Our Church has an anologion, a formal chant stand. For those of you who've never seen one, I'll describe ours. Imagine taking the part of a music stand that holds music, and putting four of those back to back, leaning in, so that they form a pyramid shape. Then put the whole thing swiveling on top of a hollow column where you can store books, and you've got the basic idea. Ours has a hexagonal column and, since we only got it about six or eight months ago, nothing in it as yet. We have an adequate bookshelf so it's mostly empty. Its emptiness is probably encouraged by the fact that Justin likes to climb inside. It's a good little nook and he likes tight places. He's been fond of the chant stand since it arrived--he used to use it to hold on and walk before he was comfortable walking on his own, and he likes to climb inside, pull the door closed, and then kick it open. As he's gotten stronger, this has presented something of an issue. He can kick it hard enough, now, that it flies open and rebounds.
I tried to stop him doing that because I was concerned that it might put stress on the hinges, but it is very difficult to stop a toddler from doing something in a situation where he really can't make any noise and neither can you. Discipline at the chant stand is a tricky business. And while Justin is pretty obedient about avoiding things he's told are no-nos right out of the box, as it were, he's very stubborn about relinquishing toys or activities that have always been allowed and are suddenly forbidden as he gets too strong or mobile or whatever for it to be safe anymore.
This morning he broke the chant stand. He climbed inside as usual, insisted on having the door closed (since it's carved ornately he will put his little fingers through the carving and pull it closed if you refuse to close it for him) and then, after a few minutes, kicked it open as usual. Only this time the door went flying. It being an Orthodox Church, nothing happened. Father continued chanting and the two or three parishioners there for a weekday mid-morning service heard the crash but tried to ignore it. I picked up the door and put it out of the way, and the service went on. I had a look at it later and it should be an easy repair--the nails just came out. It needs a hammer and some wood glue and it'll be fine. The thing was built sturdily enough but it wasn't intended to take a toddler repeatedly kicking the door open. I guess I really have to teach him not to now.