Mommy Lesson #4: Double Check

The moral of this lesson: If you thought you heard your toddler, check.. if you don't hear him from the stairs, look... don't assume it's the neighbor kids outside.

Now for the story:
I have an 18 month old and a 3 year old, I also babysit a 2 year old a few days a week.  Nap time is a VERY important of mama's day!  Yesterday I got the boys all down for nap at about 11:30, they were asleep by 12 - lots more squirming than normal.

In my now relaxed state, I decided to take a short nap - less than an hour - in my own room. When I got up, the boys were still asleep, that's always good news!  So I decided to do a little bit of other work and watch an episode of Monk.

My sister called to tell me she got Heelys in the mail.  That's right, Heelys - I was eagerly awaiting mine as I talked with her.  (Review of Heelys shoes to come in the next few weeks).  I thought I heard some talking upstairs, which usually means the 2 bigger boys are awake.  Then it was quiet so I ignored it.  Suddenly there was a knock on my door.

It was Mr. UPS himself!  He was bringing my Heelys.  I noted that the neighbor kids were standing around in my front yard (this annoys me but I ignored it).  I figured I MUST have heard them, and not the sleeping angels upstairs.  As I inspected my new Heelys, I heard another noise upstairs.  I hollered up to my darling Monkey and told him to come downstairs right now.

I went back to the "tv room" to work on lacing the great new shoes.  Moments later, Monkey showed up in the doorway, rather concerned and said, "I got ant on me".  Ant?!  I looked at him and was NOT at all concerned about an ant.  I don't know if I could have seen an ant.

My dear, sweet Monkey found the red finger paint.  You see, a couple of days ago I started my "organize the classroom space" project upstairs.  I did not get everything put away properly... and he found the paint.  He was pretty upset that he was going to get in trouble about this (I made it clear that I was not too happy with him).  As I started his bath water, he began rubbing his eyes, like he was going to cry.  You know what happens when you rub your eyes with paint on your hands?

It gets in your eyes, and that makes you cry more.  After a lot of scrubbing, I emptied the tub water and refilled it, giving him some instructions about washing himself as well - it wasn't... isn't.. all gone yet.  I went upstairs to check out the damage.

First thing I notice: red footprints all the way down the stairs - and red marks on the wall where he stabled himself as he came down.  Then, I got upstairs and saw the paint on his cabinets, desk, floor, some clothes, and the things I had been sorting.  It's a mess, but here's a small bit of what I found.

Have I mentioned that as I started cleaning I discovered that he had also found a couple of canisters of play doh and a container of moon dough?

Oi.... again - double check!