Monday, January 24, 2011

Little table...

We have this problem with Benjamin. It's called, "I-want-to-do-everything-like-you-do" syndrome. You see, he loves to sit at the dinner table without the tray to his booster seat. He loves to sit on the couch and snuggle (or somedays, not). He loves to sit on the fireplace to put on his shoes. He just wants to be bigger. But he can't. He's still too small.

Ah, such is the life of a 22 month old. Some of our biggest battles with Benjamin include putting and playing with things where he should not. While it's fun to sit at the table and play cars, he's just to squirmy and falls way too often. Sure it's great to see Elmo up close, but the TV stand (er, coffee table turned TV stand) is not a good place to play with cars and trains and watch Elmo. Nor is this place a good spot for snack time. But Benjamin does not see it this way. (And honestly, I can see why it makes sense!)

So we got him this little table. It's just his size. It came today and I assembled (um, attached legs) it and it was ready when he woke up. As we were walking down the stairs I said, "B, momma and daddy got you a present. It's waiting for you, would you like to see it!?" He immediately said, "uh-huh!" and there it was. His reaction? "Oh. wow! table." Clearly, he was excited :)

We moved it into the TV room where he contently sat at the table drinking his juice, watching Elmo's World and playing with trains and cars. While he did move a chair up to the TV stand once, he didn't play on it at all. Yes! Problem solved...for now.

And when daddy got home, well, life got incredible for our little man! Why, you ask? Because when Benjamin slips his little hand into daddy's and says, "daddy, sit. play cars." What's a man to do?! They sat and played cars for quite some time. If Patrick went missing (as in, I asked him a question and he came to answer it), Benjamin would call for him, "daddy?! daddy, sit!?" So sweet.

Here is the (way too low for a toddler and a TV) TV stand that caused the problems and the new solution...
His mouth was full of water. But had it not been, I'm certain he would have said "cheese". :) Please note the amount of trains and such on the table in this picture. Now, imagine four times that amount. That is what is currently on the table :)
Simple pleasures, my friends. Simple pleasures.


3 comments:

Jeannie said...

Love this! And when he and Beta get bigger, they will pull the legs off this table and wield them around like lightsabers. You've been warned. :)

erin said...

where did you find your table? We turned our coffee table into a tv stand too and we have the same problem with the two-year-old standing too close! :)

Ashley M said...

Erin. The best deal I could find is on amazon. It's a Little Tykes table and it qualifies for free shipping. At Target and Toys R US you have to pay $20 shipping! Check it out and I hope you find something that works!!