"Push! Push!"

Daniel loves to push buttons. No, not mine. Well, actually, he has mastered the art of pushing Mommy's buttons. But that's another blog post for another day. Today's post is about his obsession with literally pushing buttons. It doesn't matter what kind or where. He wants to "Push! Push!" What started as an infant's fascination with toys that lit up or made noise, has morphed into a toddler's desire to switch the lights on and off, to turn the bathtub faucet and watch the water run, to dispense water from the refrigerator door, and, most recently, to push the power button on the Keurig coffee maker. If only he could make the whole cup, add some cream and sugar, and serve it to me while I lounged in bed! Just kidding...sort of.

After countless mornings of watching Mommy and Daddy brew themselves a cup of coffee, Daniel grew more and more intrigued by the machine. Once I allowed him to try the buttons out for himself, I had naively sealed my fate. Now I can't brew a cup of coffee within earshot of him without hearing "Push! Push!" And, like the sucker that I am, I lift him up onto the kitchen counter and allow him to fiddle with the buttons for a couple of minutes. So far, he hasn't mistakenly brewed coffee into an invisible cup (I mean, all over the countertop). But I know it's coming.

I don't mind his routine of switching the lights on and off when we leave a room, nor does it bother me when he jacks up the volume dial on the entertainment system. Who doesn't want to hear Elmo's World at an earsplitting volume? His behavior is nothing OCD-like in nature, it simply illustrates his curiosity at the world around him. When Peter was a kid, he used to push the buttons on the vacuum cleaner and pretend it was a spaceship. I recall conjuring some elaborate fantasy world involving the electricity meters on the side of the house. Apparently it runs in the family.