Monday, January 7, 2013

This Boy is Trouble with a Capital T.

This kid.
But man is he cute.
{That's him shoving 4 pieces of clementine in his mouth this afternoon.}
I swear that at 10 months, he already has my sass, determination, and disobedience down.

I'm certain he knows specifically what we don't want him doing, yet does it anyway. I'm not willing to spark a developmental debate about this right now, but have no fear... no time out chair exists in our house. Yet. Just a stern no, explanation, and redirection has taken place. While I'd prefer his first word not be no, I'm not too worried about it, as it surely won't be his last word. {If it was up to my husband, he'd already clock Mama as being B's first word, but until I'm absolutely certain, I won't claim it.}

Just a few fun examples of what this boy's been up to as of late. I'm telling you...
  • As soon as he notices the baby gate is open, he bolts through, full speed ahead. Usually it's heading straight for the stairs through our foyer. When he sees us following chasing him, he turns around, smiles, and crawls faster
  • When we were putting away Christmas, we had our mini Christmas tree down that has mini decorations on it. He pulled a shiny bulb off, stuck it in his mouth and kept moving. Did I mention it was glass, probably made in China, and probably painted with toxic everything? That thing could've shattered in his mouth, but he was none too happy when it was taken out of his mouth.
  • He knows how to push any door open, and even doors that are closed but not perfectly latched shut. He makes a jailbreak whenever he can and is off to be a nuisance in places that aren't as babyproofed.
  • We have lots of wood furniture and he takes a liking to biting it. We now have Benjamin bite marks (the kid only has 4 teeth!) on our end tables in the living room. Perfect height for a little biter.
  • He bites us. A lot. He's even broken skin.
  • On the biting theme still, he crawls over to the fireplace ledge (we have one you can sit on that hangs over) and proceeds to chew on the STONE. Yeah, if you're thinking painful and nail-on-a-chalkboard bad, you're right on. It's terrible. We're afraid he's going to chip a tooth! And if you pull him away? He goes back at it. 
  • When he wakes in the morning, we bring him into our room. He immediately crawls over me (usually my head) and wants to have at everything on my nightstand. I then put him down and he beelines for our on-suite bathroom where he heads to the window shade to pull on it, then to bang on the window of the glass shower door, then to the toilet, trash, or slippers that he attempts to then chew on. And every time, we tell him the toilet, trash and slippers are off limits and move him. He goes back every time.
  • That picture above? I was holding him on my hip and peeling a clementine this afternoon. As soon as I took one hand to throw the peel away, he snaps 4 pieces out of my hand and shoves them in his mouth and refuses to budge. I had to use force to pry them from his mouth so he wouldn't choke!
I have lots of gray hairs now. Someone tell me their kids are little terrors too, mmmkay?

14 comments:

Mary said... [Reply to comment]

My very own Benjamin was a lot like this a few months ago. He is still wild, but listens a little better now. Give it a few months and your Benjamin will too :) You know? I say that, but MY Benjamin has broken his sister's glasses TWICE in the last two weeks!! Maybe it's a Benjamin thing :)

Kari said... [Reply to comment]

OMG my youngest, Ella, was a TERROR with all capitals. Not just a capital T.
For the first three years of her life we thought her sole purpose was to drive us to drink.
Which she did. Sort of.
She turns five on Friday and she is FINALLY getting to be so much better.
So I get it and I am not saying it's gonna happen to you.
I am just trying to be relatable.
Because I think Ella took all the evil from ALL children, so you should be golden. ;)
Oh and my 30 Day Shred should be arriving here in the next day!!

Darcey said... [Reply to comment]

What you described is a daily occurrence in my household...they can be little stinkers.

The phrase "Where is the baby?" occurs about 4 times a day when I realize one of his brothers have left the gate open and he is gone. Kid is a champ at hide and seek and he ALWAYS ends up in the laundry room (trying to eat dog food) or in one of my bathrooms trying to play in the toilet or trash...thank goodness we moved into a ranch before we had him or I am sure he would have found his way down the stairs the dangerous, scare the crap out of your parents as they watch you tumble way (which has happened to my 3 older children hence moving out of 2 story and into a ranch).

They can be exhausting and frustrating, but at the same time it is interesting to watch them develop their own personalities even if it is a little mischievous...boys are a piece of work from birth!!

Caroline said... [Reply to comment]

Yes. Absolutely. Total boy.

Lj82 said... [Reply to comment]

"he turns around, smiles, and crawls faster." <-- hilarious.

I can't believe how crazy he is... I just telling myself we will be okay because Grace is super calm and laid back... When in reality, she's just not there yet.

BTW, the teeth on the fireplace makes me shiver. I know you and I share similar thoughts on teeth...eeeee.

Melissa said... [Reply to comment]

I love this post! Love it! It makes me look forward to the days ahead ...and a little scared!

Nicole said... [Reply to comment]

B sounds...exciting! :) Never a dull moment!

Addalee gets into things she shouldn't , has bitten lots of furniture, runs for the stairs, puts EVERYTHING in the garbage can, shoves way too much food into her mouth, stole all kinds of Christmas ornaments, and smiles at us when we tell her no. But what bothers me most is that she stomps when she wants something. As if she's completely commanding us to do whatever she wants. Oh gosh at the fits that girl can pitch. It's going to be pretty embarrassing when she does it in public, full out. The joys of raising kiddos, right?!

I said all of that to say that you're not alone. Not even close!

Molly said... [Reply to comment]

Lmfao!! Bc this is soooooooo Kellan!! He is making me crazy bc things Sloane has not touched in four years have been licked and chewed. He has caused more chaos in 8 1/2 mints than Sloane ever thought about!! Having a ball tho! We need to get these bad boys together!

Brie said... [Reply to comment]

You don't know how happy I am to read this. Thank you! You very well cold have been describing my son. He recently started biting us as well (no other kids yet) and I am going batty trying to figure out what plan of action /discipline we will take and stick to. Now, if only running after these joyriding babies would help me lose the last few lbs of baby weight! Lol

LookItsJessica said... [Reply to comment]

Haha! The other day, I looked away from Avery for a for seconds and she crawled under the coffee table, found a DEAD BUG and shoved it into her mouth and acted like it was no big deal. I noticed a WING hanging out of her mouth and pried the rest of the bug out as she was starting to gag from (what I assume to be) the bitter flavor of the bug. She also crawls over to the cords in our living room at every chance she gets and even tried to maneuver under the entertainment center to get them.

Party of Three Heads said... [Reply to comment]

Honey, that's just all boy! I have one myself, as you know, and he certainly keeps me on my toes.. it's slowed down a bit, but still the things he comes up with... lol

Flmgodog said... [Reply to comment]

X2

Nick & Jenny said... [Reply to comment]
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jenny said... [Reply to comment]

I was a child like you and B. Keep redirecting, with lots of vocab repetition :-) Determined and sensory-oriented aren't bad at all, although the repetition of emerging toddlers wears me out (really, 9 times in 20 minutes?!?).

I'm with you on the 'no' word; we save it for truly dangerous moments, and try to build in lots of what we do want to happen "stop, drop, wait, turn around, gently, etc" There's very little off limits in our house - we try to be right there to teach E the right way to use/touch it. Stairs are great for wearing a kid out ;-)

Hang in there and I'll bet B will be an 18 month old with lots of great words!