It's a new era.
Today John successfully changed a DVD in the DVD player. He was watching a DVD on the small TV in the upstairs guest room when I heard him ask me to change the DVD from a Mister Rodgers episode to his "potty show." I called back that I would help him in a minute. Then I heard the music change. I walked in there and he had pushed the right button, gently removed the old DVD, replaced the new DVD, and pushed the right button again. Wow. Thank goodness he can't access that DVD player except when I open the locked guest room for him, and he can't access our expensive electronic equipment in the den because it is located high on a shelf. Anyway, I thought for a second about scolding him, but then I decided to compliment him because we want to raise adults, not children, and he had learned how to do an adult thing carefully and it's not something that can hurt him. The sooner he can properly manage his own DVDs, the sooner I can drop that one chore from my list! (And, again, he can't reach the expensive electronic equipment. This was the cheapie television-and-DVD combo we have.)
Later, we were in the back, John playing in the yard and me cleaning the sun room. I can supervise half the yard from within the sun room, but not the other half. So far, John has never been able to hop fence or open the gate, so I just make sure to peek around the corner every one to two minutes to make sure he's not getting into trouble. Today all that changed.
At one of my peeks, I saw him successfully starting to climb the three-foot fence, so I walked over there to see what was happening. He hopped down, then walked directly to a gate, flipped open the latch, and opened it.
All the rules have to change now! I got down on his level, I acknowledged that he was such a big, tall boy now that he's learned how to open the gate all by himself. Then I explained how he should never, ever open the gate and step outside without Mama or Daddy.
Of course, I don't expect a two-year-old to be able or willing to follow that new rule, so now we're going to have to go back to full "eyesight supervision" when in the back yard.
I can hardly believe how much John is learning to do! It seems like yesterday he was a squishy immobile infant like Mary.
Fevers are always scary and sometimes they come without warning. Last week we had a usual day with library story time and the kids homeschool activities. Then, at about 5pm Henry fell asleep and woke up about 30 minutes later with a 106 degree fever. It was so scary, and I felt bad for the numerous children he had been around that day. But there was no other symptoms before the fever so I couldn't have known.
ReplyDeleteHe's fine now and back to being a little stinker.
Jessica: I understand and you're right that sometimes the mom just doesn't know her kiddo is sick or contagious. I hope Henry is feeling better!
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