she. is. so. busy.
like. for real. i gave birth to the energizer bunny.
yesterday bina and i were at my dad and step mom's house as we normally are on wednesdays. i play tennis in the morning and have an appointment with my psychologist in the afternoon. free babysitting and dinner! i'm a fan of this arrangement. my step sister's cat is boarding at the house temporarily, with her cat tower. bina is intrigued by and slightly afraid of the cat. she was inching closer and closer to her on the steps, and then the cat jumped from the steps to her cat tower and climbed right up to the top. bina picked up one of the cat's little balls and held it up while making happy little noises in an attempt to lure her back down. smart cat realizes she should not oblige and maintains her perch atop the tower, much to bina's dismay.
later the cat hides in a box laid on its side on the floor. the bina monster cornered her and tormented her for several minutes with excited sounds and prodding. good thing bina was too big to get into the box herself. the cat at least had some protection.
praise be to god, bina has not yet attempted to climb out of her crib or the pack 'n' play. i stick her in the pack 'n' play when i shower in the morning. as i get ready, i let her roam the upstairs (with a baby gate blocking her from descending the stairs, of course). her new favorite things to do are 1) grab daddy's contact case off the bathroom counter and run away with it 2) grab mama's comb and attempt to comb her hair 3) grab anything else within reach as mama quickly tries to push it all back and out of reach 4) play the "shut the door/open the door" game with mama and laugh like a crazy kid every time mama tries to open the door bina just shut 5) hang out in the dog crate with bella. she also likes to hop on the bathroom scale, pull all of my shoes out of the closet, throw dirty AND clean laundry everywhere, pull out all of my bathing suits and wear my bikini bottoms as necklaces, empty my collapsible basket of delicate wash items and put on as many of them as she can and/or put the basket on over her head and walk around.
i really just want to spend a day inside her head. it must be so much fun in there.
this morning she put on one sleeve of her coat and then grabbed her scarf bib and my purse and walked around the house. little mama.
this afternoon she emptied my tennis backpack and pulled out my plastic meijer bag of dirty tennis clothes. she carried around the white skirt and then methodically put the handles of the bag on her right shoulder. notice the hand up in the air to keep the bag from sliding off. this kid knows what she's doing.
we play this game a lot. she's always putting things in bags and carrying them around the house. or putting things in her baby stroller, or her walkers. as long as she's carrying at least two things at once, but preferably three or more, we're in good shape.
a few days ago she gathered up her baby in the baby carrier and decided to stick one of her books over baby as a blanket. oh, and also the carrier's headrest. because. you have to protect baby's face. and then we better move that book up over baby's face too. you just never know. board books save lives.
we put up blinds upstairs last weekend and made it a family affair. bina kept climbing up on the stool and hugging daddy's legs. such a good little helper. i don't know what he would have done without her trying to eat the screws he kept dropping on the floor.
this kid. i've been trying to chill out about feeding her lately because she's been going through a period of extreme picky-ness. i've discovered if i give her something with her own utensil to attempt to eat it with, she will let me also shovel said food into her mouth with my own utensil. we use this strategy a lot. at lunch today she finished with some pureed peas. she used her spoon to paint on the tray of her booster seat. that's fine. small price to pay to be able to shovel the rest of it into her mouth with my own spoon. you want to paint with your food? sure. as long as you eat at least some of it. we wont be food painting forever. the food throwing, that part tends to get to me. like. you throw one more piece of food on the floor and i just might throw you out the window. but not really.
i was relaying some of this to my psychologist this week and how i didn't think it was devious behavior. i read or heard somewhere that littles aren't privy to the laws of gravity so each time they drop something and it falls to the floor, it's like. amazing. and then when mommy or daddy bend down and pick said thing up, that's also quite amazing. oh and when the dogs eat what is thrown? absolutely hilarious. AND amazing.
so i'm trying to be a little more chill about this exploratory stage she's in. because i love it. i love her curiosity and the funny things she does. she is such a hoot to just watch. but sometimes it gets to me and i just want it to stoooop. like the refusal to eat and then subsequent throwing of food. but i'm learning strategies to keep my cool and to set her up for success with these new things. my psychologist affirmed that no, this isn't devious behavior and yes she's learning her world right now. which, given, can be frustrating at times and it's important for me to make sure i set up boundaries to protect myself from frustration if possible. such as, not giving bina a whole bowl of food at once if i don't want it to end up all over the floor (and dogs). genius. also, more baby gates. and i've locked everything that can be locked. or zip tied. whatever it takes.
i absolutely adore my incredibly busy little bina. i wouldn't have her any other way.
