Moving toward disaster

Happy Valentine’s Day to all those celebrating. I hope all parents are able to find a few minutes of well-deserved romance.

Mark and I have decided not to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Our anniversary is not far away, so it’s worth it for us to wait a few weeks, when the dinners and flowers go down to standard prices and the valentine’s candy is on clearance. It works for us and it saves us money, but I still have to keep myself from drooling when walking by the bedecked flower shops.

In the past week alone, River has figured out how to descend a single step with comfort, he has flushed a toilet, he knows how to use my electric toothbrush, and now he’s heading toward movement that allows him to have two hands free, hands I’m sure will be filled with mischief. It’s funny how nature has designed this, to incrementally give the child more and more capabilities, to get the parents used to managing these freedoms step by step.

So far, we’ve moved along with the paces. I remember when it was hard to imagine him crawling, or how we’d safety proof the house, much less what we’d do when he could crawl up stairs. But it seems like the move toward walking is a whole different transformation. His ability to get into things will be magnified. His speed in getting from one place to another will increase exponentially.

At such times, I’m grateful for living in a small house. Two safety gates limit the area of his roaming to a very small square footage, enough that we can know what he’s up to. At least until he figures out how to open the basement door. Then we’ll have to figure out a creative way to keep him from falling into the dark, dank, creepy lower level. Maybe if he goes down there once, he’ll lose his desire to explore it again.

Yikes

Just yesterday I had the first inkling of what life with an active little boy might be like. I’ve been spoiled during the past few weeks in that I’ve been able to leave River to his own entertainment for little chunks of time. He still has no problem entertaining himself, only now his entertainment has suddenly picked up mischief. I think this correlates with his vast increase in mobility and physical confidence over the past few days.

Last night he pulled over the overflowing garbage can, dumping the contents onto himself and the floor. He didn’t seem to mind and went right for the empty pudding containers, probably hoping he could get a lick. I saw him grab the garbage can, saw him pull it toward him, but despite being only about two feet away, wasn’t able to get there before it fell.

Before the garbage incident, he got into a bag of onions and amused himself by pushing one across the floor, stopping every so often to try to eat it. After the garbage, he scooted over to the supply closet, opened it, and looked for something to pull out of there.

This morning, he stood up along the coffee table, turned my mug of tea upside down (it was no longer hot), then ran his hand back and forth through the liquid piling up at the table’s edge. This is going to be an interesting few upcoming months (or years?) to say the least.

At the same time I see he will soon have the ability to run our small house amok, I’m also at a very rewarding point of feeling I know him well. Last night I took the bottle Mark was feeding him away so that I could breastfeed him. River wasn’t very interested in breastfeeding, so I let him play. At eight on the dot, his usual bedtime, he began to fuss, indicating it was time for bed. I tried to feed him again, but he wasn’t interested. Normally, he’s milked to sleep. Since he was refusing the milk, I decided to put him in his crib without a bottle.

He cried and I came downstairs conscious that the crying wasn’t bothering me as it often does. I knew it was a fussy rather than a pained cry. I thought it wouldn’t last long. If it did last more than 10-15 minutes, I would have gone in and breastfed him in his room, when maybe he’d be ready to pay more attention. In just over five minutes it was quiet and he was asleep for the night. No feeding needed. Success. I knew what to do.

I am now the world’s foremost expert on River. Sometimes I feel sorry for him that almost every movement of his life is watched. But we try to watch with love and from our observations, learn what he needs.