Averting Disaster

Eva's favorite activities right now tend to be either messy or downright dangerous. She loves to feed herself, so this morning I gave her oatmeal with a spoon and then made myself toast. By the time I turned around, she had given herself a full oatmeal face mask, including hair, ears, eyes, and under her chin. I decided to try an edible play-dough recipe made with peanut butter, and she loved playing with it, smashing it up between her fingers and tasting it, of course. Later we went walking along the beach with my friends, and when we stopped to let the kids play in the sand, Eva went straight for the closest cigarette butt and put it in her mouth. Then there are her home hobbies, like trying to stand up on everything from the changing table to the highchair. If I open the fridge or kitchen cabinet, she'll hurry over and start grabbing anything within reach to investigate.

She likes to pull things down from high areas that are now within her reach. I can't leave a glass on the kitchen table because she'll grab the placemat it's sitting on and pull it down. She'll find my dishtowels and wipe the floor with them. She likes to climb around under the table and chairs in pursuit of the cat, stopping along the way to pick up any morsel on the floor that I missed as a stale snack. In the office upstairs, she'll pull papers off the desk, empty the bookshelf, take papers out of the trash to play with, then try to fiddle with the keyboard or mouse I'm using. In the living room, she wants the remote control so she can push the buttons and play with the TV. Then she likes to empty the magazine rack and play with all the pages. In the bathroom, she goes straight for the toilet paper to unravel and shred the roll. Nothing is safe from her inquisitive hands.