by Mama Seahorse
Today, I was yet again shown how quickly a toddler can become destructive...
I went into my bedroom to clean, fold clothes, etc... After about 20 minutes (It was pretty bad in there!), I come back out to the living room to find Little Man (hereby upgraded from the nickname: babycakes) sitting on the coffee table with a naked bottom.
I shockingly asked him, "Where's your diaper?"
He looked at me, "I-oh-no,"shrugging his little shoulders.
A new diaper and some moments later, he is playing contentedly near the coffee table with some cars. Quietly buzzing to himself while he drives his car on its imaginary road, I reminded myself that I needed to swap the laundry. Downstairs I go -- wet clothes into the dryer, dirty ones into the washer -- and all of ten minutes passed. As I walk upstairs, my spidey-sense tells me to pick up the pace because something's amiss.
I find Little Man in the kitchen with one of those BLASTED small chairs he likes to carry with him everywhere (it;s his access to anything and everything these days). He pushed the chair up to the sink and looked back at me with those eyes, holding out his hands.
He licks his palm and says, "mmmm!" I touch it and realize it's Sugar. My head spins around to where I keep the baking containers -- one with flour, one with sugar. There's the sugar container, coated with a combination of sticky sugar and... I'm guessing, saliva.
But that's not all folks.
The cat's dish resides in the kitchen as well. Oh yes. And in the cat's food dish was a healthy sprinkling of... you guessed it... sugar. Shoot. And We are almost out of cat food so I have to run and get some now, I suppose.
BUT that's not all either. After washing his hands and face, removing his shirt, cleaning off the counter and the cat dish, I finish by cleaning off the sugar tin. Needing to give the lid a thorough washing, I remove it to find dark brown dots of cat food mixed with the sugar.
WOW. How did all this happen in 10 minutes?
Hello, Terrible Twos. You aren't supposed to arrive for another month, but I see you've come early. Perhaps, then, you will also be leaving earlier than expected? *sigh*
Did your children go through terrible twos sooner than later? How did you deal with it?
Comments (37)
Did you ever find the missing diaper?
Haha. This story made me laugh. My son is almost 3 and I don't think he ever really hit the terrible twos, although yes, he gets into lots of things he shouldn't. I just make a decision to laugh about it, because someday I'll look back and think it's funny. When he was almost 2 he locked me out of the house - I had run out to the car to get something and he shut the door and pushed the lock (he didn't know what he was doing). I didn't have a key, cell phone, anything. I had to go to a neighbor and they helped me break in - 30 minutes later!!
And he still has a little stool that he carries all around the house to reach stuff! It drives me crazy!!
haha. That sounds a lot like my daughter, almost 12 months... she can very quickly and quietly get into all kinds of trouble. One day we caught her in the kitchen with coffee all over her mouth, she had gotten hold of one of those hotel pre-made filter/coffee packages and ripped it open and tried to eat it. thankfully it was decaf! Just the other day she managed to scribble all over my butt with a ball point pen. The pen was so smooth and her touch so light, I really just thought she was touching me with her fingers to get my attention! I always think it's so funny, cute, and somewhat amazing how she manages to do so much in so little time, although I try not to show it for fear of encouraging her!
oh i've had those days but unfortunatly if you think the 2's are bad just wait till the threes!!!!they can be the most fun of times because they're gaining their independence but they can also be the worst of times because they're gaining their independence
@Mamatomybabies@xanga - That's funny, my nephew also locked me in the basement, about the same age. I had run down to do laundry and he shut the door then slid the latch. To make things worse, the oven was on. I tried to get him to unlatch it but he couldn't, which made him upset and broke my heart to see. Then I went around to the front door but he couldn't turn the knob on the storm door, which made him cry more. I ended up having to punch a hole through the basement door. Wow, what an experience!
my daughter hit the terrible two's at about 10 months... anything she was capable of doing, she was doing it and its progressed.. she will be four in november..
we are still wondering when the terrible twos will end...
(shes not THAT bad. it just went from lots of messes to lots of attitude)
@XbabyK@xanga - hahaha... yes, my son was hysterical till I actually got back in the house. At first, I couldn't find him, and then I did - he was hiding in a corner underneath all of his stuffed animals. It was the saddest, most pitiful (and yet funny) thing I had ever seen!
Call me crazy, but...my son is two this weekend and I would never consider leaving him unsupervised for 10 or 20 minutes. This is such an exploratory age; of course they are going to get into things.
@javamommy@xanga - I'll agree with that! My son turned 3 in June and it's sooooo much worse than 2!
@TashaDW_18@xanga - lol i'm afraid we may not be giving her much hope!!!
@Mamatomybabies@xanga - @XbabyK@xanga - My son just locked out of the house the other day! We were leaving and he hadn't put his shoes on. I sent him back in to put them on and he locked the door when he shut it. Neither my husband or I had taken our keys outside yet. We had to keep yelling until he heard us and could come unlock the door (thankfully he knows how to do that....). We were freaking out - and decided we will no longer go outside at all without the house keys!
lol ahh i totally remember my son starting terrible two's a little after he turned one, he was terror. But after he turned 2 he started to calm down, hes almost 3 now and hes pretty much calmed down alot from where he was when he was one.
I told him he wasnt allowed to do certain things and introduced time out. It helped a little.
LOL i know it. I know it. My son isn't quite two yet and I've gone through it with mashed potatos, flour, coffee grounds, formula (next step), rolled oats....
and once it was coffee and rolled oats within an hour.
not to mention the time he took off his diaper. and peed in the crockpot. or pooped in my gliding chair.
Craziness.... :)
@sassy_soul_sistah@xanga - wow, when do you ever get to shower or go to the bathroom? I leave my kids with an entertaining video or toy and go around the house getting my chores done.
My oldest has become quite the expert at midnight recon missions into the land of Kitchen Pantry. I've had to go so far as to changing the handle so it locks from the inside. One morning I came out and found a network of chairs and step stools that allowed easy access to the cabinets above the refrigerator where I had moved some of the breads and whatnots to keep them out of reach (or so I thought), sigh. The only get craftier from what I have noticed :/ but at least I know he is working his way through tough problems ;)
my pediatrician says it usually starts before two. i'm not looking forward to the tantrums. there's a little bit of whining that's starting now. she hasn't been too much of a climber, but she does carry her little chair around the house. these little ones are so fast.
@sassy_soul_sistah@xanga - I don't leave my son unsupervised either (he's only 16 months old, though), not even to go to the bathroom (I take him with me and he happily plays in the empty bathtub...). Maybe I'm overprotective, but I just KNOW he's going to find the one thing we didn't think of childproofing.... Also, we don't have a gate on our kitchen - the entrance to it is too wide - and he can reach the knobs on our gas stove now!
I really don't know when I'll feel like it's safe enough to leave him alone - maybe once we move to a new house that's easier to childproof? I know people give me a lot of flack for not leaving him alone much (he does go to daycare three days a week, but still...), but I just think: better safe than sorry. I'm just so scared something'll happen to him.
@la_vida_linda@xanga - Well, my son always plays in the bathroom when I shower. The door stays open when I go to the bathroom. And I do things around the house, but he doesn't really get out of my sight for more than 30 seconds. We have a pretty open concept floor plan, though, so that helps. But my point is, at that age, 10-20 minutes leaves open a very great possibility that they will discover something to get into. Therefore, supervision is necessary to avoid the messes and potential danger.
@NotUeberMommy - Go with your gut. We all have different comfort levels. It sounds like you and I might just be more conservative in this regard.
Oooo I am so there. My almost two year old screamed Tesco down the other day. I almost left in tears especially when some old guy yelled out for him to shut up from several aisle over- he was lucky he as several aisle over, or he may have seem my terrible 36 year old tantrum.
I find this the hardest thing to deal with..... behavior you can not control that whether we like it or not reflects our 'mothering' to those around us.
I am not a bad mother, in fact I am quite conscientious, but I left that day feeling like the worst person in the world because I couldn't make him stop.
I would have to say my heart 'again' went out to parents raising children with disabilities especially those like autism and aspergers whose behavior can be often misunderstood as just another naughty child.
Welcome to the sister hood.
x
@sassy_soul_sistah@xanga - I totally agree. My daughter is 16 months and there is no way I would leave her for that long - I know she will get into something if I do - I'm more worried about her getting hurt than making a mess. If I'm in the bathroom, she's in the bathroom... it's not fun to shower with a toddler playing peek-a-boo with the shower curtain, but it's what must be done (for us, anyway). 10 minutes is a long time to leave a baby unsupervised, in my opinion.
@sassy_soul_sistah@xanga - I just made sure that I baby proofed the house to the extent that I could leave my children alone for 10-20 minutes at a time and conditioned them to be without me for a few minutes at a time without wreaking total havoc on the house. To each their own though :)
@NotUeberMommy - They make these awesome knob covers that completely cover them and prevent them from being turned even a little bit. They sell them at Toys R Us, and they are really cheap :)
Hehe, this amuesed me. n.n; I'm so sorry. Things like this have me afraid of being a momma one day. n.n; lol
<3, ~*Akarui Mitsukai*~
My lovely child is entering hers about 6 months early. She's right at that phase [okay past it] where she's traded crying for everything to whining for everything. Yea, makes me want to pull my hair out. Thus far I've caught her on the kitchen table ripping up my pile of bills [not exactly sure how she managed to get up there, I've got a feeling it involved scooting around the chair to where she could maneuver herself up], taking off her diaper and finding three lovely piles of poo in her crib [I'm thanking God she had some fiber in her system so they were nice and firm!], taking off her diaper in the living room and rubbing the poo in the carpet. Point is I feel for you. I'm going through what your going through. I just keeping telling myself "It'll get easier." even though I know it won't. But hey, gotta enjoy the ride! Besides the cuteness of this age erases all the bad, yucky stuff. :D