Treacherous Threes

You hear lots about the "Terrible Twos" and when Zoey started her rebelling and tantrums at around 2, I thought oh boy I'm in for it now. You never hear about the "Treacherous Threes." Well, I'm here to warn you, it gets worse!! Zoey has recently blossomed into a flaming ball of toddler mayhem. She rarely speaks without whining, if the answer is not exactly what she wants it to be, she throws herself into full of crying and panic mode which usually results in her coughing and hacking and spewing mucus from every orifice of her face. Maybe I could deal with all that if it wasn't for what happens when she's quiet...

The other day I was making cinnamon rolls and I open one of our locked cabinets to get some corn starch and she asks if she can have a marshmallow, since she saw the bag in that cabinet. I tell her she can have one and hand her the bag, thinking she'll take a couple and then put the back on the counter, because that the way we always dish out marshmallows. I go about making my cinnamon rolls and I stop about 10 minutes later because I realized she was being suspiciously quiet. She had parked herself on the couch and had polished off the whole bag of marshmallows.

Whiling diligently working on the kids' Halloween costumes I had turned on some Max and Ruby for Zoey so she would give me a few minutes of peace to work. I notice she had come upstairs and went into the bathroom and closed the door. I thought "Finally! She's really getting this potty training thing." The minutes tick by and my suspicions are aroused. I go to check on her and she's standing on the vanity painting the mirror, the sink, and the medicine cabinet and anything else within reach with three tubes of toothpaste. I thought I should take a picture but I just rather calmly (I surprised myself, probably because I was sure she was up to no good before I even opened the door) cleaned it up and went about my day.

Then later the same day, I finally broke down and decided to upgrade my phone since the battery in my phone was giving out and it unpredictably would not receive calls or texts. We all trudged over to the Verizon store because Brandon loves getting new phones, so we had to take the kids with us. Brandon had Ian and was entertaining him with some electronics on one side of the store and I was doodling around with my options on the other side of the store with Zoey next to me. She promised me she would be good in the store, and I believed her. Never believe a 3 year old. Two minutes later Brandon calls me and tell me to look at Zoey. She had taken off her shoes and pants and was running in circles around the store. When she saw us both notice her, she started screeching like a banshee. Brandon is just standing there trying not to laugh and I am flabbergasted, I just stood there like I didn't know what to do. Needless to say once she was caught and reclothed, the kids and Brandon retreated to the van to watch some He Man while I finished my purchase.

I will certainly go crazy once Ian reaches 3 years old. He's barely containable as he is now.