Age-appropriate

Nothing beats the doldrums like novelty, so I like to experiment and try new things with Riley. If something sounds fun, like a kid might enjoy it, I'm in. Occasionally, I realize I'm a few years off in my implementation, like tonight when I suggested to Andy, "Hey, I bet Riley would enjoy playing with shaving cream." And he did. It turns out, there ain't no party like a shaving cream party!

While the sensory learning was probably off the charts, so was the slip factor. After a few minutes, and a lot of shaving cream, the poor boy's feet were flapping on the tub like a gorilla running over barrels. I guess we'll wait until he's a little stronger on his feet before whipping out the Barbasol again.

With this semi-failed experiment, Riley reminded me that he's still only 19 months old. But this morning he surprised me by acting like a grown-up. I started to load our laundry into the washer and then got distracted with another task. I turned around to see this:

Without prompting, the boy loaded the entire basket of clothes into the washing machine. It's hard to believe, but I have proof:

Awesome! No wonder I can't quite discern which activities are age appropriate. This kid's a surprise a minute.