He's so quiet when he's sleeping....

It was one of those days - you know the type - the ones in which everything goes in one ear and out the other, in which "No." is an invitation for a discussion, and in which all of yesterday's laws are assumed to be today's suggestions

The kind of day that would cause any mom to yell. And I did - more than I wanted to - mistakenly thinking that an increase in volume
might get my words through his hard little head. (It didn't help - but we did dissolve into a giggle fit at one point, and that did help.)

An example: I took the baby to change his diaper. When I returned, #2 had a pair of pliers that he got from their home in the junk drawer. He was going around "fixing" things. Typically, this kind of thing doesn't last long - he shouldn't have the pliers, but the baby needed a bottle and a nap, and by the time I got the baby to bed, the pliers will be back in their home. I put the baby down so that I'd have my hands free for bottle making. The next thing I heard was the baby screaming in delight. They were playing tug-of-war with his blankie (yep - he's a Linus baby). Then I realized that #2 still had the pliers and was using them to grip the blankie and getting them dangerously close to the baby's head. I finished making the bottle and went to put a stop to it -just as the baby finally got mad and just wanted his blankie. He lunged for it and missed and hit his head on an endtable as #2 ran away giggling gleefully. I comforted the baby and retreived the blankie and the pliers, and had the following discussion with #2:
Me: It is not nice to take your brother's blankie. You wouldn't like it if he took your blankie.
#2: I didn't take his blankie. The pliers did.

Good grief. :) I did manage not to crack a smile, and appropriate measures were taken to
discourage further and future teaching - but the way his mind works really does crack me up.