Trouble is his First, Middle, and Last Name!

Have you ever had one of those evenings where is seems like your child is determined to run amok no matter how hard you try to keep him out of trouble?

Thursday afternoon Eli woke up from his nap just as I was getting dinner ready. Jonah was outside helping Honey Daddy paint our sun-faded wooden playhouse, so I figured that I could easily finish getting dinner ready while Eli played inside the house. I would only have my little one-year-old boy to watch, which shouldn't be too hard, right?

Think again!!

I was in the kitchen cooking hamburger, when Eli walked in carrying the plastic bag that the diapers come in... but it was empty. I took the bag away from him and then went to his room to see what happened to the diapers. When I got to Eli's room I found the missing diapers scattered all over the place. It was like a bomb had gone off in there...Oh what fun!

So I got the diapers all cleaned up quickly and headed back to the kitchen. There I found Eli holding the water bottle that Honey Daddy had set down after riding his bicycle home from work. Of course he was holding the water bottle upside down, with the spout open, laughing as the water splashed on the floor! He thought it was great fun to stomp his little feet in the water that was now all over my kitchen floor.

So I took the water bottle away from him, and got a towel to clean up. I checked on dinner and then Jonah came inside. Of course Jonah had paint all over his work clothes, his hands and face from helping daddy paint. So I immediately went to strip him down so he wouldn't get paint anywhere else.

As I was cleaning the paint off Jonah in the kitchen sink, I realized the I didn't know where Eli had gone. I went down the hall and found Eli in the bathroom. Apparently he figured out how to lift up the lid on the toilet and was plunging bath toys in and out of the toilet water, having a great time.

At this point I didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or have a good cry. I couldn't believe that Eli had done all of these things within a half hour! I quickly got him away from the toilet and started cleaning up Eli and the water he had splashed all over the bathroom. I got everything cleaned up and then had to divert Eli from playing with the full-length mirror in my bedroom on his way out.

Looking back on that evening I am amazed that I managed to get dinner ready without burning anything, and with both children still intact. We all survived the rest of the evening too, which is somewhat amazing considering the fact that Eli figured out that he could climb up the ladder and get onto Jonah's bed. I found him up there later that evening, running back and forth across the bed, laughing as he flopped down on the pillows. I swear that kid has absolutely no fear (or sense of self-preservation!).

Forget the terrible twos. We haven't had any problems with that at our house. If anything we are suffering from the overly-adventurous ones!

Tell me he'll grow out of it.... right?