When Mom's Away...the Baby Will Play

Matthew is now 14 months old, but as tall or taller than most two year olds, which means that he can reach things that most babies his age can't. Sometimes I'm amazed at the things he can get into. With his height has come the gift of speed. He is incredibly gifted at making "quick messes"...and is very creative about the mischief that he gets into. In fact, some of the things that he has done are unique to his siblings...I have to give him credit for that because being the 4th child, many things are "reruns."

For example, one day he reached up onto the top of my dresser and grabbed one of my jewelry boxes. I came up to my bedroom to find that he had emptied out the entire contents of that jewelry box into the bathtub, and then had emptied an entire bottle of shampoo onto them. Apparently, he thought that my jewelry was dirty and needed a good cleaning.

Another time, he got into Andy's sock drawer and put a pair into the fridge, another pair into the office garbage, and another pair into his crib...apparently just stocking up for later on when his foot would be a size 14.

He is also very dangerous around the toilet...he really enjoys watching things flush down...but I won't get into that.

This past week Andy and I have been busy painting the girls' room...well, Andy went on an errand run to the Home steal all your money Depot, and left me there painting. I had put up the gate so that none of the kids could come into the room. The girls were downstairs in the toyroom playing, and Taylor was reading. Matthew was just wandering around the living room playing with his toys...or so I thought. I was painting in the closet and I kept hearing a "plunk" sound, followed by the laundry chute door slamming shut. This kept happening, and I although I wondered who was doing that, I figured that I needed to keep painting and finish quickly.

Later that night, when I went down to sort laundry, I realized that the plunking noises were actually a bunch of miscellaneous objects that Matthew had been throwing down the chute. I put them all on the steps and took a picture of them because I thought it was so funny. Here is his "chute collection."



Yesterday while I was making dinner, again with the gate up so he couldn't come into the kitchen and get into everything...I happened to glance around the corner because I heard sounds in the office. I caught him "figuring out" the computer. Here he is, caught-in-the-act. I LOVE the look on his face.
So, I get him down, and take him into his room with his toys, and ask Taylor to watch him. (Taylor was doing his homework) About 2 minutes later? I hear sounds in the office again, and this is what I see.


Yes, he is trying to explain to me why he actually needs to be on the computer chair taking the printer apart...apparently it needed a tuneup.