Mischief or 'Satiable Curiosity

I swear, I'm going to have to take a page from Katy Dill's book and do a Once Upon a Thread after Christmas (sewing until then is pretty much booked).  Nikki is our Elephant's Child.  you know, the story of how the elephant got his trunk from Kipling's Just So Stories?

Nicole has always been a curious baby.  While Grace was fairly easy, Nicole wants to know everything and is into everything!  But today, today was the worst day we've had in a long time.  If it was something she's not supposed to do (and she knows it) she was into it.  (And then giving ups the "'I'm cute so you're going to let me do this smiles!) She tried to play with my sewing shears (I was using them at the time) the sewing machine, pins, the computer, climbing and standing on chairs...  Well, you get the picture.

My four-year-old nephew has spent his life climbing and falling off things and ending up hurt and having stitches.  None so far this year, thank goodness, but he's been for stitches five times before his fourth birthday.  I suppose my "No standing on the furniture" rule is directly related to that.  In the four years I've been taking care of Grace and the year and four months I've had Nicole we've had zero serious accidents.  Scraped knees and bug bites are the extent of our owies, and I prefer to keep it that way.  They're not allowed to touch my sewing shears, either, and both of them know it.  When Jared was around Nicole's age (I was about seven) I found him in my parents' bedroom.  He'd escaped Mom and found some lost knitting needles somewhere and had been trying to eat them.

When I found him, he was spitting up blood.

After freaking out, and yelling for my mom before calling 911, the ambulance was sent and he had to go in to get patched up.  I'm just a bit paranoid about babies and sharpish objects.

I know what's going through Nikki's mind.  Scissors, pins, and sewing machines are shiny and in the case of the pins, brightly colored.  The pins also sound nice when rattled in their box.  Add to those facts that we purposely set the sewing machines up in the living room so I'm not shut up in my room where the rest of the supplies live and so that (bear in mind that my Mom is here, too) I can sew and keep an eye on her as she plays.

In some ways, Mom and I are just the (unpaid) babysitters, but I wouldn't do this for anybody else.  I keep telling myself that "this, too, will pass".  It'll just take time to teach her that the rules we've set are for her safety and not to ruin her fun!