The Treacherous Trail of a Two-Year Old

I am not too proud to admit that I've been struggling lately as a mother. Let me tell you about a day that I had. I had to document it for memory sake so I took pictures. Though everyday is not exactly like this day, they are always similar in difficulty.

There are household chores that have to get done every day, otherwise, things get messy and unorgazined and that drives me and Travis nuts and LT doesn't know it yet, but it drives him nuts too. So, one morning shortly after Travis had gone for work I was ironing a shirt and some pants. Ironing is not one of those times you can keep complete attention on your child but I was keeping a good ear on him. I thought he was in his room playing. He was chatting endlessly as he always does so I thought he was fine. He comes running up to me and I take one look at his face and grumble under my breath. LT had colored his face green with a Sharpie marker. While I know this is naughty, and I should have disciplined him, I started laughing and took the picture. This was only the beginning, so my patience was strong at this point.

I was finished ironing so I moved on to vacuuming. About midway through the house (like 2 minutes from the last time I saw him) I decided to check up on LT just to make sure he was ok (and that the house was ok). I found him in the laundry room, where Major sleeps and eats. I noticed that there were large puddles of water all over the room. It looked like LT had a pool party in Major's water bowl. I shook my head as my face turned redder and my patience was growing thinner by the minute. This time I took the picture and then made LT help me mop the water up.The house was vacuumed so I moved on to dusting. This time I could keep a better eye on him since I was moving quickly around the house. I don't know how he did it so fast but I went into my room to dust and saw that LT had gotten a hold of the plant in my room. This plant had some dead leaves on it so it looked like LT had grabbed handfuls of this plant and thrown them all over my freshly vacuumed floor. I took a deep breath and swallowed hard as I choked down the urge to scream at the top of my lungs at him.

Finally finished with the daily chores, we went grocery shopping. We had a fine time, as we usually do when we're out and about and I can strap him tightly in a grocery cart. We came home and was pleasantly surprised to see Travis home from work for lunch. We ate lunch and then I got LT out of his seat. The time while Travis is home is always my favorite time of the day. Everything was so pleasant; Travis and I were having a nice conversation and LT was playing quietly by himself. Or so we thought. I looked to see what LT was up to. LT was dunking his monster truck in Major's water and was pushing it throughout the room so there were big puddles of water ALL over the room again. I gave a "I give up" laugh and didn't even bother to take a picture.

I was very happy to put him down for a nap this day. It's amazing how sweet and innocent they look while they sleep.