Maybe it's because he's a boy, but Campbell seems to be on a particularly destructive binge lately. He is losing and/or destroying things at an alarming rate, and his sisters are starting to lose patience.
Part of the problem is that he has discovered how to open the kitchen garbage can, and now all sorts of things get thrown away. Ella and Lily have learned to check for their toys and artwork.
But we're missing one of his cute Robeez shoes, half of the pair I gave him for his birthday, and I suspect it went in the trash. I've torn the house apart, and I just can't find it. Yesterday I gave him my watch to play with in an attempt to stop him from crying. He ran off with it, and I haven't seen it since. I've offered a finder's fee of $2.00 to the girls, but they haven't had any luck either. Of course, they could step on it and still claim they didn't see it. I'm worried that it went in the trash, too. I searched the kitchen garbage gingerly last night, but decided I'd rather buy a new watch than dig through the remains of the day before's dinner.
Campbell is also obsessed with the dog's water bowl, and today alone he has dunked his sister's light-up Cinderella crown, three business cards that B needed phone numbers off of, and two books - one of which is "The Elements of Style," my bible. We keep the dog's bowl on the "other" side of the gate so that Campbell can't get to it, but this morning he was on that side of the gate for all of 15 minutes. Unfortunately, that's all the time he needed to drown all that stuff.
Campbell also decided that it's fun to chuck his cup off the table at meal times. I usually just take it away from him when he starts that game, but Lily played along this morning, giving his cup back every time he tossed it. Before I could intervene, Campbell threw his cup across the kitchen, and the lid popped off on impact, spraying the floor and wall with milk. He and Lily thought it was hysterical. I, still being mostly sick, did not.
These are just this morning's disasters. There are too many other instances of shredded books and magazines, ruined artwork of his sisters', deleted e-mails on daddy's laptop (which was foolishly left within reach on the coffee table), and knocked over lego castles. I really don't remember either of the girls being this destructive on a regular basis. They had their moments, but I didn't have to keep a daily tally of things destroyed. Every time I mention this to friends who have sons, their response is always, "Yep. He's a boy." I didn't think there would be a gender difference at this young an age, but apparently I'm wrong.
2 comments:
Honey, they come out of the womb different; you're just slow on the uptake.
And be glad (very, very glad) he hasn't discovered the toilets yet. Put doorknob covers on all the bathroom doors and train the girls to shut the doors at all times. My daughter cost us over 3000 dollars, what with tossing expensive cellphones down the toilet, plugging up (irrevocably) the toilet with cheap tub toys, etc. You can read all about it (if you haven't already) at my blog - most of it is recounted under Popular Posts. She was too old and able to be stopped by such things as LidLocks and doorknob covers. Yours, however, I think you can defend against. You sort of get used to living in a battened-down environment for a while. Have fun!
Keep in mind that everything seems worse when you are sick. And I always found that the fall was bad, too, because after a summer spent outdoors, the kids were suddenly confined to being indoor, and there was a lot of new stuff to get into. And a lot of rules that had been forgotten over the summer months, that mommy had to reinforce.
Not having girls, I cannot comment about the gender differences. Could be a bit of that, too. :)
- Heidi
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