After a bit of a lull in such explorations, my 2-year-old son E- has lately rededicated himself to the cause of more fully probing this world of ours through every sensory-input-gathering device available to him.
This noble effort often results in him putting many things in or on his mouth-parts that lesser men would likely fail to even consider attempting.
Here's a selection of some of the most noteworthy just from the past week or so:
1. The floor, many times
2. The underside of the counter where the kids eat most often*
3. The bottom of his shoe
4. The bottom of a few other people's shoes
5. The strap of his car seat**
6. The rim of a garbage can I'd just bought from a thrift shop***
7. The bristles of our small hand broom that has seen a good ten years' use, in all conditions, in several states***
8.
An old plastic fork he found in our garage
I shudder to think what else he'll think of tasting without us even realizing we needed to warn him not to.
That's the advantage of being a world-changer instead of a nay-sayer, I guess. Good luck, little buddy! You are a worthy opponent.
* Thus making it the grossest part of the counter.
** This one, like the first one, kind of goes without saying, but it's worth including anyway just because a kid's car seat is among the more germ-infested places in the world, including the toilet (which gets washed much more frequently), especially for a family that takes as many car trips as we do...
*** These two were in the same day, only about an hour apart!