Smart Two Year Olds are a Wonderful Problem

Nathan started school this fall. His class meets on Tuesday/ Thursday and has 8 students under two in it. Nathan is the oldest in the class and the first two days of class all went well. The third day Nathan was coming down with a cold and so he cried until they called me to pick him up 45min into class. That day I just stayed there with him encouraging him to participate and trying to be in the way as little as possible. The next class he was still not feeling well, the cold lead to an ear infection but we were on antibiotics, so I went with him to school with the intention of staying the whole time so that he wouldn't just be left there not feeling well but also so we wouldn't get out of the habit of going to school. That Wednesday night he had trouble in his class at church and they went and got Daniel out of his class. On Thursday they called me because, once again, he wouldn't quit crying. On Sunday when we took him to his bible class and he once again started crying we knew we had a problem. The next Tuesday the pattern repeated its self again and I had had enough.
Nathan has never been a clingy cuddly child. He has little problem with strangers or strange places. Give him a minuet and some interesting toys and he would be fine anywhere. This child calling for Mommy seemed totally foreign to me. That is when it struck me, I have a very intelligent son who likes to have things his own may and he had discovered... THE POWER OF TEARS! Two year olds by nature are very manipulative, it is why they survive to adulthood, and Nathan was drunk with power but mommys, though they may be slow, are not dumb and I was onto his shenanigans.
I talked to his teacher and explained what I thought was going on and she and I agreed that we would refuse to cater to the tears for one week and then see how he was doing. Daniel and I also got his Sunday and Wednesday night teachers on board for a full fledged group effort. It only took Nathan moments to feel the difference when I dropped him off. There was no "poor baby" from me or the teachers it was all "I'm sorry, but you are fine." He has not had that kind of trouble in class since then. He has better days than others but the crying for longer than it takes to realize that Mommy is not coming back has quit.
Mommy 1 Nathan 90 (these numbers were estimated and will not hold up in a court of law, Nathan's score is probably higher)

Maybe Nathan will be a lawyer when he grows up.

How Do You Go to the Bathroom When You Have a Two Year Old

Nathan has reached a new level in ability to get in to things and it has thrown me for a loop. The other day...well, a few weeks ago, I was exhausted so me and Nathan went into his room, at the time he couldn't open doors, and I fell asleep in the corner. When I woke up I realized that Nathan now could not only open zippers, but he had also had mastered the ability to twist open the cap of the baby powder and the room was now looked like there had been some selective snowing.
A few weeks after that I was paying some bills at the dining room table and Nathan was going in and out of his room. I though that since he would "check in" periodically that I was keeping a close enough eye on him. Nathan comes up to me grinning from ear to ear and rubbing his hair and that is when I realized that he had covered himself in Vaseline. Hair, face, clothes and I later found the stool, comb and car in his room, all smeared with Vaseline.
By the way, wipes work very well to remove Vaseline but not so well on Desitin.
A few days later, you would think I would have learned by now but no, I am a bit thick headed, I was feeding Levi and it got a little too quiet in the other room. I did know enough by this time to realize that that meant trouble. As soon as I could I went in his room to see what he had gotten into this time. That is when I learned that Desitin is really hard to get out of carpet, out of shoes and off the hands of a child. This time I caught on early enough that the damage was minimal.
But it did not end there... I feel like a terrible parent as I admit all this.
He learned how to open doors, that was the beginning of the trouble on this day. I was in the kitchen when I heard the splashing of water. I ran in the bathroom, which he could now open the door to, and found him using his sandal to scoop water out of the toilet and pour it on the unopened(thank you) package of toilet paper I had set in the hall to put in the bathroom. TOILET water.... ewwww! I put him in the tub, his clothes in the washer, dried off the toilet paper package, and mopped the floor. Am I a negligent parent? It just all happened so fast. We have now gone a week or two without and incident but I still feel a bit jumpy. How do you take time to even go to the bathroom when you can't leave them alone for a minuet.