Have 12 Hands, Will Travel

You know, it is hard enough to keep Tyler out of trouble in my fully baby-proofed house. This weekend, some friends invited us to visit their lake house. There were 4 adults and 3 kids, ages 7, 4 and 19 months. Sound like good odds, don't they?

Tyler kicked my butt.

He had no fear of the pool. He'd walk right down the steps into the cold water. He seemed to know his limits and recognize that he couldn't just step off the edge into the water of the pool or off the dock, but he still falls a lot, so we couldn't trust him not to tumble in. After all, he didn't hesitate to get close to the edge.

He wanted to throw everything into the pool. Drink bottles, plastic furniture, clothes, shoes, everything.

The child is bruised and scraped up from head to toe. Skinned knee, small sores on his feet, scrape on his toe, bruises on his forehead, scab from where I removed splinter from his hand.

And the guest house. First, Tyler threw up chocolate Pediasure all over the light blue carpet. Brian trekked to Wal-Mart for carpet cleaner. It took an entire bottle of Spot Shot to clean the carpet. But that was an accident. I don't blame Tyler for that one. However, the next time I travel, I'm taking cabinet locks. I was standing right beside Tyler brushing my teeth and didn't realized he'd gotten Comet powder cleaner out of the cabinet... and dumped it in the floor. The carpet. You can't use water to clean carpet sprinkled with a powder that contains bleach. I did the best I could with the vacuum. Fifteen minutes later, he was dumping a whole box of snacks in the floor. (We're not talking individually wrapped snacks. We're talking the toddler equivalent of Cheetos.) Back to the vacuum.

On the other hand, our friends' kids were really sweet to Tyler — very patient and eager to share their toys. And our friends seemed to enjoy watching his antics. The lake was beautiful, the weather was really nice, the food was excellent and the company was great.

We had a great time, even though I came home from a "relaxing" trip to the lake with a headache and very tense shoulders. I'm telling you, the kid stresses me out!

But the best part was that Tyler tried two new foods. He ate grilled cheese (really just the crust of a very thin wheat bread and not much cheese, but still!) and he LOVED watermelon. The trick was to give him a big piece with a good edge. Put it on a fork and let him hold the fork and bite off the watermelon. That way he doesn't object to touching it with his hands.