Vocational Hints

Ben appears to be a problem-solver. I'm pretty sure he's going to end up in something like engineering. He's already showing an affinity for seeing a problem, figuring out what might fix it, and trying it.

I've frequently noticed him standing on top of something in an effort to get to where he wants to be. He has a little pop-up toy, the kind where animals pop out of doors, then you close the doors, then push buttons to cause them to pop up again. We've put that in the crib with him to keep him amused when we need to do something for a few minutes where we can't keep our eyes on him. We've come into his room to find him standing on said toy, which has been pushed against the side of the crib.

Yesterday, Rachel's big stuffed horse was on the couch, where I was sitting. Ben pulled it off, put it on the ground and stood on it, presumably to try to get up onto the couch himself. Within a few minutes of that, he noticed my cellphone and our cordless house phone both on the coffee table. He smiled at them and circled around the table, trying to figure out if he could get close enough from any of the sides to reach them. When he couldn't, he went and picked up a beach ball of Rachel's and threw it at them, knocking over the cordless phone. It slid a bit, but I thwarted his efforts to make off with it and call China. THEN, he walked over to the coffee table and opened a drawer right up. We've been keeping Rachel's coloring books, pencils, pens, crayons, etc., in there for some time. Until yesterday, he'd never just been able to pull the drawer right open. So, I closed it and put my foot against the drawer to keep it shut. He looked at my foot, then started pulling on my big toe, trying to free up the drawer.

Today, he was at the foot of the stairs, unable to come upstairs where I was cleaning a spot of paint off the carpet. He stood at the baby gate and fussed for a minute, then I heard a noise. I came downstairs and found him standing on a box he'd laid on its side. I think he was trying to give himself enough height to get over the gate.

In other vocational news, I used to think Rachel was going to be an actress. I now think she's going to be a writer-hyphen-director. She wants to do imaginary play, but I can't just be who I pick. She decides what kind of character I should be and, frequently, what name I should have. She also feeds me lines of dialogue at the appropriate times. So I think actress would not give her nearly enough control.

Or, maybe she'll be an author. That way, she could get everything down on paper exactly the way she wants it. If she's successful enough, people will want to make films of her books, and she can retain all kinds of author approval over the finished works.