a troublesome two year old

For a few months now, Tyler jumps out of his crib as fast as we put him in it. After making this huge mess, his room is now empty. He even managed to climb on top of his dresser and knock everything off of the shelf - high on the wall. We find him asleep in all sorts of positions but most often in front of his closed door so that when we try to open his door at night we have to shove his sleeping body out of the way in order to get into his room.

 

So far out of our four children we have had three trying two year olds.With number five on it's way, be it a boy or girl, Adam and I feel that we deserve a calm child!  We have had our share of heart-stopping moments and sharp intakes of breath as our daring two year olds take flying leaps, climb on to high things, and seek to destroy.  We often wonder who was more of a handful at the age of two -  Tyler or Andrew.

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Here is an email that I wrote to our friends and family about Andrew when he was two years old.
Date: December 22, 2009
Subject: I hope that no one comes over right now...

"Our house looks like it has been struck by a tornado, maybe even worse than that. While I was reading quietly to the two older boys this morning a certain little two year old unleashed all of his powers. He got into the pantry and dumped two bags of rice all over the kitchen and living area. Amongst the scattered rice he mixed in a container of sunflower seeds - just for good measure. He smeared kid's tooth paste all over the kitchen counters (I think that he wanted to hide the marker drawings that he made on the counter!). He dumped all of the crayons that we own on the carpet (and we have a lot). He went upstairs and tied certain woman's products on to our hallway dresser. He took bread, added water to it and smeared it over the couch and put the left overs in his hiding spot behind the couch where he twisted and grinded his feet into it. He dumped my creative memories tote onto the ground and spread paper around. Words cannot describe the disaster.
He managed to do this all very quietly and orderly. He made good use of his time - less than five minutes. I had wondered why he closed the french doors into the living room while I was reading to the boys on the couch.
When I entered into the kitchen and saw the chaos - I said in a very loud voice, "Andrewwwwww" and I heard "Yep."
There he was behind the couch in his favourite hiding spot. He was sitting in a mess of soggy bread with chocolate smeared all over his face. He had the cordless phone in his marker covered hands and he was pressing the buttons as quick as his little hands would let him. He looked at me and smiled his lopsided smile and said in a deep and too confident voice, "hi mom."
As I lifted him up from behind the couch and terrible thoughts were going through my head, a horrid smell greeted me....
This boy has as much energy as the energizer bunny, he is as quick as an olympic runner, he can climb as well as the greatest mountain climber. His determination surpasses mine by miles and his endurance cannot be matched.
I was worried that he would not live to see his second birthday because of his history of many accidents, but now I am worried that I may not see his third birthday. I will probably hospitalized due to extreme fatigue.
From, one tired mom!"

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Well Andrew is now almost five and we made it through that troublesome two year old stage. Tyler is settling down - sort of, and so to all of the moms out there that need eyes on the back of their heads - Hang in there!