So, I have 2 kids. Mikel is almost 4, will be next monday, and Steven is 2. They do things that absolutely amaze and sometimes disgust me.
The other day, they were running around with suckers. I kept taking them away, and they kept getting more. I could NOT figure out where they were getting them. The next day, I catch them with HANDFULS of suckers when they were supposed to be napping! Make Mikel get me all the stashed ones. He brought me another handful out from under his bed. I am so glad he is still honest at his age. So I walk into the 'kitchen', I use this term loosely as the kitchen/living room/dining room is all one room and with a largish table barely big enough to walk around in, and what do I see in the sink? Can you guess? No, of course not. In my 'kitchen', I have a wall of cabinets(from someone else's house). They are installed with about 2 feet of space above them. On top of them we have put things we don't wish for the kids to get into. (Starting to get the idea?) My husband is attempting to quit smoking, so he bought a huge bag of those little dum dum suckers, like you get at the bank if you have kids with you. Mikel got into them when we had them IN the cupboards. We moved them into a cookie jar, my husband loves to hit garage sales and buy stuff we have no room for, and placed the jar on top of the cupboards on the other side of the 1 1/2 foot walkway in our kitchen. Now, I canNOT reach on top of these without a chair and my trusty very long tongs. MY SON GOT THIS THING DOWN FROM THERE! I have also found him on top of my refrigerator. Anywhere you would think a small child cannot reach, even with the help of a chair, my son CAN! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! When I use the restroom, I have to hope they will follow me in, so I can make sure they aren't getting into things.
Another thing they do: Mikel learned this very bad habit when he started to remove his own diaper. It did not take me long to figure out he could remove the diaper, but not the shorts over them. He would take off his diaper when he pooped. He was supposed to be taking a nap, after bedtime, whatever. That should be bad enough. Not for my sons. He plays with it. He pushes his hotwheels through it. He paints the wall with it. He rubs it into his carpet. He is now helping his little brother take his pullup off. I had to throw away several cars and stuffed animals this last time. Luckily this had not happened in over a year and has not been done since. I hope it will not happen again. I am almost out of that stuff they make for when your animals have accidents on your carpet. Amazingly it actually works. Gets the smell out and disinfects.
It's a very good thing I have almost everything in my house bolted to the walls, making sure the nails/long screws are in the studs. Good think I can find them with a hammer, my father taught me how when I was younger.
Another thing they do, Mikel actually pulled a dresser out of a wall! Yes, it was screwed into the wall. Apparently, one screw in one stud is not enough. You must put atleast two screws in two different studs so they cannot do the wedge/see saw thing to gradually pull it off the wall. His bed is even bolted in 3 places because he was taking it apart and moving it around his room. He still takes the bed apart on a regular basis and it is in not so good shape, but still not harmful to them. They love to sleep on the floor. We moved the little one out of his crib early because his older brother kept getting in it and taking up all the room, making him have one tiny corner to sit up and cry in.
Makes me wonder what's next? I have had to put a large screw over the lock on his window, because apparently even though it had been hard for me to unlock and open it was no problem to him. Lost a few years off my life to that one. He had thrown his toys, then his bed stuff out of his window and decided to follow them out. The air conditioner is right below the window and I'm sure it broke his fall. His door was closed because I thought he was napping. Ha! If your kid is quiet, it's best to look and make sure they're sleeping. The ER doc took good care of him, x-rays and catscan, he only had a couple of scratches and one bruise. One thing's for sure, that window will never open again without the aid of an electric drill and very charged batteries for it. A screwdriver will not work to get that one out.
I've been reading other peoples blogs, and I was inspired to do this one. I think it's more of a rant/complaint than anything else, but if even one person reads this and immediately bolts all of their heavy dressers/tv stands/appliances/etc. to the wall, I will have done a service. Kids can and have died from pulling things on top of themselves. I was talking to someone a while back and her grandaughter had pulled her dresser on herself, luckily she was not hurt. However, one of her friends had a grandbaby that pulled one on him/herself and died.
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