Toddlerhood - Curiosity

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Life's not been easy lately. I feel like I'm going to lose my sanity and it's just never coming back again. You know the Pink Floyd song, "Brain Damage"? It's been my favorite to play on my MP3 when I do the dishes. It's on repeat. I get a chill when I hear Roger Waters get to, "The lunatic is in my head," I kind of wonder if HE'S in my head. Now, keep in mind that I'm wearing headphones and have the volume up high enough to block out the chaos around me, so that may be where that feeling is coming from. Let me explain a little:

I have a two-year-old. He is the sweetest little guy. He LOVES helping. It doesn't matter what you want help with, he's always the first volunteer. He helps me fill up his juice cup. He helps me put all 100 of his Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars in those little slots of his car container. He helps me clean - vacuum, dust, fold laundry... he does it all and very happily. And, no matter how much of a mess I'll have to clean up after he "helps", it's all worth it because that look of pride and determination on his face while he's working is unforgettable.

I know, I've used this in a previous post, but LOOK at the concentration on his face!

He's also extremely curious. Not the normal curious you find in toddlers who are just learning that things do stuff and want to find out more. No. He is curious about much more. What happens when I pour juice into Mommy's keyboard? If I take apart my remote control truck, what will I find inside? What are those fuzzy things under the kitty's tail? (THAT one is still being researched whenever I turn my back for even a nanosecond.) This curiosity is a great thing, don't get me wrong. Children who are constantly wondering and finding the answers for themselves end up becoming the people in society who discover how to create light from a few filaments, gasses, glass, and electricity.

"I know you're eventually going to have to blink. And when you do...."

The problem here is that he doesn't just have moments of inspiration - he is constantly trying to figure things out. Our living room is COMPLETELY toddler-proofed except the desk where the computer is located. I cannot leave him in there even to top off my cup of coffee or use the restroom. When he thinks I may be leaving the room, he looks like an Olympic sprinter just before the starting gun goes off. He just has got to know what I'm hiding from him in the computer desk. It must be something amazing since I'm constantly yelling at him whenever he goes near it, right?



I keep telling myself that the more he can understand and communicate, the easier it will be to explain things to him. He'll see my reasoning behing not letting him play with my Exacto knife. It's not working. He speaks in sentences now, complete with adjectives and adverbs, and can follow two- and three-part instructions. I know he understands me. Yet, he seem more intent on getting into those "NO!" things.



I'm considering taking the time to show him the stuff he keeps trying to get into, piece by piece, so it's not all a big mystery to him. It'll go one of two ways: Either he won't be so curious about it anymore and will find other things to try to get into, or showing him will just make him want the stuff even more. I can't put these things up - I need them next to the desk. I have cut the amount of things I have there to the bare essentials. Any suggestions on how I might go about getting him disinterested in my stuff???