John the Tornado

I am pretty sure he is close to a F-5 most days. I don't know why or how he does most of the things he does around here. He is everywhere all the time. Stubborn and loving. Sneaky and cute. All around he is a recipe for disaster. Here are two of the latest occasions that made me want to send him to boarding school......in Switzerland!

Look it is Ella's oversized Pottery Barn chair. What could happen with a stuffed chair???

The boys were up playing in Ella's room while i was nursing Ben and putting him down for his nap. I hear the normal running and screaming. I hear them run into Ella's room and assume they are going to play on her gymnastics bar. The layout of her room is odd so if the boys are playing on the bar they are in the far coner of the house upstairs and it is difficult to hear them. I was not complaining about the lack of noise because i wanted to get Ben down. I hear Jack scream for me and debate about going up right then and risking Ben's soothing time before nap or just wait until he is down and then go up. Ben was so close to sleeping (those of you with kids know that when a baby is almost a sleep doing something that might wake them is OUT of the question). I decided if Jack called again i would go up but he never did. Minutes pass and i hear a muffled John cry. I continued to listen and he stopped. I put Ben down and then go to get some laundry started. I thought i better check on the boys since i had not heard them in a bit. I go up and it is so quiet. I knock on Ella's door, "knock, knock" I hear Jack "MOM, MOM, We are in here". Ella's chair was flipped over and i thought they were using it as a tent and were underneath it. The chair moved again, Jack said "MOM, MOM, we are stuck in here". As i approach the chair i realize the are INSIDE the chair. I unzip the chair and out come Jack and John. Jack visibly scared. John didn't seem to notice it had been a problem. They got a very stern talk and Jack, of course, replied with an "i understand" John replied with "just got stuck". As if to say next time i zip my brother and myself into a chair i just won't get stuck.

They took the bottom cushion out crawled in and John zipped it up. He is a picture of their hiding place. Why, how would they even think about that?????

Most recently we found John has a fascination with toilets. I guess it could be from potty training but the fascination is not with the water but with the tank. You know the think that sits on the back that NO ONE cares about. Yes, That is what he likes. As i was finishing dinner with the kids he ran off to tee tee before they all got their cake. As i was putting the cake into the bowls i heard a clank. I think, is that the toilet? Then another clank. I take off to the bathroom that is no more than 10 feet away and by the time i got in there John is standing on the toilet and the toilet lid is down in the tank and water is POURING out the bottom. Cut off water, get towels, KILL kid??? What to do first? I try to cut the water off and the knob is stuck. Run to the laundry room grab some pliers, run back, grab all the stuff on the floor and throw it out the door ( i would hate for all 3 thousand magazines to be ruined), turn off the water, spank kid and tell him to go up to bed and not come down (this was at 6:30), flush toilet so water will stop POURING out the bottom, grab duck tape to help stop water and prevent more cracks, towels everywhere. Finally the water stopped i cleaned up all the wet towels and dried the floor. I have calmed down and go to check on John. He was smart that night. He was asleep by the time i got upstairs. It was probably a good thing.

Now where to find a replacement tank? Still looking. I sure will be glad when we get it fixed because John doesn't seem to understand that he BROKE it. He still pees in it daily. I think he thinks it is funny. Me, not so much. :)

Note: I would NEVER hurt any of my children. However, John likes to see how far he can push me. HA!