Ten-month-old babies may not seem like the world’s most intelligent creatures, but they’re already beginning to grasp the nuances of complex human language. For instance, Thomas has already discovered that “no” is the universal word for fun.
“No, no, no, we do not play in the kitchen cabinets!” his mom said, as Thomas turned around and grinned in self-satisfaction. (And maybe his dad grinned back, but there is no evidence to support that fact–only the accusations of the mother). Around Thomas was a bunch of plastic containers and lids strewn across the floor, as he had recently discovered the riches of the Tupperware cabinet.
At his current stage of development, Tupperware is about the perfect play toy for Thomas. It’s lightweight, comes in all shapes and sizes, and makes a nice “whacking” sound when walloped. Thomas spends most of his waking hours crawling around looking for inanimate objects to pummel, whack, or wallop into submission–who needs high-dollar Fisher-Price toys when you can be perfectly content wielding a cup, coaster, or cell phone as a hammer?
Certainly, it’s a lot more cost-effective to let Thomas play with Tupperware, as most objects aren’t built to withstand the abuse a teething pre-toddler can induce. When he’s not pummeling something, he’s gnawing on it. With four front teeth now and an unlimited source of slobber, he can do a lot of damage to high-tech devices.
That said, there is one high-tech device that I recommend all parents purchase. Sure, it may be $300, but $300 for a ten-minute break from childcare is a good deal if you ask me–plus it cleans the floors. We’ve had a Roomba for many years, and I always wondered why it bounces around the room in a seemingly random vacuuming pattern. Now I know it’s just an evasive action protocol meant to prevent hijackings by crawling babies. If you want to keep a ten-month-old entertained for ten minutes, turn on a Roomba and let them chase it around the floor. If they do catch it, most Roombas are built tough, or at least tough enough to withstand a moderate walloping by a ten-month-old armed with a Tupperware lid.
I remember those days. My son used to have hours of fun getting into the pots and pans. He’d whack the bottoms with a serving spoon and laugh.
Now he plays oboe, clarinet, English Horn, piano, guitar, and saxophone.
Wow, that is impressive. Thomas is a pretty quiet baby, babbling-wise, but he loves to make noise by whacking things. Everything to him is a drum set. If he does end up being musically inclined, I’ll have know idea where he got it from cause his mom and I can’t play any instruments or carry a tune.
He might end up in metallurgy where he can beat up things with abandon — or a chemical engineer finding new and better ways to make tupperware. 😊
Never underestimate the power of a great-grandparent’s genes. My daughter can’t carry a tune and has no musical talent, but she can sell you a cell phone in under 5 minutes. The skill to sell snow to an eskimo came from her great grandfather (maternal). My son’s ability to learn 2 languages besides English in under a year came from that very same grandfather.
I know now how to put that slobber to productive use! Apparently it is “A Thing” among certain New Age farmers to . . . Wait for it . . . Put the herb and veggie seeds in their mouths before planting them. No joke. When I heard this I immediately thought of all the saliva required for such a venture, and now I see how toddlers could be a great asset on the future farms of Utopia!
I don’t even want to know the rationale for that. Maybe i missed my calling in life. I should just start selling pre-packaged toddler slobber to gullible new age farmers.
Peter currently likes to lie on his back and kick the floor (or his mother) with all he has. We call it keeping beat to the music in his head. I am endlessly amazed at watching him do his thing.
Between Peter’s kicking and Thomas’s walloping, sound’s like they would make a good tag team wrestling duo. We could call them the “The Disciples of Doom.”
All kids love Tupperware! My youngest had a thing for a coffee maker (sans pot). She used to drag it around the house by the cord like it was a dog 😂
Oh, yes, power cords. Thomas loves them–probably his second favorite toy after tupperware, only a lot more dangerous.
This should be the Roomba review in Consumer Reports 😁 Thanks for the laugh!
Yes, agree, there should be a childcare category for robotic vacuums.
Oh yes. The kitchen cabinets had all the best toys! I left the safe ones unlocked so my kids could play with the Tupperware and pots and pans. Hours and hours of fun.
Yep, I think the tupperware drawer is his version of a toy box right now.
Even though they are so darn cute, babies are evil at a very young age. When my middle son was just six months old, I had a rule that he could not crawl in the kitchen. I had a line that I did not want him to cross (a literal line you could see). He would crawl up to the line and stop, look at it and then look at me and I would say, “No, Jon.” and he would back away from the line. A few minutes later he would make sure I wasn’t looking and would crawl backwards across the line.
I swear Thomas grins sometimes when I say, “No.” The defiant human condition starts young.