Anyone out there have any ideas what to do with an active one year old? I have a boy and maybe I've just forgotten the last four at this age, or perhaps we've just gotten used to having things more orderly, but this guy goes from cupboard to cupboard pulling out all the dishes, and anytime there's a door left open he goes in and trashes whatever he can find, pulling everything off of table tops, and when it's a bathroom his favorite thing to do is play in the toilets, and well... I kinda feel bad for him. We feed him, change his diapers, yell when he pulls stuff off tables or spills stuff (he really likes to spill cups all over himself) and then we put him up for a nap. But there's not much he can do that's in a controled learning environment... He really likes to stack things, and put things in containers. He loves playing the in garbages, dumping them, or throwing useful and expensive things away.
And I'm just wondering... well I know this is normal, but um... outside of confining the child to a playpen, what can you do? Now that I have a lot of time home between jobs, is there some way I can play with him that doesn't involve me carrying him up to bed or trying to force him to take a nap?
He likes to dance, which is really cute. He can say, "Baba" and that's about it...
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I put locks on e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Then I filled a low cabinet in the kitchen with plastic bowls and tupperware and a bunch of little miniature tart tins...lots of stuff that wouldn't hurt anyone or get broken. That was his cupboard. He was allowed to empty it out. I filled it with lots of things - lots - so it took a little bit for him to empty and then he would sit and play with the stuff for awhile.
I made soooo many dinners and washed soooo many dishes during these times.
I did the same thing in the living room.
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"My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."
We've actually done this. I just get tired of cleaning up his mess every ten seconds... it'd be nice if all the objects were like tied down, or autoretracted to their put-away state. :)
--Ray
__________________
I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
Oh, my gosh! I'm right there with ya, ray. Mine's 17 months and now he can climb out of the crib on the lowest level, so he's like become this new person. He can't be held down. He loves to climb. All our kitchen stools and chairs lie flat on the floor. We have an obstacle course all over the house because of him. He does the same exact thing with the bathroom - he walks around all innocent like and then you leave the bathroom open for 10 seconds by mistake and he darts in there like a stealth fighter and trashes the place - ponytails all over the floor and down the sink, all the toothbrushes in his mouth at once, the water's going full-boar and all the embarrassing stuff from the cupboards are paraded around like there's nothing to it. Then you stick him in the hall to do a frantic pick-up only to turn around and your computer is doing some thing that you've never seen it do before and he's up there with the mouse like some seasoned hacker in like 8.2 seconds.
Sometimes I'll close the gate to the living room and stay in there with the home kids (Stealth and his brother Intensity) and just keep an eye on them. Or we'll go in their room and close the door and play a while. But I mean, he is never unsupervised. This is the age where kids are climbing your dressers and pulling furniture over on themselves... scary stuff. This time between 12 and 24 months is the hardest for me personally. I tell myself... "It's just a year."
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
What do you do with one year olds?.... Been there, done that. You endure it and enjoy it at the same time. Tja, easier said than done, I know. Then you have to endure the two year old stage, then the three year old stage...
Mr. Boo is pretty mellow. He empties the kitchen drawers daily, and pulls as many books of the shelves as he can get hold of, but he's cute about it. Today he got into the filing cabinet and dumped a couple of folders out all over the floor. That got a stern, "no!"
But mostly, he's content to play with the stuff he's pulled out. Why are you cleaning it up every 10 seconds? Twice a day is plenty.
He doesn't climb stuff, but he likes to push the chairs around the kitchen.
It is hard that I can't take him anywhere. Library trips are out because of his habit of pulling books of the shelves by the handfuls. He likes looking at fish, so going to the pet store is a real treat. It's even better than watching the aquarium screen saver on the computer.
He likes to sit on my lap and look at the pictures in books. He isn't much for listening to the story anymore, but he recognizes pictures. And we build towers.
Pretty much, I started enjoying having a one-year-old a lot more after I decided that "being productive" meant interacting with him rather than doing some grown-up thing that I find to be lots more interesting.
Pretty much, I started enjoying having a one-year-old a lot more after I decided that "being productive" meant interacting with him rather than doing some grown-up thing that I find to be lots more interesting.
Sigh... that is too true...
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
We do the fill-favorite-dumping-shelves/cupboards-with-kid-stuff trick. The library even has a kid shelf filled with board books that don't need to be in order, so she can dump those. You just have to keep a sharp eye to redirect when baby heads for a no-no shelf.
The kids think the dumping/putting things in trick is the greatest. They put the empty Duplo bucket next to her and hand her Duplos to put in it. Then they clap for her. She thinks it's awesome being the center of attention doing her favorite thing, and the kids think it's great that they don't have to put away the toys. (Heh...joke's on them.)
If nothing else, you can earn a few seconds peace by putting tape on both of the kid's hands. He'll spend a surprising amount of time trying to unstick them from hands and fingers. At least...until he figures out that when he tries to eat them, they don't stick anymore...
There are some wonderful things that can easily be installed to keep cabinets closed from the height, age, and speech deprived people abiding in your domesticate situation, Ray...
Implementation cost and time is quite reasonable. Check your local Target store for these... Can lock up a couple cabinets for each 2 pack for the low, low price of about $3 plus tax. Installation time, about 30 seconds each.
And, if you have a stupid cat, it acts as the added bonus of being something it can run it's teeth on to clean them...
at one step ahead, they have a type of play yard with a fence for about ninety nine dollars. It is a lot more spatious than a play pen. I have seen other varities that looked like you can make them larger or smaller depending on your needs. I don't know how you all do it or have done it! My youngest niece turns one this week!
