I was talking with my best friend earlier and she was telling me how her little one is crawling and barely walking now. This means he is getting into things around the house. She has blocked off everything and has put cabinet locks on all of the cupboards. I suggested that she let little C. play in the bottom pots and pan cupboard. Unfortunately, she can't because her pots are glass and her kitchen utensils are metal.
When my oldest was crawling, his favorite place to play was in the kitchen. He would invade the bottom kitchen cupboards and cover the kitchen floor with pots, pans, dish washing towels and wooden kitchen utensils. I could do my cooking/baking, wash the windows, the laundry (right off to the kitchen) and clean the bathroom, which was also right off the kitchen. I didn't care that on a daily basis I would have to pick up the kitchen. It made the two of us happy and he was content.
About the time my youngest began to crawl and then walking, he had fun ripping apart the bottom hall closets and pulling out the towels, linens, vacuum bags and various brooms. Again, this was perfect. While he was busy making a mess of what he thought was fun, I was busy cleaning another bathroom, the bedrooms and folding clothes on the beds.
As soon as my first child came along, I put the bad stuff high in the cabinets. I had no idea that it would play out in my favor. It was fortuitous that it worked out the way that it did. All of the good stuff that was deemed exciting from a child's point of view, was on the bottom and saved me worry about where the boys would be or what they were doing.
Who needs toys when there are linens to mess up & roll around in and pots to stack & clang together?
