Boys Are Different

I laughed it off when people warned me what a change I was in for when we found out that we were having a boy after two girls. Adriana, after all, is a super high energy kid who has never been able to stay still. She also had (has?) a talent for getting dirty and when she was younger she wasn't interested in stereotypical "girl" toys. Would having a boy really be that different?

Yes.

Darren is not even walking yet, but he has already learned how to climb up the shelves on the door of my pantry (dropping cans and other food as he does so), how to push off the tray of his high chair (making a huge, satisfying crash!!! as it falls to the floor and sending food all over the kitchen), how to climb out of the seat belt in shopping carts, how to dismantle the baby gate I put up to stop him from getting to the bathroom and his big sisters' room (he pulls himself up and then rocks as hard as he can until it rips out of the doorway, pulling paint off as it falls), how to empty our DVD tower and open the cases to get to the DVD's inside, how to empty our bookshelf (and he's a book tearer/"terror?"), and the bathroom..... !!!!

We have a rule now that Darren is mobile that everyone needs to close the door to the bathroom when he or she leaves. This does not always get obeyed, though. Miriam is also supposed to tell me when she uses her little potty so I can come help her empty and clean it. This doesn't always get done either. After the second time in one day that Darren took apart the little potty and dumped the contents on himself, I banished the little potty out of the house and we got a stool so Miriam can reach the big toilet by herself. Lest you think that I just put Darren down and leave him to his own devices, hoping that he won't get into mischief, that second instance took place when I was in the bathroom fixing Adriana's hair. Boy, that kid is fast. We have also discovered him emptying the trashcan into the toilet (thank heavens he can't flush it--yet), caught him in the act of climbing in to the bathtub (that one's harder now that the little potty is gone, although just yesterday he proved that he can still do it), and I even caught him one time playing in the toilet with the unflushed contents that his big sister had left behind. Gross. Gross, gross, gross.

I've taken to only showering when he is asleep in his crib.

Good think this little boy is so incredibly cute. I think we're going to have our hands full for the next few years. I sure love this little guy!