Change and Compromise

Sawyer has begun crawling and, in one week's time, is all over the place.  And might I add, getting faster as we type!  With his change, comes changes in our home.  The lowest place on the bookshelf has been redesigned just for him.  Change.  All of his infant books and baskets of toys are just within his reach.  The floor is often covered with all the items he has chosen to pull from his shelf.  Change.


Compromise?  Not quite on everything.  We strongly believe that Sawyer needs to understand he is part of a family, not the center of one.  Therefore, with some things, we are trying to teach obedience and boundaries rather than changing all just for him.  May I draw your attention to my strawberry banana colored flip-flops.  These are my house shoes.  I wear them everywhere in the house except on the living room rugs.  I always leave them in the same spot as to be easily accessed when I leave the rug.  Which is quite frequent.  Sawyer is DRAWN TO THEM!!!  At first, I just removed temptation.  And then thought I would try to communicate with him by saying in a kind, but firm voice, "Sawyer, No.  Those are Mommy's shoes.  You may not have them because they are dirty."  Immediately, he sat back on his bottom from the crawling position, flapped his arms dramatically, and yelled at me.  Then with a smile, a glance towards the "candy", he proceeded forward.  We repeated this 2 more times and concluded the conversation disagreement with Mommy removing the temptation and Sawyer yelling out again.  (And let me add, it wasn't like there was nothing else to play with.  On the contrary!)  Response?  Ignore behavior.  He's 10 months old.  Does he really understand?  Immediately afterward, he proceeded to travel to the COMPLETE OPPOSITE SIDE of the room to get Daddy's house shoes.  Disagreement repeated again!  Is this keeping too high of expectations?  Am I being unreasonable?  One might think so.  

But let me share the excitement after one week's time!  Just this morning, "the candy" was spotted.  Sawyer proceeded forward with the biggest smile ever!  "Sawyer, No.  Those are Mommy's shoes.  You may not have them because they are dirty."  He stopped, thought about it (you could totally see it on his face), began to proceed forward, and then changed directions and went to play with something else!  PRAISE!  Perhaps we underestimate our children thinking they don't "know", for fear of making them unhappy and thus shattering a fragile being.  Sawyer has bumped his head now several times on the marble flooring.  Our kids will be OKAY!!!