Redistribution

Around twelve months of age, children go through what child-development experts call a "redistribution" period. They like to take things from one place and put them in another place. It is hilarious to watch Ethan sort and categorize the big peoples' world in a way that makes sense to him.

The bottle scrubber, for example, fits perfectly in my Ugg boot. I watched him take the scrubber, toddle out of the kitchen, and then thonk sink it into the boot as if thinking, there. Yes. That's perfect. He slid the large wooden salad spoon into a hole of just the right size in the box holding his plastic bottle liners. He has put bits of banana in drawers and puzzle pieces in the diaper genie. Everything from bibs to balls has gone into the kitchen trash can.

I am delighted every time I see him practice this sense of order. Open. Put thing in. Shut. This evening he put himself into the laundry basket. He took the liner off this low, square wicker basket. Then he put his rain maker toy in. He climbed in after it and discovered that he fit quite nicely. I peeked in on him as he played in his basket in his bedroom. Who-waa he whispered to himself. He rocked the basket. He sat on his bottom and reclined.

The more Ethan redistributes, the more things have gone missing. I found the flash light in his book basket and the TV remote in his dump truck. Other things that usually belong in the kitchen are suspiciously absent. I imagine that Ethan threw them away and I failed to notice them when I took out the trash. At least he has not yet flushed anything down the toilet that I know of, but I'm sure that day will come.