Toys...we have bins and toyboxes and shelves full of toys. We rack our brains at Christmas and birthdays to figure out exactly what a 9 month old, 12 month old, etc will enjoy. We cut off tags, scrub, disinfect, put together, equip with batteries.... and what does Charlie play with? Anything that isn't a toy!
Last week he lugged my huge stock pot into the living room and climbed right in. Later he dragged one of Jason's closet shelves from our bathroom into his bedroom and tried to use it as stepstool to play with his favorite toy of all -- the shutters.
We actually have an ongoing game in our house called "Remote Control Keep Away". Charlie is obsessed with the remote control. Thinking we were oh-so-smart, Jason and I removed the batteries from two old CD/DVD player remotes and gave him his very own. He has zero interest in these. Instead, he devises ways to get the "real" remotes out of hiding. Charlie is not above sweetly demanding a hug, so he can reach behind me and grab the remote from the back of the couch!
Even better, since he as the endless runny nose of a daycare kid (guilt! guilt!), Charlie is becoming very familiar with tissues and is actually quite the adept little nose blower. In the playroom I keep the tissue box up on the high bookshelf, to avoid replacing it twice a day -- both Charlie and Otis find emptying the tissue box to be an extremely fulfilling activiity.
Well, on Friday we were upstairs playing when Charlie walked over to the bookshelf, stretched out his arm and blew air out of his nose. Proud that my son was smart enough to tell me when he wanted to blow his nose, I hopped up off the bean bag, walked over and pulled out a tissue. I turned around just in time to catch Charlie racing across the room, giggling maniacally and diving onto the bean bag to pull the remote out from under the blanket where I hide it. I truly think it may have been the proudest moment of his almost 16 months!
Now, while he can definitely cause some damage when he gets a hold of the remote, Daddy can always restore the picture, sound, etc when he comes home. Apparently understanding this, Charlie has moved on to antics with more permanent results.
One morning Charlie was walking around the second floor "talking" on the baby monitor -- anything can be a phone in his world. Suddenly he decided he wanted to wear Daddy's watch instead, and Jason noticed the monitor was nowhere in sight. Assuming it would turn up in the dog bed or laundry basket, Jason handed over his watch and continued to get ready. A couple minutes later, Jason walked into Charlie's room and found Charlie with his hand in the diaper pail! Thinking he was stuck, Jason rushed over to help, only to find his watch clutched tightly in Charlie's hand. Putting it all together and risking permanent damage to his nose, flipped down the flap, peered in and pulled out the baby monitor.
Luckily, our pail has a locking mechanism that we now use religiously, but that wasn't the case with our former kitchen trash can -- so we have a brand new one from Sam's that you have to push down on to open. After finding spoons (don't all 15 month olds stir the trash?) , Daddy's work papers and a variety of other things in the trash, we took action. I figure we have at least 2 to 3 days before Charlie figures out how to open this one.
The best find actually happened in Miami, though. Jason flew down for vendor meeting a few weeks ago. As he was unpacking his computer, he pulled out the missing dog from Charlie's farm puzzle. I can only imagine what everyone in the meeting thought. The hen actually showed up Saturday, behind the DVDs when I was dusting. The sheep is still missing, but I predict that I'll run across it while cleaning out the freezer, making the bed or folding laundry... life is full of surprises!
Charlie soup
If one pair makes me cool...
