When Todd was two he had amazing small muscle control. I went into the storage room to find something and found about 20 lit, but burned out matches on the floor. I immediately talked to my children and told them in no uncertain terms that we did not play with matches. No one admitted, but I knew it had to be one of the older children. I double checked that the matches were all put away high and not in sight.
About a week after that the older boys were playing in the fenced backyard with Todd. After just a few minutes Jimmy came running in and told me the doghouse was on fire. Todd had found some more matches and had lit the hay on fire inside the doghouse.
About one more week after that, I was nursing Steven and Todd was playing in the bedroom right next to mine. Things seemed to be going well but then I smelled smoke. I thought I had to be imagining it but as the smell grew stronger I knew I needed to check. I put Steven down and went to investigate. Sure enough, Todd was in the next room with a mattress on fire! He was trying to put it out but wasn't very successful.
These episodes scared me because fire burns quickly. We got rid of any matches we had in the house and knew that we would just have to buy them as we needed them.
I have no doubt that there is a higher power watching out for this little boy and his family.
I remember the dog house, but not the mattress. How about the time when Todd was older and he decided to kill the bees with gas and fire and the siding on the garage was scorched. Luckily the gas burned off before the wood underneath caught.
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