It's Genetic!

Earlier this afternoon - a couple hours before I almost accidentally destroyed my blog -the behavior/play therapist who works with my little grandson, Kurtis, arrived for their weekly session. Although he was napping when she arrived, I got him up as I knew as soon as he saw her here, he would be happy as a little lark. And I was right. Those big blue eyes of his just sparkled like crazy and he was all smiles when he saw Carrie was here.

We got him situated in the high chair as, like Maya was too early on in the therapy work, it was imperative that the kids -either of them - be restrained somewhat to try to gain and keep their attention span. That's why he's in the high chair with this nifty new toy Carrie brought with her today on top of the high-chair tray.

It didn't take him long at all to figure out if he got a good grip on the ball his therapist, Carrie, had handed him and if he was really careful, handled it just ever so gently and inserted it into the hole facing him, the ball would then fall through the little slots in side the toy, flip, flopping around and then, finally roll out onto the tray in front of him.

But boy, as you can see him here, he was really concentrating on getting that ball in there correctly!


And here's the end result of his hard work -as he watched the ball falling down through the slots and out in front of him. That toy made for one very happy little camper today as he worked with it, happily, over and over again.

He's adapting fairly well so far to the play aspect of the behavior therapy -picks up on appropriate play with a good amount of ease. I had hoped to get a shot of him looking up, laughing, so you could really see the sparkle in his eyes and that smile that really captivates, but this was about as close as I could come to capturing that in the photos.

After supper tonight, I had just gone out and dipped myself a nice big dish of ice cream -yeah, I know - just what I need, huh -and sat back down at the desk when Katie -the 16-year-old asked me "Uh, is there a reason why there is a diaper wedged down between the arm of the sofa and the cushion?"

"Huh? Let me see it." I said. And with that, she gingerly picked up a diaper that was obviously "used" (fortunately it was only on the soggy side, not discolored) and held it up to show me she wasn't lying to me.

Hmmm. I looked at Kurtis as he was bouncing around in the playpen and saw no evidence -none immediately indicative of a recent stripping anyway but when I picked him up, it was also obvious there was nothing between the onesie he had on and his bare skin but the onesie (that's one of those one piece undershirt things that snap at the crotch for anyone unfamiliar with infant and toddler clothing) was still firmly fastened. How in the heck had he done that anyway?

He has on occasion recently figured been able to unsnap some of these onesies but they generally were older ones, that maybe the snaps were a little easier to get them to come apart or something and then, he'd bounce around in the playpen with the onesie unsnapped and the flap hanging down in the back. Once or twice he has stripped - taken the diaper off. But this was really a first that he'd managed to squeeze the tabs loose on the diaper, get it out from under the onesie too without unsnapping anything and then, to also very neatly manage to get it shoved down between the arm of the sofa and the couch cushion too. Pretty adept little guy my little man is, wouldn't you say?

I'm wondering though if this aptitude, and interest, in stripping certain items of clothing off is something genetic though.

His uncle when he was a baby couldn't be trusted in the crib or playpen unless he had either shorts or a pair of jeans or long pants over his diaper. Without that added bit of protection, he liked to dip and paint with the products in the pamper. However, Kurtis' mother was much more ingenious - she would strip everything off and then, do the dip and fingerpaint routine over everything within her reach - crib rails, the walls, her face, abdomen -whatever!

I really am hoping this ability of my grandson's doesn't become a big habit of his now. I really don't feel like having to take the playpen down and stick it in the shower to scrub it down, ya know!