Love/Hate Relationship with a 2 year old

I think 2 to 4 is my favorite age for kids.  This is especially true when I think back to when my other kids were 2.  I love the way they talk and how they word and phrase things.  I love their reactions.  I love their highs and sometimes laugh at their lows.  I love their pudgy fingers and feet.  I love their unconditionally loving nature.

I love those same things about Tanner.  What I hate is how smart and curious he is.  He is quite the problem solver and go-getter.  He will do what it takes to get what he wants.  This creates a lot of mischief and a lot of angry siblings.  Macy has started locking her room to keep him out.  If it is silent and no one can find Tanner, we have problems.  The first place to look is under the dining tables followed by the pantry.  He has stolen and eaten so much candy.  After Christmas I found a pile of candy wrappers behind my flour and wheat buckets.  One early morning when we let him watch TV and play the iPad while the rest of us slept, he found a bread knife and was scraping it along the edge of my iPad.  Last July he got hold of my toothpaste and washed his body with half a tube of it.  It was all over his hands and legs and all over the carpet in my bathroom.  It was a mess.  On December 23 he went through our stationary drawer and found a sharpie.  He decorated the hardwood floor under the table.  He was under the table hiding so he had an idea that what he was doing was wrong.  A week or so later he had grabbed a pen and added more artwork to the floor beneath the table.  Then this week I am in the shower and I hear pounding noise in my room.  I can see Tanner but not what he was doing.  He found a blue crayon and colored the wall.

the damage

making him help clean it up (he asked to help)

That was not the only mess he created this week.  The day before the crayon incident I was giving him a bath before a meeting I had.  Before I put him in he said something about poop.  So I stuck him on the toilet and a miracle happened.  He pooped in the toilet.  I was so excited until when he was in the tub.  I had my back turned and he pooped a huge load in the tub.  There was so much and it was all over.  And I had the YW presidency coming over in 10 minutes.  I was furious.  I am still not sure how much control he had over the situation because he was getting over some diarrhea but this is not the first time he has pooped in the tub.  It is the third time with another time in the shower.  Each time I have had my back turned.  But how can you continue to be/get mad at him slumps his shoulders, puts his head down and says in his little 2 year old voice (which is surprisingly clear) "Sorry mom.  Sorry."

Then this same week on Saturday everyone thought Tanner was with someone else.  When Brian realized Tanner was missing and he had been too quiet, we all started a frantic search knowing that trouble may be brewing.  Tanner continued to stay quiet and never responded to our calls.  He knew he was doing something he shouldn't.  Soon I hear some noise coming from the toilet room.  He had shut himself in the toilet area so no one could see him.  He had the toilet brush in the toilet.  Toilet paper was in the toilet.  Water was every where.  And he was hiding back in the corner with my old toothbrush in his mouth that he had pulled from the garbage can.

Like I said he is smart.  He can find anything to act as his stool.  He dumps out toy buckets, moves my 5 gal flour buckets all over the house and pushes the table chairs to achieve his goal.  Last night  Brian and I are watching a movie after the kids have gone to bed.  Tanner is still awake but locked in his room.  He won't stay in bed so we have been locking him at night in for 6 months.  We also have to do this because sometimes he wakes up in the super early mornings (like 3 AM) and thinks it is time to get up and play.  Anyways at night he sits and kicks at the door and tries to talk to us.  Sometimes he does this for an hour.  While watching the movie I hear him.  Then I hear a flicking noise.  Brian checks it out.  He is using a toy bucket to reach his light switch and is turning the light on and off.  Brian takes away the bucket and puts him back to bed.  Five minutes later I hear that someone is awake.  Brian checks again.  Tanner is out of his room somehow.  We put him back to bed wondering how he unlocked his door.  Five minutes later I hear a door opening and closing.  I go check and catch him in the act.  With the lights all out he has found several large plastic coins and he is using them like a screwdrivers to unlock and lock his door.  I took those away and I think he finally went to sleep around 11 PM only to get up at 6 this morning.  He was a happy camper.

I love his cuteness and after things have blown over I can laugh.  But right now I am praying the messes and destruction will slow and one day he will harness his talents and be successful.

One last quick story.  Tanner loves his binky.  We have been trying to limit it to only naps and bed time.  Many times he will grab it and try to get away with sucking on it other times during the day.  When we see him with it, all we have to do is ask him if he is ready for a nap.  The binky will immediately come out either by him spitting it across the room, throwing it across the room and dropping from his mouth.  He loves the spitting and throwing method.  Sometimes he will do one of these and take off running from us.  If he won't give it up, we just have to pick him up and out it comes.