Boys will be boys

As many of you know, Austin is quite the destructive, often rough and mischevious little boy. Not necessarily in a malicious way (not yet, that is), but nonetheless destructive (hence the nickname, "The Tornado"). The kid doesn't know his own strength, he breaks everything! And I'm not just talking about toys, those I could care less about since most are inexpensive. I'm speaking of expensive things, electronic things, things that you don't want your 2 yr old child to be playing with. Unfortunately, Austin is extremely smart and highly mechanical for his age (a bit worrysome to us) and can figure out how to take apart, put together, or break even the most complicated of gadgets. Before I explain the above picture, however, let me tell you a little background on OTHER things this kid has broken. Let's see...more than a year ago, he ruined our DVD player by pressing the open button repeatedly and shoving the CD holder back in while also sticking keys and coins in there. Around the same time, he destroyed 2 of Eric's flash drives, which was partly Eric's fault for leaving them plugged into the computer (the BACK of the computer)! How can a curious toddler resist not pulling something out that is plugged in??? You can imagine how mad Eric was about that too being as all of his school stuff was on them.

So, yesterday I was heating some dinner up in the microwave for Austin and I ran to go to the bathroom quickly while it was cooking. When I came out, I smelt something burning and at first thought it was his dinner. But no, come to find out Austin had moved a chair over to the microwave, taken his plate out, and put my phone (a Blackberry!) and I-Pod in the microwave and cooked them! He stood there like, "Hmmmm, I wonder what this will do" and I swear I had fumes coming from my nose. I really had to contain myself because I shouldn't have left those next to the microwave first of all, and second of all, we hadn't really told Austin that only food goes in the microwave. But I didn't know that he knew how to clear the time, press in some numbers, and press start! (Never underestimate a toddler!) As you can imagine, dinner was not too fun for neither him nor I because I was crying and scolding him while he sat in his chair quivering his lip because he knew he did something wrong. I know someday I will look back at this and laugh, but for now, I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to replace my phone and I-Pod!!!!