Animal Cards

Yesterday, Caleb spent at least 90 minutes completely absorbed in a set of cards. We got a free coloring book in the mail that had a sheet of perforated animal cards on the back, so I popped them out and gave them to him.

Now before I go on, any of you who have never lived with a not-quite-two year old, don't realize how bizarre this is. Nothing fully occupies a toddler for an hour and a half. Not even all-you-can-eat ice cream. So I half marveled at this and half reveled in it and spent time working on the invitations to his birthday party.

Here is what he did with the cards - first he stacked them up and looked at the over and over, talking to himself, mostly calling them by the wrong name, but that's ok. He'd bring them over to me from time to time and twice we went over what animal was what. Then he sat in the rocking chair with them and looked at them some more, but this time he was bending them in half. Then he tried to straighten them out for a while. Then he started nibbling on one and when he saw he could tear off chunks with his teeth, he destroyed almost all of them and scatted the pieces on the floor. When I got the broom to sweep up the mess, he hurried to pick up some of the bits and throw them in the trash can.*

In short, he thoroughly enjoyed every possible aspect of these silly little cards. I am not sure I can wrap my mind completely around it, but I think there is some deep philosophical lesson in all of this.

*This sounds nice and responsible, but we're still working on keeping him from taking interesting things OUT of the trash can when he puts things in.