More exploration

I think that Rini is getting to be smarter than we give her credit
for. That, and we are going to have to seriously look into getting a
proper bed for her very soon. The playpen isn't working so well
anymore because she's figured out that the bottom can come up, and
when she does that, she gets stuck.

We have the offer of a toddler bed for $50. The only thing is that we
would have to travel to St. Paul to pick it up. Oie. Might have to
hold out on that one, or find something a little bit closer. Maybe
IKEA, or maybe Kijiji. I hear there's lots of stuff there! The other
thing to check would be that yahoo group that I used to subscribe to.
I'll have to dig around for that though.

Rini is getting to be a climbing fiend. One of her favourite
activities is to climb on the computer chair, and then let herself
down by sliding underneath the armrest. She also does that with the
rocking chair too. I'm thinking we might have to take her bouldering
one day, but we'll see how that pans out.

One thing that she's climbing quite well is her car seat. We only
have to help her when she gets out now. She quite capable of getting
into the seat all by herself! Mind, she hasn't quite figured out how
to secure the seat, so we do have to conitnue helping with that little
bit.

Kallie pointed out that skill development works differently with girls
than it does with boys. The general pattern of development with boys
is: First, fine motors skills; Second, verbal skills; and third, gross
motor skills. With girls, the pattern is the opposite. Gross motor
skills develop first, and then you have the verbal skills, and then
the fine motor skills develop. Rini has already mastered the basic
ambulatory skills, such as crawling, walking, running, climbing and
descending stairs. Right now she's trying to pull up the cover on the
base of the playpen. Why? I'm assuming because she can!

A interesting bit of advice I got tongiht from an experienced father
of three boys and two girls. The relationship a father has with his
sons is different than the one that he has with his daughters. Mostly
because the daughters tend to get away with murder. I don't think
that I'll be quite like that. Then again, I've never been a father
before, and I'm just learning as I go here.

Yesterday, Caitlin and I discussed an odd matter, planning in advance.
We discussed when would be the best age for Rini to get a cell phone,
bank account, and allowance. We decided that allowance would start
when she started school, and would segue into compensation for chores
done around the house when she's fourteen. That would be about the
time that we would consider a cell phone. I would want her to have a
phone once she starts dating. Caitlin said sixteen would be the ideal
age for that, but I thought that fourteen would work just as well,
because that's group dating age. We still have at least twelve years
to discuss this, and with the way technology is running, things might
be a bit different in ten years. Or the pessimist in me thinks that
we'll be on the edge of armagedden anyway so we won't be worrying
about trite things like cell phones.