We have definitely entered the “engineering” phase of toddler-hood. Yes, it was our privilege to corral two little activity seekers yesterday sans their leader, the three-year old. Testing, exploration and freedom ruled the roost with those two!
First of all, they enjoyed playing with a few of their elder sibling’s toys and actually can say her name associated with them, all with a mischievous glance at you for recognition, of course. A few times I couldn’t find one of them – but then the errant one would appear from a doorway giving me reason to wonder what was up. However, the opportunity to “do it myself and figure this thing out” reigned supreme. This only makes sense.
They wanted to “clip themselves” into their car seats. (Do you realize how long we would be waiting in the car before being remotely able to turn the ignition on with this method? There are three clips associated with safely!) They can consume a good five minutes working on the highchair clips, too, maybe longer if other adults are engaged in conversation ignoring them. (Lunch time can be a dual purpose activity now.) They get clipped into the stroller. (It was more fun to stand there trying to clip the stroller attachments than ride in it.)There are clips on the swings they own, the wagon they sit in. Clips, clips, clips! My hardly-nimble-anymore fingers are continually challenged. When they get a clip clipped – life is grand – until it has to be unclipped to return to the engineering study.
It made me realize why their mother gave up on hair clips for those two. They are easy feats of engineering. You put them in, they take them out. “Rinse and repeat” for entertainment.