...a phrase I hated to hear from my dad as a kid. Of course, he said it more to Gary than to any of the rest of us. Gary was always tinkering with, pounding on, or otherwise harassing some not-toy object in the house.
Nevertheless, this is a phrase I find myself saying more and more to my little munchkin. She's crawling and finding all kinds of things that she should not be playing with; my school bag, power cords, stray hairs on the carpet, etc. I try to redirect her attention, but the "out-of-sight-out-of-mind" thing isn't working very well anymore. She is tenacious when she wants something.
On the other hand, I end up giving in sometimes. Will it really hurt if I let her play with the remotes? I took the batteries out of one and just let her chew away. And the cell phone is such a good distraction in the car, will it really make a difference if I give in, just this once? Of course, it's not just once--if it's one thing I've learned about being a parent, it's that we often do whatever makes the kid happy in the moment, regardless of long-term habits we're encouraging.
Well, in any case, she's happy for this moment, chomping on the remote and contemplating just how she'll get over to those cords without mommy seeing. But I do see, and before I can stop myself, I yell "No, Bekah, that's not a toy!"
3 comments:
Hey!
We finally have a mobile baby on this end too. We're going out tomorrow to get a new TV stand. Sarah likes to pull out all the CDs off the shelves. I can't believe Bekah is that old already. Sarah just turned 10 months. We're coming out in August for my cousin's wedding. Maybe we can get our girls to play!
Hmmm...when are they supposed to grow out of the "not-a-toy" phase? Gary drives me crazy with his constant need to touch/take apart/harass anything that looks bright and shiny. Sigh.
Just beware... Drool is unforgiving to Cell Phones and Remotes....might need to make sure it isn't something you actually want to use again.... I can't believe she's crawling!
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