Little stinker!!

I wrote almost three months ago about Macklin: "He is in a stage that is at once difficult and adorable: half the time he's getting into mischief...the other half he's smiling sweetly, laughing, wrinkling his nose, and otherwise charming us so completely that the first half doesn't matter."

Yeah, well, the adorable has diminished to the point that the first half matters. I'm not saying he's not cute still, heaven knows he's just about the cutest thing on two legs. He still melts me with a smile, he still is one of the seven wonderful sunshines of my life. But hoo, his mischief has escalated to the point that I'm quite tempted to build a little cage and let him live in it for the next few months until he grows out of this. Supposing he does grow out of it *prays*. The only time I can breathe easy and assume nothing is being broken and/or he isn't in danger of imminent death is when he's asleep.

Things he does with regularity:

• climbs anything and everything – beds, chairs, tables, wood-burning stoves, the piano, bookcases, toilets, stairs...
  
• gets stuck at the top of things he climbs; often he can't get down, sometimes he can't even turn around, all he can do is cling and call us.
  
• stands across the room and shows me that there's something in his mouth that could choke him, and then runs gleefully away.
  
• runs with sticks and pointy things in his hands, an uncoordinated about-to-fall toddler run.
  
• climbs onto my computer desk and gets my scissors.
  
• climbs onto my computer desk and plays with my computer.
  
• climbs onto my computer desk, gets my USB wireless keyboard, sneaks under a table, and pushes buttons. Once he literally opened every document in my documents folder and every application in my applications folder at once.
  
• plays with the toilet plunger, it's one of his favorites.
  
• swishes __________ (everything) in the toilet if the bathroom door isn't tightly latched.
  
• smears lotion everywhere if he can get his hands on it.
  
• empties my wallet or hides my keys if I mistakenly leave my purse where he can reach it.
  
• rips the earpieces (is that what we call the folding arms?) right off my sunglasses if I leave the purse down.
  
• removes the registers from the in-floor heat vents, and fills them with crayons, colored pencils, Legos, anything else precious, and his own little lower body.
  
• empties out the kids' school "lockers" (cupboard with shelves full of art projects and what not), breaks pencils, loses erasers, draws on himself and walls with pens.
  
• drags chairs anywhere he needs to in order to be able to reach/climb higher.
• though I have the kitchen gated (otherwise he'll unload every pot, every pan, every leftover container, every can of food from cupboards...) he has discovered that one of the cupboards has a door from the outside which goes all the way through to the inside, so he gets in whenever I'm not there. Likes playing with my pyrex baking dishes best. Glass. Clinking, stacking, potentially breaking. Joy.

On the other hand, because you know there is one, he:

• gives me tight hugs now, and about half the time will give me kisses for the asking. Sometimes he even leans over during a meal (with food face, yes) or stops nursing or toddles over during play making smacky noises, and asks me for a kiss.
  
• brings me a diaper and the wipes when I ask him to go get a diaper.
  
• says "Dipe dipe!" for diaper (and other words, but that's the most recent).
  
• moves his lips to lip-sync along with the kiddles when they're doing one of their elaborate song and dance routines.
  
• knows when I'm eating one of my secret stash of mint chips, and comes running, imploring me with a cute little open hand.
  
• loves to ride on Christian's shoulders, loves to snuggle Christian when he wakes up.
  
• lifts little two-pound weights when I'm doing strength training.
  
• hangs on the kitchen counter and swings, like Ethan.
  
• drags a chair to the light switch, and then laughs sweetly while he turns it on and off, on and off.
  
• eats like he's got a hollow leg, more than Kyrie sometimes.