if he grows up to be a garbage man, i won't lie, i'll be a little disappointed

Whoever said you shouldn't let babies play with plastic bags is crazy. Because Abraham spent - I kid you not - over 30 MINUTES straight playing with one today. And if you know him at all, you'll know that, of course, it was a garbage bag. Anderson took out the trash and the recycling, and I got out two new bags. While I was putting one in the garbage can, Abe took the other and put it in the recycling bin. And then took it out and shook it, just like he saw me do to get the bag open. Then he adjusted it, put it back in, put the lid on, moved it around, adjusted, took it out, put it back in...you get the drift. I actually MADE and ATE dinner, uninterrupted! (Okay, the dinner was mostly made at this point...but I finished!)

Actually his whole process was really fascinating to me. This is where some of you might roll your eyes, but I'm serious! I have been reading a lot about Montessori education, and one thing that is talked about is the focus and concentration that a child will have when a task matches exactly right with his/her developmental needs. The child will spend a lot of time and energy on the task, repeating it over and over again, in a way that may seem super boring to us adults. And then when finished, instead of being tired, the child will feel calm and satisfied. The task is fulfilling some sort of developmental need that we may not even understand. And I have seen Abraham focused and spending time on different activities, but this was the longest I have ever seen him do just one task this way. I don't know what sort of need this was fulfilling for him at all - order? precision? mimicking adult tasks? And he might have even gone on longer except I unfortunately did something that distracted him.

Anyway, totally cool, garbage bag! I owe you one!

Resurrection

So, I sometimes don't write in my blog. And this mostly has to do with a baby. There's the baby's natural time-thievery, of course. But there's also this: that baby becomes the only Material. The only topic of Discussion. And maybe some people don't wanna hear about my dang ol' baby every day. But I think now with the new year approaching, I need to embrace this as my current reality. In fact, baby really needs to be upgraded to toddler, and toddler is way cool. Seriously. Read on, and you will see.

And now that baby = toddler, I am reading Montessori everything and trying to create "games" and "activities" rather than just toys. And I am tired of plastic. Tired of brightly colored and noisy. I want wood, and simple, and open-ended. These are the things toddler spends more time with anyway.

But I'm learning, here, guys, and open to suggestions. How To Make the Perfect Baby Toddler Boy Into Real Person. That is the book I would like to read. Or maybe, How Much Can Brain Hold If Not Stifled? Toddler brain so far holds the names and/or sounds of all letters. Some numbers, colors, and shapes. Especially the crescent or moon shape. Did you know a C is a moon? And so is a cashew? And so is a cartoon mouth? He has pointed all of these moons out to me. Moons are everywhere and amazing.

He also climbs steps, drinks from a glass, puts away his toys, plays hide-and-seek, reflects on his actions, and wishes desperately for the motor skills necessary for dressing himself. Alas! To be able to put on a shoe!

So we are doing some fun stuff here these days. Like making smoothies! I promise these are berries and not blood or tomatoes.