To prevent that we set up our tree and then put up a portable play-yard around the outside of the tree. While not the most beautiful setup, it has been moderately effective at keeping the tree upright and the ornaments in one piece.
This brings me back to my Jurassic Park reference. In the movie when they first learn about them breeding Velociraptors the conversation turns to the reptiles intelligence and their ability to problem solve.
Dr. Alan Grant: [about the velociraptors] What kind of metabolism do they have? What's their growth rate?
Muldoon: They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal. I've hunted most things that can hunt you, but the way these things move
Dr. Alan Grant: Fast for a biped?
Muldoon: Cheetah speed. Fifty, sixty miles an hour if they ever got out in the open, and they're astonishing jumpers...
John Hammond: yes, yes, yes. That's why we're taking extreme precautions.
Dr. Alan Grant: Do they show intelligence? With their brain cavity...
Muldoon they show extreme intelligence, even problem solving intelligence. Especially the big one. We bred eight originally, but when she came in she took over the pride and killed all but two of the others. That one...when she looks at you, you can see she's working things out. That's why we have to feed them like this. She had them all attacking the fences when the feeders came.
Dr. Ellie Sattler: But the fences they are electrified though, right?
Muldoon: That's right, but they never attack the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses, systematically. They remember.
Watching Noah "attack" the gate daily trying to find the weak spots makes me think my son is part velociraptor. He systematically pushes, presses, and pulls at different spots of the gate each day trying to get to the ornaments. He has found weak points in the setup and regularly exploits them to sneak behind the tree or get in close enough to the hallmark ornaments that he can activate with a push button.
I really can't help but laugh when he does it because it's probably our fault that he wants to get to the tree. He obviously probably realizes that he can't have what is behind the gate so therefore he will do everything he can to get behind the gate.
We are really getting excited to share our first real Christmas with Noah, sure last year was the first but this year will be the first year he will probably get excited about some of the presents.
Christmas at the Zoo:
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