My 6 month old baby son is a persistent one. When he wants something, he will try his best to figure out how to get it. He recently learned how to crawl and talk (basically saying Mama or screaming until you made eye contact) and he would try to use those two paths to get what he wanted. I am now much more cautious with him because he is more aware and capable, but my wife is not quite on my level of caution yet.

The other day, we were eating lunch with him and I was holding him while eating. I was trying to make sure he was far enough away from my food so he couldn’t grab the bowl or utensils I was using. Once my wife was done, I handed him over to her and she was holding him while I ate. All of a sudden, he starts to reach for this plant. My wife thinks it’s hilarious and there were two paths to take - one where you move the baby far away from the stimulus and one where you continue doing what you are doing while the baby is being persistent with reaching the stimulus. My wife chose the latter.

When I said my son is persistent, he really is and used all of his limbs to climb all over my wife to grab the plant. He was so wiggly that he squirmed his way up high enough to actually grab it and pulled the whole pot down. The dirt and all. My wife and baby were covered in dirt. She was laughing and also realized I took a picture first of the whole situation instead of help right away. I needed to memorialize this moment because it shows how persistent the little one actually was and also how a misguided judgement call could lead to dirt for dessert.