Wily Sam!

One of the things I admire most about my son (already) is that he's not a complainer. If you put an obstacle in his way, instead of complaining about it, he just studies it out in his mind until he finds a way around your obstacle. You block his way to something, he just finds another way. He doesn't throw a tantrum or cry. It's fun to watch his thought process. He looks around and studies his options. So far, he's never found an obstacle he couldn't find a way out of. Even when I devised a 'time out' corner. He knows I'm mad so he can't get out, but he has discovered that if he turns around and says "Nana", grandma comes and saves him. He always leaves with a smile knowing he got out. How can I be mad at that? It's so smart. (In his defense, his first stop after being freed is to tell Mommy he's sorry for what he did.)
Another example is the picture above. We put our kitchen chairs as obstacles to block his path to the kitchen (where he likes to hunt for dropped food). When we first did it, he stared at it and at first, tried to get over the chair. Well, that didn't work. So then he tried throwing his body across the chair. That didn't work either. Finally after staring at the chair for a while, he realized he's skinny enough to fit through the chair legs. It was a success! We all had to celebrate it! You have to admit, if the kid is smart enough to find a way past his obstacle, he deserves to be able to enjoy his accomplishment.