Children enhance the celebratory moments of any holiday especially the annual celebration of the advent of the Christ child. The wonder of the colors, music and foods attract the minds, eyes and hands of curious children.
Our grandson in Sherwood loves to ring the bells his mother bought for him. In the evening he asks to walk down to the neighbor’s to enjoy the light displays. To be sure he and his cousin Oaken (who comes everyday to be baby-sat) focus on the original Christmas, a child-safe nativity perches at their level in the living room for the boys to study re-arrange the figures and stable.
Last year cousin Oaken studied the decorations on the tree. “Look, but don’t touch,” his aunt said. But it was not enough for his two-year old mind and its curiosity about all the colors and shapes on that tree. During nap time, after everyone, including my daughter slept, he woke-up early, slipped out of bed, went to the living room and climbed on the furniture to reach high in the tree for a colorful ornament. He carried it safely to ground level where he licked the ornament free of half its color before hiding it. When my daughter woke up, he sat innocently on the bed – only the red dye on his face and shirt betraying his nap time escapade. She explored the house, searching for the source of the color, found the half-hidden, now streaked ornament and called poison control to be assured he would survive his curiosity.
This year it is the St. Louis baby’s turn to cause her parents concern. An eager, energetic crawler, she likes to grab, hold and put things into her mouth. Her mother determined early that she would have only baby safe items on the tree.
Prior to our November visit, I asked if she would like me to bring up a sewing machine and some Christmas fabric to make decorations. A strong affirmative sent me raiding my stash of material, buying a large box of Styrofoam balls and cones for a dollar at a yard sale and searching the Internet for quick, easy and safe ideas and ways to decorate a tree.
Between the baby, the sewing machine and eating in the home of a woman who likes to try new, flavorful ideas from cookbooks, friends and media recipes, we had a wonderful and full weekend.
In my packing, I included a colorful Advent wreath with 24 tiny cardboard books. I thought that would make a safe, holiday decoration for the baby to explore this first Christmas – and add a few more options for tree decorations. The baby reached out, touched, tugged and pulled at the fist sized-books until she had one in each hand. She dropped down to crawl and stopped – unable to go forward with both hands full of book. After trying another couple times to crawl, she stuffed the corner of one book in her mouth and crawled away.
This child likes to carry things in her mouth – favoring a tiny stuffed monster with protruding cloth eyes and her baby socks. Unless her mother gives the baby a pair of socks for play, she will pull and tug the socks off her feet until she has one to stuff in her mouth, letting it hang down like a big pink tongue as she crawls.
After the baby finished entertaining us and went to sleep, her mother and I sewed Christmas decorations – some from pre-printed patterns exactly like the ones I made during my daughter’s early years. When the baby woke up she checked out the colorful material: Tasting, pulling and looking at the designs and chewing the small stuffed ornaments we had made.
This year she crawls and stuffs everything in her mouth. Next year she will be able to walk, climb and – who knows – do her own variation of pulling decorations off the tree to lick.