I don’t know what it was about her, but Craig and I knew from very early on that Maddie was the child we’d need to keep our eye on. Call it parental intuition, I suppose, but we were certain our little diva was going to grow up to be our Handful Child.
Now approaching the 4 year mark, Maddie’s newest trait is being sneaky.
Very sneaky.
Craig admits that he was a sneaky kid, so at least we know where she gets it. But that doesn’t mean it’s any easier to cope with on a daily basis.
Just in the past week, I’ve caught Maddie:
- Hiding beside our bed with a Chapstick tube opened, twisted all the way up, and broken in half.
- Forcing her hand against the bathroom faucet, causing water to spray everywhere.
- Trying to sneak out of her bedroom during nap time.
- With an open bottle of burgundy nail polish, having painted her fingers, toes and my bathroom wall.
- Dunking her stuffed animals in her water cup.
- Sitting on the edge of the tub, repeatedly flushing the toilet.
With Kiddo #1 being such a rule follower, I realize that I’m more lax than I should be with Maddie. Kate never got into anything nor quietly snuck off to attempt some sort of messy, dastardly deed. But Maddie has proven she requires her own set of instructions. Namely a set that includes motion sensors, drawer and cabinet locks and bars over her windows (for the teen years).
Is one of your kids sneaky? What are some of the messes you’ve had to clean up?
My about to turn 3yo is incredibly sneaky. In the past week, I caught him “shaving” with toothpaste spread all over his face and his father’s razor in hand. I also caught him, “changing the litter box” which resulted in huge piles of litter all over the ground. yesterday, he let the dog out – and I mean OUT. He came upstairs to tell us that he let the dog outside, and the dog had the audacity to not put himself on his runner. The nerve.
Oh my! I bet the razor scene was terrifying! And letting the dog loose, but for different reasons.
We can already see this in our second. He will definitely be the one to watch.
I wonder if it’s a second child thing! Hmmm.
We have a sneaky fridge guy! Thankfully our fridge door squeaks.
Ha! I like the way JDaniel thinks! I would go for food, too.
I have seriously been blessed. The worst we’ve had to deal with is when my oldest used an orange crayon and wrote on the screen of our brand new TV. It came right off with windex, and it was our fault because we were ignoring him while trying to get our house ready to sell.
I figure that if that’s the worst, we’re pretty lucky.
However, I did just find my oldest sneaking Easter candy yesterday. So I guess I would say he’s the sneaky one.
You do sound like you’ve escaped any real trouble with your kids. Let’s hope it stays that way through the teen years, too!
I have one of those.
Or maybe two.
Le sigh.
Lucky they’re so cute, yes?
Yes, good thing they’re cute!
I feel the same way with Luke. He’s always into EVERYTHING…and I know he’s only 18 months old but I just have this feeling (like you said, parental intuition) that he’s going to be a handful. And Kelsey tells stories of all the ornery things he did as a kid, so I think it’s hereditary.
Keep chapstick and nail polish far, far away from him!
I feel the same way with Luke. He’s always into EVERYTHING…and I know he’s only 18 months old but I just have this feeling (like you said, parental intuition) that he’s going to be a handful. And Kelsey tells stories of all the ornery things he did as a kid, so I think it’s hereditary.
My kids are young, so it’s difficult to decide who might actually be “sneaky,” but we’ll say “who dumped these toys?” knowing full well it was CJ, and he’ll look us straight in the face and say “La” (how he says Leila).
I don’t know if Leila will actually be sneaky — she will be a troublemaker, for sure, she just loves life too much to not do the things that strike her fancy, when they strike her fancy, but I don’t think she’d ever try to hide them. “Did you use marker on the wall?” “Yeah!”
So, in short, I worry about the older trying to blame his antics on the younger one, but I don’t see the younger one ever hiding from what’s she’s done (god forbid she learn that, if she uses that card sparingly, she could probably get away with murder)
I love that she owns up to it! That’s actually how Maddie is, too. So it troubles me more because she doesn’t care to be responsible for her sneakiness!
My toddler is 2.5 years and the dude gets into everything. Also, it’s useless trying to hide something from him. Somehow, he figures out where the stuff is and goes for it. How, how, how?
It’s like they have x-ray eyes! And they are so quiet about their sneakiness, too!
Let’s say this, why use the word sneaky?
Such undertones.
I prefer, “cleverer with his plans.”
(if there’s any doubt, I’m talking about Baby E)
That would be an excellent hash.
#ClevererWithHisPlans
Man, I could totally rock window bars. I mean, prison photo shoots never seemed so easy!
You should open a business! You’d be a sensation!
We found Alex making himself a cup of coffee yesterday morning. You can’t trust him when he’s quiet.
YES! It’s the quiet that’s probably the most disturbing part.
I think my newest may be our sneakiest yet – he’s only 18 months, but he recently ate a marker, causing him to drool purple for awhile, and similar to your chapstick incident, we also found him enjoying a small tub of lip ointment. We didn’t think he could remove the lid, but of course he could!
My oldest girl’s best? Painting on her bedroom walls with poop when she was about two. That’ll teach us to close her in there for a nap.
I totally understand where you are coming from. I too have a very sneaky child.
I swear it’s a birth order thing! My first is a total rule follower and I never had any issues. But our second sounds just like yours. She’s going on 6 and a complete handful. She says, “No” all the time to anything we tell/ask her to do. She gets out of bed a million times every night after bedtime. She fights me on everything from cleaning her room to going to the bathroom (she’d never go if I didn’t make her ). She lies about things when she knows full well I’ll find out. It’s been a struggle since day 1.
My husband and I always joke that if we’d had her first, we never would have had a second.
{HUGS} I totally get it.
I totally get the “if she was first, that would have been it”!
We are battling the bedtime stuff right now. And we all call her “The Contrarian”.
SO get it.
There was an incident with glitter. My two on their own aren’t bad, but when they’re together with the door closed? All bets are off.
I think about the 5th time I caught Zoe walking around munching on Chapstick, I gave up. Unless it’s MY chapstick. That’s off limits, yo.
My second is also our sneaky one. Her current thing I catch her doing is “cooking”. She likes to grab things from the fridge and pour them into a bowl, and on the floor, and on the fridge, and in the dog’s bowl. I thought it was a middle child thing, but it looks like it might be a second born thing.
First off, HI LIZ!!! I have not been around much (or at all) lately so I’m happy to catch up with you.
Second, Drake is so sneaky already that it pains me to think how much worse it going to get.
It makes it even harder when they are so cute doesn’t it?!?
Hey Katie! How the heck are ya?
Thanks so much for stopping by to say hi! I hope your summer is going well!
Truth be told, I sometimes have trouble with Chapstick, too.
It’s a tricky little tube.
Plus it looks kind of delicious.
It’s the second-child syndrome – they’re always the more “spirited” ones.
I laughed at the image of her sitting on the edge of the tub flushing to toilet over and over again. That sounds… fun?
Yes. I had a sneaky child. He broke eggs, cut electrical cords & couches & his sisters bangs. He bit deodorant twice (which is non toxic by the way) and generally ran amuck if given the chance.
Good news? He out grew it and is now a very intelligent and non deotarant biting almost 15 year old. I think it’s was intelligence and curiosity related.
Oh and boredom…….
Jackson and John. Half of each set of twins are sneaky. John hoards food, as if I never feed him. He’s 15 and 6 feet tall, I think he eats once in a while. Jackson does very bad things, and blames everyone but himself.
PS I’m not going to say I love them the most, but they are definitely the most entertaining!
My daughter is very sneaky. We call it curious. Makes us feel better.
Maybe our next one will be like Kate?
Yep. My #2 is this same kid. There’s one in eery family I think!
Oh dear. You’re in for a tough one. My eldest is not too sneaky – however she once got into nailpolish at age 2 and painted her face, hair, hands, clothes … I was speechless.
Awwwww, that is such a cute picture of you both
And it’s funny how that intuition just kicks in, huh?? Definitely get locks on that door (and bars for the windows); the teenage years are always a doozy!
What a little stinker! Yes, I have a sneaky child-that would be Lexie!