Kindle: Chewable Even in Direct Sunlight

Thursday, June 2nd ~ 9:30pm

I'm still rather perplexed at how a one year old child, who has not concept of money, will consistently seek out the most expensive item in any given room and then aggressively begin to (select the appropriate verb: eat / chew / lick / hit / drop / kick / sit-on / throw / push-over / stickify / smudge / salivate upon / vomit upon / poop or pee upon / destroy) it.  Given the small space we live in, Mimi has become especially skilled in this "accelerate mother and father's financial ruin" activity.  While she has yet to destroy anything outright, I can tell that she is simply honing her skills for the future.  I'm quite worried about the car...

Today Mimi was fascinated by my Kindle.  This may have something to do with my being addicted to a recent book I downloaded on the life of a racing mechanic in the F1 series (not a realistic job change at this point, I know).  I've been devouring this book and I think Mimi has picked up that the white, rectangular, flat thing must be fairly interesting.  It's not an iPhone or a laptop, but Papa does seem to spend an inordinate amount of time staring at it.  Around 9:30 this morning, as I went to the kitchen to put Mimi's breakfast plates away, I heard a loud, plastic "thunk."  Now, at this point in my parenting career I was quickly able to figure out the following from the sound:  1. It wasn't a laptop (thank God); 2. It was something small and plastic, like a remote or (uh-oh) a Kindle);  3. It hit the hardwood next to the couch and was not cushioned by the carpet.  I returned from the kitchen to find this:

Well, this wasn't really what I found.  This was Mimi posing for my camera and trying to look innocent.  Upon entering the room, Mimi had the Kindle bending 90 degrees the wrong way out of its case and was giving the keyboard a good working over with her teeth.  Picture a man severely hyper-extending his knee as that same leg is attacked by vicious dogs and you'll have a fairly good grasp of the situation.  Both Kindle and light were salvaged and I calmed Mimi down with some stories of her own. 

The one positive I can see from this wanton destruction is that I'm less concerned about the rapid advance of technology and the things I buy becoming instantly obsolete.  Mimi may break something, but, chances are that if it was a newer gadget it would have broken or become obsolete shortly anyway.  Oddly enough, this planned obsolescence may actually be somewhat comforting in the future! 

The rest of the day was relatively quiet, with just an outing to get some sippy cups with straws, which Mimi can now use, and some dinner from Chipotle.  When Mama came home, Mimi showed off her improved cruising skills by transitioning from the couch to the arm chair and back.  Once again, all in the quest for remotes. 

Tomorrow Mimi has daycare, so I'll have my little reprieve.  Actually a bit tired today! 

-Steve