House in Progress Diary

She IS tall. And a real cutie-pie, too! (Isn't your husband really tall? He looked tall in that pic with Grace on his shoulders a few days ago.) That does present some toddler-proofing problems. Don't give the naysayer a second thought--there's gotta be at least one critical person in every crowd. Stuff happens, and you can't put your kids on house arrest & lock 'em down.

So. Furiously taking notes for next year when Nora catches up with Miss Grace.

Maybe my mom can weigh in? After all, she once had one toddler who grew to be 6'10" and a second who is 6' tall. She survived. So can we!!

Ha, seriously Lisa. Maybe Nora and Grace can try out for volleyball together!

Yes, Jayne, Aaron is VERY tall. 6'7". And I'm the shortest person in my family at 5'7". My sisters are 5'11" and 6'.

Sigh.

Our 16 month old is 32 inches tall, also not including his reach. He can get stuff off of the kitchen counters. He also loves to climb and is incredibly fast. So we are also living this toddlerproofing situation. I will be very interested in how you solve this one, cause Alex could easily be 38 inches tall by the time he's two, at this rate!

Oh dear! For a horrible moment I thought you were talking about me regarding the supervision issue! (Please, don't slap her hands.)

It's so nice to hear that things are falling in to place for you and her. What a joy she is - what fun they are at two (and three and four and 17,19 and 21!)

A Great Dane on speed that thinks it's a lapdog. You kill me every time!

I just love little Grace! She is so smart and cute and curious and so lucky to have a mother such as you. She will grow up to be quite competent and confident and what a gift that is. I am one of 8 siblings and at 5'8.5", I am the second shortest of the lot. My son calls himself freakishly tall -- but he's only 6'3". Count your blessings, Jeanne. My daughter has a friend with a 2 1/2 year old that is so small, he's still wearing size 9 mos. He would like to use his trike, but he can't reach the pedals.

Oh dear me. You took offense at my post. I am truly sorry. Let me explain:
I have 6 beautiful lovely children who are now grown (18 -26 yrs)...at times I thought I would NEVER make it. I look back now & sigh....no grandkids yet to spoil. However my first 5 were boys. Talk about rascals. My husband & I made the decision early on, that WE would be the ones to raise our kids, and altho a second income would have DEFINITELY helped, looking back it was the best decision we made.

Now on to my comment: "wheres the supervision?". We are all aware of how quickly life can turn ugly. I am not implying that I was the perfect 'supervisor', I was just trying to make a point. You really need to have eyes in the back of your head. You can NEVER let down your guard. God, I could write a book...Yes, parenting is exhausting, but I am sure you know the alternative (no kids/more sleep) was JUST not the answer! I would not give back ONE single second of those years!
Enjoy your sweet child! I am impatiently waiting for grandchildren.
PS-my husband is 6'5, I am 5'12 (ha), and my boys are 6'5 to 7' and daughter is 5'11. Our grocery bill is so minimal after all those yrs, it is a joke! I tell my husband that when he retires, we can live on pennies, as all our $ went on the kids (2-3 in college at a time).

Inspired, I'll share our comparable dilemma. Tall, smart(ish), 2 yo whose fav phrase is 'my do it!' In fact, I (stupidly?) made it worse by getting a stool to give her even more height. Where our fridge might have given us a brief reprieve, I undid that with the stool. I actually gave her more access.

Flickr evidence:http://tiny.cc/jE6xn

She's getting her cottage cheese for snack. So I empathize and resemble your troubles. I have no good advice, except that we put our butter in the cabinet (not the refrigerator). And, yes, I know that wasn't the real issue. :-)

Inspired, I'll share our comparable dilemma. Tall, smart(ish), 2 yo whose fav phrase is 'my do it!' In fact, I (stupidly?) made it worse by getting a stool to give her even more height. Where our fridge might have given us a brief reprieve, I undid that with the stool. I actually gave her more access.

Flickr evidence:http://tiny.cc/jE6xn

She's getting her cottage cheese for snack. So I empathize and resemble your troubles. I have no good advice, except that we put our butter in the cabinet (not the refrigerator). And, yes, I know that wasn't the real issue. :-)

As for the childproofing - I have no good advice. My daughter is a month younger than Grace, and she thwarts all my attemps at childproofing. My hubby brought up a good point...she has all day long to think about and plan what she's going to get into, and how she's going to do it. She's like a little convict planning the big escape. Our daughter can unlock the deadbolt - yes, I said DEADBOLT on the front door. Scarry. Our house is like Fort Knox and she still gets into things. Sometimes, like with the butter, you've just gotta laugh. My daughter recently painted her teeth with nail polish - seriously, where do they come up with this stuff? Anyway, good luck!!!

"Where's the supervision"

I always said when i had my own kids I am going to look at them once in awhile and ask them when their parents were coming home?

She's so cute!

I feel your pain. Molly is freakishly tall too. Do you ever go to a resterunt where they charge based on the child's age and you try to explain that she is only two and get the evil, untrusting eye? I don't think it helps when I follow up by saying Elsie is 1 (she is freakishly small qt 15 months, the same size as her 7 mo. old cousin who isn't huge) because how can two people produce oposite ends of the spectrum?

We also have a lot of kids--7. They weren't as tall at that age, but very creative climbers and handy with the chairs, so height didn't stop them. Child-proofing didn't always help; our very mechanically inclined eldest figured out how to open childproof cabinet latches within half a day. And it is impossible to always keep track of what everyone is up to when you have several under 6 and one nursing.
What we did was repeat and-- when we were physically present-- enforce house rules and come up with consequences when the behavior they already knew was forbidden was repeated. With eating butter it would either have been: (1) a regretful sigh and the comment, "Well, that's too bad. You just ate your share of butter for at least a week. The bread isn't going to taste as good without it." And then the kid would get no butter on their bread for a couple of days. Or (2) the child would not be allowed to get anything out of the refrigerator themselves for several days "since we can't trust you to stay out of the butter, but in two days we'll try again". And at two, because of their natural lack of self-control, they would also not be allowed in the kitchen without me til the time was up. The second option was, as you can imagine, harder on me because it meant I had to keep the offender in sight or in my vicinity at all times.
Your persistence--think dripping faucet-- will eventually carry the day. And your daughter's self-control will also grow stronger as she matures, assuming she wants to please you (most kids do).
You may as well approach these kinds of situations as teachable moments-- believe me, there will be more of them. But this is the raw material of life that will give Grace practice with obedience and self-control, and you practice at patience and perseverance.

My husband once told Jeff to get down on his knees when I was speaking to him - trying to make a point about his unacceptable behavior. I lost that battle! Grace is so cute. Can she really be a problem?

Aw, I think your kids turned out fine, mom!

Next time you come to Boston, make sure to visit. There is plenty of stuff for Grace to get into here with the boys. (Graham still misses Evanston.)

Instead of stapling your stuff to the ceiling, have you considered using that staple gun on Grace - only one thing to nail down. :-) She will figure it out -- really.

I think it sounds like this is a good reason to buy a new fridge.
One with the freezer on the bottom - make sure to get a pull out drawer for the door - it is harder to open. This would move the food in the fridge up out of her way for a short time. Until she gets taller.
LOL

Start spiking her sippy cup with coffee IMMEDIATELY! She'll thank you later for your efforts to save her from a life of unplanned 3/4 length sleeves and capri pants.

That last post made me think of my DD1--who will be 18 this week. One Saturday morning (think: hubby wants to sleep in) when she was about 20 months, tall and climbing, we woke to her sitting on the center of the dining room table. I'd left the butter on the table and she'd proceeded to smear it all over herself. She was buttered from curly head to tiny toe. Not easy to pick up and get into the bath!
As far as child-proofing, pick your battles. We pretty much made the house child-friendly, with baskets of toys and books on low-ish shelves, etc. But I did have one set of cheap porcelain figures on a low windowsill that were "No-No." They could touch them gently with my permission, but not without permission--that elicited a flick on the hand. It was great training for grandma's house, with everything breakable in sight. And if/when they did get broke, they were easily replaced with another cheap set---the kids didn't know!
Oh, and we added a chain slide lock at the tip-top of the front door after my 4 year-old signed for a ups package while I was in the shower one day...
Your 'mom-radar' will develop as Grace grows.

creepy, aren't you afraid of child predators?

Being the mother of 3, 2 of whom are also tall. We love, no LOVE!!!, baby gates. I have them on my older children's room doors and the doorway into our kitchen. It keeps my 2 year old out of stuff that could hurt him (butter, not so much, the antibiotics that have to be refrigerated, big trouble). I make a policy never to use them to lock him into room, only to keep him out of rooms where I can't make it totally safe.

Where's the supervision? I'm going to start using that one. It's our inside. So, Montessori extends to methods inside the home as well? Or you mean you just applied principles you picked up from the school? I'd like to look into it more.

Remind me to give you a copy of the handout I got from Iris' school on "Montessori in the home". I don't do this enough myself, but it really helps to give them jobs to do or help you with when they nutty. Maybe we should get Linnea to run a Montessori playdate for Grace and Iris. We'd just have to make sure Linnea doesn't get drunk on the power over the little ones....

You know where all that growth comes from, right?

Butter.

I ran across your blog reading someone else's. I just want to say, kudos to the woman who grew eyes in the back of her head. I have 3 kids, and try as you might, at one point, any day, no matter how much you try to keep an eye on just "one" the minute you turn your back, they can do things you never deemed possible.

So don't fret about that comment. And I can't beleive she ate butter. But when I was a kid I always had this craving for butter. Now that I am older, ewww!! LOL

YOu really have to put everything beyond your child's reach especially for toddlers

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I would have loved if my daughter ate butter instead of the brown crayon she decided on yesterday.

My daughter is also extremely tall and a climber. We use a crib tent to keep her safe in her room (she flipped over the side like a gymnast) and we have a baby gate that block off the stairs and kitchen. We also removed everything from the bottom two shelves of every surface in our house. We also attached our book shelves and cabinets to our walls to keep them from tipping over on her if she climbs them. And not a moment too soon!!! She was climbing one in the living room the other day. It's too exhausting to say No all the time and I tried to make it a yes environment.

The baby gate really was the best investment though. We bought a more expensive one that stays on the with tension but has a door that swings out. It's not a cheapo version that kids can figure. In fact, when guests come over, we usually have to open it multiple times for them. Some people think it's a pain but I think it's a pain to get my daughter out of the kitchen, stairs, bathroom...multiple times a day.