"Uh, Mommy?"

So I am upstairs in the attic going through some clothes that I am planning to sell. All of a sudden I hear the thud thud thud of someone running up the stairs (presumably Peyton or Parker who were in the basement playroom when I left). I am fully expecting to hear some sort of whining (the norm for this time of day - the witching hour before Jeff gets home) but instead what do I hear? "Uh, Mommy? Why did you let Piper and Paxton outside?" says Peyton. "WHAT?" screams the panicked Mommy.

I knew exactly what had happened....there is a babygate blocking the sliding glass doors to our deck and our backyard that sometimes comes loose. Often the kids will play with it and it will pop out. Well I race down the stairs expecting to see two toddlers on our deck and much to my surprise there is NO ONE on the deck!!! I hear little voices and the pop of the sandbox being opened followed by shrieks of joy! I find Paxton still working his way down the flight of stairs (thankfully he has "mastered" walking down the steps if he has a railing to hold on to) and Piper ready to dive into the sandbox! I scoop up Paxton and race Piper up to the top of the stairs trying to explain to a 2 yr old why you should never go outside without Mommy or Daddy. Which is clearly not getting through the cries of disappointment from having their fun interrupted!

Peyton was a tough baby, but a fairly easy toddler when it came to knowing his boundaries. We didn't have to have locks on the cabinets. We didn't have to put the loft ladder up on the wall in our apartment because he never attempted it. We didn't use babygates past 17 -18 months. We could trust him for the most part.
As for the rest of them.... YEAH RIGHT!!! They are into EVERYTHING!!! I often wonder how much of it is their personalities and how much of it is learned, at least for Piper and Paxton. Parker, still at almost 4, he can't be trusted. He regularly gets into something he shouldn't - he's the reason we put the babygate by the doors in the first place!

Although I would often like to have another baby (*gasp* I know!) but I think another toddler would put me in the looney bin! I don't want to rush the fun times of this age group, I could do without all the chaos that goes along with my toddlers' choices!