![\"\"](\"http:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/img_3400.jpg\" "\\"Rules")
<\/p>\nAs Lucy has become increasingly more mobile, verbal, and willful, I’ve discovered that we are amassing quite a collection of household rules. Some are more obvious — and some are stranger — than others. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
p{color:gray}. Photo: “Squirt the belly!” Yes, you may squirt water on Rosie’s belly during her bath, but not in her face.<\/p>\n
I hate to feel like I’m saying “no” almost constantly, but I think this just comes with the territory when raising a curious toddler.<\/p>\n
*Mealtimes*
\n* No spitting water out of your mouth at the table.
\n* No feet on the table.
\n* Big-girl cups must be held with both hands.
\n* There is no dipping of spoons, hands, or chicken drummettes into the big-girl cup.
\n* You must sit on the booster seat during mealtimes, but grown-up chairs are okay for snack time.
\n* No M&Ms, Joe-Joes, or ice-cream sandwiches at breakfast.
\n* No squishing the string cheese into an unrecognizable ball.
\n* No drinking the ketchup, soy sauce, or salad dressing.
\n* Last but not least (a rule one might think would be unnecessary): No gagging yourself with your hand.<\/p>\n
*Household*
\n* No shoes on the futon.
\n* Toddlers may not sit in the bouncy seat, lest they break it.
\n* You must wear shoes on the back deck (to prevent splinters).
\n* You may not go down the scary outside basement stairs. (Papa’s note: They’re not scary!)
\n* No touching the computer screen.
\n* No touching Mama’s laptop keyboard.
\n* No playing with the real cordless phone.
\n* You may draw only on paper.
\n* No climbing on tables or countertops.
\n* Be gentle with the plants — no pulling off leaves or flowers.
\n* You may look at, but not touch, the “Lucy Boat.”
\n* No taking off the cap of the lip balm.
\n* No playing with the cordless mouse.<\/p>\n
*Family Life*
\n* No hitting your sister.
\n* No bouncing her vigorously in the bouncy seat.
\n* Say “yes, please” instead of “yeah.”<\/p>\n
*Bath & Body*
\n* A pee in the potty earns one jelly bean; a poop earns two jelly beans. Dry pants get a bonus jelly bean.
\n* You must wash your hands before collecting your jelly bean(s).
\n* No drinking the bathwater.
\n* You must get completely dried off after bathtime before streaking naked throughout the house.
\n* Do not stick anything in your ears, nose, or eyes.<\/p>\n
*Travel*
\n* No standing up in the grocery cart. You may sit or kneel in the seat.
\n* You must buckle up in the car. Why? For safety.
\n* You may buckle the top part of the car seat buckle, but a grown-up must buckle the more challenging bottom latch.
\n* Hold hands with a grown-up when you cross the street.
\n* No touching the wheels while riding in the stroller.
\n* When an adult says, “Stop!”, you must stop, not run away laughing hysterically. (We still don’t quite understand this, and it is making Mama a bit nervous.)<\/p>\n
With any luck, Lucy will remember all the fun things we do allow these days — and not all of the prohibitions!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Lucy has become increasingly more mobile, verbal, and willful, I’ve discovered that we are amassing quite a collection of household rules. Some are more obvious — and some are stranger — than others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}