worlds apart

I came into the kitchen today, after having been rifling through boxes yet unpacked, throwing things away, and generally organizing things that haven't been organized since our move in June, and came face to face with our block of cheddar cheese, looking rather crumbled and un-cube-ish in shape, whimpering under the domineering face of Pito, who was standing on a chair at the table with a big spoon in her hand.

Pito has learned how to open the fridge. This is a mild crisis. Not only do I need to keep my eagle eye on her when she nears the bathroom drawers with all its very baby-unfriendly contents (we keep the door closed now), or when she approaches the pantry-ish cupboard in the kitchen where crackers and boxes of pasta and flour are kept (yes, just imagine the fun messes I've cleaned up!), but I now need to keep her out of the fridge as well!!

I know that there are fridge locks, and cupboard locks, and bathroom drawer locks, but my reasons for not getting them are (a) procrastination and hoping the phase will pass, (b) getting my butt in gear and actually going out to buy them, and then install them, and (c) my utter disdain for the "babyproofed house", and my adamant opinion that babyproofing only delays the learning of "you don't open that drawer". I may be wrong on that issue, but I can't seem to shake the opinion.

As soon as I came in and found her with the cheese thus, she looked right at me and said, "back!! BACK!!" and started putting the cheese back in its bag and heading for the fridge. Hm. She's smart. It's not that she doesn't understand that it's a no-no, it's that she's DANG DETERMINED to do what she wants to. As soon as it was back in the fridge, I knelt down and explained calmly that she is not to open the fridge by herself, that she needs to ask, and at that she said, "Okay Mummie", as she always does, and wandered off. And, as she always does, she did it again 1/2 an hour later, but was smart enough not to be hangin' around with the cheese when I wandered into the kitchen that time. The cheese stood alone.

Pito is hilarious. Seriously. Hilarious. We went out for dinner last night with Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Carmen, and neices C and J, and she was being such a turkey! She was coyishly sneaking the sour cream cup from the table in front of me and licking it with a sneaky smile on her face, and pouring orange juice all over herself, and dropping crayons, and eating crayons, and saying "Done!!", all before the food arrived. After the meal, she got a cookie, and by this time she had been released from her highchair and decided that she'd just march around and around the table eating her cookie, bobbing her head with every oversized step. It had a few other customers laughing, which is always good!! I'll take that over the type who just get mad.

It's crazy, this life with Pito. She has taught me a lot about letting go of unimportant rules and ideas about how tightly I need to parent. Whereas with Plava I insisted she didn't touch my guitar, Pito gets to touch it all she wants, but I need to have the pic, because it's my ONLY ONE. :)

Seriously though, it's so much nicer the second time around! I find myself able to laugh so much more. The toddler tantrums are almost funny, although I feel bad for her frustration. There's just so much more room for relaxing now that I've gone through these phases before.

Strangely enough, I still struggle with relaxing about Plava and her newest phases, but I'm even learning to let that go too, and just try to do my best. She is growing and changing by leaps and bounds, as is her little sister, and it's SO fun to be a part of their childhood!