In my sleep deprived, toddler saturated state something has only just occured to me

[oinkment]

Toddlers are so full on and demanding and 100% every second of the day precicely so that you do give them all your attention.

If she sat sweetly playing with her blocks I would get on with my day (by which I mean Mumsnet).

Instead every minute is "Take that out of your mouth, oh careful that's heavy, shall I help you with that? No you'll fall, hold my hand. Gently with the kitty, oh very good aren't you gentle, no, NO GENTLE like you showed me before, no the kitty doesn't eat crayons, you spit it out too, all of it, hang on I'll get a cloth. How did you get up there? Okay I've got you. Alright but go backwards and feet first. Where's your book? Shall we sit down and look at your book for a minute? What have you got in your mouth now?"

And so because she is forever in some sort of peril from swallowing screws, falling off the table, upsetting the cat, I have no choice but to interact with her the whole time she's awake and so every minute of her day is interactive and a learning process.

It has taken me three children to work this fairly obvious thing out.

LOL - You have described my every waking minute perfectly!

Ii recognise that too! Why my days at work are the relaxing ones!

Yes, I'm finding it very hard work atm with my 18mo

But it's a survival mechanism of sorts isn't it? She is full on every waking moment because she is learning the whole time and I'm her main source of information so she monopolises my time and attention as much as she can.

Clever.

Also, exhausting.

(Arent they are so cute at this age for survival too? They need to be.)

Couldn't agree more. The cuteness is tremendous but it bloody well needs to be.

Ah so she's got a cunning and slightly sinister plan? That explains a lot. Bedtime is THE best time of day...

It's the look of absolute, sheer pride on their face when they are standing on the two inch arm of their kids chair, wobbling in front of the telly.

I used to think the whole 'worrying when they are silent' thing was a slightly cliche. Ha ha ha. The terror when you realise they haven't made a sound for about twenty seconds.

Thank you - and my H has the nerve to complain that I don't keep the house tidy enough on my 'days off'. Humph!
With my 20 month old its clingyness as much as anything, and creating a trail of destruction behind her!

Yes this is my day to a tee!! I also have a 4 month old hanging off me most of the time though - thank god he is an easy baby! I think he's too scared to make a sound for fear of attracting attention of the 23 month old monster that is his sister

My friend has a DD of a similar age, just today we were remembering when they were tiny and we used to say 'i like this age' quite a lot. We havent said that for a while...

They are better when they are three, although DD1 was probably 12 before I took my eyes of her in shops and other people's houses.

As a toddler she ran off,climbed and fiddled with anything that wasn't a toy.

She continued to climb and fiddle for the rest of primary.

She's a keen scientist and the world needs to be investigated. I don't think she cared if l was paying any attention to her or not.

DD 2 lives in far less of a dream and never wanders off. She certainly did cute attention keeping.

Wow!! What an interesting description

My 15 month old keeps me on my toes. Just yesterday he was quite for about 20 seconds(as someone so rightly mentioned ) n i just rushed to the other room- DS was happily standing with a pouch of silica gel balls (those used to keep moisture away from inside bags) ....just waiting to pop them in his mouth!!

I keep trying to explain to my hubby that i dont sit around n relax all day...but i wonder if it gets through to him

My 2.5 year old came into the bathroom when I was having a pee earlier and dropped something on the floor then buggered off again. Double taked, realised it was the LID OFF A SHARPIE and nearly wazzed all over the floor in my haste out of there. Sheer terror.

yikes, nothing strikes fear into toddler mums faster than unguarded permanent markers!

This is my every day. Df wonders why the printer is on the floor and there is coco pops all over the floor if he nips out for a few hours .. he doesn't believe me when i say i've chased the boy in from eating spiders, climbing the units, playing with knifes, changed him twice, put all his nappies and shoes away, took packing tape off him, read 2 books halfway through had 10 minutes of nemo/madagascar and yes, i have eventually gave up i'm 32 bloody weeks pregnant so if the shredder has been emptied to the floor and the printer is on the floor too oh and i've not done the fucking kitchen tough fuckibg shit!

Doesn't help my cause much that ds is a dream for df so he says and i walk into a clean tidy house when they've been in together ..

That was a rant

I know ds only does it because i'm much more fun to annoy learn from