Don't turn your back

I wanted to post a little bit about our little 2 year old Ben. He has only been two for a few weeks but he is doing his best to show us he is two. I don't know if it is because I am busy and often distracted with helping the other kids, but he is always managing to get himself into trouble. I can hardly turn my back on him for a moment without something happening. One of his favorite things to do is to turn on the water in the bathroom and have some fun playing in it. He can climb on the toilet and reach it, so I never know what I am going to find when I go in there. In the kitchen I have started putting the stool out in the garage because he was always getting himself, and the floor soaking wet "doing the dishes". It is not uncommon for us to find writing all over him or the wall. In fact there is one wall I think I am going to have to paint to get rid of the writing, and I can't tell you how many times I have scrubbed off his face and arms after he has been coloring with his sisters. The tabletop is also a favorite drawing spot of his. He has also succeeded in putting about a ton, maybe half a roll, of toilet paper in the toilet at one time. It would have been more, had Anna not tipped me off to what was going on. He also has figured out how to open the fridge and will often pull things out of there without me knowing. Yesterday it was steak sauce that was being toted around the house, with no lid, of course. He has also dumped liquid smoke in my spice cupboard so it always smells like outdoor cooking now. He is tall enough to get his own water from the fridge door now, and I already mentioned how much he loves water. I am now using the lock on the door that stops the water from coming out, a button which I thought I would never use. I wasn't even sure why it was such a great feature, but now I know. Thank heavens he can't reach the buttons yet. Sometimes I will give him something to eat. He will immediately put his hands in it grab a big handful, then rub it all over the table, then all over his face, then all over his hair. The other day, I gave him some milk, let me rephrase that, he got some milk out the fridge, it was one of the girls cups that already had milk in it, I guess he was feeling water deprived since I locked the water on the fridge door, so he decided to dump the milk in his hair. I didn't notice 'til I heard the giggling. Tonight beats all though. I was reading to the older three and then went into the bathroom to get their toothbrushes ready. Ben had turned on the water and gotten his toothbrush and was brushing his teeth... with the hand soap. The soap was all over the counter and he kept wiping his mouth and making this face. I could smell it on his breath. It must not have been too bad though, because he didn't cry. I guess I won't ever be able to threaten him with washing his mouth out with soap, eh?

The funniest thing is, despite all of his trouble, he is the cutest thing ever! Adam will often ask me, "Is he the funniest of all the kids?" He just makes us laugh so often. Lizzy's common response to me about Ben is, "Two year olds sure are hard to take care of." Anna has learned just to let him have his way. We all can't help but smile when he is around. He is funny. He is sweet. He is a little troublemaker, but I think that is part of his charm. All of you grandparents out there are just sitting out there laughing, while all of you parents of young children are thinking, many I'm glad that's not my kid! When Ben is a parent raising a two year old, I will just chuckle to myself and remember days and weeks like these!