Addison is an engineer. I can tell already. She has always been so studious of everything she touches, so observant. You can almost literally see the wheels turning in her head as she experiences life.

Generally I’m a big believer that babies find non-toys more fun and interesting than baby toys. Addison is no exception - the problem is the normal things I would have given my past babies to play with are just too dangerous for this inquisitive one. The other day she found a box of toothpaste which I let her play with until a few minutes later she had chewed off the cover, pulled out the tube and was working on the toothpaste tube cap. The other day she crawled into Dalton’s room, took out his wallet and took out every single thing, one at a time, in every nook and crannie. She likes to unplug things and try to plug them back in. She likes to open every door she sees and has figured out that if it looks like a cupboard door and it doesn’t open on one side (the hinge side), you just try the other side and it will open. She has long since mastered opening up the cd player and taking cds in and out. The interesting thing is that she’ll pull out a cd and instead of examining it, she examines the inside of the player and then replaces the cd. Its almost like she is trying to figure out how it all works. She has watched how the gate opens and shuts and it is only a matter of time before she opens it herself. she can peel stickers or tape off any surface, no matter how tiny. The other day she reached up and grabbed a box of lightbulbs off a counter. I saw her and didn’t think to react but then she took the cardboard insert out of the box and took two lightbulbs out of the insert and banged them together like maracas! They didn’t break but it was a reminder about just how inquisitive and dexterous she is.

I posted a series of photos on Flickr of Addison troubleshooting my poor excuse for a roadblock to our stairs. It was no match for her but she spent a good half hour trying to figure out the best method for navigating it: she won’t be deterred.

While Noah was watching Dora the other day, Addison was troubleshooting why there was an extra A/V cord hanging off the front of the television (this is because there is no third input on this particular tv)  and trying to fit it into any available hole:

Addison thinks Dora’s mysteries are baby stuff. The A/V cable is MUCH more appealing. As are all the buttons on our printers and computers.

Thankfully there is a relative pattern to her curious destruction. First she examines it from all angles (this takes a few minutes), then she takes it apart (another few minutes) and then it goes into her mouth. Since EVERYTHING eventually goes into her mouth, if I need to buy myself some time to get something done, sometimes I can fill a purse or bag with items for her to take apart and destroy before I know they will go in her mouth.

Another thing she loves is books. I have never had a kid so drawn to books before. It is not unusual to walk into a room and see her sitting in the middle of the room flipping through the pages of any book. She likes the words as much as the pages. She points and babbles and squeals over the books. And then she rips the pages out, one by one. And then she eats them.

One fun thing about a baby like this is that her first birthday should be a real blast. She will actually enjoy opening all her gifts. Easter, too, will be fun. I can’t imagine the fun she will have opening up all the eggs looking for her prizes.

One not so fun thing is that babyproofing will be both required and near impossible. My boys were never like this. I really did not need to babyproof anything. I just had to keep an eye on them and that was enough. Not so with Miss Addy-Mai Destructo. I have a feeling, with her, there will be no such thing as ‘enough’.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Adoption, Parenting, Photos & Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.