Cuddly Clocks to Calm a Toddler at Bedtime
I seriously thought the kid in the top picture was cuddling a glowing skull. Like, here small child, soothe your night-time woes with this face of death. I see now that it is a bird in pajamas.
My brother and sister-in-law have a problem with their kids waking up in the wee hours of the morning, 4 am, 5 am...And then they'd leave their rooms and go and wreak havoc on the house. It was my sister-law's-favorite thing in the world to wake up and find her freezer emptied across the kitchen floor. She's tried nearly everything to stop it, such as putting things over the door knobs that require a really strong grip to be able to turn the door handle, and a maze of baby gates. (The real question is why anyone thought baby gates would be useful, when they'd already skillfully mastered escape from their cribs.)
And it was always the freezer. And if there were treats or popsicles they'd be eaten, but apart from that it wasn't a quest for food so much as a quest to get to the kitchen, get the freezer open, get every bag, box, etc. opened, and all the food dumped onto the floor. Once that task was complete it was onto the bathroom, where they could be found playing with the toys in their bathtub, or- more likely- finding a way to get a hold of toothpaste and seeing what will and will not flush down the toilet.
Now that they're a bit older, I think my sister-in-law has managed to communicate the idea that dire consequences follow their driven need to make horrible messes in the kitchen at 4 am. They're not *nearly* as bad now, but after all she's gone through with her troublesome twins, I am 100% certain that this would be funny as hell if it actually kept them in their bedroom until she was up in the morning.
And, the thing is, I can actually see it working. Part of me can see it not working at all either. There would have to be a certain finesse in the introduction of the bird or whichever one to the kids, and making sure they understand what exactly it all means. Then again they now understand pretty solidly that the kitchen is off limits until mommy is up, but they've also come to learn that it can be as simple as not getting caught in the kitchen, too. Toddlers.
tl;dr- My niece and nephew are ninjas on a mission to destroy frozen foods.
Ember, Nov 21, 2012
