Who Let Godzilla In?

Be on the lookout...he might seem small...he'll bat his big brown eyes at you...the dimples will come out...but he will destroy in less than 60 seconds.

It's not like I haven't been through the toddler "I wonder what happens if I knock this over" phase before. I wasn't prepared for the brute force of nature that is my son. When SweetPea was this age, she'd haul out her bag of blocks, dumping them in a pile on the floor, then begging us to build her something, only to knock it over mid-construction...again and again...and again. That was pretty much the extent of her destructive tendencies. Lil Buddy, on the other hand, isn't content until he's annihilated an entire room. Not only does he like to dump out the bag of blocks, he likes to knock them to every corner of the room. He pulls every board book off their shelf...then marches over to OUR bookshelf to pull off any book within his reach. He shuffles into the bathroom and snatches the small step in front of their sink, then puts it in front of his sister's play kitchen so he can reach the cabinet with all of the play dishes...and knocks every single plate, bowl and cup on to the floor...then pulls all of the fake silverware out of the drawer and throws them all over the place, leaving the empty drawer upside down on the floor. This morning SweetPea and I were on the floor playing tea party...watch and learn:



Lil Buddy-zilla decided the party would be a lot more fun if he walked through the middle of the "table" and scattered the entire setting to the four winds. SIGH. I do what I can to stop him...I'll grab his hand...make him look me and say "NO!" in my sternest voice...which if you've ever heard me is about as menacing as one of The Chipmunks...he'll dredge up the biggest tears and cry as if I chopped off a limb for a few minutes...then wander off to find something else to dump on the floor.

I guess if there's any upside to any of this, it's that he rarely does any permanent damage. Make a complete and utter mess...yes. Irreversible...not really. OK, every once in a while he will accidentally break something, but most times he's content with making a room look like a tornado tore through it. Even better...lately he's decided that clean up time is almost as fun as mess up time. He will sit with me while I pick up blocks...grab handfuls of them and throw them back into the bag...then giggle hysterically...then do it again and again until they are all cleaned up...we cheer...he claps...then he grabs the bag and dumps them back out...then starts cleaning up all over again. Oh well, it's a start!