The Ingenuity of a 1-year-old

[Andrew Joiner]

I've been taking care of my great grandson for about a year . We have a very open plan house so I cordoned off a corner for him. For 6 months now he's been unable to climb out. It took me a while to come up with a complicated system to keep him safe in a 10'x 10' play area with all his toys. The rest of the house is not baby proof so he has to be watched closely when he's out of his area.

Today I decided to simplify the system by stacking the couch cushions differently. I tested it and decided 'he's not going to be able to climb over this'. When I put him in his area and sat down to play with him he looked at me like "wow this is different". He then immediately proceeded to pull apart his new barrier and climb out, laughing at me the whole time! I laughed even harder because in the past 6 months our main play time is building things with Legos and other toys. I guess his new skills have helped him learn how to live a life of freedom!

Any cool stories about your experiences with babies growing up?

[Howard Pollack]

That is a very wonderful example of real learning! I remember when my son was little and just beginning to learn to talk I said, perhaps a touch sadistically, "can you say hippopotamus?" and he looked up at me and said "hippopotamus". I realized that he knew and could do much more than I imagined. -Howard

[Frederick Skelly]

I went to the zoo with my cousins and their kids. The littlest one was about 20 months old. We stood quietly in front of the giraffes, just looking. He spoke up and said "raffs, raffs", unprompted.

[Kevin Jenness]

If you had the open eyes of a child, what would you see?