy of the newer version for him when he’s old enough not to destroy it, and I’m sure he’ll like that too.
Our order of Christmas toys from Babycenter arrived last week, only 3 days after I placed the order. I’m very pleased with how quickly they arrived, as well as the price. My Fatbrain Toys order has not arrived yet, however, and it’s beginning to make me wonder. We broke out the first toy this morning, so that we could play on the couch together, and Widget was immediately as fascinated with it as I remember kids being fascinated with it back when we were small. The toy is a lap-size counter/sorter with 16 painted shapes that fit on the sorter only one way. Or so I thought. As Widget quickly showed me, there are many ways to put the rectangles and squares on, and even the triangles can go on the circle pegs. The trick is, there’s only one spot for the circles. Once you put the circles in the right place, then the others are a little more constrained. But not exactly. You see, although when I look at the board, I see clear rules (each peg must go in a hole, and each hole must be filled with one and only one peg), Widget doesn’t. And I didn’t explain them to him, so he put them on exactly the way he wanted. I was so surprised at the outcome, I took a picture and I’m posting it here:
See the way that the triangles are all askew, and the two and four spots are interchangable? That’s permissable by baby rules, and I didn’t see any reason to correct him. He did keep working at it, though, and by the third time, he had put them all on “correctly” as an adult would do it. I feel like I should be proud, but I’m a little sad too. I want him to keep seeing the world through his own perspective, and sharing it with me.
It’s endlessly amazing to me how much of the “rules” that we live our lives by are actually not only unwritten but in some cases unnecessary. For example, who says that Mom should be the cook, even if Mom is at home with the kids all day? Who says that Dad should scoop the poop and trim the yard? These jobs are switched in our household, and that’s just the way we like them. Mom gets exercise outside and some time to think, and Dad gets to unleash his creativity (or frustration!) on the dinner ingredients. All works out for the best. And why? Because we don’t let ourselves and our relationship be constrained by “the rules.”
Like, for instance, insisting that 1×1 foam floor tiles belong only on the floor. When we moved the playroom into the great room last week, we had some extra. Daddy immediately made a tunnel, and Widget has played in it all morning. Sometimes he crawls through it, sometimes he pushes his toy bus through it, and sometimes he takes a toy hammer in there and “fixes” it. Our own little tunnel of love, built by Daddy for his little Widget, and it makes me smile.
Posted in Things To Do, Toys, motherhood, toddler
