It started off with Payton attempting to be a nice big brother. He was trying to calm his crying sister while I was getting dressed; but was doing so by putting a pillow over her face because it makes her quiet. YIKES! I leapt over to them, quickly removing the pillow from Emma's face while yelling (I know, bad mom) at Payton telling him how dangerous this is and that he could really hurt his little sister this way. Lesson learned? I sure hope so since they will be sharing a room soon.
A couple days after this Payton is playing in his room having "quiet time" (aka Mom's sanity break) when he comes running down the hall to me holding out his hands saying, "Look, messy!" His hands are covered in chalk that I had put on his highest shelf. Somehow he managed to scale up between Emma's crib and dresser so he could get to it. Great! I go into his room to assess the damages and see lovely chalk art all over his carpet, sheets, and pillow! Yippee! Thankfully bedding is washable and I was able to vacuum most of it out of the carpet. Man I miss him actually taking naps!
Two days later also during "quiet time" I thought Payton was in his room quietly reading his books (that mom was so kind to let him have unsupervised since he thinks it is fun to rip them sometimes) and I am in the kitchen reading some blogs when the dreaded footsteps come running down the hall saying, "Mom, look!" Yup, he has done something again! This time his hands are covered in good ol' scented lotion, along with his pants and shirt sleeves. (I had set some on top of his 5-drawer dresser because I need to clean out the basket they were in, but hadn't gotten to it yet. Procrastination is a bad thing.) I walk down the hall to see what he had done with the lotion and see a nice puddle of it on his carpet and Emma's box of diapers next to his dresser used as a ladder. 
Oh, wow! I figured I should clean up Payton first so he doesn't get lotion anywhere else in the house. I take him into the bathroom trying to figure out what would be the best way to clean it all off without making a bigger mess. Yet I also wanted to use the "event" as an opportunity to teach him a lesson. As I start to remove his pants he says, "Me don't want to take a shower." Thanks kid!! I tell him he was naughty and got his clothes all messy, so I needed to rinse them off in the shower while he is still wearing them. He immediately starts yelling/crying (which wakes up Emma from he nap an hour early, dang it!) and I put him in the shower and rinse off all the lotion. I discovered this form of torture last week when I asked him to go potty and he decided to pee in his pants while standing right next to the toilet. So I stood him in the tub fully clothed with pee soaked pants and turned on the shower. He did not like it at all, and still doesn't. At this point I have two crying children and lotion soaked carpet, man I love being a mom! Needless to say I managed to calm Emma, explain to Payton that what he did was naughty, and wipe up the lotion. Thankfully, while giving my neighbor a haircut earlier that day, and telling him about the chalk experience, he told me they had a carpet steamer that I could borrow to try and clean out the stains. Little did we know that I would really need it to clean up the lotion later that day. Sheesh! Daddy was the winner that got to do this job, thanks babe!Among all the recent naughty moments, Payton has also been a good kid. He is pretty much potty trained by the age of 2 1/2. I am still waiting for him to tell me he needs to go, but accidents are pretty rare, even at night, so I can't complain!
He absolutely adores his little sister and she adores him (I never knew that kids could have a connection so quickly, I love it!).He can get Emma to laugh more than I can.
He is a great helper if I ever need a diaper, wipes, or anything thrown away.He always makes Marcus and me laugh by doing something goofy and amazes us daily by the stuff he remembers that happened days, weeks, months before.
He is a very observant kid and even though the two's are full of many (very many) challenges, I love seeing how much he has learned and wonder what he is going to pick up on next!
