Harry and the quest for chaos

Life with Harry is never dull. If I’m not chasing him around the house, he’s chasing me. It’s great but there are plenty of challenges along the way.

Last week Melissa called me at work to ask what time I would be home. She sounded stressed. Very stressed.

It’s Harry, she said, he’s being a monkey. It later transpired that Harry had given Melissa a taste of the terrible twos a few weeks early. After emptying her make up draw on to the bedroom floor, he’d gone into the bathroom and started throwing toys down the toilet.

While Melissa was trying to stop him, he’d somehow managed to get his hands in the toilet bowl, and was trying to fish out the aforementioned toys. It sounded chaotic, although I must admit I had to stifle a giggle when she told me what had happened.
Needless to say, when I arrived home an hour or so later, Melissa handed Harry over to me and – would you believe it – he was a little angel, playing happily with his train set until bed time.

It is surprising how quickly things can descend into chaos, though. I’ve been caught out a few times recently, most memorably when I was trying to get Harry’s dinner and he decided to empty the kitchen cupboards. By the time I’d mashed the potatoes, our kitchen floor was strewn with pots, pans, tins and jars. To make matters worse, every time I tried to put something away, Harry simply took it out again. Melissa, when she arrived on the scene, was not impressed.

Speaking of Harry running riot, we finally took down the travel cot in our bedroom this week. It had proved very useful in keeping Harry under control while we got ready in a morning, but once he’d mastered climbing out of the cot we were always fighting a losing battle.

So we’re now busy rearranging our bedroom to make sure all the lotions and potions are out of Harry’s reach. I’m sure, however, that he’ll soon find new, more inventive ways to make mischief – he seems to have a knack for it.