“That paper is not for your mouth. Let’s not eat paper.”
…toddler looks around and puts a different piece of paper in her mouth:
“No, that’s paper, not in your mouth, please. Why would it be okay for the 2nd paper if not the 1st?” (with a grin).
…toddler looks up at parent, down at floor, then stoops and puts yet another piece of paper in her mouth. Is again told to take it out, but the parent realizes it’s a small plastic toy:
“Oh, ok, that’s ok; that’s a toy.”
…toddler scans the room, zeros in in a coloring book, brings it to her mouth:
“No, that’s made of paper. Take it out please.”
…we move on to testing the bouncy seat toys, looking at Mommy after licking each:
(sigh) “Yes. I guess that’s ok.”
…the taste testing tour continues with a backpack (“it’s ok in theory, but that’s Daddy’s, so it’s not ok to taste it if he doesn’t want you to. Clear?”), footstool (“um, I guess that’s ok.”), etc.
Real Life Training is complicated,
MMC
Miss Mary Clare 