3 and a Terror!!!

Andie turned 3 last week, I don't know exactly what happened, but something inside of her little self said, "I am 3 now it's time to pull out the big guns!!! Let's show 'em what I'm really capable of." She has turned into a terror. Now let me be clear, as far as listening and doing what she is told and playing nicely with Brady, she is doing really great. It is when she is alone, like oh I don't know, supposedly in bed, or downstairs watching her morning TV so I can get things done, she turns into the spawn of Satan. Now we have had issues before with her getting into things and making messes, it actually seems like Andie isn't a fan of doing anything half-assed (pardon my language), if she is going to make a mess, then by golly, it will be a good one!

The other night when she was "in bed" I came upstairs to find pen EVERYWHERE. Every wall in the hallway had been scribbled on at eye level and higher than I would have thought she could reach. So Cameron and I got out the Mr Clean Magic Eraser, which is like a freakin wonder pad, and scrubbed until that thing fell apart. I was mad, but I didn't freak out because the wonder pad got it taken care of without much trouble at all.

The next night, it was a brand new tube of aspercream all over the bathroom. The walls, carpet, floor and counters. Cleaned that up, thought it was a little worse than the pen. But still a manageable mess.

At some point she got into my shampoo and conditioner and made yet another mess in the bathroom which was worse. Mixed with water it makes a bigger mess. Needless to say I was getting quite frustrated with her and the punishments obviously weren't working.

All of this leads up to TODAY! I was upstairs and Andie was watching her shows downstairs. She came up and used the bathroom and I could hear the water running. You know when you just know something isn't right? Well I asked Andie to come and see me because I was going to question her about what she was doing. She came into my room, butt naked with crap all over her hands. I asked her what was all over her and she said, "it's poop!" She was so proud of herself and I was trying to not barf! I went into the bathroom to evaluate the mess and came to the conclusion that she had gone to the bathroom downstairs, there was no toilet paper so she came upstairs and was looking in the cabinets for some. She did try to wash her hands but obviously was failing at that. She didn't get into trouble because I assumed that she was just trying to find T.P. I put her in the tub and went downstairs to see if there was a mess in the other bathroom. No mess, good. Came back upstairs got Andie washed and heard Bill calling me to come downstairs. With every "Amber" his voice got more anxious. So I hurried down to see what was going on.

Now imagine what a poop fight might look like, and times it by ten, and throw a TV on an entertainment center in there...it still doesn't even come close to what I laid my eyes on next! Andie had apparently pooped on the floor while watching her shows. I don't know what possessed her to POOP ON THE FLOOR much less play in it, and then rub it all over the TV and entertainment center, but she did. Fellow internet friends, I can't even describe to you in words the sight! I saw it and there was a look of horror on my face and then tears, I didn't even know how to go about cleaning such a mess! Well Bill helped me start the clean up and then Cameron came home after the big chunks, no really, there were huge chunks, were cleaned up. He just saw the 8 other piles on the floor. I got out the carpet cleaner and began to spot treat, and eventually got to a point that I could call it "good for now, gotta jump in the shower cause everything smells like poop."

Why did she do this when I had decided a few days ago that I am going to try not to yell every time my kids do something terribly horrid, I am going to be patient and take care of it in a calm manner and not freak out! I did an amazing job at keeping my cool by the way, even Bill said I handled it better than they ever would have! So Andie got her punishment, we made lunch, the kids wanted to make jello afterwards and the adults were upstairs for a few short minutes while they ate.

Bill once again goes downstairs and begins yelling at Andie, "what are you doing? didn't you just get into BIG trouble for being naughty?!" Well that was all I needed to hear before I flew down the stairs once again. She got smart and got Brady involved this time to soften the blow of whatever repercussions might come out of the newest adventure. Andie went into the pantry got down the boxes of jello and opened them in the FAMILY ROOM!!! There was white dust everywhere and Brady was chewing on an opened package and Andie was drawing in the dust. I could hardly believe my eyes, how could it possibly get worse than the poop! Well it did, here's some advice, don't ever ask how a situation could possibly become worse...it will! Remember how I said I had spot treated 8+ spots of poop on the carpet earlier? Yeah well, the wet carpet, plus several packages of gelatin equaled a big fat nasty mess. Andie is pretty much banned from ever breathing again. I honestly don't have a punishment good enough for the amount of trouble she is in without beating her senseless! But once again I kept my cool, and told her she no longer has a scooter (she got it for her birthday last week), and I was going to come up with a physical punishment as well. I don't want her to think that she can do something terrible and just get a toy taken away, I will be calling my Dad and getting his advice, since he is the master mind behind great punishments for small children. Cameron wants to ground her to her room for the day but I can't trust her to be alone. I was thinking about having her be within 3 feet of me at all times but I think she might enjoy that too much. Any suggestions? You guys think on that and let me know, in the mean time, I am off to Costco to buy a spot remover!

Hope your day is going better than mine!