Trash Box Percussion

 One of the best and most frustrating things about babies is their love for junk. As I look into the Baby's toy box, I see more empty bottles, boxes, containers, and junk than actual toys. We started a bad habit of buying the Baby something every time we go to Target (always a dollar or less, times are tough) and we notice those toys are piled up. But give her an empty bottle and she's occupied for the entire day. I guess it helps out with the environment since we are re-using every container we purchase but here fancy toys are being neglected. We purchased the Baby this really nice soft cloth piano that lights up and plays cool songs every time you slap it. But the Baby decides that if you flip over a box it makes a cooler noise when you slap it. So that's her musical instrument. We wanted to get this musical drum from LeapFrog from Target but it was 20 bucks. It's a cool toy but we couldn't justify it knowing that the Baby loves her trash box percussion at home. But knowing us, we'll probably buy it sooner than later. At least it will make a good paperweight/coaster.

Being a parent you end up establishing some sort of routine with your child. The consistency allows for you to stay organized and most importantly, sane. After work, I pick up the Baby from the awesome grandmother's house and the Baby and I go outside to check the mail. We live near a pretty lively and well occupied duck pond, so the ducks enjoy greeting us. They like to greet us by wildly flapping their wings and flying straight up, but it's a greeting nonetheless. The Baby likes to reach over and pry the mail out my hands and eat the bills. If I don't see the bill, that means I don't owe right? I then usually set her ground  and watch her explore the house now that she is an avid crawler. She does an excellent job of scoping out all the random things on the ground and tries to eat them. And when I get up to go stop her from eating the random things, she hurriedly shoves it in her mouth and crawls for safety. She's been learning from the dog. I then usually bring her into the kitchen with me so I can clean it up. As I said earlier, the Baby is an avid crawler now. And she's fast. If there was a Tour de France for crawling, she'd be Lance Armstrong. So the only way to keep Lance Crawlstrong in one place is to put food on the ground in front of her. I put a sanitized place mat on the floor first obviously but I sit her down right in the middle of the kitchen so I can clean. It's not conventional but it works. But then we'll wait for the Wifey to come home from work by partaking in a nice three hour nap. That's the best part of our routine.