A Very Toddler Christmas

We knew decorating for Christmas with a toddler would be a little different than usual, but you can just never be sure of what the problems will be!  Honestly, Cooper has not shown much interest in the ornaments on our tree-- we made sure the ones within his reach are all ones it's okay if he touches or gets, but he will touch them a little and then walk away.  Not sure how much that will change throughout the next month, but so far that has not been a temptation.  The bigger issue was trying to decorate with him around...

He just wants to climb all the things.

ALL THE THINGS.

Y'all.  All the things.  David hung up most of the lights during nap time, but we let Cooper come out while we finished up the outside decorations and he could not leave the ladder alone.  Part of me knew I should get him off of it immediately, the other part of me was curious how high he'd climb.  We were right behind the whole time, but he made it to the 4th step without any help.  All in the matter of about 30 seconds.  David only had a little bit of the house left to cover in lights, but Cooper and I had to go inside for "time out" about 5 times during that 30 minute stretch because he just could not leave the ladder alone.

Luckily now that we've put away all the ladders and boxes, things are pretty calm.  He gets all the books off the shelf and scatters the Little People nativity everywhere, but he also helps clean them up.

I also made him a felt tree that he could decorate.  And he thought it was the coolest.  He loved it...

... for about three minutes before he ripped it off the wall.  I had put it up with command strips (12 to be exact) and he took it off twice that morning.  Then I stapled it up and it lasted about a day before he ripped it off when he was mad that I went down the hall to go to the bathroom without him.  We'll put it back up eventually, but for now it's laying on the floor.

And I feel like that perfectly sums up life with a toddler-- he gets into the things you don't expect, leaves the things you're worried about alone, and destroys the things made just for him.  It all just makes me laugh.

Merry Christmas from toddler land!