Yesterday, I noticed for the first time that Caleb was bored. Immediately upon this observation, all of the following happend within the next 5 seconds:

1) I had an epiphany that my little baby was now a busy, curious toddler.

2) A wave of parental guilt/panic washed over me.

3) My mind raced with fears that my lack of educational activities from the past few weeks have been hindering his blossoming potential.

4) I got on Amazon.com and rush-ordered the thickest, most comprehensive, unabridged toddler activity book I could find.

5) The rational part of my brain finally kicked in and I calmed down.

I bought some finger paints a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve been too reluctant to use them because of the insane amount of mess they cause. However, today I was determined to plant some sort of educational seed in this 15 month old’s mind. So I stripped the boy down to his diaper, flattened out a grocery bag for a placemat, prepared a half of a roll of paper towels for imminent spills, splashes and smears, and let him at it. I would say it was a success. He got a kick out of the colorful slime and, by the end of it, he could even point to each color when I asked him.

Educational toddler lesson accomplished. My overactive parental instinct has been appeased… at least for now.