Learning My Lesson

The layout of our apartment is such that the master bedroom is all the way on one end and the other two bedrooms and extra bathroom are all the way on the other. This is one of the reasons Luke sleeps in our room because I like my sleep and even before he was born, I knew that I would be Most Grouchy if I had to wake up multiple times a night and trudge across the apartment to go deal with a high-pitched, crying child. I don't know why or when builders decided that master bedrooms should be separated from the other bedrooms by the entire expanse of the living room, kitchen, and a hallway, but I would like to tell them to STOP IT because it's the most ridiculous floorplan ever.

Wow, that got started on a tangent. In any case, the reason I began this post was NOT to rant about apartment floorplans, but to point out that what started out as "Luke's room" has now turned into "The Playroom" because let's be honest, all we ever did in that room was play. And read. Unfortunately, as a further result of the inane floorplan, the cats' bathroom is right across from the playroom, which meant that I was constantly finding little crystals of cat litter in the carpet. This didn't bother me in the least until Luke started rolling, at which point the thought of him putting that stuff in his mouth started completely icking me out.

So we decided to get foam floor mats to put in there that double as an alphabet puzzle, if only because dust-bustering foam floor mats? Much easier than vacuuming the carpet. But! As an added bonus, Luke LOVES his floor mats. So now, when I put him on the floor in his room, he no longer bleats like a wounded goat. Sensing my opportunity, I left him in there yesterday while I made my lunch because he has recently discovered that he has control of his hands, which means that holding him while trying to put food on my plate is like trying to contain an octopus. For a while, I heard scratching noises coming from the room, which I took to mean that all was well...and then, it got quiet. Really, really quiet. So I went to check on him, only to discover that he had popped out one of the letters, reached through to the open patch of carpet, and pulled out a handful of carpet fuzz, which had promptly made it into his mouth.

Lesson of the day: I can try to stop my child from eating gross things, but he is smart and single-minded in his quest to thwart my efforts.