ET Phone Home

At my in-laws house in upstate New York, my mother-in-law has designated one drawer to the grandkids. It's filled with all sorts of stuff to spark their imaginations and keep them out of the real stuff around the rest of the kitchen. It's a low drawer filled with empty spice jars, pie tins, plastic measuring cups, stuffed dinosaurs, jello jiggler molds, popsicle molds, and many containers with tops. The girls know exactly where it is and run to it. Or they can be easily directed to their drawer if they need some distracting.

We adopted the same idea after we moved out of their house and allowed the girls to play in our tupperware drawer. They couldn't break anything and enjoyed stacking the various containers and lids.

Unfortunately, we haven't yet established a drawer full of stuff that we don't care about here in Wellington because none of it is ours. It's much harder to pile a bunch of stuff (even if you don't like it or want to use it) into a drawer if you have to face replacing each piece of it upon leaving. This lack of established drawer hasn't stopped Josie from trying to stake a claim to various cupboards and drawers. I feel bad for her because every where she turns we are saying "That's not your drawer". She's been favoring one cupboard in particular and it's more about the contents than the container. An abandoned phone lives in this cupboard and Josie loves to get on the phone as an excuse to avoid whatever it is you've asked her to do.

Mom - Josie, time to get your coat on.
Josie - Mommy, I talking to somebody.
Mom - Who is it?
Josie - Uncle Atony. Ok well, mommy say mine have to get mine coat on so well, I gotta go now, yuv you bye.

Or
Mom - Josie, time to get your coat on.
Josie - Mommy! I told you! I on the phone!

In addition to the abandoned phone, there are various cables and an empty shelf. So far she hasn't touched the cables but I did catch her laying on the empty shelf "taking a nap" the other day. I guess she is choosing her cupboard her in the house. It's just not the one I would have picked for her.