Sam is allowed quite a bit of free play time. I realize not every parent is comfortable with their 13 month-old child wandering about the house doing her own thing but our house is largely childproofed and we don't have the radio or television on during the day so even if I cannot see what she is doing I can hear what she is doing. I don't mean to sound as if I am neglecting her. She is very good at entertaining herself and does so while I am cooking, washing dishes, or as in this case, prepping for her bath.
The only "toys" in Sam's room are books and stuffed animals. I want her to associate her room with sleeping so her play area is downstairs. Thus when we are upstairs she finds some interesting ways to entertain herself. Lately Sam has been having a great time in our room, opening and closing our dresser drawers. She takes clothing out of my dresser, puts it in one of J's drawers, and closes it. Sometimes she puts my clothing back, sometimes not. Sometime
s she will come running into the bathroom with an armful of my clothing and start playing with it in there. I have no idea what she finds so fascinating about clothing but since she first gained control over her hands she has been grabbing clothes.
I left her in her room tonight, playing in the bottom drawer of her own dresser, to get the bathroom ready for her bath. Her bottom drawer holds extra baby blankets. She takes the blankets out, one by one, and then puts them all back, one by one. I go about my business, cleaning the tub, etc, and realize it has been a few minutes since I have heard or seen her. Usually she follows me in to the bathroom when she hears the water running so she can play with the water pouring out of the faucet. Not so tonight. I walk into her room and discover this:
These are clothes that I removed from her dresser weeks ago for being too small but have yet to put away. They've been sitting, neatly folded, in the laundry basket in a corner of her room.
She emptied the entire basket of too-small clothes into her blanket drawer, and clapped when she was finished. Sam then turned serious and told me a story that I am guessing translates into something like, "I put the clothes away, Mommy! That basket of clothes has been there forever so I put them away!"
I took Sam for her bath then, and when we returned I shoved all of those too-small clothes into her blanket drawer, and closed it.
My heart swells with love for this amazing child.
