Rules were made for following

This one's about my kid. Consider yourself warned. Ellison is turning into a typical toddler, testing boundaries and all that. But she's quite the little rule follower. For example, she's gotten used to us taking things away when she picks random stuff up from the floor (like tiny bits of paper or twigs), so she now picks them up and brings them straight to us. The same with the remote. She still goes for it, but once she snags it, she makes a beeline for Nick or me to turn over the prize. And shoes. If we kick our shoes off in the living room, we usually toss them over the edge of the baby perimeter. Now Ellison picks them up for us, carries them to the baby gate, and uses all her tiny baby strength to fling them over the gate into the dining area, safely out of harm's way.

The only place this has backfired is the kitchen. You see, silly mommy (that's me) drops unwanted and/or partially chewed then rejected baby bites onto the floor for the dogs. It's easier than actually cleaning it up. So now Ellison has learned to bypass the middle man and sends the undesirable tidbits straight to the floor all by herself, much to the dogs' bewildered joy and my dismay. I guess it's high time I learned that little eyes are watching, all the time.