When Antonio was little, we lived in an apartment and the kitchen was little, so he really didn't go in there. Well, he did, until he started taking out the stock pot, turning it upside down and banging the hell out of it. While it bugged me, I thought it would bug my downstairs neighbor more. So, I bought a gate and kept him out of there.

The house we're in now doesn't really have a gate offable kitchen. The cabinets all have those child locks on them, but the drawers do not. Along with about 50 new skills and tricks, one of them is opening the drawers to discover that they have things in them, like rice, pasta and beans, all great things to pour onto the floor.

Gramma was visiting a few weekends ago and suggested that I make Julia a drawer with things safe for her to play with. The idea being, if she's into the one, she'll leave the others alone. She did that with Antonio at her house, and it worked pretty well.

Earlier this week, I spend an evening rearranging my little stack of drawers, making it so the bottom one could be Julia's. I didn't get around to putting things in it until last night. So, she'd check it, find it boring, and check out the other, more interesting drawers above it.
Last night I weeded through a toy basket and put some toys in it, hoping to bring her focus back to that bottom drawer~ and to please leave my tidy stack of kitchen towels alone. Oh and my obsessively stacked in order, tabs all facing the same way, Gladware alone too.

Today she checked the drawer as a courtesy on her way up, and was entertained with the new toys for a little bit. Then she found something way more fun to do.





Can I put the drawer locks on now?