Lead Baby

Victor is watching Baby Einstein because he didn't nap & was feeling grumpy -- rather than have him run around grumping (crashing into things, falling down and crying) I sat him down & he's chillin' with BE. It's the one about animals -- which he's really interested in. Whenever the lions or tigers come on, he makes his 'oh it's a cat' humming sound, which he does when he sees Emma. It's so sweet. You just want to hug him all day long. Bedtime won't be long now, another snack, a little cozy bath and it's off to slumber time for little man.

Today Victor got to see his first snow. He didn't really know what to think -- at first he was interested to wipe it off the car, but after a little while, he was more interested in running around outside. He figure out he didn't like the snow when his mittens fell off & then he ran into the snow -- he didn't know how cold it really was and that the mittens served their purpose. Ahhh, learning from experience.

After attempting a nap I brought him into the office where I was downloading photos (more to come) and he knocked over the shredder.

Oh, you mean the shredder that hasn't been emptied for so long that the paper shreds have almost taken on a solid quality? You mean the one that's filled to overflowing?

Yep.....that one.

So there's some paper that needs to be cleaned up -- and I'm a big fan of logical consequences, so I told Victor he needed to help Mommy clean up. We went and got the vacuum cleaner, removed all the attachments until it was the basic nozzle, and showed him what I wanted to do.....and he did it. He vacuumed up a good part of the paper. We needed to get a new vacuum bag because of the quantity of paper (and it did smell vaguely of Christmas pine needles too).
After the chore was done, I let him just mess about with the vacuum, remembering that I thought that was pretty much the most fun thing to do as a kid. It must be genetic because he did too. I was cleaning up something else and I feel the nozzle sucking on the back of my shirt and hear a giggle. Then I hear the familiar sound of facial skin getting sucked -- I turned around and he was sucking his lips with the nozzle -- he would pull it away LAUGH and do it again! The poor vacuum worked hard today, but it was worth it for sure. Is 16 months too young to get assigned a chore?

I think that it's important to tie a 'punishment' (don't think that's really the correct word) to what went wrong -- if you make a mess, you clean it up - if you eat cat food, you might get a belly ache and throw up - if you run away when Mommy's trying to get you dressed, you might wipe out and that's just what happens. Of course there will be actions should never be taken and reactions that you can't live with (IE: drugs, guns, etc) but I think it's important to make the connection between actions and reactions -- that what I do impacts myself and others -- I'm amazed at how many grown-ups don't always get this basic idea.