Shortly after Ruslan turned one, he earned the name destructo baby. One minute he would be laughing and smiling and happily playing and he would suddenly start destroying whatever was in his path – dumping buckets of toys, clearing a table in a single swipe, taking toys away from Wyatt, throwing all of the toys out of the play area…and it would happen so fast that it would take me a minute to react and stop him and try to minimize the damage.
Ruslan isn’t a baby anymore, but his destructive tendencies have recently returned with a vengeance. He is so charming and adorable and he has the best manners. He talks a lot, in fact he rarely gives a one word response when I ask him a question. “Ruslan, were you bad today?” Instead of saying no, he will respond: “No, Mommy I was not bad, I was good.” And he is so convincing and well mannered and smiles when he says it…that you want to believe him. Look at this innocent face.
My brother visited a few weeks ago and Uncle Nick and Wyatt sat and built with Legos for a long time. Ruslan eventually wandered over and watched them and then started taking Legos from the pile and moving them to the other side of the room. My brother realized what he was doing and told him to bring them back. Ruslan’s response “You will never get them back. Ha Ha Ha!” I have no idea where he learned the evil villain laugh.
***********
Ruslan is no longer allowed in the bathroom alone. He has discovered that all sorts of things can be flushed in the toilet. The soap dispenser in the powder room is useless because he took the top off and flushed it. I fear the sound of giggling followed by a flush. He will happily list things that he has attempted to flush…he says he is sorry, but the giggles say otherwise.
**********
He is still fearless. There is nothing he won’t climb (including the decorative ladder at the entrance to the children’s area at Barnes and Noble). This weekend he was swinging from the bar at the top of the tall slide.
************
Tonight before bed I couldn’t find his milk cup in the playroom. I asked him where it was and he laughed. He told me, “I hid it and you won’t be able to find it. The cup is gone now!” I did find it…locked in a treasure chest.
Oh my! This sounds a lot like Logan. He is too cute!
This is too funny because Ruslan isn’t allowed in the bathroom alone at school either even to wash his hands. Qi and I tried to give him some space and found Ruslan pouring water all over the floor using his cup from snack time so now we stand in the doorway to watch him but sometimes we forget and we call in to ask him what he’s doing and if he’s silent we go running.