My niece Nancy Kay makes the best faces! The whole family went to Abuelo's for dinner a few weeks ago. Fourteen-month old Nancy saw all of us eating chips and salsa and wanted in on the action. She started grabbing chips out of the basket and dipping them in the salsa. At first, she got so little salsa on the chips that it wasn't hot, but she started putting more on the chip, so that when she put it to her mouth, she made a horrible, pained expression. This caused me to laugh hysterically, which in turn caused her to get more chips and salsa, and keep eating it and making agonized faces. Before long she was dipping her whole hand in the salsa bowl, while I laughed, and her parents scowled at me.
A few months before that, Nancy demonstrated that my house is not childproof, if there was ever any question. I am child and husband-free, and so I don't worry about keeping breakables out of reach.
One Sunday after church, Katie, Porter, and Nancy came over. As usual, Nancy started looking around for things to play with. First, magazines, then earrings, then a metal bolt. Then she got hold of a tiny bottle of Dave's Insanity Hot Sauce. The bottle had a screw top lid - no way she could get that open!
Anyone familiar with Murphy's Law would have forecasted otherwise, and the next time I turned around, Nancy had the bottle open and was licking the lid.Tears and screaming soon followed. Katie and I took her to the sink to wash her hands. We gave her ice to suck on. Her nose started to run. She had red splotches around her mouth. It was terrible.
Lessons learned: my house is not childproof and an extra smart and stubborn 11 month old is perfectly capable of opening a screwtop bottle. Also, Nancy is pretty heat resistant.
