All Things Ng: Giving your Child Freedom

So, Carey and I are now knee-deep on that slippery slope known as "toddler-hood." Abigail is exploring her environment, even the parts that she shouldn't be (hence, a baby gate is now installed at the top of our stairs and all wall outlets have those little plugs in them). In addition to being Abby the Explorer, she is also becoming Abby the Boundary Tester. Carey and I are already beginning to "discipline" Abigail, explaining to her that there are certain things that should not be touched/eaten and trying to get her to understand the concepts of "danger" and "dirty." You may remember from this post that Carey and I thought we were doing pretty well with this. We're not doing badly now, but we have noticed that it takes Abby two or three times of hearing it explained to her before she'll listen, and we've even had to remove her from the situation in some cases. For instance, she loves touching the wine rack in our dining room. Carey and I could tell her "No touchy - danger" until we were blue in the face, but she just won't listen. We've found that physically removing her from the dining room is the only way that she will understand that she should not touch the wine rack. Needless to say, discipline is a challenge, but we're muddling our way through it.

On the other hand, there are the wonderful parts of toddler-hood. Abigail will pick out what books she likes to read, and she'll decide what snack she'd like to eat when we get home from daycare. She'll choose what blankie to cuddle when she goes to sleep at night, and she points to everything and "tells" us what it is. For all the challenges that our little almost-14-month-old is giving us, there are so many more benefits and wonderful experiences.

Case in point: last night. I let Abigail pick out her socks and bib, and she went into her diaper bag to accessorize. What did my little fashonista come up with?