My 20 month old has just toasted a potato and other stories...

[LadyCurd]

My 20 month old has just gone into the cupboard got a potato, got up on the stool by the toaster, put the potato on the toaster, (was cross she couldn't get it in the slots) and managed to turn the toaster on. She has been walking for less than a month!

Yesterday I found her happily whistling on a used plastic tampon applicator (they make surprisingly good whistles!) she had found in bathroom bin (mega Boak - wasn't one of mine, must have been a recent house guests, I didn't twig it was in there)

A couple of months ago she ate a toilet gel disc out of the toilet (vom) and her favourite thing is to wash her hands in the toilet. (Have also caught her chewing on the end of a bidet pop up plug.

If she sees a ladder anywhere she will climb it , she doesn't know how to get down but she can go up. If we go out she will just walk off and keep walking without looking back. Completely fearless.

Hasten to add I do supervise, but she is fast, and I also have preschooler demanding attention. The house is pretty much childproofed (we no longer use gel discs too) but she can manufacture danger in anything! Argh.

My 3.5 year old is over twice her age and hasn't got up to half as much trouble. So please reassure me that this is just a phase and that she will survive to adult hood without poisoning herself, getting lost, falling from a great height, or burning the house down, by sharing your similar stories.

One of my nephews was just like that. He never met a ladder he didn't want to scamper up. If you so much as blinked he was gone and into trouble.

One time, my niece dropped a glass and cut herself. My nephew saw that his mother had her hands full and immediately ran out the front door in an attempt to go play with the cars driving by outside. Luckily, I was on hand to chase him down.

He drank the dog's ear medicine and had to get his stomach pumped. We couldn't hide things on top of the fridge, because he would scale the thing!

Somehow he has managed to survive to adulthood, and has several kids of his own. One of which is, of course, just like him.

Second child syndrome. My DS2 is 2.5 and although he is very very sweet, he is a menace. Seems to be a common theme with a lot of #2 children I know. Mine has never tried to toast a potato though, that's quite clever!

Just found her climbing the "ladder" the clothes airers made leaning against the wall. Give me strength!

I have another fearless/crazy/dumb DC2 here, 2yo. He is such hard work compared to his uber-cautious big sister!

He hasn't found the toaster yet, but it's a matter of time...

Apparently LordC thought it would be a good idea to show her how it worked for breakfast this morning! FOOL!

After being poorly and sleeping in my bed with me, my little darling woke me up by inserting lil-lets into my nostrils..

My ds1 is a menace. Although well fed at mealtimes with regular snacks in between he still likes to eat the dog biscuits any chance he gets. He loves food & has worked out where his favourites are kept so it's not uncommon to find him with his mits in a box of cereal or chewing a frozen hash brown in his quest to find the ice cream. The worst thing by far he's 'eaten' is bird poo he picked up in the garden.

His other trick is to poor the contents of any cup/bowl/plate all over the floor & tell you 'all gone'. He frequently feeds the dog ANYTHING he's been eating when we're not looking for 0.5 seconds (dried apricots, banana, apple).

If he can climb it he will, if he can open it he will (including the back & front door so now we're under complete lock down so he doesn't escape).

He very helpfully puts things away for us - we'd recently found all but 2 of the teaspoons in the filing cabinet,bibs & photo frames down the back of the radiator & we're still looking for the soup ladle & hoover attachment.

I know we'll have some beauties to add to these stories but can't think of any right now... Our ds just runs for it at the drop of a hat and will climb any ladder type object, including clothes airers whichare now a bit bent and the side of a house once as the weather boards looked like steps from his close to the ground point of view. Trees, ladders, walls are all irresistable. I fully expect he will escape from our fully fenced property at some point when he can climb a bit further up trees than he can now. I actually looked at trellis pricing today for the possibility that it might keep him on the right side of our fences for another year or two. He's a first child so beware it is not just the dc2s!

ladycurd I love the potato in the toaster!!!

I have a dc2 who is just like that. I figure if he makes it to primary school with no broken bones we'll have done well.

I never needed to child proof anything until we had DC3. The climbing, the dragging of chairs, taking everything out of any cupboard, eating of anything he could reach And the speed at which he could do all of it.

And did I tell you about the time he emptied the entire contents of my (hidden) purse into the dvd player while I nipped to the loo? It was hidden out of reach in the kitchen, the dvd player was in the front room and he and I were upstairs. And it was a wee

Wow Frisky- that is fast! Some great stories here making me feel better. Keep em coming!

I thought dc2 was bad with his love of dragging a chair across the kitchen to climb up and put any metal object he could find in the microwave! I quickly learned to keep it switched off at the wall at all times! He also ate dd1 pet fish (it was dead and floating, I turned my back to get something to fish it out with, he was faster!!!).... Then along came dd3 who is just a menace! The child does not play he conquers and destroys!!!

OP DS was like that until we started spanking every time DS did that
Thefantasticfixit DS put my condoms in my nostrils too

DS was like that until we started spanking every time DS did that
Whatever your views on spanking - I'm against it - I don't think you can justify spanking a small child for opening cupboards and climbing things and generally doing what small children do until they are old enough to learn they shouldn't do it. Not liking that approach at all.

Ds1 climbed everything in sight and hadn't been talking long when we heard a "STUCK!" from the living room and went in to find him halfway up the shelves, spreadeagled across the wall Spiderman-style. Dd2 (10.5mo) isn't much better and likes to dive head-first off furniture and eat any unsavoury and inappropriate object she can get her hands on. We were at the playground the other day and she spat out a stone. This was after I'd removed a cigarette butt from her mouth...

I distinctly remember making a jelly (with all the kettle boiling, stirring of hot gelatinous liquids etc) aged 3. I couldn't have been any older because my mother was pregnant with DSis. I was so proud of myself when I went up to tell mum and dad (still in bed, v.v. early on a Sunday). They couldn't quite believe it and were horrified when they realised that I had indeed made a jelly, and put it in the fridge to set. It was quite nice too.
DD is now 6mo and exactly like me. That's karma for you.

That's horrible stormed. What are you teaching? That it's ok to hit

DD (Dc2) climbed up the chair onto the worktop. She loves climbing. Quite scary - she copies her older brother who likes to "help" but he's nearly 4 so we let him climb up. Am regretting it now!