Arlo Franklin

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Magnus Russell

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Monday, January 10, 2011

Around the house with Arlo

Arlo is a lucky kid - he's got tons of great toys.  But he's also happy to play with things around the house and he's interested in a lot of the things that are "everyday stuff" to us.  First, he's always been really into cooking - before I was comfortable giving him real food to work with, he would play endlessly with a bowl and whisk and a few measuring cups.  He quickly requested some water to put into those things so he could pour and stir.  I've also given him raisins, chocolate chips, other dried fruits and such to mix and eat for a more real cooking experience that required very little oversight.  That let me get some real cooking done without him getting bored just watching.  In the last several months, though, Arlo has been more and more ready to take on some of the bigger tasks with cooking - but obviously nothing with heat or my knives!  He is a great egg scrambler, can pour in just about anything measured (he got lots of practice with all the holiday baking), he loves to add seasoning and crack the pepper, and he's even cutting up the mushrooms for me with a butter knife.  I see some excellent potential once he's three!

Of course there's the usual stuff - light switches, doors, running waterr in the sink and bathtub, flushing the toilet, etc...But our little man - at 2 1/2 - is also interested in locks and keys.  His dad made him a lock play set with keys to lock and unlock the "door" out of a spare set from the basement.  He's always trying to figure out how things work - we find him with pilfered screwdrivers trying to take the battery out of his toys or unscrew the drum set.  Luckily he's not very successful with that yet!  He loves to play with the salad spinner (great loaded with matchbox cars) and the old teapot.  Perhaps not our favorite playthings, he's also figured out how to play his music cd's on the sound system and even control the tv remote.  He can even get the you tube video he wants to play on the computer now.  And of course he's all over my android phone with all of its kid-friendly apps.  If you get a strange call from me someday, though, you'll know it's likely little fingers getting ahold of something they shouldn't!

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