I have 4 kids at home. One is in school, one is 3, one is 11 months, and one is 2 years old. I’ve lived through 2 year olds twice before. My first was pretty tame…she had tantrums and a little orneriness, but the two’s were pretty smooth. My second gave me a run for my money during her 1’s. She was a climber…she climbed on everything, pried the plugs out of the outlets, pulled things out of the cabinets, etc. Thankfully she mellowed out a bit in the middle of her two’s, which was a lifesaver because I had another baby at home and was expecting our 4th.
And now we get to our 3rd child. He’s my first boy and he lives up to my boy expectations…he loves everything sports related, especially football and the Hawkeyes. He’s a jumper, a climber, and knows only one speed: fast. Everything is an adventure and everything needs to be explored. He got a football helmet for Christmas…which is partly because he loves football, and partly to protect his head because he’s constantly running into things, or tumbling off them.
Every day I find myself asking him “Why did you ____?” Often I ask this question multiple times per day. So I decided to keep track of his exploits for your reading pleasure. Here are just a few questions I’ve asked my 2 year old in the past couple of weeks.
Why did you____?
Put the whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet?
Pull out all the wipes from a brand new package and stuff them behind your bed?
Pour the dogs’ food into their water?
Dump all the dogs’ treats in their kennel?
Pour your juice all over the floor and stomp in it?
Climb up the closet shelves and get the Windex out and spray it all over the carpet?
Climb up the closet shelves and get the Resolve out and spray it all over the carpet?
Draw all over the kitchen floor with permanent marker? {FYI: after a panicked phone call to our flooring company we discovered non-acetone nail polish remover safely takes this off laminate floors!! Phew!}
Scratch up the storage bench with a pen?
Fill your boots up with water from the sink?
Climb up my bedroom closet shelves and get your sister’s nail polish out?
Stick multiple discs into the Wii and jam it up?
Pour water out of the tub and all over the floor?
Use your sister’s toothbrush to clean the couch?
Climb up on the table and swing the chandelier?
Push your sister out of the bed?
Open the front door and go for a walk by yourself?
Yep, that last one almost gave me a heart attack…he knows how to unlock the deadbolt. Which led us to take further measures to ensure he can’t open the door! I always ask him “Why did you ____” after one of these incidents in order to try to teach him to think about what he does before he does it. (When he’s older of course…what 2 year old actually thinks about their actions ahead of time?) His response to my question is usually “Because.” (Which means, “Because it’s normal 2 year-old-behavior.”) Ugh. However, when I chased him down after he headed out the front door on his own, his answer to my question of “WHY DID YOU GO OUTSIDE ALONE?!?!” was “Going for a walk, mommy.” Obviously. At least he had all of his clothes on.
What I’m learning from this child is that where there’s a will, there’s a way. Apparently 3 shelves above his head is not high enough to store things “out of reach!” And if you come to visit, don’t mind if it takes me a while to unlock all of the locks on my front door!!
What’s the craziest thing your toddler/2 year old has done?
