Phone Calls Trigger Toddlers' Mischievous Behavior

When our son Scott was l9 months old we moved into a brand new house built by my husband and my father. There were rooms not yet fnished in the house, but we needed to move to avoid paying apartment rent and mortgage payments simultaneously. I was quite pregnant with our second child, but my dad promised that everything would be finished by the time of delivery. My dad was crazy about his first grandchild and thought everything Scott did was not only acceptable but also adorable. It soon became clear that incoming phone calls diverting my attention from Scott were a signal for him to get into mischief. Although Scott had watched my dad a lot it still came as a huge surprise that he knew how to pry open a paint can, remove the lid, stir the paint with a stick, and then fling the paint all over the newly finished beautiful hardwood floors. After chastising him, cleaning up the mess as best I could considering my size, Scott looked at me with his big blue eyes and said, "Don't worry. Goggy will pix it." Goggy was the name he bestowed on my dad as soon as he learned to talk, and he thought Goggy could and would do anything for him. The following week, again when there was an incoming phone call, I heard Scott's little voice calling, "Help. Help." I put down the phone and ran to the master bedroom where my little guy was trying to hold up a very large accordion type shuttered closet door which he had somehow managed to take off of the tracks. Although I was thankful he had not been hurt, I rescued him and explained why he should not do that. Again he fixed those big blue eyes on me and said, "Don't worry. Goggy will pix it." Goggy did indeed fix those things, but little did I know that was just the beginning of things to come.