It would be near impossible to total the cost of things that this little boy destroyed. He didn't destroy to be destructive he was always being creative or being strong! One of the first of these was when he had been outside with his older brothers for a few minutes. He came running in the house and wanted me to come see how strong he was. We went outside and with a big smile he showed me the bricks on the windowsill that were now all broken. He had used a hammer and was just exploring his own strength.
We had just replaced the carpeting in our upstairs and without a great deal of thought, chose a light taupe carpet. Within just a couple weeks, Todd found the red food coloring (which of course was on the very top shelf of the kitchen) and opened it. Then he proceeded to walk down the hall way dripping red food coloring all the way. Trying hard to not be upset, I started cleaning. It was then that Todd climbed onto the kitchen counter and got in the Nesquik chocolate powder and got himself covered himself head to toe and then walked all over the house leaving chocolate footprints everywhere. Again, urging myself to keep call and needing to get back to cleaning up the red dye, I made another mistake and only pushed the quik further onto the counter. Sure enough right after cleaning the carpet and the chocolate footprints I got to clean up the second set of footprints all over the house.
So while we are talking about the carpet I'll add another episode with it right here. Todd was about 2 1/2 and came into tell me that he had made a pretty picture and to come look. This pretty picture was drawn with blue permanent marker and was about five feet in diameter with a face with eyes and a smile right in the middle of the living room carpet!
He was always creative in finding solutions. If he saw a problem (usually a problem only he saw) he came up with a solution. There was a spider crawling on a window and he couldn't reach to get it so he grabbed a baseball bat! He was pretty excited when he killed the spider! The only problem with his solution was now the window was very broken!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
Exhausting!
Every day I became more exhausted. No child had more zest for life than this little boy and he lived life to its fullest. We had to know where he was every second of every day. If there was quiet for more than a minute, I knew I need to find Todd immediately. This wasn't something that occurred once a week or even once a day. This was something that happened multiple times an hour! I found myself looking forward to bedtime but as soon as I laid down I dreaded waking up the next morning to have everything start all over again. Ever day I feared would be Todd's last day.
One cold winter day while I was nursing, Todd unlocked all the deadbolts and ran. I got up and immediately and called my friend just to make sure he was there. When she told me no, I was terrified. As I was getting my car keys, the phone rang. A neighbor around the block and behind us said Todd was at their house. He showed up totally naked except his winter coat. Her mother had been staying with her for a few days and answered the door. She told my friend that there was a little boy at the door with no clothes on and only a coat. She knew immediately who he was.
I was always so grateful for friends and neighbors who watched out for him.
One cold winter day while I was nursing, Todd unlocked all the deadbolts and ran. I got up and immediately and called my friend just to make sure he was there. When she told me no, I was terrified. As I was getting my car keys, the phone rang. A neighbor around the block and behind us said Todd was at their house. He showed up totally naked except his winter coat. Her mother had been staying with her for a few days and answered the door. She told my friend that there was a little boy at the door with no clothes on and only a coat. She knew immediately who he was.
I was always so grateful for friends and neighbors who watched out for him.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Within just a few weeks of Steven being born, I was losing it! Every day was so hard trying to take care of a new baby and keep an eye on Todd. If I was feeding the baby, I would deadbolt all the doors and check around the house to make sure I couldn't see any obvious areas Todd could get hurt. It wasn't long before Todd could unlock any door and any deadbolt. It seemed as though at least once a day I would our 5 year old yell that Todd had escaped. He loved to run and as soon as he got out the door he would run as fast as he could to a neighbor and ring her doorbell frantically hoping to get in her house before I could get him. Luckily, this was a good friend and she was very aware of Todd so she would call me and tell me he was safe.
I also got very good at differentiating between Ricky's 'fun' screams and his 'something is very bad' screams. While I was nursing I heard a scream from downstairs and I knew immediately that Todd was in trouble and I ran. I arrived at a bedroom and the mattresses had been pulled off the bunk bed. I found Todd hanging with his neck between the slats of the top bunk. That was terrifying and I wondered if I keep him alive. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the last of his hangings. While playing outside on the deck, I looked out and couldn't see Todd. I ran out to find that somehow, Todd had managed to crawl between the outdoor deck stairs and get his neck caught in between the stairs. The scariest hanging of all was when he was playing downstairs and climbing along a shelf that ran around the windows. He decided he was Peter Pan and took of to fly. He managed to get caught on the levelor cord which wrapped around his neck. He had a deep cut on his neck that had started to bleed. I was sick to my stomach. But I went around the house and cut the cords on all our levelors so that could never happen again.
I also got very good at differentiating between Ricky's 'fun' screams and his 'something is very bad' screams. While I was nursing I heard a scream from downstairs and I knew immediately that Todd was in trouble and I ran. I arrived at a bedroom and the mattresses had been pulled off the bunk bed. I found Todd hanging with his neck between the slats of the top bunk. That was terrifying and I wondered if I keep him alive. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the last of his hangings. While playing outside on the deck, I looked out and couldn't see Todd. I ran out to find that somehow, Todd had managed to crawl between the outdoor deck stairs and get his neck caught in between the stairs. The scariest hanging of all was when he was playing downstairs and climbing along a shelf that ran around the windows. He decided he was Peter Pan and took of to fly. He managed to get caught on the levelor cord which wrapped around his neck. He had a deep cut on his neck that had started to bleed. I was sick to my stomach. But I went around the house and cut the cords on all our levelors so that could never happen again.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
A Day in the Life of Todd
As soon as Todd could walk, he could climb and this meant climbing out of his crib. Only it wasn't so much a 'climbing' as a going out head first. When he was done with a nap or woke in the morning he didn't need anyone to come get him out. He got himself out! I was in a panic because I thought if he hits wrong he breaks his neck. But he was fine.
Before he turned one, I knew he needed to be our last child. He would take everything I had to keep him safe and we had five other children. Then I found out I was pregnant! There was no way. I know how babies get here and I knew we had taken every precaution. I was so worried about being pregnant and having a new baby while still attempting to keep Todd safe. This of course only added to my exhaustion.
When he was 17 months old I walked into the kitchen after using the bathroom and he was standing on the kitchen counter with a butcher knife in his diaper! Somehow this child had climbed to the top of the refrigerator, opened the cabinet, pulled out the knife, got himself down and climbed back up to the other counter all while holding a butcher knife. I didn't want to yell so he would do something crazy, so I started to move towards him but not soon enough. He jumped off the cabinet pulled the knife out and yelled, "I am Peter Pan!" He made it down without obvious injury but I grabbed him took the knife and took his diaper off, sure to see some definite bleeding and damage. But no, he was fine!
Before he turned one, I knew he needed to be our last child. He would take everything I had to keep him safe and we had five other children. Then I found out I was pregnant! There was no way. I know how babies get here and I knew we had taken every precaution. I was so worried about being pregnant and having a new baby while still attempting to keep Todd safe. This of course only added to my exhaustion.
When he was 17 months old I walked into the kitchen after using the bathroom and he was standing on the kitchen counter with a butcher knife in his diaper! Somehow this child had climbed to the top of the refrigerator, opened the cabinet, pulled out the knife, got himself down and climbed back up to the other counter all while holding a butcher knife. I didn't want to yell so he would do something crazy, so I started to move towards him but not soon enough. He jumped off the cabinet pulled the knife out and yelled, "I am Peter Pan!" He made it down without obvious injury but I grabbed him took the knife and took his diaper off, sure to see some definite bleeding and damage. But no, he was fine!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)