February 7, 2008 | Mama Smith

the silent toddler

The counterintuitive rule of thumb in parenting is that when all becomes still and quiet in the household, you know something is going down. Mischief is being carried out somewhere.

One would like to think that silence mean the opposite. That rather the children were off obediently studying their alphabet or reading up on the “E” section in the dictionary. Not in our household.

After getting Levi up from his nap, rediapering and clothing him, I found Brighton here:

And all the contents from under our sink, lined up next to the fridge. He told me he was working on the sink. Just like Papa, he told me, in a futile attempt to soften the shocked expression on my face. Who had been doing the very same thing a few weeks ago. Thankfully only homemade, kid-friendly cleaning products were in the cabinets. But after Brighton decided to remove the 2’x2’ vent cover off the hallway airduct later this afternoon, I realized that it was probably time to get some childproofing done around our home.

We spent the earlier part of the morning preparing for the big joint birthday shin-dig we’ll be having at our place on Saturday for Levi and his “cousin”, Ella (or so we refer to all my cousins children – who knows what their legal term should be?!)

Really, we were just trying to stay occupied and keep the cranky Brighton from falling apart with some sort of enjoyable activity. But for someone who woke up on the wrong side of the bed, learning to finagle his scissors only caused more frustration. The 3 hour nap this afternoon helped calm those crazies a bit.

We wrapped things up after one sign was hung and a few little people were taped to our door window.

That’s about all we can manage for a 1st (Levi) and 2nd (Ella) birthday party celebration. Before they’re too old to care.

Levi is staying hydrated and actively participating in recovering from his illness to insure he can be a sociable, engaging host for his party in a few days. We are finally a sick-free household for now. We’ll see how long that lasts though. Especially with maneuvers like this one. I hear playing with the trash can isn’t quite the best way to stay healthy. What is the fascination with trash cans that heightens around this age? Just like his brother. Awesome.