My Wild Child

Little brother has made a habit out of always outdoing himself. Just when I think that there is no way he can outdo a previous stunt or sneaky adventure he ups the ante. I should have known when he was giving me heart attacks all through his first year that he’d be something of a handful. As soon as he could crawl around he crawled right up a shelving unit before I could run the ten feet to grab him. Now I know why they sell bookshelves with the strap you drill into the wall. Someone somewhere had a baby just like mine. When he learned to stand up in his crib he figured out how to crawl right out of it and escape. So by eight months he was able to get out of his crib when he woke up so I was forever sleeping with one eye open! When he started walking he also started running. His favorite stunt was to jump off the back of the couch, chair, and bed. I’m very surprised he made it through all those Spiderman stunts without breaking bones. He did split his head open one day and has a pretty big scar. But luckily for mommy it’s on the back of his head so no one sees it too often. A souvenir from his flipping stunt phase.

In toddlerhood he was a sweet little angel around his grandparents and daycare teachers, but at home he was able to body slam big brother, do head and handstands along with flips. Oh ,he has a really good punch too. One day he was being wild and hit my husband’s brand new plasma TV and broke it. There was no warranty on two year old knockout punches. The same day while nobody was looking he broke the brand new Playstation 3, by shoving five movies in at once. My poor husband. Until that point I think only my possessions had been destroyed. Along with all that talent he was a very gifted locksmith with Houdini level escape artist skills. One morning before we got up he managed to crawl out of his crib and get a chair. Then he quietly and skillfully was able to undo the door knob lock, deadbolt, and dismantle the child safety door knob thing. It’s supposed to prevent a toddler from turning the door knob. A lot of good that did, we found it in two pieces on the floor near the front door. He ran to freedom bare butt for all the world to see. My neighbor saw him come out and make his way to his cars outside and knew right away that he’d escaped.  I was on the verge of padding the entire house to make it stunt safe but we enrolled him in gymnastics so it calmed his acrobatic tendencies a lot. His sneakiness and stealthy black op escape missions are still on the up and up. Now he is getting ready for his first year of school. He’s off to Head-Start in two weeks. Unlike big brother at that age, he’ll be riding the bus to and from school everyday. I hope he doesn’t get all the other kids worked up on the bus or think he can walk out a fire escape door at school and go for a walk. His teacher is coming for a home visit soon and I really hope he acts like the innocent angel and not my little wild child!