Noah has done a fabulous job the last several weeks of reminding me why I should never, ever, take my eyes off of a 2-year-old. I get caught up in thinking that he's out of his mischevious, gotta-do-it-to-find-out-what-would-happen phase. Oh, no no no, I will never be fooled again. Here are at least 3 reasons why you should never take your eyes off your 2-year-old.

Reason #1 Poop


Say it's your 5-year-old's first day of Kindergarten and his bus is going to be in front of your house any second and your 2-year-old comes running into the living room, announcing that he must, you know, poop, and you're in the beginning phase of potty-training so this is amazing that he is so ready and willing and, let's face it, in a hurry, so you run him upstairs and put him on the potty chair, and race downstairs as you can hear the bus coming up the street. Don't assume he'll stay. Assume he'll plop his little bum at the top of the stairs and slide all the way down to greet big brother home from school. Sounds funny, you're probably laughing. Or maybe you're just plain disgusted. I hesitated sharing this, but I couldn't help thinking I might save at least one unsuspecting mother from this same disgusting fate.

Reason #2 Glue



Yeah, learned this one the hard way. If you're on the phone or trying to send an e-mail, don't assume your 2-year-old is in watching the Wiggles like you thought. Before you know it, he comes over to you with the glue bottle you left on the counter not far enough back and the lid has been hap-hazardly screwed back on. Thankfully, when you ask where they used the glue, at least they'll be honest with you. They'll take you right to the spot. Not as disgusting as the last, but not much fun to clean up. Very sticky.

Reason #3 Paint



Little hands and little arms can reach and grab much farther than you ever suspect. And they're much sneakier than you suspect too. Say you're walking down an aisle at the craft store and you're showing your mom something on one side of the aisle, completely oblivious to the fact that your cart is a little too close to the acrylic paint selection on the other side. You continue your shopping and are perusing another section of the store when all of a sudden your mom sees your son dumping the bright purple, yes purple (not in the picture because we threw it away) paint on the floor of the craft store. Yes, dumping. Completely horrified, you grab the paint and both of you wonder where in the world he got it. Then you sheepishly find a worker and proceed to embarrass yourself with the story of how you neglected to see that your son first grabbed, then opened, then dumped this purple paint on their floor. Thankfully she reassures you that it's just fine and within a couple minutes you have it all cleaned up. Not much permament damage, but still, never saw it coming.

Hopefully this long and somewhat embarrassing story has provoked a few laughs, a few head-noddings, and the reminder to never take your eyes off of a 2-year old.