Adventures of a Curious Toddler

When I read Mama Kat's writer's workshop prompts this week I laughed out loud when I saw this one...

What did they get into now? Describe a time your toddler got into something they shouldn’t have.

I feel quite sure I could write an entire book based on a day in the life of Dracenator the Toddler.  Oh, how I wish I had started a blog back then. 

Honestly, I knew when that child was in my womb that he was going to be something entirely different than his easygoing, never got into anything older brother.  

I couldn't sleep at night because he never stopped moving, kicking, jabbing and punching me with his knees, elbows, feet and hands.  In my 3rd trimester, I had to go for non-stress tests every couple of weeks due to my thalassemia trait, and he would literally knock the monitor off my belly every single time.  The nurses didn't know what to make of it. 

He was a fussy baby who loathed being constrained in any way and when he finally reached toddlerhood, I was a single parent, stay home mom who quite literally passed out from exhaustion each and every night. 

I found it very fitting that he loved that curious little monkey, George, so much because just like Curious George, Dracenator the Toddler was a good little monkey but always, always, very curious!

Back in September, I blogged about the flour incident in which he, in a matter of mere seconds, managed to cover my entire living room rug and furniture in a bag of white flour and then proceed to do his happy toddler dance around in it while throwing handfuls into the air and at his brother who was standing on the couch laughing to beat the band.   

Here is a list of a few more things that stand out when I allow my mind to wander back to his toddler days...

*He once took a black permanent Sharpie marker all the way down the walls of my very recently painted hallway.

*When he was learning to use the big boy toilet, he thought it would be a fun idea to pee in his empty Happy Meal bag and then hand deliver it to me, complete with a yellow trail behind him.

*He managed to get his monkey paws on and obliterate not one, not two, but three cell phones and always with water.  One went in the dog's water bowl, one went in the bathroom sink and the other took a dive into the kiddie pool.  I finally wised up and bought the insurance. Oh, and let's not forget the house phone that wound up meeting its early demise by taking a dip in the hot tub.   

*I think I also blogged about the time he rode his rocking horse down the stone front steps of the house twice within 10 minutes when he was 3. Luckily, the worst he got was a couple of scratches and a face full of dirt and grass.

*He took scissors to his own hair on 2 or 3 separate occasions.  Once so bad, he had to have a buzz cut.   

*I just posted the following picture Monday but did not go into detail about it.  You see? This wasn't an isolated event.  No.  This was the norm.  Back then I would usually put both boys in the tub together, to save time, and would get Dracen out , dried, diapered and clothed first since Devin was 4 years older and could be trusted in the tub alone for a couple of minutes.  Sometimes I would get sidetracked for a minute and would hear Devin's voice call out, "Mommm!  Dracen is back in the tub!" And I swear sometimes I cried but on this particular night, I decided that I'd laugh and take pictures instead...

*More times than I can count, he stripped down and ran through the house and sometimes out into the yard, buck naked and shrieking like a circus monkey on liquid speed.

*He has two scars on his forehead, one of which he acquired when he was 3 and attempted to bust down Devin's bedroom door.  The other required stitches and 3 hours in the ER waiting room the night before we were supposed to leave for a beach trip early the next morning. This one was due to a collision with his bed frame that he had tried to grip with his monkey toes in order to turn his t.v. up so that he could better hear what his good buddy Curious George was up to. 

Really, I think the better question here is "What didn't  my toddler get into?!"   One of his absolute favorite things to get into back then and I DO mean get into  (usually when he was tired, cranky, and didn't want to give in to that enemy called sleep) was...

the dryer....

This post is being linked up with Mama Kat at Mama's Losin' It and Jenny Matlock at Off on my tangent...