Rachel's take on Provident Living

My friend Bridget once mused that she wasn't sure when to give her daughter a pillow. Almost every parenting book out there recommends that you not put your baby to bed with blankets, pillows, or stuffed animals. And, not that I've read many parenting books at all, they also recommend that you start offering your baby a "comfort item," such as a blanket or stuffed animal.

How are you supposed to establish a "comfort item" and then not put your baby to bed with it? That's my question. Our baby certainly goes to bed with her blankies. We tried putting her to bed without them once and it was a dreadful experience. I think I understand about the pillow thing, though, because the baby's airway is too delicate and bends too easily to have it be on a pillow. But really, when can you give a baby a pillow? When is a baby no longer a baby?

I realize that Rachel is still a baby and is probably still too young for a pillow, but I'm not sure that she concurs. She has recently started to extemporize pillows during nap time. Here she is using her doll's head to cushion her own.


In addition to making her own pillows, our self-sufficient baby likes to scout around for her own sources of water. I'm tempted to start leaving sippy cups full of water laying around, something I said I'd never do, just to discourage her from venturing into the bathroom to quench her thirst... kind of like how they feed the animals in the zoo to keep them from eating the people.

Here's Rachel helping me unload the dishwasher. It seems we're always unloading the dishwasher, doesn't it?


"I'm going to turn my back now which means I won't be watching you," I warned her, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Oh, I won't, Mom," she assured me with her devious looking smile.


The fact that it was a devious smile should have been a tip off that she was about to misbehave, but I turned my back anyway. The silverware had to be put away. What's a mother to do?

While I was busy sorting through spoons and forks, I heard a slurping noise so I turned around, very quickly, to see what it was. Rachel was drinking water off the dishwasher door.

There had been a container that hadn't dried off all the way yet and had a puddle of water sitting on it--you know the gross left-over dish water that has the little floaties in it--but it had since been tipped over and Rachel was busy cleaning up her little spill. Oh, yum.


Sometimes I'm not sure where she gets her ingenuity, but if our family ever gets lost in the woods without water or pillows I think we'll be glad we have her!