Two.  What a marvelous age!

This little monkey man is at the stage most would call “handful.”

How’s that?

Well, let’s just say I discovered this week that he has the amazing ability to turn a bottle of glue into a 35-ft trail across the house… in all of about 30 seconds.  Maybe he needed the trail to find his way back to the sink.  Maybe he was just trying to make it obvious that I really do live in a Family Circus cartoon.

Happily, I also discovered glue cleans up pretty quickly, even off couches.  Thank goodness for small miracles!

The little monkey stinker boy figured out how to climb out of the crib about… oh, 3 months ago, maybe.  This was bad news for bedtime, but good news for Freedom who had definitely outgrown the bassinet. 

My first two kids made the transition out of a crib pretty seamlessly by 18-months.  Doodle would just snuggle in to his blankets, say, “‘Night Mom!” and close his eyes. No joke!

Not Eagle, though. Uh-uh.

He’s just not ready for bedtime without boundaries.  I was going to bore you with a blow-by-blow of how we got to where we are.  I think I’ll forebear.  It was painful.  You don’t want to hear it.  Sometimes the mother-learning-curve is slow.

Suffice it to say, it took a few months but this is where we are now and I think it’s going to work well.

Thanks to my mom for finding that groovy baby gate for me, even though she didn’t know that’s what she was doing when she did it.

The little room-within-a-room allows him to share a room with his brothers without risk of waking them up.  Not that I don’t love finding him bouncing on the baby during naptime… Who wouldn’t?…  But, you know, sometimes you gotta be mean about things like this.

Wanna hear a funny story?

Oh, good!

The first night we set the room up this way, I didn’t have John secure the thing to the wall.  He thought I was nuts. I just didn’t want to put holes in the wall if Eagle could climb over it, you know?  I meant to put up a barricade to keep him in, but I forgot…

Ooops.

Eagle went to bed that night well after the other kids were sound asleep.

Before too long, I hear his little feet thump-thumping down the stairs, and when he finds me in the living room, his arms are covered in orange marker.

Oh, boy.

I quickly confiscate said marker, and he is only too pleased to tell me,

“I coyor on Cawissa’s nose!”

I was already getting up from the couch thinking, “This I’ve got to see!” when he continued,

“…And hoy eyebwows!”

He cheerfully leads me upstairs where I find his sister still asleep.

Picture this –

…but with that half of her face painted orange.

(No, I didn’t actually get a picture.  I should have, I know, I know…)

I just couldn’t believe she slept through that!  Honestly!  I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, though, when she pulls stunts like this quite often.

meow

She was probably just dreaming she was getting a makeover while her sneaky little brother found an artistic outlet on her face.  (And her sheets.  And her dollhouse.  And her desk.  And the bucket she sits on at said desk.  And the wall…)

Handful?  Yep.

Worth it?  Totally.